EDUC 5933M

Language Teaching Methodology

Week 1 Teaching grammar

Activity 1 What learners need to know about grammatical structures, and
how they learn them

In Week 1 we will draw on the concepts we met in EDUC5931 to look at the teaching of
sentence-grammar (syntax) and word-grammar (morphology). In advance of our live
session we would like you to complete the following tasks. Please make sure you discuss
your answers in your trios. When you have finished doing so, please do Activity 2, a
viewing activity, where you can find answers.

Task 1: Priming

Think of an aspect of English grammar that you have struggled with as a learner,
something perhaps that you found difficult to understand or which you have persistently
got wrong. Why do you think it was/is so difficult? What do think a teacher could do or
could have done to help you?

Share your thoughts with the other members of your trio.

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Task 2: Form, function, and use

IN EDUC5931 Analysing Language Learning, we looked at the different components that

go to make up communicative language ability. When we looked at Bachman’s (2010)
model of CLA we distinguished between organisational knowledge of language, which is
knowledge of forms, and pragmatic knowledge, which is knowledge of how to use those
forms to communicate. Using this model as a basis we can say that if we want to learn a
new word or a grammatical structure we need to know three basic things about it: its
form, function and use (Larsen-Freeman et al., 2014).

By form we mean the written symbols on the page or the sounds we say or hear. So the
word hi, written down, is ‘hi’ and when we speak it the form is /haɪ /. If we are talking
about a grammatical item, like the Present Perfect tense for example, as in I have lived in
Otley for five years, we would say the form is auxiliary verb have + past participle.

By function we mean the meaning the form conveys or the job that it does. Hi, good
morning, hello, how do you do (or indeed 你好 in Chinese, bonjour in French) are all
different forms but they share the same communicative function: greeting. They all do
the same social job. The function of the Present Perfect is to connect the past and the
present. We use it to talk about either an action that happened in the past but which has
some present relevance (I’ve broken my arm! Take me to hospital!) or to talk about a
state or action that started in the past and has continued to the present, as in the
example above.

By use we mean where and when and who can use the form. Use is all about the social
contexts in which language can be used. If we look at the greetings above, they all
perform the same function, but we cannot use them in the same contexts. Obviously it
would be pointless saying 你好 or bonjour to people who don’t speak Chinese or French,
but it would also be very strange to use a very formal greeting like how do you do, or even
a fairly formal greeting like good morning to your girl/boyfriend or your family members.
Similarly you probably wouldn’t say hi to a job interviewer you are meeting for the first
time.

If we take a grammatical structure like the Present Perfect tense, we know that its
function is to connect past and present and so typically the structure is used when people
talk about their or other people’s life histories, or for example when they go to a doctor
and tell the doctor about the symptoms they are experiencing and how long they have
lasted.

1. Look at the use of the Past Perfect tense (I had left) in the short paragraph below.
What can you say about the form, function and use of this structure?

I overslept this morning so had to jump out of bed, get dressed and rush down the
street to the bus-stop. I was just in time: as I got to the stop the X84 was coming round
the bend. I put out my arm to signal but then realised I had left my wallet on the
kitchen table! I had to let the bus go, and ran home again.

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Aspect Commentary
Form

Function

Use

The form should be easy to describe but what about the function? What job is the Past
Perfect doing here? To give you a clue, it is all about the sequence of events in a story.
What about the use? What kinds of situations can you use it in? Can you use it speech
and writing? Is it formal or informal or neither?

Share your answers to this task in your trio.

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Task 3: Noticing, structuring and proceduralisation / proceduralization

In Task 2 above we looked at what people need to know about a lexical or grammatical
item. In Task 3 we will consider how people learn to use lexical or grammatical items.

In EDUC 5931 Analysing Language Learning, we looked briefly at the concepts of noticing,
structuring and proceduralisation (also spelt proceduralization).

One of the key problems Second Language Learning researchers have grappled with is the
difference between input, the language to which learners are exposed, and intake, those
parts of the input that ‘become part of the learning process’ (Batstone, 1996: 273). To
explain why some elements of the input are ‘taken in’ and processed, and others not,
some researchers have advanced the concept of noticing (Schmidt, 1990; Batstone, 1994;
1996; and the collection edited by Bergsleithner et al, 2013). Quite what is involved in
noticing and quite how noticing relates to other cognitive processes is debatable. One
aspect of noticing is ‘noticing the gap’ (Gass, 2007), which really means becoming aware
of a lack. This could be when the learner encounters a new and unfamiliar word or
structure, or it could be when the learner tries to express something and realises that
he/she lacks the right word. For example, in the example below, Pierre, a speaker of
French, is trying to talk about his day and realises he does not know the English word for
the French la bibliothèque (library). He tries some possibilities, but he is not convinced of
either of them.

Pierre: so .. I .. I go I went to to the ah qu’est que c’est la bibliothèque? Book place? No

shop? No.

So the ‘gap’ could be a meaning gap or a form gap (or indeed a use gap). The idea of
noticing advanced by Schmidt (1990), Batstone (1994; 1996) and others is rather
different. In this view noticing is less about a gap and more about identifying the form,
meaning and use of a new item: ‘Noticing is a complex process: it involves the intake both
of meaning and of form’ (Batstone, 1996: 273) and this complexity means learners need
recurring opportunities to notice.

1. What about the example below in which a Polish learner tries to talk about her day.
What do you think she might be noticing?

Alicia: I walk to the park and …

Judith: Yesterday or today?
Alicia: Yesterday
Judith: So walked
Alicia: Walked?
Judith: Walked
Alicia: Ok so I yesterday I walk walked to the park

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So noticing is about identifying and focusing on something new to be learnt. The second
stage, according to Batstone (1994) is structuring, where the learner tries to integrate it
within their existing interlanguage system. This may well involve some restructuring of
the interlanguage system. For example, if an elementary learner only knows the Simple
Past tense, they will assume that whenever we talk about the past, we just use the Simple
Past tense. When that learner meets the Present Perfect tense, for example in a sentence
like the one above about living in Otley, and when they have worked out roughly what it
means, they will have to make a major adjustment to their interlanguage system. They
will probably come up with a rough rule which says, ‘when we talk about the past that has
a connection with the present, we use the Present Perfect but when we talk about the
past with no connection to the present, we use the Simple Past’. This kind of change is
what we mean by re-structuring. Put very simply, structuring is about working out what a
form means and how it fits with what we already know. Note: this may be a conscious
process, or it may be something the learner does without being aware of it. Note also:
restructuring is a cyclical, iterative process. In the example above, if the learner does
make a rule like the one suggested, this rule will only last until the learner meets another
past tense (the Past Perfect for example or the past Continuous). When this happens, the
learner will be forced to restructure yet again

2. Look at the example below in which a Polish learner, Jan, tries to talk about his
evening.

Jan: so I .. Saturday, on Saturday I went to cinema the cinema a cinema? the cinema
the cinema and then I we had drink in pub pub the pub a pub? a pub. I sure the cinema
a pub! Boże! I hate articles!

He is struggling with the article system and we may sympathise. However, he is clearly
aware of the system, and of both the indefinite and definite articles (a and the) so he
has clearly passed the stage of noticing. What is Jan trying to do?

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The third stage is proceduralisation by which we mean the process whereby a learner
converts knowledge into skill, that is, language they can use spontaneously or
automatically without having to think about it (DeKeyser, 2007; 2017; Ellis, 2007).
Proceduralisation is a slow process and it only happens through repeated communicative
use of an item. Simply repeating a word or phrase over and over again may help you
remember it but does not help you recall it spontaneously. You need to use the form in
situations where you have little time to think about the form, just the meaning. Jan, in
the example above, is still in the stage where he is sorting out when to use the definite
article and when to use the indefinite article. In time he will do this and then, so long as
he continues to use the structures in communication, he will gradually reach a stage
when he no longer has to think about them, and he can use them accurately and
spontaneously.

3. What kinds of communicative activity would help Jan proceduralise his knowledge of
English articles?

Share your answers in your trio.

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References

Batstone, R. 1994. Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bergsleithner, J., Nagem Frota, S., Yoshioka, J. eds. 2013. Noticing and second language
acquisition: Studies in honor of Richard Schmidt. Hawaii: National Foreign Language
Resource Center, University of Hawaii
DeKeyser, R. 2007. Skill acquisition theory. In: VanPatten, B. & Williams, J. eds. Theories in
second language acquisition. Abingdon: Routledge. pp 97-113
DeKeyser, R. 2017. Knowledge and skill in ISLA. In: Loewen, S. & Sata, M. eds. The
Routledge handbook of instructed second language acquisition. Abingdon: Routledge.
pp.15-32.
Ellis, N. 2007. The associative-cognitive CREED. In: VanPatten, B. & Williams, J. eds.
Theories in second language acquisition. Abingdon: Routledge. pp 77-95
Larsen-Freeman, D., Celce-Murcia, M., Frodesen, J., Williams, H.A. and White, B. 2014.
The grammar book: Form, meaning, and use for English language teachers. Boston, Ma:
National Geographic Learning, Heinle Cengage Learning.
Schmidt, R. 1990. The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied
Linguistics. 11(2) pp. 129–158.