English Grammar Teaching

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English Grammar Teaching

• Class ??????
• Instructor ???
• Presenters??? M97C0256
• ??? M97C0102
• ??? M97C0103

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As teachers, we need to deal with errors

• The reasons are as follows
• .Language learners make mistakes
• .This seems to happen regardless of
• the teachers skill and perseverance
• errors
• .Errors play a necessary and important part in
  language learning

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Having to make a number of on-the-spot decisions

• Is there an error here?
• What kind of error is it?
• What caused it?
• Does it matter?
• What should I do about it?

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• Take for example
• I had a big surprise. (Wrong or Correct?)
• Its a grammatically well-formed sentence.
• The meaning is clear and unambiguous.

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• The answer is wrong
• The reasons are as follows
• According to corpus evidence
• ?Something can be a big surprise
• ?A person can be in for a big surprise
• ? You can have a big surprise for
  someone

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To classify the error

• Errors include
• ?Lexical errors
• ex 1My brother was stopping in the door
  instead of standing.
• ex 2 The Sunday night past instead of last
  Sunday night.

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• .Grammar errors
• ex 1 the doorbell rangs? wrong verb form
• ex 2 we speaked? wrong tense
• ex 3 was the four oclock?the subject of the
  clause has been left out

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• ?Discourse errors
• Definition Discourse errors relate to the way
  sentences are organised and linked in order to
  make whole text
• ex at last eventually (based on the meaning
  of words in the context) ?
• See page 113

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• Transfer or interference
• Definition Influence from the learners first
  language on the second language
• ex The learners pronunciation was full of
  sounds from his own language

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• Positive transfer
• Definition No difference or contrast is
  present between the two languages.
• ex 1 SVO Sbe SC
• ?????? ????????

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• Overgeneralising
• Definition The process of generalizing a
  particular rule or item in the second language.
• ex The doorbell rangs
• ex We speaked (Ved ? played, breaked, goed,
  speaked, etc)

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• What is a developmental error?
• Learners are unconsciously working
• out and organising language, but this
• process is not yet complete. This kind
• of error is called a developmental
• error.
• ex All beginners confuse the tenses in English

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• What are systematic errors?
• These errors seem to show evidence of a rule
  being fairly systematically applied
• ex My brother was stopping, he was changing, he
  was having a long hair? a
• verb form (past continuous) being
• over-used, but in a systematic way.

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How to deal with systematic errors

• Correction can provide the feedback
• the learner needs to help confirm
• or reject a hypothesis, or to tighten
• the application of a rule that is being
• applied fairly loosely.

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One way of testing learners failing to apply the
rule

• Self-correct
• Could the writer change speaked to
• spoke, for example, if told that speaked was
  wrong? If so, this suggests that the rule is both
  systematic and correctly formulated in the
  learners mind, but that
• it hasnt yet become automatic

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The question of priorities

• Which errors really matter, and which dont?
• ex un banane une pomme?nouns are distinguished
  by gender
• These errors are likely to distract or even
  irritate the reader or listener

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Attitudes to error and correction

• Attitudes to error run deep and lie at
• the heart of teachers intuitions about
• language learning. Many people still
• believe that errors are contagious, and
• that learners are at risk of catching
• the errors other learners make.

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• It is often this fear of error infection
• that underlies many students dislike of
• pair and group work. On the other hand,
• many teachers believe that to correct
• errors is a form of interference, especially
• in fluency activities.

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• Some teachers go further, and argue that
• correction of any sort creates a judgmental
  and therefore stressful-
• classroom atmosphere, and should be
• avoided altogether.

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Responding to errors

• He has a long hair.
• Possible responses
• No negative feedback, no clue for what is
  wrong.
• Without saying No facial expression, shake of
  the head etc.
• Soften the negative force of No making a mmmm
  noise to indicate Well, thats not entirely
  correct but thanks anyway. results in students
  wonder whether he is right or wrong.

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• He has long hair. strict correction. Teachers
  should remind students not to focus only meaning
  at the expense of form.
• No article the application of metalanguage
  (grammatical terminology) pinpoint the error to
  promote self-correction or peer-correction.
• No. Anyone? unambiguous feedback and
  invitation for peer-correction, but risking
  humiliating the original student.

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• He has replay the students utterance up to
  the point where the error occurred to isolate the
  error as a clue for self-correction. Technique
  finger-coding.
• He has a long hair. echo the mistake with a
  quizzical intonation. Less threatening than
  saying No, but students often fail to
  self-correct and think the teacher merely
  questions the truth they said.

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• I am sorry. I didnt understand. Variations
  Sorry? He what? Excuse me? etc. clarification
  requests friendly signal students the meaning of
  their message is unclear, and suggest it might
  have been distorted by the form.
• Just one? Like this ? draw bald man with one
  long hair literally interpret the students
  utterance to show his unintended error.

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• A long hair is just one single hair, like you
  find in your soup. For the hair on your head you
  wouldnt use an article He has long hair.
  impromptu teaching point reactive teaching in
  respond students error, not trying to preempt
  them. Teacher-centered and passive students.

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• Oh, he has long hair, has he? covert feedback
  (reformulation)??,??,??? expansion and
  reformulation provide a temporary scaffold for
  childrens developing language competence.
  Drawback students might not notice the
  differences between the utterance from theirs and
  teachers.
• E.g. child Teddy hat.
• Mother Yes, Teddys got a hat
  on, hasnt he?

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• Good. ( OK) intention is to acknowledge
  students contribution, irrespective of either
  accuracy or meaning lull them into a false sense
  of security, and fossilization.
• Teacher says nothing but writes down error for
  future reference. Intention is to postpone the
  feedback so as not to disrupt the talk. (Real
  operating conditions)

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The choice of feedback strategy will depend on
factors as the following

• The type of error major effect on communication?
  Learners can self-repair?
• The type of activity focus on form or on
  meaning?
• The type of learner discourage or humiliate
  learners? Learners feel short-changed if no
  correction?

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Sample lesson

• Lesson one using learners errors to review
  cohesive devices (intermediate)
• Participant a class of mixed nationalities in
  Australia
• Goal sentences and parts of sentences are
  connected by words like and, but, however, so etc.

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• Step 1 the teacher hands out a worksheet which
  consist of sentences collected from students
  previous written work, and he asks them to
  attempt to correct in pairs and identify one
  feature in common.

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• Step 2 the teacher helps them to pick out some
  peripheral problems (went substitute for has
  dropped into) and avoids dealing with despite and
  nevertheless.
•  
• Step 3 the teacher distributes a handout about
  grammar and ask them to study before returning to
  the sentence correction task.

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• Step 4 the teacher elicits corrected versions of
  sentence and writes on the board, underlining the
  linking devices and ask individuals to explain
  the usage.
•  
• Step 5 the teacher has out the exercise about
  linking devices.

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• Discussion fluency practice can be targeted at
  latter stage, but accuracy may be best dealt with
  a reactive and reflective approach. Using
  students errors for consciousness- raising
  purpose is suitable for the specific problems of
  the students.

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Evaluation

• The E-factor collecting learners errors from
  written work is easy by computers while capturing
  spoken errors. Self-study grammars books or
  reference notes are available, so making grammar
  handout is unnecessary.
• Error-analysis is effective for L1 transfer
  mistake.

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• Grammar lessons should be taught around errors
  the learners actually made, but not taught to
  preempt the errors might make. Error-driven
  approach focus instruction on what really
  matters, in favour of effectiveness.
• The A-factor a focus on errors may discourage
  learners. However, most students accept explicit
  feedback on error between focused instruction and
  random acquisition.

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Sample lesson 2

• Teaching grammar through reformulation
  (Elementary)
• Participant a group of Japanese students
• Goal the impetus underlying reformulation is
  more This is how I would say it.

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Reformulation

• It is the process by which the teacher takes the
  meanings the learners are attempting to express
  in English and translates these into an
  acceptable form.

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Step 1

• Teacher introduces the theme such as disaster,
  and without giving explicit prompts, but
  indicating that students should say anything with
  the topic.
• Teacher encourages the production of isolated
  words, phrases and sentences.

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Step 2

• When students are starting to run out of idea or
  start departing to widely from the topic, the
  teacher stops the activity and draws a line down
  the centre of the board.
• Asks one student as the class scribe, collate the
  ideas that students have produced about the
  topic, write up on to the board.

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Step 3

• Teacher read the students text aloud, without
  commentary, but asking any questions where the
  meaning is unclear.
• Teacher reformulates this text on to the other
  half of the board while he always insisting that
  this is the way I would say it.

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Step 4

• Students then, working individually, write their
  own texts about similar topic.
• They compare these in pairs, suggesting changes
  and improvements, before submitting their texts
  to the teacher for correction.

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Discussion

• In step 1, the focus at this stage is simply on
  brainstorming ideas.
• In step 2, the teacher renounces any active role
  in the construction of the text.
• In step 3, the students are involved in the text
  reformulation process.
• In step4, using students original text (erase or
  cover up) as a prompt. It will force attention of
  form, as well as encouraging greater
  attentiveness during the reformulation stage.

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Evaluation

• The E-factor
• 1. It requires no materials preparation since
  the texts are created entirely by the students.
• 2. This process requires only a board,
  although overhead projectors are very useful for
  this purpose.
• 3. The greatest demand is on the teachers
  skill at on-the-spot reformulation.

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• The A-factor
• 1. The reformulation of learners texts is
  likely to have greater relevance to learners than
  the study of imported texts.
• 2. It has to be handled sensitively, so that
  learners see it as an empowering activity rather
  than an exercise in humiliation.
• 3. Any activity that allows the teacher
  prolonged control of the blackboard runs the risk
  of becoming perilously chalky-talky.

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Conclusions

• Not all errors are caused by L1 interference.
• Not all errors are grammar errors, and not all
  grammar errors are simply tense mistakes.

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• Not all errors matter equally nor do they all
  respond to the same kind of treatment.
• Correction is not the only form of feedback that
  teachers can provide. Other options include
  positive feedback, clarification requests, and
  reformulation.

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• Failure to provide some negative feedback may
  have a damaging effect on the learners language
  development in the long run on the other hand ,
  providing only negative feedback may be
  ultimately demotivating.
• Learners errors offer a rich source of material
  for language focus and consciousness-raising.