Grammar and Language Teaching

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Grammar and Language Teaching

• A professional development workshop
• UC Consortium on Language Learning and Teaching

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The standard view

• We used to do grammar and now we dont.
• Should we start doing grammar again?
• ..But this is the wrong view.

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The right way to look at the issue

• We know that learners develop their own
  unconscious mental grammar.
• Is there anything we can do to help (beyond lots
  of input and interaction)?
• If so, what?

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These are real questions

• The answers arent obvious.
• We dont know everything we would need to know
• but we do know some things, and that is what we
  will learn about at this workshop.

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This is a live research area

• There are many things we dont know yet.
• There is disagreement about what we do know,
• And disagreement about how to implement
  pedagogically what we do know.

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As a result

• Our speakers will agree about many things
• But they may disagree about some others.
• This is to be expected, and should make things
  more interesting.

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Our goal is not to brainwash you

• This workshop will not try to present some party
  line or single way of teaching.
• You are the best judge of what is most
  appropriate for your circumstances.

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What you should get from this workshop

• An understanding of what is known about the topic
  and what is still unresolved.
• Ideas on how to apply this understanding to
  classroom practice.

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We want you

• To question your assumptions about language
  teaching (even those very close to your heart).
• To explore new and interesting ways of promoting
  grammatical development in your students.
• To choose and adapt the ideas that are a good
  match for your class, program, institution.

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Much still remains to be discovered

• But we already know a lot.
• Here are some basic facts that everybody agrees
  on (or should)

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What you teach ? What students learn

• The brain has its own syllabus.
• When exposed to a new language, your brain begins
  to process the incoming information
• New sounds
• New words
• New structures
• The brain has its own way of doing this. The
  teacher and the learner have little direct
  control.

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The implicit/explicit distinction

• When the brain processes information on its
  own, this is implicit learning and it results
  in implicit knowledge.
• Ordinary language learning and use are mostly
  implicit.
• In language classrooms, students often acquire
  conscious knowledge of how the language works.
  This is explicit learning/knowledge.

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The implicit/explicit interface

• Clearly, you can have implicit knowledge of some
  property of the language without explicit
  knowledge.
• E.g. You know something sounds right, but you
  cant explain why.
• You can also have explicit knowledge without
  implicit knowledge.
• E.g. You understand how some property of the
  language works, but you cant actually do it in
  spontaneous speech.

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The implicit/explicit interface

• Can implicit and explicit knowledge influence
  each other (is there an interface)?
• This is the big question. What is clear If
  there is an interface, it is limited.
• This is why you cant assume that what you teach
  (explicitly) is what students learn (implicitly).

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The problem for language teachers

• Explicit knowledge can be taught and tested in a
  relatively direct fashion.
• Implicit knowledge can only be taught and tested
  indirectly.
• But for many people (teachers and students),
  implicit knowledge is the main objective.

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2. Anecdotes are not always reliable

• Acquiring a language is like acquiring a pot
  belly.
• Once you have acquired implicit knowledge of a
  particular property of the language, it is hard
  to know what caused that acquisition.

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Anecdotes

• Teachers and learners are often eager to report
  what works and what doesnt, but how can they be
  so sure?
• Conclusion Reports of personal experiences are
  often valuable and full of insight, but still
  they must be taken with a grain of salt and
  balanced against research results.

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3. All languages have grammar

• Narrower definition of grammar
• How words are constructed
• How sentences are constructed

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Constructing words can be easy

• Mandarin Chinese pronouns
• wo I women we
• ni you nimen you pl.
• ta he/she tamen they

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or kind of hard

• Spanish verbs
• stem tense/aspect agreement
• com e s
• com a n
• com iera mos
• Mandarin Chinese verbs
• Ta lai-le.
• Ta lai.

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Constructing sentences can be easy

• Basic word order
• English
• The cat chased the mouse.
• Japanese
• Nekoga nezumio toraeru.
• cat mouse chased

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or kind of hard

• French causatives
• Jean a fait manger le gâteau par Marie.
• Jean made eat the cake by Marie
• Jean made Marie eat the cake.

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Broader definition of grammar

• All aspects of the structure of the language,
  including pronunciation.
• Mandarin Chinese
• hen hao hén hao very good
• Spanish
• dedo deðo finger

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Moral of the story

• No matter how you define grammar, all languages
  have it.

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4. Learners learn all languages in same way

• Basic processes and stages of learning seem to be
  the same no matter what the language is.
• No basis for idea that different languages
  require significantly different teaching
  techniques.

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5. There is more to grammar than the grammar

• No book covers all the grammar.
• Many crucial topics are often ignored.

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An example from Spanish

• Las acelgas detesto, no las espinacas.
• Swiss chard I hate, not spinach.
• Las acelgas, las detesto.
• Swiss chard, I hate.

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An example from Spanish

• FOCUS
• Las acelgas detesto, no las espinacas.
• Swiss chard I hate, not spinach.
• TOPIC (Clitic Left-Dislocation)
• Las acelgas, las detesto.
• Swiss chard, I hate.

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More examples of focus

• Las acelgas detesto, no las espinacas.
• Algo hiciste. Nada compré.
• something you-did nothing I-bought
• You did something I bought nothing

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The two constructions compared

• Focus
• Las acelgas detesto, no las espinacas.
• NEW INFO OLD INFO
• Topic
• Las acelgas, las detesto.
• OLD INFO NEW INFO

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One more thing

• Focus Preverbal subject not possible.
• Las acelgas yo detesto, no las espinacas
• Las acelgas detesto yo, no las espinacas.
• Topic Preverbal subject possible.
• Las acelgas, yo las detesto.
• Las acelgas, las detesto yo.

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Lessons

• Textbooks often leave out major topics.
• We dont know how to explain everything
• Algo hiciste vs. Hiciste algo
• We sometimes simplify things in very misleading
  ways.
• Similar examples could be given for any
  language.

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So beware of statements like

• I already taught them that I dont know why
  theyre still making that mistake.
• Reading aloud helped my pronunciation.
• My language doesnt have any grammar.
• You cant teach Chinese the same way you teach
  Spanish.
• We covered the whole grammar in one year.

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Conclusions

• Students development wont necessarily follow
  our syllabus.
• Implicit learning (our primary goal) cant be
  taught directly.
• This is true for all languages.
• What is useful for one language will probably be
  useful for all.
• No book contains all the grammar.

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Overview of workshop

• Today and tomorrow
• Public lectures and demonstrations
• Monday
• Closed sessions for funded UC participants.
• Small working groups, development of materials.

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Today

• Leonard Newmark Explanation vs. Experience
  Time Economy in Language Teaching
• Robert Kluender How Linguistic Knowledge Can
  Ease Learning
• Bill VanPatten Mental Representation versus
  Ability in Second Language Acquisition (Part 1)
• Georgette Ioup Putting Error Correction into
  Proper Perspective

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Tomorrow

• Grant Goodall Fitting Grammar into the Language
  Learning Experience
• Victoria González Pagani Beyond Drills Web
  Technology in Teaching Grammar
• Bill VanPatten Mental Representation versus
  Ability in Second Language Acquisition (Part 2)
• Robert Kluender How students acquire things you
  never teach them
• Elke Riebeling and Patricia Zuker
  Grammar-focused activities based on Internet
  materials (demonstration)
• Grant Goodall TPR and the teaching of grammar
  (demonstration)