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Which comes first --grammar or the outcome?

Presented by:

K. Lynn Savage

Ventures Series Editor

Agenda

• Grammar within the four skills

• Learners’ needs• Context and language• Criteria for selecting grammar• Implications for teachers

How is grammar reflected in listening?

Teacher: “Please bring me the books.”

Student brings one book.

Why did the student bring only one book?

The student didn’t hear the ‘s’.

How is grammar reflectedin speaking?

Job interviewer: “How long haveyou been working at your current job?”

Applicant: “I worked there for two years.”

What is the difference between theapplicant’s answer and theinterviewer’s question?

Present perfect vs. past tense

How is grammar reflectedin reading?

Student reads: “He has lived there for two years.”

Student focuses on lived, not have lived.

What incorrect assumption does the reader make?

The reader assumes that the person no longer lives there.

How is grammar reflectedin writing?

Automotive tech student writing what he did to a customer's car: I check the brakes.

The supervisor wonders . . .• Is the student checking the

brakes now?• Has the student already checked

the brakes?• Is the student going to check the

brakes?• Is the student writing about his

everyday tasks: I check the brakes everyday.

Determining learners’ needs

Four areas to consider:

1. The home: parent / family member

2. The community: citizen / community member

3. The workplace: worker

4. Social situations

The home:English or L1?

The community

The workplace

Social situations

Conclusion:

• Adult learners need immediate application.• Grammar needs to be meaningful,

relevant, • Lessons need to address language form

(grammar).

context, + form!context,context, context

and practical.

The importance of context: the adult education perspective

“Skills and knowledge are best acquired in context.”

Pelavin study

“Adults . . . . are said to place particular importance as learners on realistic rapid application of new knowledge to practical contexts and problems in their real lives.”

Malcolm Knowles

The importance of context: the language researchers’ perspective

Researchers believe that teaching grammar (focusing

on form) is effective, but they advocate that it should

be done in meaningful, relevant contexts where

students are given plenty of opportunities to practice it.

Rodriguez 2009

“Teaching grammar to adult English language learners: focus on form.”

CAELA Network Brief

www.cal.org/caelanetwork

Matching context with language

Key considerations:

1. Distinguish between grammar and outcome

2. Select grammar for its function

Outcomes and grammar

Outcome (life skill) Grammar

Follow directions to a place Respond to imperative sentences (Turn left.)

Answer personal information questions

Use possessive adjectives

(my name)

Identify locations of places Use prepositions of location

(next to, between)

Describe past work experience Use present perfect tense

(I’ve taken care of patients.)

Language functions

Function = the purpose for communicating

Language Function Grammar Structure

Describe past activities Past tense (made beds, helped patients)

Request permission Modal can or may

(Can I borrow your dictionary?)

Relationship between function and structure

One function: several structures

Function: giving advice• You should study harder.• You had better study harder.• You ought to study harder• How about studying harder?• If I were you, I would study harder.

Relationship betweenstructure and function

One structure: several functions

Grammar Structure Function

Can I smoke here? Asking permission

I can type. Identifying skills

I’m sorry your car is in the shop. You can drive my car.

Granting permission

Frequency of use

Example: future intention• be going to + verb• will + verb• present continuous (be +verb + -ing)

Ask: Which is more frequent?

be going to + verb

One function, several structures

Other criteria for selecting grammar

• Necessity for conveying meaning• Actual use• Occurrence in both spoken and written

language

Necessity for conveying meaning

Example: -s on third person singular• John lives• She studies• It costs

The -s is redundant because the subject tells us

we are talking about only one person.

Actual use

With whom do your students need to speak English?

Who do your students need to speak English with?

Actual use

Distinction between subject case who and object case whom.

We rarely hear whom in conversation any more.

Actual use

But look at the following:

We are coming to a school zone. Drive slow.

Grammar: Adjective

quick

careful

bad

serious

+ - ly = adverb

quickly

carefully

badly

seriously

Actual use

Distinction between adjectives and adverbs.

At one time, slow was used only as an adjective. Now it often occurs in daily speech as an adverb.

Actual use

The “Unreal” Conditional:• Used for unreal or improbable situations• Formed by the simple past in the if clause and

would + base form of verb in the result clause.

Example: If I were rich, I would . . .If I had the money, I would . . .

Actual use

• Weatherman on TV: “What if this was snow?”

• Grammar for unreal conditional(If this were snow . . . )

• Question: Is grammar for expressing unreal conditional in the process of changing?

Some implications of actual use

1. Observe how language is changing.

2. Confirm that the grammar in the textbook reflects actual use.

3. Avoid “correcting” grammar “errors” that don’t reflect common use today.

Is the structure common in spoken and written language?

Example: I had eaten before I went to the movie.

Do you hear this tense in common daily speech?

Rule: Use the past perfect to show that an event

happened before another event in the past.

The past perfect shows the earlier event.

Past perfect verb tense

Spoken Language:I ate before I went to the movie.

The past perfect tense is seldom used in spoken English.

Lane and Lange, Writing Clearly

Is the structure common in spoken and written language?

Common in spoken and written language:implications for teachers

• Adult ESL courses typically emphasize conversational situations.

• Grammatical structures that are not common in spoken English do not lend themselves to adult ESL courses.

Grammar structures that appear mainly in written English are better taught in higher-level classes that prepare students for higher education.

Grammar Matters, p. 15

Is the structure common in spoken and written language?

Implications for teachers

Present grammar in the sequence in which we “acquire” our first language.

• Listening before speaking• Speaking before reading• Reading before writing

Which comes first – grammar or the outcome?

Start by . . . . clearly defining what one wants learners to

be able to do (the end) before the beginning, teaching

them how to accomplish that end, and then assessing

and documenting the end they were to achieve in the

first place.

Education (the means) is based on the outcome (the

end), not the other way around.

Answers.com entry on Outcomes-based education

Which comes first – grammar or the outcome?

In teaching, which comes first?

The grammar

In curriculum development, which comes first?

The outcome

Considerations

• Context

• Grammar

• Learning Activities

Considerations in selecting contexts

1. In which contexts does the grammar naturally occur?

2. Does the grammar communicate a purpose (the language function) that our learners need?

3. Does the grammar occur in environments in which our students use English?

Considerations in selecting grammar

1. Is the grammar appropriate for the environment in which learners will be using English?

2. Is the grammar critical to conveying meaning?

Considerations in selecting grammar

3. Does the grammar convey a language function that learners will use in their daily lives?

4. Is there a clear relationship between structure and function?

Considerations in selecting grammar

5. Does the grammar reflect actual use?

6. Does the grammar commonly occur in both spoken and written language?

Considerations in sequencing learning activities

Do the exercises – the teaching sequence –

mirror the language acquisition process?

Hear it before you say it.

Say it before you read it.

Read it before you write it.

Due to his grammar mistake, Wilbur found a position.

It just wasn’t the one he wanted.

Image source:www.stolaf.edu

Questions

• To ask a question, go to the “chat” section on the right-hand side of your screen.

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• Type your question in the box below “Send To”

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www.cambridge.org/ventures

Scroll down and select “Research & Methodology on the bottom left.”

Grammar Matters: 6 Chapters

1. The Role of Grammar in Adult ESL

2. An Eclectic Approach to Teaching Grammar

3. Choosing Grammar to Teach

4. The Grammar Lesson: Presentation

5. The Grammar Lesson: Guided Practice

6. The Grammar Lesson: Communicative Practice

www.cambridge.org/ventures

Teacher training DVD including a module on teaching grammar communicatively.

Professional Development DVD

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