Chapter VII Teaching Grammar

THE IMPORTANCE OF GRAMMAR IN LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

(In order to understand a language and to express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of the language studied. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, ii one does not see the relationship between the words in the given sentence^ And vice versa, a sentence may contain one, two, and more unknown words but if one has a good knowledge of the structure of the language one can easily guess the meaning of these words or at least find them in a dictionary. For instance, one can hardly understand the following sentences without knowledge of grammar even if all the words are familiar: We saw him book a ticket. It made me return home. (It made me happy.) Because each of them includes some grammar difficulties for Russian-speaking pupils, namely, the infinitive construction in both of them and an unusual meaning of the familiar words book and make. However if a pupil has assimilated the model of the Complex Object in the English language he will understand that in the sentence We saw him book a ticket the word book is not a noun, it cannot be a noun since him book is a complex object. In this sentence book is an infinitive, therefore, the pupil must look it up in a dictionary under v. In the second sentence the verb make is used in the meaning of заставлять since there is the infinitive construction to make somebody do something which the pupil can easily recognize if he has learnt it.

'No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism Ii a learner has acquired such a mechanism, he can produce correct sen­tences in a foreign language. Paul Roberts writes: "Grammar is something that produces the sentences of a language. By some­thing we mean a speaker of English. If you speak English natively, you have built into you the rules of English grammar. In a sense, you are an English grammar. You possess, as an essential part of your being, a very complicated apparatus which enables you to produce infinitely many sentences, all English ones, including many that you have never specifically learned. Furthermore by applying your rule you can easi­ly tell whether a sentence that you hear is a grammatical English sentence or not."

A command of English as is envisaged by the school sylla­bus cannot be ensured without the study of grammar. Pupils need grammar to be able to aud, speak, read, and write in the target language.

THE MOST COMMON DIFFICULTIES PUPILS HAVE IN ASSIMILATING ENGLISH GRAMMAR

The chief difficulty in learning a new language is that of changing from the grammatical mechanism of the native language to that of the new language. Indeed, every language has its own way of fitting words together to form sentences. In English, word order is far more important than in Russian the word order in Tom gave Helen a rose indicates what was given (a rose), to whom (Helen), and by whom (Tom). If we change the word order and say Helen give Tom a rose, we shall change the meaning of the sentence. In Russian, due to inflex­ions which are very important in this language, we can say Том дал Лене розу or Лене дал Том розу without changing the meaning of the sentence, as the inflexion "e" in the word Лене indicates the object of the action.

The inversion of subject and finite verb in Arc you ... in­dicates the question form. In speaking English, Russian pupils often violate the word order which results in bad mistakes in expressing their thoughts.

The English tense system also presents a lot of trouble to Russian-speaking pupils because of the difference which exists in these languages with regard to time and tense relations. For example, the pupil cannot at first understand why he must say / have seen him today and / saw him yesterday. For him the action is completed in both sentences, and he does not associate it in any way with today or yesterday.

The sequence of tenses is another difficult point of English grammar for Russian-speaking pupils because there is no such phenomenon in their mother tongue. Why should he say ‘She said she was busy when she is busy?.’

The use of modal verbs in various types of sentences is very difficult for the learner. For example, he should differentiate the use of can and may while in Russian the verb могу covers them both. Then he should remember which verb must be used in answers lo the questions with modal verbs. For instance, May I go home? No, you mustn't. May I take your pen? Yes, you may. Must I do it? No, you needn't.

Pupils find some specific use of infinitive, participle and gerund constructions difficult. For example: / saw him run (running). I want you to go there. They were seen to arrive. After finishing their work they went home.

The most difficult point of English grammar is the article because it is completely strange to Russian-speaking pupils. The use of the articles and other determiners comes first in the list of the most frequent errors. Pupils are careless in the use of "these tiny words" and consider them unimportant for expressing their thoughts when speaking English.

("English grammar must begin, therefore, with pupils' learning the meanings of these structural words, and with practice in their correct use. For example: This is a pen. The pen is red. This is my pen and that is his pen.

Correct selection of grammar teaching material is the first step towards the elimination of mistakes.'

THE CONTENT 0Г TEACHING GRAMMAR

Before speaking about the selection of grammar material it is necessary to consider the concept "grammar", i. е., what is meant by "grammar".

By grammar one can mean adequate comprehension and correct usage of words in the act of communication, that is, the intuitive knowledge of the grammar of the language^ It is a set of reflexes enabling a person to communicate with his associates. Such knowledge is acquired by a child in the mother tongue before he goes to school. This "grammar" func­tions without the individual's awareness of technical nomencla­ture, in other words, he has no idea of the system of the lan­guage; he simply uses the system. The child learns to speak the language, and to use all the word-endings for singular and plural, for tense, and all the other grammar rules without special grammar lessons only due to the abundance of auding and speaking. His young mind grasps the facts and "makes simple grammar rules" for arranging the words to express various thoughts and feelings. This is true because sometimes little children make mistakes by using a common rule for words to which that rule cannot be applied. For example, a little English child might be heard to say Two mans coined instead of Two men came, because the child is using the plural s rule for man to which the rule does not apply, and the past tense ‘-ed’ rule for come which docs not obey the ordinary rule (or the past tense formation. A little Russian child can say ножов instead of ножей using the case-ending ‘s for ножи to which it does not apply. Such mistakes are cor­rected as the child grows older and learns more of his language.

By "grammar" we also mean the system of the language, the discovery and description of the nature of language itself. It is not a "natural grammar, but a constructed one. There are several constructed grammars: traditional, structural, and transformational grammars. Traditional grammar studies the forms of words (morphology) and how they are put together in sentences (syntax); structural grammar studies structures of various levels of the language (morpheme level) and syn­tactic level; transformational grammar studies basic structures and transformation rules.

What we need is the simplest and shortest grammar that meets the requirements of the school syllabus in foreign lan­guages. This grammar must be simple enough lo be grasped and held by any pupil. We cannot say that this problem has been solved.

Since graduates are expected lo acquire language profi­ciency in aural comprehension, speaking and reading grammar material should be selected for the purpose. There exist prin­ciples of selecting grammar material both for teaching speak­ing knowledge (active minimum) and for teaching reading knowledge (passive minimum), the main one is the principle of frequency, i. е., how frequently this or that grammar item occurs. For example, the Present Indefinite is frequently used both in conversation and in various texts. Therefore it should be included in the grammar minimum. For selecting grammar material for reading the principle of polysemia, for instance, is of great importance.' Pupils should be taught to distinguish such grammar items which serve to express different meanings. For example, Gerund - Present Participle - Verbal Noun - Past Indefinite - Past Participle. Plural of nouns - the 3d person singular of Present Indefinite.

The selection of grammar material involves choosing the appropriate kind of linguistic description, i. е., the grammar which constitutes the best base for developing speech habits. Thus the school syllabus reflects a traditional approach to determining grammar material for foreign language teaching. The textbooks reflect a structural approach to grammar (see, for example, the textbooks by A. P. Starkov, R. R. Dixon); pupils are given sentence patterns or structures, and through these structures they assimilate the English language, acquire grammar mechanisms of speech. Consequently, the syllabus and the textbooks emphasize different aspects of grammar. The syllabus emphasizes w h a t to t e а с h and gives it in terms of traditional grammar. The textbooks emphasize h о w to teach and present grammar in sentence patterns, structures (structural approach). That is how the syllabus and the textbooks present grammar. The amount of grammar material pupils should assimilate in school, and the way it is distributed throughout the course of study, may be found in the syllabi for eight-year schools and for ten-year schools. In teaching grammar the teacher follows the recommendations given in Teacher's Books and instructs pupils through sentence patterns and structures presented in Pupil's Books. Although the content of grammar teaching is disputable among teachers and methodologists, and there are various approaches to the problem, pupils should, whatever the content of the course, assimilate the ways of fitting words together to form sentences and be able to easily recognize grammar forms and structures while hearing and reading, to reproduce phrases and sentences stored up in their memory and say or write sentences of their own, using grammar items appropriate to the situation.

HOW TO TEACH GRAMMAR

Some General Principles of Grammar Teaching and How to Use Them

Teaching grammar should be based upon the following principles:

1.Conscious approach to the teaching of grammar. This means that in sentence patterns teaching points are determined so that pupils can concentrate their attention on some elements of the pattern to be able to use them as orienting points when speaking or writing the target language. For example, / can see a book. I can see many books. The man asked [or your telephone number. The man was asked for your telephone number.

The teacher draws pupils' attention to the new element in the sentence pattern. The teaching point may be presented in the form of a rule, a very short one. It is usually done in the mother tongue. For example: Помни, что во множествен­ном числе к существительному прибавляется окончание -s [s, z] или -es [izl. Or: Помни, что в отрицательных предло­жениях ставится вспомогательный глагол do not (does not). The rule helps the learner to understand and to assimilate the structural meaning of the elements. It ensures a conscious approach to learning. This approach provides favourable conditions for the speedy development of correct and more flexible language use. However it does not mean that the teach­er should ask pupils to say this or that rule. Rules do not ensure the mastery of the language. They only help to attain the practical goal. If a pupil can recognize and employ correct­ly the forms that are appropriate, that is sufficient. When the learner can give ample proof of these abilities we may say that he has fulfilled the syllabus requirements.

Conscious learning is also ensured when a grammar item is contrasted with another grammar item which is usually con­fused. The contrast is brought out through oppositions. For example:

I get up at 7 o'clock. It is the Present Indefinite.

‘It's 7 o'clock. I am getting up. It is contrasted with the Present Continuous.

He has come. The Present Perfect is contrasted with the Past Indefinite.

He came an hour ago.

Tom can swim. - Tom likes to swim. The modal verb is contrasted with the Present Indefinite.

Rule for the teacher: Realize the difficulties the sen­tence pattern presents for your pupils. Comparative analysis of the grammar item in English and in Russian or within the English language may be helpful. Think of the shortest and simplest way for presentation of the new grammar item. Remember the more you speak about the language the less time is left for practice.

And not only this: the more the teacher explains the less his pupils understand what he is trying to explain. This leads to the teacher giving more information than is necessary, which does not help the pupils in the usage of this particular grammar item, only hinders them.

2. Practical approach to the assimilation of grammar. It means that pupils learn those grammar items which they need for immediate use either in oral or written language. For example, from the first steps of language learning pupils need the Possessive Case for aural comprehension and speaking about things or objects which belong to different people, namely, Mike's textbook, Ann's mother, the boys' room, etc. In the senior stage (9—10 forms) pupils need the Sequence of Tenses mainly for reading to be able to understand such sentences as He said he had been there. We expected Mary would come soon. The learner masters grammar through per­forming various exercises in using a given grammar item.

Rule for the teacher: Teach pupils correct grammar usage and not grammar knowledge.

З. Structural approach to the teaching of grammar, i. е., grammar items are introduced and drilled in structures or sentence patterns. It has been proved and accept­ing ed by the majority of teachers and methodologists that when­ever the aim is to teach pupils the command of the language, and speaking in particular, the structural approach meets the requirements.

Pupils are taught to understand English when spoken to and to speak it from the very beginning. This is possible if they have learned sentence patterns and words as a pat­tern and they know how to adjust them to the situations they are given.

In our country the structural approach to the teaching of grammar attracted the attention of many teachers.² As a result structural approach to grammar teaching has been adopt­ed by our schools since it allows the pupil to make up sen­tences by analogy, to use the same pattern for various situa­tions. Pupils learn sentence patterns and how to use them in oral and written language.

Rule for the teacher: Furnish pupils with words to change the lexical (semantic) meaning of the sentence pattern so that pupils will be able to use it in different situations. Remember that pupils should assimilate the grammar mechanism involved in the sentence pattern and not the sentence itself.

5.Situational a p p г о а с h to the teaching of grammar. Pupils learn a grammar item used in situations. For example, the Possessive Case may be effectively introduced in classroom situations. The teacher takes or simply touches various things and says This is Nina's pen; That is Sasha's exercise-book, and so on. Complex Object / want somebody to do something may also be presented in classroom situations. For example, the teacher addresses a boy, he says: Pete, / want you to give me your exercise-book. Please, give it to me. Lena, I want you to help Nick with his English. Please, help him with his reading. Andrew, I want you to clean the black­board. Will you?

Rule for the teacher: Select the situations (or the par­ticular grammar item you are going to present. Look-through the textbook and other teaching materials and find those situations which can ensure comprehension and provide the usage of the item.

5. Different approach to the teaching of active grammar (grammar for conversation) and passive grammar (grammar for reading). Grammar items pupils need for con­versation are taught by the oral approach, i. е., pupils aud them, perform various oral exercises, finally see them print­ed, and write sentences using them.

For example, pupils need the Present Perfect for conver­sation. They listen to sentences with the verbs in the Pres­ent Perfect spoken by the teacher or the speaker (when a tape recorder is used) and relate them to the situations suggested. Then pupils use the verbs in the Present Perfect in various oral exercises, and finally they read and write sentences in which the Present Perfect is used. Grammar items necessary for reading are taught through reading. For instance, pupils are going to read a text in which verbs in the Past Continuous occur. At present they do not need this tense form for conver­sation. They need it for comprehension of the text only. Since pupils are familiar with the Present Continuous, they can easi­ly grasp the meaning of the new tense form and understand the sentences while reading the text. The teacher may ask them to copy the sentences out of the text in which the Past Continuous occurs and underline the elements which signal the Past Continuous Tense.

Rule for the teacher: If the grammar item you are going to present belongs to those pupils need for conver­sation, select the oral approach method for teaching. If pupils need the grammar item for reading, start with reading and writing sentences in which the grammar item occurs.

While preparing for the lesson at which a new grammar item should be introduced, the teacher must realize the difficulties pupils will meet in assimilating this new element of the Eng­lish grammar. They may be of three kinds: difficulties in form, meaning, and usage. The teacher thinks of the ways to over­come these difficulties: how to convey the meaning of the grammar item either through situations or with the help of the mother tongue; what rule should be used; what exercises should be done; their types and number. Then he thinks of the sequence in which pupils should work to overcome these difficulties, i. е., from observation and comprehension through conscious imitation to usage in conversation (communicative exercises). Then the teacher considers the form in which he presents the grammar item — orally, in writing, or in reading. And, finally, the teacher plans pupils' activity while they are learning this grammar point: their individual work, mass work, work in unison, and work in pairs, always bearing in mind that for assimilation pupils need ample examples of the sentence pattern in which this grammar item occurs.