APPROACHES TO L2 GRAMMAR TEACHING
Presentation
of input
student centered
inductive approach;
age factor;
cognitive styel
making rule
explict
teachingguided
appraches
structured-input task
intervension
noticing strategies
instructional
processing
TPR
student-centered
guidelines by Lee and
Vanpatten
combination of physical
movement and
languagelearni
Selfinstructional
approaches
Declarative
vs.
procedural
factual vs. encoded
[Introduction]
Explicit grammar instruction vs. implicit grammar instruction (Krashen)
No one particular way of grammar teaching is suitable for all learners. Grammatical concepts
vary in complexity. Teachers need to choose varying modes of grammar presentations and be
flexible and adaptive.
[1] Presentation of input: Principles and guidelines
Grammar is a means to an end that allowed students to express themselves in meaningful ways,
where grammar forms is embedded contexts.
Provide input-rich environment/ rich contents. TPR for demand forms.
Guidelines by Lee and Vanpatten:
1 Introduce one grammar at a time ( considering processing demands of learners)
2 keep meaning in focus (most important, task-based approach)
3 move from sentences to connected discourse
4 use both oral and written input (provide written form, it alleviates learners’ processing
constraints, it accommodates learner types, it solves the confusion and anxiety caused
by oral input only)
5 the learner must do something with the input (apply the grammar rules immediately, esp.
in oral contexts, e.g., either/or, T/F, yes/no, multiple-choice, or matching activities)
6 keep the learner processing strategies in mind
[2] Making rules explicit
student-centered and inductive/implicit approach:
Pro: present recurring examples on how the grammar rule operates
from particular to general
actively engage learners to formulate their own hypothesis about the target language
Con: it cannot guarantee the learner will discover the underlying concepts; the stimulus domain
might be too rich; some rules are too complex or the language structures is not transparent
enough
Other factors
age factor: the younger, the less effective a cognitive-based or explicit approach is
cognitive style: field-dependent learners vs. field-independent learners
1 field-dependent learners: learners who pay more attention to what they see than what
they feel, externally motivated, preferring to work collaboratively rather than
independently, people oriented,
2 field-independent learners: learners who pay more attention to what they feel than what
they see, focusing more on the parts than the whole
[3] Teaching-guided approaches: intervention and noticing strategies
guided participatory or co-constructive approach
1 in all, the teacher guides the students to discover the rules themselves
a a sequence of scaffolded tasks
b with teacher guidance
c students’ active involvement
2 use noticing or awareness-raising tasks
a ask students to find, underline, and organize similar patterns of grammatical
structures and then formulate hypothesis
[4] Instructional processing
curricular option: processing instruction, structured-input task, which focus on form
“beginner need structured input activities that enable them to focus on meaning while attending
to form before they are expected to use the language to produce output.” VanPatten and
Cadierno
[5] Total Physical Response: an alternative technique to modeling language structure, such as
command forms, prepositions, pronouns, singular and plural forms, or reflexive verbs.
It refers to “learners carrying out the actions commanded by the instructor”. -James Asher
[6] Self-instructional approaches
Have students to read, learn, and use targeted grammar structures on their own, through
preparation for a new lessor or as a follow-up to the teacher’s grammar instruction.
[7] From declarative to procedural knowledge
Declarative knowledge is the factual knowledge.
Procedural knowledge consists of encoded behavior.