How to teach grammar
through texts
Linda
Ken
Texts and Contexts
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What does this word mean?
Can I have a word with you?
I give you my word.
Word has it that they are getting married.
If you want help, just say the word.
How should I word this letter?
Language is context-sensitive
• The following sentences are almost
meaningless out of context:
• 1.The ones that don’t, seem to think so.
• 2.It’s a drink.
Texts divorced from their
context
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1.Port does not exist.
2.Only in Berkshire. Ken Stark, Leeds,
Yorks.
To Wee Pig from Big Pig. Grunt！Grunt！
Co-text
• 1.The rest of the text
• 2.Surrounds and provides meaning to the
individual language items
Context of situation
• 1.Interpreting the meaning of a language
item
• 2.The roles and relationships
Context of culture
• Require some understanding of the culture
Text
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1.Take many forms –postcards, novels,
street signs and so on.
A feature of classroom.
Detached from both its co-text and its
context of situation
Problem
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Example: He’s playing tennis
1.Where’s Tony? He’s playing tennis.
2.He never wears his glasses when he’s playing tennis.
3.Tomorrow morning he’ll be in the office but in the
afternoon he’s playing tennis.
• 4.He’s playing tennis a lot these days. Do you think he’s
lost his job?
• 5.There’s this friend of mine, Tony. He’s playing tennis
one day. Suddenly he gets this shooting pain in his
chest…
Decontextualising of Grammar
• Doubtful value
• The absence of context
• A text-based approach
Sources of texts
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1.The coursebook
2.Authentic sources
3.The teacher
The students
Coursebook
• 1.Ease of understanding
• 2.Display specific features of grammar
Authentic sources
• Simplify authentic texts
• Classroom texts
Teacher’s text
• Teachers’ story
• Teachers’ travel plan
• Teachers’ New Year resolutions
Students’ texts
• The topics that learners raise
• Easy to remember
Simple Lesson
• Lesson 1:Using a scripted dialogue to
teach the present simple (Beginners)
• 1.Chose a recorded dialogue from a
coursebook for introducing the present
simple with verbs of frequency (e.g.
usually, always) to a group of beginners
Step 1
• 1.Students close their book
• 2.listen to a conversation between two
friends and to answer this question: What
are they talking about?
• 3.Teacher plays the tape down to ‘…and
meet my friends.’
Step 2
• 1.Teacher says that the conversation is about
every weekend.
• 2.Students listen to whole conversation and to
put these words, movies, drive, soccer, go out,
study, lunch, park, walk, in order they heard.
• 3.Teacher writes the nouns in the list and the
appropriate verb
The list
study
have lunch
go to the park
go out
go to the movies
drive
Step 3
• Students tell these activities in the list
David does.
• 2.Teacher asks one or two other questions
about the gist of the conversation.
Step 4
• 1.Teacher asks students to listen to the
following words, usually, always,
sometimes, and to match the words on the
board.
• 2.Students check with their neighbor
• 3.Teacher writes the appropriate adverb
For example
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usually
study
always
have lunch
sometimes go to the park
Step 5
• 1.Students focus two or three of these
sentences and to tell what the speaker
says.
• 2.Teacher replays the relevant sections of
tape, until students are able to provide the
full sentence
For example
Step 6
• 1.Students focus on the form of the
structure.
• 2.Underline the verbs and explain that the
present simple is used for routine activities.
• Step 7
• Students write two or three more sentences
about David, using the above sentence pattern.
• Step 8
• Check the answers
• Step 9
• Students write four or five sentences about
themselves.
Lesson 2
Using an authentic text to teach the passive
(intermediate)
1.Teacher has chosen the following
authentic text for introducing the passive:
Step 1(Before handing out the
text)
• 1.Teacher tells the class the name of the
article (Dog attack)
• 2.Guess the words
• 3.Teacher feeds in words from the text, e.g.
stitches, wounds, infected, bloodstains.
Step 2
• 1.Students read the text silently with a
view to answering these question
• 2.Students check their answer in pairs
• 3.Teacher asks further questions about the
text.
Step 3
• Teacher writes two sentence on the board:
• 1.An unsupervised Alsatian dog attacked
her.
• 2.She was attacked by an unsupervised
Alsatian dog.
Step 4
• 1.Find out other examples of passive
construction in the text.
• 2.The passive is typically used:
• A. to move the theme to the beginning of the
sentence
• B. when the agent is unimportant, or not know
• By + agent is used
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Step 5
Compare their version with the original
Step 6
Students describe their stories in English
and to write their story
Sample lesson 3: Using student language to review ways of
talking about the future
For this lesson the teacher uses
a cassette recorder with a microphone on an
extendable lead
a hand-held personal stereo
She asks the small class of about six learners to sit in a closed circle .
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The microphone is placed in the centre of the circle.
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The teacher stands outside the circle and operates the cassette recorder herself.
Step 1
The teacher set the topic
waits while the students (who are
familiar with this activity) construct and record a conversation
The teacher’s role is to provide the language that students need and
to indicate when she thinks they are ready to record their turn.
Step 2
The tape is rewound and replayed in it entirely.
The taped conversation is then transcribed on to the board.
Step 3
She asks the learners to identify the different forms and to
offer an explanation of their use in the context.
Step 4
Students listen to recorded text one more time.
The teacher then rubs the texts off the board and the
students re-form in their original circle and improvise the
conversation again from memory.
Discussion – Community (Counseling) Language Learning (CLL)
1970’s
Aims at centering the language learning experience
The teacher’s role is essentially that of a consultant
Step 1:
has preselected the theme
notice that the learners are not directed to use specific forms,
by saying for example I want you to use ‘going to ‘
Step 2
& :
Step 3
Step 4:
- the teacher takes a more directive role, transcribing the
text and draw the students’ attention to features of text
- returning the text to the students
Evaluation
In terms of time, it may not be the most
economical way of giving grammar instruction,
but the opportunity that the conversation stage
provides for creative and personalized language
use can have only positives side effects.
The technique is most appropriate for a
group of about six students.
Sample lesson 4: Using a dictogloss to teach would for past
habit (Upper intermediate)
口述的文字
Dictogloss -
A dictogloss is a form of dictation, but one in which
the students hear and reconstruct the whole text,
rather than doing so line by line.
The teacher has decided to use a spoken text as a
context.
The technique he uses involves the students
collaboratively reconstructing the text from
memory and then comparing it with the original.
Step 1
The teacher sets the theme by introducing the topic of summer
holiday. After chatting about this for a few minutes, he then
says ‘I am going to tell you about how I spent my summer
holidays as a child in Australia. I want you to listen and, as
soon as I have finished, I want you to write down any words,
phrases or sentences that you can remember.’
Step 2
The teacher then tells the class, working in groups of three,
that he wants them to compare with each other what they
have noted down, and to try and reconstruct the text.
Step 3
The teacher choose a students to act as the class scribe and to
write their reconstructed version of the text on one half of the
board, incorporating the suggestions of all the students in the
class.
Step 4
The teacher then projects an overhead transparency of his
original text, and asks them to identify any differences
between the two texts.
The teacher challenges them to explain what these represent
and individual students hazard a guess that they are examples
of the past perfect, or of the second conditional.
Step 5 The students write their own texts, of a similar length and
style, about their own childhood holiday, which they then
exchange and discuss.
Discussion
Dictogloss, dictomap, or grammar diction
Unlike traditional dictation
It may be necessary to re-tell the text once or twice:
the teacher will need to monitor his students carefully
in order to asses their comprehension.
Evaluation
The role of noticing as a prerequisite for learning has
been emphasized in the literature on second language
acquisition
The dictogloss technique provides a useful means for
guiding learns towards noticing the gap between their
present language competence and their target competence.
Sample lesson 5: Using genre analysis to teach
reporting language (intermediate)
The study of the ways in which social contexts impact
upon language choices is called genre analysis
In this lesson, the teacher is using a relatively recent genre – the
Internet news bulletin – to teach ways in which news is reported
Step 1
The teacher dictates the following words to the class, and explains
that they are the key words in a news story.
The students are encouraged to ask about the meaning of any
unfamiliar words and then, in pairs, to try to imagine what the story
is.
Step 2
The teacher presents the following authentic texts.
She asks the students to try to put the three texts in the probably
chronological order in which they appeared.
Step 3
The teacher checks this task, drawing attention to clues in the text.
Step 4
The teacher then asks the students to use the evidence of all three
texts to generalize the function of each paragraph.
Step 5
The teacher asks learners to use the evidence of all three texts to
identify the language features of each paragraph.
Step 6
The teacher asks learners to imagine the outcome of the story,
and to write the fourth and final news bulletin.
Step 7 - The teacher supplies students with the final story as actually
reported.
Discussion
A genre analysis approach not only respects the
integrity of the whole text but regards the features
of a text as being directly influenced by its
communicative function and its context of use.
Conclusions
Some advantages of using texts are the following :
• They provide co-textual information, allowing learners to
deduce the meaning of unfamiliar grammatical items from
the co-text.
• As well as grammar input, text provide vocabulary input,
skills practice, and exposure to features of text organization.
• Their use in the classroom is good preparation for
independent study.
• If the texts come from the students themselves, they may be
more engaging and their language features therefore more
memorable.