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Which comes first -grammar or the outcome?
Presented by:
K. Lynn Savage
Ventures Series Editor
Agenda
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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 reflected
in speaking?
Job interviewer: “How long have
you been working at your current job?”
Applicant: “I worked there for two
years.”
What is the difference between the
applicant’s answer and the
interviewer’s question?
Present perfect vs. past tense
How is grammar reflected
in 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 reflected
in 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:
context, context, context, context + form!
• Adult learners need immediate application.
• Grammar needs to be meaningful,
relevant, and practical.
• Lessons need to address language form
(grammar).
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.
2.
Distinguish between grammar and outcome
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
•
•
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•
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 between
structure 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
Granting permission
shop. You can drive my car.
Frequency of use
One function, several structures
Example: future intention
• be going to + verb
• will + verb
• present continuous (be +verb + -ing)
Ask: Which is more frequent?
be going to + verb
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
Grammar: Adjective
quick
careful
bad
serious
+ - ly = adverb
quickly
carefully
badly
seriously
But look at the following:
We are coming to a school zone. Drive slow.
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?
Past perfect verb tense
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.
Is the structure common in
spoken and written language?
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
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.
Is the structure common in
spoken and written language?
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
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
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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
Professional Development DVD
www.cambridge.org/ventures
Teacher training DVD including
a module on teaching grammar
communicatively.
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