1
THE DEVELOPMENT OF GRAMMAR SKILLS IS AN EFFECTIVE WAY
TO FORM COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
CONTENT
1.Introduction ...........................................................................................................1
2.Communicative competence. Theoretical background .........................................1
3.Grammar is one of the main elements of communicative competence..................3
4.The development of grammar skills ......................................................................5
5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................9
6. References...........................................................................................................10
1. Introduction
It has been recognized that at present English is the most important foreign
language in Ukraine since the implementation of the reform and opening-up
policy. Accordingly, developing the communicative competence of the learners is
one of the major goals for English teaching. There are even views that “the essence
of English teaching is communication” and that “communicative competence is the
initial and ultimate goal of English teaching”. However, it seems that it is easier
said than done.
2. Communicative Competence. Theoretical Background.
The term “competence” is derived from the concept of “performance” firstly
proposed by Chomsky in the1960s. He used it to indicate that underlying the
concrete behavior, or performance, of the language user, thereis an abstract rule
system of knowledge, and the user just uses the rules that govern his language
without havingany detailed awareness of the underlying system. The underlying
2
knowledge of the grammar of the language bythe native speaker is his “linguistic
competence” (1965).
But Campbell and Wales (1970) pointed out that Chomsky’s competence omitted
the most important linguistic ability: “to produce or understand utterances which
are not so much grammatical but, more important,appropriate to the context in
which they are made”, and by “context” they mean both the situational and verbal
context of utterance.
Habermas (1970) also criticized Chomsky for his view and gave his own
understandingthat “in order to participate in normal discourse, the speaker must
have – in addition to his linguistic competence – basic aspects of speech and of
symbolic interaction (role-behavior) at his disposal, which we may call
communicative competence. Thus communicative competence means the mastery
of an ideal speech situation”.
Hymes (1972) was generally in consensus with the view of Campbell and Wales
by arguing that, in addition to linguistic competence, the native speaker has
another rule system without which the rules of grammar would be useless. That is,
he knows intuitively what is socially appropriate or inappropriate and can adjust
his languageuse to such factors as the topic, situation, and human relations
involved: in short, he possesses “communicativecompetence”.
Halliday (1973) developed a socio-semantic approach to language and the
speaker’s use of language. Heproposed a notion of “meaning potential” which
relates behavior potential to lexico-grammatical potential: what the speaker can do
— can mean — can say. These stages display systematic options that are at the
disposal ofthe speaker. That is, a social theory determines behavior options (what
the speaker can do) which are translatedlinguistically as semantic options (what he
can mean) which are encoded as options in linguistic forms (what he can say).
After Hymes, the concept of communicative competence continued to develop.
Though not all would define itin exactly the same way, a generally accepted
definition began with the idea that communicative competence entails knowing not
only the language code or the form of language, but also what to say to whom and
3
how to say it appropriately in any given situation. It deals with the social and
cultural knowledge that speakers arepresumed to have which enables them to use
and interpret linguistic forms .
The latest and most comprehensive theory of communicative competence comes
from Bachman (1990) who argued that: 1. Language competence includes the
acquisition of both the knowledge of grammar rules and that of how to achieve
communication; 2. The use of language is a dynamic process that is enhanced by
the components of language competence. Bachman held that language competence
is composed of two parts:organizational competence, which includes grammatical
competence; textual competence and pragmaticcompetence, which include both
illocutionary competence and sociolinguistic competence.
3.Grammar is one of the main elements of communicative competence.
The main purpose of learning a foreign language is to form students'
communicative competence, which would allow them to communicate orally and
in a written form within the areas and themes defined by the program. This
competence is essential in the process of foreign language learning. Its
development is supposed to be foreign language acquisition and its using in a
situation of communication.
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
LINGUISTIC
COMPETENCE
(lexical,grammatical,
phonetic, spelling
knowledge and
appropriate skills)
SPEECH
COMPETENCE
(listening, speaking,
reading and writing
skills)
SOCIOCULTURAL
COMPETENCE
( country study, its customs,
traditions, geography)
4
So, grammar and grammar skills are the elements of communicative
competence. But, what is grammar? It is clear that the term “grammar” has meant
various things at various times and sometimes several things at one time. This
plurality of meaning is characteristic of the present time and is the source of
confusions in the discussion of grammar as part of the education of children. There
have been taking place violent disputes on the subject of teaching grammar at
school.
The ability to talk about the grammar of a language, to recite its rules, is also
very different from ability to speak and understand a language or to read and write
it. Those who can use a language are often unable to recite its rules, and those who
can recite its rules can be unable to use it.
Grammar organizes the vocabulary and as a result we have sense units.
There is a system of stereotypes, which organizes words into sentences. But what
skill does grammar develop?
First of all it gives the ability to make up sentences correctly, to reproduce
the text adequately. (The development of practical skills and habits)
The knowledge of the specific grammar structure helps pupils point out the
differences between the mother tongue and the target language.
The knowledge of grammar develops abilities to abstract systematize plural
facts.
To judge by the way some people speak, there is no place for grammar in the
language course nowadays; yet it is, in reality, as important as it ever was exercise
of correct grammar, if he is to attain any skill of effective use of the language, but
he need not know consciously formulated rules to account to him for that he does
unconsciously correctly.
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, if one does not see the
relation 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
5
structure of the language one can easily guess the meaning of these words or at
least find them in a dictionary.
No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the
forming of a grammar mechanism.
If 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 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 you rule you can easily tell whether a sentence
that you hear a grammatical English sentence or not.”
A communicative competence cannot be formed without the study of
grammar. Pupils need grammar to be able to aud, speak, read, and write in the
target language.
4. The development of grammar skills.
To develop one’s speech means to acquire essential patterns of speech and
grammar patterns in particular. Children must use these items automatically during
speech-practice. The automatic use of grammar items in our speech (oral and
written) supposes mastering some particular skills – the skills of using grammar
items to express one’s own thoughts, in other words to make up your sentences.
We must get so-called reproductive or active grammar skills.
A skill is treated as an automatic part of awareness. Automatization of the
action is the main feature of a skill.
Our aim is to form grammar skills and prevent children from making
grammar mistakes in their speech.
6
There two kinds of grammar skills: the reproductive and receptive grammar
skills. The reproductive grammar skills give pupils an opportunity to make up their
own sentences in oral and written forms in other words to communicate and the
receptive grammar skills give them an opportunity to read texts or aud and
understand it.
To master the reproductive grammar skills one should study the basic
sentences or models (grammar is presented as itself in the basic sentences), to
master the receptive grammar skills one should identify and analyze the grammar
item. We teach children to read by means of grammar. It reveals the relationship
between the words in the given sentence.
grammar skills
receptive
grammar skills
reproductive
grammar skills
I follow such steps in forming grammar skills:
7.Usage in communication
6. Automatization of the skill
5. Training in communication
4.Formulating the rules of the usage
3.Understanding of its formation
2.Analysis of the pattern
1.Presentation of the pattern
7
So, let's see how it works. I'd like to present the fragment of the lesson in
the 8th form, if/when sentences with future meaning.
1. Presentation. Let's read the dialogue.
- Shall we go to the concert tomorrow?
- I'm not sure. If I get the tickets, we shall go there.
2. Analysis. The children answer the questions:
- When will the action take place?
- What tenses are used to express these actions?
3.Understanding. The pupils must see that we use Present Simple, but the
action will take place in future (tomorrow).
4.Formulating the rule.
Present Simple is used to express future meaning in if/when clause. Future
Simple is used in the main clause.
5.Training.The pupils do as many exercises as possible: match the parts of
the sentences; put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense-forms, complete the
sentences etc.
6. Automatization. This step can be reached when the students have done so
many exercises that they can use this pattern automatically.
7. Usage in communication. The students can express their thoughts in the
written form and orally, using this pattern.
The grammar skill is based on the general conclusion. If the pupil can make
up his sentence frequently, accurately and correctly from the grammatical point of
view, he has got the grammar skill.
The main difficulty of the active grammar skills is to correspond the
purposes of the statement, communicative approach (a questionan answer and so
8
on), words, meanings, expressed by the grammatical patterns. So, we use basic
sentences, in order to answer the definite situation. We must be sure that our pupils
are aware of the vocabulary they need at their level and they can use the words in
order to form their own sentence. Each sentence contains a grammar structure. The
mastering the grammar skill lets pupils save time and strength, energy, which can
give opportunity to create. Learning a number of sentences containing the same
grammatical structure and a lot of words containing the same grammatical form
isn’t rational. But the generalization of the grammar item can relieve the work of
the mental activity and let the teacher speed up the work and the children realize
creative activities.
The process of creation is connected with the mastering of some speech
stereotypes. Grammar is presented as itself. Such a presentation of grammar has its
advantage: the grammar patterns of the basic sentences are connected with each
other. But this approach gives pupils the opportunity to realize the grammar item
better. The teaching must be based on grammar explanations and grammar rules.
Grammar rules are to be understood as a special way of expressing communicative
activity. The grammar skills suppose to master the grammar actions which are
necessary for expressing thoughts in oral and written forms.
The automatic perception of the text supposes the reader to identify the
grammar form according to the formal features of words, word combinations,
sentences which must be combined with the definite meaning. One must learn the
rules in order to identify different grammatical forms. Pupils should get to know
their features, the ways of expressing them in the language. We teach children to
read and aud by means of grammar. It reveals the relation between words in the
sentence. Grammar is of great important when one teaches reading and auding.
The forming of grammar skills depends on training. Training is of great
importance to realize the grammar item. We must use a lot of training exercises for
the assimilation of grammar. We should provide the motivation of learning
English, encourage children to communicate and remember that the correction of
9
errors in the early stages of a language course may foster the following negative
aspects:

children lose confidence when they have fear of making
grammar mistakes

children become reluctant to take risks: they only the say the
information they know they can say
We should realize the importance of training exercises and the role of the
individual approach to teaching the children. Besides, the teacher must have a clear
idea of the grammar of the language, its structure and usage; everything he teaches
must be based on it; he should always be conscious of introducing or practicing
some point of grammar.
5.Conclusion
At any time, at any stage and in any circumstances, grammar teaching
cannot be diluted. It ought to be an important part in foreign language teaching.
This is the requirement of the basic characteristics and features of language
learning and subjective environment for foreign language learning. Moreover,
grammar is an effective way to train students' communicative competence in
English language teaching. Without grammar, language, communicative
knowledge and competence are just "castles in the air". With a good knowledge of
grammar, students can fully improve their integrated English proficiency and
promote the overall levels of their English. Therefore, teachers who teach the
foreign language should try to reform the current conditions on neglecting
grammar teaching in English education, and strive to explore grammar teaching
methods to fully promote students' English level.
References
Bachman, L. (1990). Fundamental considerations in language testing. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Dreitzel (Ed.), Recent sociology,
10
No.2 (pp.115-148). London: Collier-Macmilian .
PolyglossiaVol. 18, February 2010
Harmer, Jeremy, “the practice English language teaching”; London-New York;
Longman,1991
Elaine Tarone and George Yule., “Focus on Language Learner.”; Oxford univ.,
1991
F.Genesee., “Educating second language children: the whole child, the whole
curriculum, the whole community.” Cambridge, 1994
Griffith,S. “Teaching English Abroad”; Oxford,1991
www.teachingenglish.org.uk
www.englishclub.narod.ru