Running head: GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM
Position Paper: The Place of Grammar in the Communicative Classroom
Chelsea Lauren Fenton
The University of Southern Mississippi
1

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM
Position Paper: The Place of Grammar in the Communicative Classroom
The profession of teaching foreign language is unique in that teachers have the
2 opportunity to open the door for their students to the multicultural world in which we live. The objective of language teachers is simple: to develop communicative and intercultural competence. However, this goal is easier said than done! Fostering the development of both communicative and intercultural competence requires many sublevels of focus in the classroom.
Foreign language teaching pedagogical trends of the past have been described as swings of a pendulum. Methods of the 21 st
century have found a mix between trends of the past giving each teacher the ability to design a unique approach suited for their classroom setting. This paper focuses on my personal position of teaching foreign language specifically the place of grammar in the classroom. The foreign language classroom should entail contextualized lessons that present grammar structures through the use of authentic materials and provide ample opportunities for use of the target language through cooperative learning tasks at all levels.
The National Capital Resource Center (NCLRC) (2004) defines communicative competence as, “the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals” and “is made up of four competence areas: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic.” The linguistic area includes the use of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary while the sociolinguistic area pertains to “knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationship among the people communicating” (NCLRC, 2004). In other terms the linguistic area involves the form and meaning of grammar structures and the sociolinguistic area focuses on use within context. These three areas are of utmost importance when teaching a foreign language; competence cannot be reached with one and not the other.

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM 3
Brown (2014) summarizes the transformation of pedagogical trends of teaching language through the past two centuries. The Classical Method, which transformed into the Grammar
Translation Method, placed “focus on grammatical rules memorization of vocabulary and grammatical forms, translation of texts, and performance of written exercises” (p. 15). As research in psychology began to greatly influence teaching methodology, methods of the past were quickly forgotten and new ones such as the Audiolingual Method revolutionized classrooms. This method, which overemphasized oral production drills, left students without meta-linguistic knowledge. Popular methods of each century clearly reflected the need and purpose of learning a foreign language of its time. Brown (2014) explains that during the time of the Classical Method, languages were being learned “for the sake of being “scholarly” or, in some instances, for gaining a reading proficiency in a foreign language” (p. 15). If we look at the purpose for learning a foreign language today, in the 21 st century, it is to be able to communicative effectively with those of other cultures with whom we are highly interconnected.
This is why the area of sociolinguistics or use within context of language is so important and sociolinguistic competence cannot be developed without a good foundation of form and meaning.
Grammar has its place in learning language but it must be introduced and practice within context making it visible to students how and when a grammar structure can be used. Grammar structures should be embedded inside contextualized units surrounded with relevant vocabulary and speech act objectives. The amount of grammar structures within a unit should be kept for a minimum as to not overwhelm students and allow time and opportunities for retention and acquisition. Lessons should include the use of authentic resources – literary texts, songs, videos, maps, etc. – to present new vocabulary and grammar structures. Activities based on authentic

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM 4 materials direct students, first, to comprehension of main ideas and then, to noticing the target structure. The teacher can assist students’ in noticing by calling attention to the target structure through highlighting or bolding. Students’ self-discovery of grammar rules is favored in that “it is more motivating and that is also serves as a learner-training function” (Ellis, 2008, p. 30). By continuously having students notice new structures in resources will help develop their sense of awareness of language.
Ellis (2008) details the focus of instruction of grammar as awareness rather than performance. He defines awareness within two senses of the word: “First, learners can be made aware of the formal properties of the language as they experience these in input…Second, learners can be made aware in the sense of forming some kind of explicit representation of a target form (i.e. developing explicit knowledge)” (p. 29). Guiding our students to notice new structures and form will encourage them to be life long learners.
Once students have noticed a new structure, which has impeded their comprehension of the text or resource, instruction of the form can take place in a more explicit manner. This strategy of teaching is known as focus on form (FonF) and is defined by Long and Robinson
(2006) as an approach that “often consists of an occasional shift of attention to linguistic code features – by the teacher and/or one or more students – triggered by perceived problems with comprehension or production” (as cited in Doughty and Williams, p. 3). Doughty and Williams
(2006) distinguish between two types of FonF instruction that teachers can utilize: reactive and proactive. Reactive FonF entails monitoring of production of language by the students and noticing errors in form that provide a perfect opportunity to give a brief explanation of structure.
Proactive FonF, involves a preplanned lesson designed to create problematic encounters with language (p. 211). Both types of FonF require a skilled teacher who is (1) aware of his/her

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM 5 students’ production of language and can quickly respond with ready techniques to focus on the problematic form and (2) dedicated to carefully planning lessons with authentic materials that present the target structure and can properly instruct students to notice, acquire, and produce said structure.
Communication entails four different skills - reading, writing, listing, and comprehension
– all of which should be equally incorporated into contextualized units. The use of the target language in the classroom is paramount in order for students to develop listening and comprehension skills. The teacher should strive to use the target language (TL) exclusively. The
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) (2012) supports the use of the TL in the classroom because “research indicates that effective language instruction must provide significant levels of meaningful communication and interactive feedback in the target language in order for students to develop language and cultural proficiency” (p. 24). ACTFL recommends that teachers and students use the TL at least 90% of the time, even at beginner levels of language. ACTFL suggests several strategies that teachers can employ to aid in their students’ comprehension:

Provide comprehensible input that is directed toward communicative goals;

Make meaning clear through body language, gestures, and visual support;
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Elicit talk that increases in fluency, accuracy, and complexity over time;

Teach students strategies for requesting clarification and assistance when faced with comprehension difficulties; and

Offer feedback to assist and improve students’ ability to interact orally in the target language.
(ACTFL, 2012, p. 24)

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM
Once students have noticed and gained explicit knowledge on a target structure,
6 cooperative learning tasks are ideal in practicing the target structure in context. The concept of cooperative learning has been a common teaching strategy across all academic subjects since it first appeared in academic writing in 1988 (Akdemir and Arslan, 2012, p. 214). Since it’s beginning, it has continuously increased in interest among teachers especially in the past fifteen years. Cooperative learning is much more than just small-group work and it is often misunderstood as a simple strategy, when in fact it is very intricate and provides positive outcomes in the classroom. Olsen and Kagan define cooperative learning as “group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learning in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motived to increase the learning of others” (as cited in Oxford, 1997, p.
443).
Cooperative learning tasks include activity structures such as jigsaw, info-gap, round robin, think-pair-share, and many others. These types of activities give students’ the opportunity to solve a task in the target language while working together, often times talking about metalinguistics, furthering their knowledge of form, meaning, and use. Based on their research,
Johnson and Johnson (2014) have gathered several outcomes that support the implementation of cooperative learning in the classroom which include “higher achievement and greater productivity, more higher-level reasoning, more frequent generation of new ideas and solutions, and greater transfer of what is learned within one situation to another” while increasing “personal ego-strength, self-confidence, independence, and autonomy” (p. 843). An experiment led by
Osa-Melero (2012) studying the use of cooperative learning in pre-reading activities to increase reading comprehension of students, proved that CL had a positive impact on student

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM 7 comprehension as activities activated previous knowledge that would assist with them with the forthcoming reading material.
From the presentation of authentic materials, through noticing, focus on form, instruction, and cooperative learning tasks students acquire knowledge of a grammar structure in form, meaning, and use. In order to further carry out the aspect of grammar use, the inclusion of pragmatic tasks are ideal. Rose (2012) proposes, “one way to bring grammar and the real world together is to focus on pragmatics…Pragmatics examines how language is used in social, cultural, and cognitive contexts, and how people produce and comprehend meaning through language” (p. 670). Furthermore, Rose (2012) supports the use of pragmatics in the classroom in that it helps learners to make associations between the target forms and how the form can be used within speech acts of the target culture (p. 671). She states,
“The inclusion of pragmatics in language lessons encourages students to compare the target language and culture to their first language and home community. These types of comparisons facilitate a greater understanding of the nature of language and the concept of culture in general.” (p. 671)
When choosing an authentic material to present in class, it is important to be mindful of the potential pragmatic lessons that can come from it. If literary texts – short stories, legends, poems, and novels - are incorporated into lessons they provide excellent gateways into minipragmatic lessons and activities. For example, if students at an intermediate level are reading part of a novel or short story that takes place in a coffee shop or café, this setting can be used to discuss cultural differences in leisure activities, coffee consumption, and how to order coffee in the TL. Depending on the TL, pragmatic rules of ordering coffee may employ the imperative, the conditional, or unconventional indirect requests. Role-play activities are ideal for improving

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM 8 pragmatic competence, which in return practices the target structures, builds communicative competence of the TL, and demonstrates how language is used in a real-world setting.
As demonstrated by decades of language instruction through the Grammar Translation
Method and Audiolingual Method, grammar can neither be the sole focus nor eradicated from the foreign language classroom. Grammar has a place in the classroom to develop communicative and intercultural competence and that place is within contextualized presentations and activities. Teachers are responsible for educating themselves on new methods and approaches to teaching as brought forth from research. There is no one method that is 100% effective, rather the teacher has the responsibility of creating his/her own approach from combining aspects of numerous methods that meet the learning styles and interests of his/her students. Essential items that should be part of any foreign language classroom are those of authentic resources, the use of the target language, and contextualization in teaching grammar.
The inclusion of these three items will develop students’ communicative competence in form, meaning, and use, educate them on cultural differences, and provide encouragement to be life long learners.

GRAMMAR IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM
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