Unit: V
Teaching
grammar, (Special English)
Introduction:
The
ability to use a language effectively depends primarily on one’s knowledge of
the underlying ‘rules’ that govern the uses of the language. It is clear, there
fore, that one of the important aims of language teaching is to give the learns
a knowledge of the code or the underlying rules of the language.
English
grammar consists of celebrate rule, definition and exception about the
structure of the language. It dealt mainly with the physical of from of words,
word endings, word groups and sentences and not their total meaning as a piece
of communication or conversation.
Perspective grammar – formal grammar:
Grammar
classified words minutely as parts of speech and sentence,. It is further
divided into kinds of nouns, adjectives; adverbs, verbs etc, and give us many
rules on sentence and transformation.
This
prescriptive grammar was knowing anatomy of language. Just a patient cannot
recover by knowing the anatomy of his body; a student cannot use language by
knowing the rules of grammar. According to the formal – perspective grammarians
view, rules came first and example later.
The
formal grammars give importance for rules for all times and did not take into
account the changing usage of English. The formal grammar prescribed rules for
every one to follow without questioning. As we know, even these rules of
language were not universal and these rules of language were not universal and
there were many exception to them.
E.
G: plurals: Book – books, boy –boys, but child –
children
Tense: walk – walked, but go – went
In
teaching formal grammar, the ever changing nature of the English language and during
it meaningfully were totally ignored. It is otherwise called as theoretical grammar
and the old traditional grammar.
The two kinds of rules in perspective
grammar.
Perspective
grammar have two kinds of rules the ‘perspective rules’ which state the usage
that are considered to be acceptable and the perspective rules which are usage
that are supposed to be avoided. The recommendations under proscription are all
negatively phrased.
David crystal lists the following
items as the top few complaints:
? Split infinitive should not be used
? None should ever be followed by a
plural verb.
? Different or differently should be
followed by from and not by to or than
? A sentence should not end a
proposition
? Hopefully should not be used at the
beginning of sentence.
Descriptive or functional grammar:
We
know that a living language like English is primarily a spoken language. It is ever
changing and ever growing. Spoken or written English is used to communicate
with other around us. In such situation usage comes. First and rules come
later.
? Grammarians describe the principle
that actually exits in native usage. Thus descriptive grammar describes the
convention of a language. What ever grammar is learnt is learnt incidentally in
the course of using the language.
? When the child learns his mother
tongue he and his ‘teachers’ around use it is situation. And he learns it by
imitation. He gets the feel of the language unconsciously as it were to start
with.
? To fixes the patterns in ones mind.
They strengthen by plenty of oral work and repetition.
? From a number of examples, rules may
be formulated (deduced) later.
? Functional grammar – descriptive grammar
tales note of new usage as it appear from takes to tie in communication.
? In classroom teachi8ng such grammar
is called functional grammar.
? Functional grammar enables the
students to speak and write correctly
? It is better that functional grammar
is taught for the first year or two.
Then
formal grammar may be attempted.
Methods of teaching
grammar 1) Deductive method
2)
inductive method
Deductive method:
Direct
method insists on rule first and example later the teacher gives the rule or definitions
of a grammar then he gives a number of examples, later he makes them apply the
rule.
Procedure:
? Deductive method focus on the
teaching of formal grammar
? First rules are given the n the
examples to illustrate the rules.
? Motto in grammar first rules next
? From general rules to particular
example.
? This method is used with older children,
who have learnt the language for 2 or 3 years.
Class room procedure:
1) Presentation of the rule: e .g: present continuous
|
The verb form
2)
Illustration the rule with examples:
Teacher gives many
examples using class room sanitation, pictures and actions.
E. g: I am
teaching. You are listening.
We are reading. They are writing.
3)
Verification and application of the rule:
Teacher
explains how the rule applies to various situations children learn the rule
from the examples.
4)
Practice:
Teacher
elicits more examples creasing classroom situations. Showing pictures etc.Gives
practice to use the correct ‘from of the ‘be’ verb and ‘Mving’
Critical evaluation of ‘deductive
method:
Advantages:
? Fixes accurate usage
? Bad examples are avoided
? It helps him to make usages which are
correct, certain, rapid and intelligent.
Dis advantages:
? It ignores ‘oral’ aspects of the
language
? It is teacher – dominated and not
child – centered.
? It is understanding and creates a
monotonous situation in the classroom.
? It is dose not provide anything for
free thought and expression.
Generally
formal grammar was taught by deductive method, only rules and examples were
receipt by the teacher and recited method. Only rules and pupils and there was
no action, no practice no linking of word and meaning. This method is easy and time spacing but the pupils did not learn
anything. Because there was no practical demonstration or practice.
Inductive method:- Functional
grammar:
This
method insists on lots of examples first, formulation of the rule later and more
examples. The inductive method makes the principle thionk for themeelves and
takes part in language learning. Teaching and learning are made interesting
through contextualized discussion. This method produces very god results with beginning.
The procedure:
? presentation of examples
? Analyses of examples
? Generalization
? Application and practice
Class room procedure:
1)
presentation of examples:
The teacher
gives examples and illustration in a systematic order so that they may lead to
generalization
E. g: I used to play foot ball at school
(Now I no longer play the game)
My sister used to write well
(Now she doesn’t)
2)
Analyses of examples:
The teacher
writes some more examples on the black board
E
g: Madurai used to get good rains. But
now it doesn’t
Ravi
used to be very funny but he isn’t now
Then the
teacher illustrates and explains that we use ‘used to’ to express apart habit.
Teacher warns the students against using it to express a present habit or practice.
3)
generalization:
The teacher
helps the students to frame the rule from all the examples. Rule: used to occur
only in the past tense. It expresses a state or habit in the past as contrasted
with the present
e.g.: I used to play tennis these day I play
cricket.
4). Application and practice:
The teacher
asks the /students to learn the examples first and then the rule. He elicits some
more examples from them.
Exercise:
Fill in the
blanks using used to / present simple verb where necessary.
1)
My
grant mother ______ tell us stories. Now she is too old to do that.
2)
My
brother walks any distance. Now he _____
a sector.
Critical evaluation:
? This method make the pupils think and
take active part in language learning
? Teaching and learning are made
interesting through activities.
? Children learn grammar incidentally
as it involves a lot of practice and active participation.
Testing grammar and usage:
§ According to Pauline h. Kea: it has
been long accepted that the students ability to recognize or produce correct
from is more important then his/her knowledge of grammatical terminology
§ We can use both the discrete and
integrated items to assess our learner’s grammatical competence.
The types of tests items to access
the discrete grammar are
? Multiple choice items
? Completion items
? Word order items
? Transformation items
? Matching items
? Error identification items
Such
discrete test items focus on the learners attention on a particular aspect of the
grammar.
Integrated items:
This
integrated test items in the hand, provide a situation/ context in which
different grammatical aspects are tested at one time.
E.
g: complete the passage with suitable
word in each space.
Paragraph
writing etc
Construction of test items:
Construction test items based on
a. A list of specification of grammar
skill showing the aspects of the skill and the specific language elements to be
tested.
b. A rough in inventory of the areas of
grammar to be tested.
c. Recognition of structure which
includes recognition of grammatical forms.
d. Production of structure which
includes production grammatical forms.
e. Correction a grammatical errors.
The steps involved in constructing
test item:
Þ
Decide
on an area in grammar
Þ
Determined
a specific aspect or element of grammar you want to test.
Þ
Select
a problem, a likely error of pupils in that are.
Þ
Illustration
of test – items:
Few examples:
i)
recognition
of grammatical forms
a) Tag question
None of
the boys have arrived yet ……..?
a) Have they? b) Haven’t they?
b) Aren’t they? c) Did they?
b) Adjective
form;
The more he works ___he earns
a) More b)
a lot c) plenty d) the more
c) Adverb form
They
were singing __they could?
a)
as well than b) as better than c) as best
d)
as well as
ii) Recognition
of structural word
Preposition
Were
they conscious ___the difficulties?
a)
About b) with c) at d) of
Conjunction:
I
have read the book ten times ___
I
bought it a year ago
a)
Until b) while c) since d) when Auxiliary
I telephoned her this morning but
there was noon reply. Her __left office
a)
Should have b) will have c) must have d)
could have
iii) Pronunciation
of grammat5ical formal structural words:
Please
direct me to ____ (near) post office
She
often ___ (lose) her book
iv)
Recognition
/ production of word order item type:
a. _____ bottles were hanging on the
wall
i.
Adjective
a. torn b) broken c) large d) green
b. order of adverbials
i.
children
a) To school b) go c)
daily d. by bus
c. sentences:
No
___ the door then it opened.
a)
Had b) sooner c) the postman d) knocked.
v) Recognition
of error:
Choose that
apart which contains the mistakes and put its letter in the given bracers.
e.
g: here is / just the hurts / for which
/
I
have been looking for
2.
This is / so heavy box/that/I can’t carry it
iv) Error
correction:
Sentence
– each containing an error. That must be corrected.
Correct the following sentence
\ He
avoids to meet his old friends
2.
Nave
I have tested such a delicious fruit
3.
He
writes very mush like I do
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