Francisco Manzaneda Oneto in memoriam E. A. Adams-A. Bueno Gonzalez-G. Tejada Molina poet the grove Soe eet no taal rosso cernete Ela UNtversipab DE JAENLITTLE RED RIDING GRAMMAR WENT TO SCHOOL or MIXING CODES, SKILLS AND NOTIONS IN DISCOURSE Gabriel Tejada Molina Universidad de Jaén Resumen El presente articulo intenta poner de manifiesto la necesidad de ampliar el dngulo de mira y de armonizar diversos puntos de vista sobre los que fundamentar tedricamente la ensenanza de idiomas. El logro de la competencia gramatical ha ejercido una influencia tan fuerte en la ensefianza de idiomas que el resto del proceso de aprendizaje -tras el estudio de la morfologta, la sintaxis, el léxico y la fonética- se ha dado por supuesto. Desde una posicién descriptiva del lenguaje, también han de incluirse los aspectos textuales de la materia en estudio. Todos estos fac- tores verbales, a su vez, han de combinarse con las destrezas de aprendi- zaje y recursos expresivos de los que el alumno pueda hacer uso. Ha lle- gado el momento de la sintesis, de forma que el aprendizaje sea el resul- tado de la integracion, la creatividad y la cooperacién. Se aporta un ejem- plo derivado de la teoria. Abstract This article attempts to show the need to enlarge the scope and to harmonize viewpoints on which the teaching of foreign languages can be theoretically founded. Achieving grammar competence has exerted such a strong influence on L2 teaching that the rest of the whole learning process -after studying morphology, syntax, lexis and phonetics- is taken for granted. On the linguistic descriptive side, textual dimensions of the subject matter must also be included. All these verbal factors are to be combined with the learning skills and expressive resources the pupil can make use of: Time for synthesis has come so that learning is the result of integration, creativity and cooperation. A sample of how theory can be applied is given. The Grove 1997, N24i ai Pag, 224 Gabriel Tejada Molina Que tenemos que hablar de muchas cosas, compaiero del alma, compatiero. (M. Hernandez) Rationale: Sentence and text from a cognitive perspective The applied attempts to convert linguistic theoretical-descriptive models into notions to be taught have led us to the conclusion that language is a substantial being for its own sake. Thus learners were supposed to handle and grasp language contents as any other concrete object. It must be asserted that words and structures, as such linguistic elements, are just abstractions, and therefore they represent pure concepts. Language is mainly communication. Thus, in dealing with formal entities, the meaning and function that signifiers display are to be always taken into account. Sometimes a risk is taken when considering linguistic units and relations as well as material labels and strings connecting these isolated units. The reference to linguistic frozen elements made by formal linguists is not useful at all for applied linguists or language teachers. The psychological dimension of the learning process must be present as well. There is a long and tedious path from the starting point of the presentation of linguistic contents to the ending position in which learners become users and genuine communicators. Before contents of the curricular design can be employed in a teaching situation, let us include those factors related to perception, memorization, automation and cognition. In the teaching of English, or any other foreign language, the conversational discourse, as a textual framework of reference where oral language develops, must also be treated from the psycho-linguistic point of view. Thus verbal devices are to be considered mainly from the tex- tual structure within which they are embedded. Their facet, as the result of both a complex cognitive process and a high level of automation -internalization or acquisition-, when performing them in order to become effective tools of interaction, must also be pinpointed.