TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR DIRECTOR oxaelvon-CONTENTS- Acknowledgments 1 Issues Chapter One Background -1 Chapter Two Getting Ready to Teach Grammar 16 Techniques (Chapter These» Listening and Responding - 39 Chapter Fou : Telling Stories 51 (Chapter Five» Dramatie Activities and Roleplay 61 Resources (Chapter Six» Pletures 73, (Chapter Seven » Realia and the Classroom 87 (Chapter Fight - Graphies -99 ‘Techniques and Resources Integrated Chapter Nine Songs and Verse -116 (Chapter Ten- Gamesand Problem-solving Activites: 132 (Chapter Eleven Textsbased Exercises and Activities“ M9 Conclusion: 170 [Bibliography - 176, Structure sid Word nex - 186 -CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND ofthe many issues surrounding he teaching of grammar, perhaps the ost controversial is wher to tec ita all, From an historical perspective, this controversy should comes somewhat ofa surprise {aching grammar bas been central to and often synonymous with teaching foreign language forthe past 2,300 years (Rutherford 1987) “This tation notwithstanding, in che pst several years many ESL professionals have come to assume tha second anguage (L-2) learn nis very much ike first-language (Ll) acquisition, Ther argument isthat providing “comprehensible input” (anguage addressed tthe learner that he or she can understand) i eli all hat a foreiga oF second-language teacher ca or should do ro fciitate acquisition “According to Richards (1985:43), the basic assumption of such an approach i that" ‘communicative’ classrooms provide a Better en ‘vionent for econdlangyage acquisition thanclasreoms dominates by formal instruction.” isnot at ll surprising that approche ke these have et with such enthusiasm they are intuitively very appeal fing, Ver Richards worns that ll too often teznigues and approaches aren't based on acta evidence But rather are promoted and justified cough reference to ntultivety sppedng assertions and theories, eich when repeated those logma. (p43) in postions of authority assume the stauso sds goes on to point out that no actual empiri studies have ‘been condctd that prove tha “communicative” classrooms produce ete anguage learners than the more tational eacher tmunjeatesfuenly bur ungeammatcally, though he often has large ocabulary. Apparenly, the “terminal 22+," Git the tadent who ets suck at that level) is prevalent phenomenon, Even highly ‘otivted and educated individuals aspiting to international carers in government or management that require proficiency in a foreign Tanguage sometimes fll nc this category. Higs and Ciford pro vide a profile ofthe “terminal 222+” is ptr fig oul and oe ganas asc amar wees atop ou intros gga parca wiht cleat wens ner om Ste ond nares pater. Ex kts end ap hoe pe Serta eves nner unaneasing OED Slaten ving expec Hee the dev Crm 22 The nt oge at meres of ee ues area tee 2 kee hour et Ped sah emuncon Gt rasa eer ee a interne ht inguin ote sho" SISSIES ont ines nich hey Bd aed shown etn Meter ofthe gp ave aie eye sr ork secu fst regan, howe ray ho the prose promos (p67 70)Inadiion othe work by Higgsand Clifford there have been ‘numerous studies which suggest that comprehensible inp isnot enough to achieve high proficieney. Michal Long has pointed out ‘atthe data om these studies suggest cha he prognosis he long ‘unis much beter for those wih vet formal isracio han fr thos with none. thous these studies ae igh suggestive anderen por susie, they ate certainty fr fom conclsiv. Indeed, afr ay we know, there is insufficient dire evidence on ether side to state «stepoialy the effects frm instruction on secon anguage eur ing The jury ssi out, bur the question is being vigorously pursued ‘by Longand his colleagues atthe Univesity of Hawa wells others Itisimporanto net that, tocar knowledge, there are noses that provide evidence that overt grammar instructions extatal. The borden of proof rests on chose who maintain that eramiar instr, omisirelevane to language aquisition and 0 fr no empirical support hasbeen provided to suppor shat cain, Although comprehensible ‘pat may be necessary itis by no means clear tat itis suficiet for mastery ofa second language ‘Letusnow turntoa very practcaangumentin favor oftesching stam, namely that many ESL/EFL students ate requted to past standardized national or international exam in order to proceed with their plans. These exams can determine their aceptance toa univer, sityor ast thir profesonalorvocstinal advancement. Thee exam ‘ay even decide which professions ate open to them, In other words, ‘wone degree or another their frures can be determined by ther per. formance on an exam, Typically, a major component of such cena 's grammar, Therefore to give these students ah incomplete ground ‘ng in grammar, egurdless of one’s conviction sbout tething ib Yo do them a great disservice. Students have to know and apply the ‘ules of English grammar in order to do well on such teste? LEARNER VARIABLES Although we are reluctant to abandon grammar teaching without | Haste ent UCLA on Betray 141988 Fre ned ening wel a ee oD gue tees sehen gamma contest Made 165, further evidence, we hesitate 10 recomend & single approach or metho as students have diferent earning tategies or tyes, Stes in educational psychology suggest tha people learning snything— including second or foreign languagesuse at least two distinct sustesies: analytial and holistic.’ Analytical learners form snd test hypotheses: consciously or unconsciously, they extract paradigms and rules from examples. lls leaner, onthe other hand, learn best by doing itl or no analysis. Instead, they lara by exposure to large chunks of language in meaningfl contests. In second-language acquision, these two types of learners might be designated a "rule learners” and “data gatherers (Hath, eal 1985: 44) To complicate ‘matters farther, leaning strategies are flected by age and task ype (Chien seem to prefera holistic approachoverananalytial one, and crenthose adults who ase generally more comforable with analytical style often approach a completely new learning sitsaton olisially and later switch toan analytical syle. Additional infrmation cegad Ing earner differences has been ported by Hartaet (1985), and her ‘ndings suggest ha deductive learning more efetive Fr stadents ‘with lef-hemispherie dominance (perhaps what we call analytical learners) and that inductive leringiss effective or more fective fr ‘hose with right hemispheric dominance (posbly what we ll bolisi learners). seems, then, that iF ESI. teachers adopt a methodology ‘hich Favor either a holst ran analytical approach, or farsi Aluctve reasoning over deductive reasoning, the odds aretha they wil not be equally effective with al oftheir students. In other words, it 's probably thecase chat students do bestinclasesin which the teacher ‘aries the approach in ordst to accommodte al lesening styles. ‘Wealso ow that somelearners prefer vsvally-orented gra: ‘marinsroction (6g contextualized example, sentences onthe bead or in a textbook) while others respond beter vo auditory input (685 listening tothe same sentences beng spoken, pethaps several times) Any approach thtis ether primal visual, suchas grammar tans +i, or primarily auditory, such asthe audiolingual method, works against the natural learning preference ofsome tudes. Toprevent this lackofuilfeentition, we favor anapprosch teaching grammar * See Cronies nd Seow (1877, Wn, a (197g ether‘ Chap One wich encourages learners to use ther eyes, ther ears, an as many ofthe other senses as posible nother consideration sage Lenneberg (1967) anothers after bhi have found evidence pointing toa “critical period” fr language scquistion. Although the erscal period hypothesis has undergone various modifications and revisions i essentially posit period dur ing which childs biologically predisposed o language acquisition, ‘During this perio, the child learns whatever language(s) isexposed ‘o “automatically,” without instruction oF corection, provided the ‘environment is linguistically rich enough.* Such a hypathesis could certainly account forthe differences ESL teachers routinely observe ‘beeen their adult learners and the learners’ children. Regardless of ‘he age limits set to define the critical period and there is conover sy over the precise limits—most researchers seem to agree that overt, insertion inthe L-1 during this period is of no vale to the child and may even tend toslow the process of acquisition Aitchison 1985) ‘This ight also apply to children leering an 1-2 daring the evita period, Thus, attempting to reach language—incuding grammar— ‘may be not only futile but even detrimental in the long run, The issue of chiliren aside, nt everyone ca lara grammar nor for that mater does everyone need to, For many of ou leerers, pidgnized communicative inerlanguages completly sulficient for their social and vocational needs. fn such cases, lexical approach as, suggested by Sehumann (1987) or a grammaress communicative syllabus may be the most ecient, Ie ea good idea, however, 0 formstudens ofthe suspected effets ofsuch a curriculum or approach, ‘As Higgs and Clifford point out While the mos effciene way rschieve survival evel proficiency ‘would be course that stressed vocabulary, our experience in- lictes shat such a course would work tothe disadvantage of ‘eadents who wished to develop higher levels of proficiency ‘Students entering uch a program would have tobe watned of its potentially negative effect on thei long-range aspirations 73) * ster Gltenn (586 yeh Lad a le 989 Efe (90) sae me oe caper One a Unfortunately, many learners arrive in classrooms having already achieve a fosilized pidgin, and frankly, the prognosis fr their a taining nativeske proficiency isnot good, regardless ofthe amount of grammar instruction received, Sillthers, because of prior educa ‘on, cognitive development, or age, are simply not able to master &| forcien language gamma, For these students, grammar instruction say not be as important as itis for others. Its intersting ro nose, however, that many ofthese students demand grammar intrtion| ‘bosuse i flfillsa cultural expectation oF what constitutes language class, Furthermose,tmay be necessary for people who require native like or neat nstiveske proficiency (those learning English for professional or academic purposes, especialy inthe humanities, ‘hose seeking assimilation into the target soir) As Higgs end Ciford point os, Survival and socal integration bear litle resemblance to ach other” (p61) 12 studens’s goal isthe later, grammar is Import, i ot absolutely erent Finally, it should he noted chat learners willever truly attend ‘ofan ules they want to and are able, They il earn Best once thoy have achieved basic comprehension and can accept feedback on ‘the form oftheir production in meaningful discourse either spoken orvriten, Inother words, feback o form becomes more important alc the student has acquired minimal competence ral can absorb this feedback. TEACHER PREPARATION As we have noted the questions of when and how to teach grammar depend on many variables. Student’ needs change over the course of several wecks and a teacher should be sensitive ro these changes, Regardless of « teacher's methodological preferences, 2 knowledge of grammar is escntial to che ESL/EFL teaching prove sional, Such knowledge helps in carrying out several important and Fundamental esponsibiliies: ‘integrating form, meaning, and content in syllabus design «selecting nd prepating materials and classroom activites + identifjing and analyzing which student ceors to concentrate on+ scloctng and sequencing the sven time ‘+ preparing appropriate exercises and atvities for rule presentation matical forms to emphasize at any ‘+ answering studers" questions about grammar GRAMMAR AND OTHER LANGUAGE FACTORS {grammar instruction is deemed appropriate foraclass, the eucher’s ‘next step ist integrate grammar principle ito a communicative ‘amework, ince the fundamental purpose oflanguageiseommunice: ton.” Unfortunately, grammars often taught in isle, unconnected seatences that give a fragmented, unrealistic picture of English and ‘make itficul fr studentsto apply wht they have learned inact situations, Realistic and effecve contextualizaton of an isolated -rammar points notalwayseasy, baton the next few pages we would like to offer some suggestions we have found helpful First ofall, cere is a srong tendency foe grammar or sruc- ‘ural poins to occur with one of tree other aspects of language” «social fctors| # discourse Fictors ‘To help ilusrate this tendency, let's consider each of these factors in detail Social Factors “Social ctor refer to the social oles ofimeocutors, their elation ship to each other, and the purpose of the communication. Com. ‘runicatve Functions such as requesting, inviting refising,agresing, ‘ordisagrecing areal very sensitive tosocial factorssuchas politeness, icctness, etc. For example in refusing ques, the words and gram. ‘atical structures used depend on two fase variables: how wel the ndviduns know each other and heir soil roles dit oneenarher “The tose me waged by Ds Lan freeman ‘The following ae diferent ways of refusing a dinner intton, but not al are equally appropriate forall stations 4. Aun, La’. P've gots work, 1. Ob, Pm sorry; Pa love to, but I won't beable to. Thave to wor «, How ice of youtossl Pd reallybe delighted but maftid have so work tha night ‘The complexity of modal (¢ cam) and peiphrasic modals (eg. feweta, tablet) iesin port in her socianteratona characer: their use i secally constrained. Many ESLIEFL student ind rhem alificult because they ane requerty taught roma somewhat anf semantic pspestive ether than a soca interactive one For example, teachers somtimes provide isolated semantic equivalens such as, "Siould means an obligation or suggestion.” The students are then perplesedat the eacons they provoke in their teacher whea they ges ‘that he shoul goon diet or mihi behavior i some way. The use oF a strutute is constrained socially, situational factors, matters of personal choice, social fanctions, eitrdllerenoes, and hes socio linguistic variables come into play. As studentshecome aware of these ‘constants the lear that many suggestions are often inappropriate and even offensive in English Semantic Factors “These involve meaning, Grammatical structaesthat are most ravaly taught fom a sementc perspective include expressions oftime, space, degre, quantity and probaly. Fr example, the difference beween the quetifirsfwanda ein the followingrvo sentences is primarily Join has afew good ides, ', John has few good ideas. Ina) he exposes postive, while in (bts nepaiv. The choice of form snot governed by whom one is addressing, but ater by ‘what one wants to say. Thus, the diferene between few and afew ‘snot lluminated by socia-interactional factors because the eifeence betcen(e)and (doesnot rest on social ictrs bu depends crucially ‘on meaning. Therefore, expressions of loeation, ime, space dare, ‘quantity, probability, ete, canbe taught mos efecively witha fcus7 Chper One ‘on morphological, lexis and symtcic contrasts that signadifrence in meaning Discourse Factors (Our third category includes notions such as topic contimty, word ovde, andthe sequencing af new and ol inforhation. These iors affect the Forms that propositions ake inthe context af a discourse, Forexampl, indirect object movement inthe fllowing wo sentences is discourse governed fe, the deisiontouse one sentence theese depends on discourse factors). In English, we ten opt most im portant element or the one on which we are focusing at theend ofthe Sentence, Hence the difeence berwecn a) and (bs one of focus 2. He gave the lowers to Mary (Not to Janet, not co Carol. This might be in response to ‘he question, “Who did he give the Rowers to?) i, He gave Mary the flowers, (Not he candy, noe the Book. This mighs bein response to he question, “What did he give Mary2”) Another example i the use of logical connectors sch a cen ‘ough although, os unless. Our experience sn tht of many of out colleagues suggests that defining these words semantically is ss than satisfying and often lads toa great del of eustetion and confusion for both students and teacher, On the other hand, giving students Portion of discourse which llastats how these logical connectors func tion in cones or what they signal in discourse seemstoworkrematily well In ther words, a definition of although may not be as help 1 several semtences in which although is used such as: 4 Although John dida' study, he passed the test. Although Maria doesn: have much money, se is rich in spi (Our final category, then, consists of words and elements of language hich are more effectively defined or explained witheferenceto thie Fanconi discourse than a thei soceinsti Allofthese ctor (i. social, semantic scours) interact with ach others as wells with the structure of the language. Cat there ae instances in which they overlap. They are not so mach discrete . 56) Frank lists the situations in which the passive voice would b= chon over the active voices including 1 when attention sbeing drawn rothe“receiver” rather thir The" doer” of the ation 5 My dag was hit By aca and2, when the*‘oer” ofthe action ie unimportant or notknow, Another point rank makes is that gro comecan be used instead of boas a posive of ransition (Ther ating smartedtomorre, Inanoher source, Leechand Sari (1975 describe che passive “the typeof verb phrase which contsins the constrction e+ past, paticipe: say Bled, as seen, ete (p. 257), The authors go beyond Frank in saying that ot ll verbs taking objects have a passive, such shave in ave a Fat (bur not A Fat shad by me) and hold Tis Zing hoa rs pint out ot Te pine eld 2 sis jug). Leech and ‘Svarrviksay the agent inthe by phrases tained only inspecifccass; in fit, about fou out of fve English passive clauses do aot have an agent. Despitethis information, the authors do aotenumeatethe cases in which the agents requized. They do deal with the ger passive, bur characterize it a8 belonging to “informal style and in constructions ‘without an agent (p. 259). However, the flowing examples come tomind in response totheirclaim that theo passive doesn't normally take an agents Tom gor hr By a ek, and Maurice gets sung bya ee sry single sommer. In American English it seoms, got passives can retain the agent Azar inher grammar book( 1981} estionsthatonly ansive ‘vetbsate used inthe passive andthat usally the phrase isomites, since the agent is generally understood. She also says thatthe pasive ranges overalltensesand she gives the form for the preset pas fare, progressive perfect, and simple tens Additonal aspects ofthe passive ae given by Celce-Museia and Layses-Freeman (1983); they disagree with Frank's claim that the passive isthe same action asthe aetve refered to indirectly. As roof, ‘hey itethe famous example fom Chomsky (1963) which shows that, active and passive pars are ot necessarily synonymous: Eeerjome the rom speaks es language i. any to languages per person) and Tee languages are spon By everyone in the room (two specific anquage that everybody speaks), To this we would add an example iveotousby Ed Keenan: Beery oii hed a baby. differen politicians kissed different babies)and. baby zaskised by every poi cian ie, every politician Kissed one, specific baby) CCoee-Murcia and Lareen-Freeman als counter Azats claim hatonly ransiive verbs take a passive with examples thar show there ae some passives which do not have active tansitive counterpars ‘Moh eas orm in Tehran out not Someone Bore Mehdi in Teheran) and Ie is removed that he lg he jo (Oat aot Somaone raved tha he wl he ot), Ths, they conclude that whether aver is com: patible with the astve voice, the passive voice, or both isa property ofthe ver, Another aspect noted by Czlee Murcia and Larsen Freeman isthat most passives donot ave an agent. They cite a usage sud conducted by Shintai which suggests that since 85 percent ofall passives will no retain an agent, we should teach ou students when tnd why toretainanagent ina pessive, rater than teach when toomit fan agent? Shintni’s study (1979) includes ait of those situations in which a Byphrase is retin: 1. when the agent isa proper name designating an artsy ne ‘ventor,dicovere, innovator, ct, who is too important 10 omit inthe context (eg. The Mona Lisa ras pane by da Vinci) 2, when theagentisan indefinite noun phrase (Le. new infor mation) ands retained to provide helistener or reader with the new information (ue While Flas waking don the Sar, he parse sas enatcbed by a young ma) 3, when the agen san inanimate nous phase whichis stained because itis unexpected... (we usualy expect an agent to beanimatese. ifthe lightsand appliances inzhe Aberton ouacholdarertcheon andoff daily yan electrical device) Celee Musca and Larsen-Freeman also mention diferent Kinds of| psives, In ition tothe ge passives already mentioned, they i reduce acomplexpasive with hase: Aloha er pure atch chile shopping doentun. They explain the ferences in meaning among ‘simple passives the ger passive, and the comple psive with avr 1 Paticipes Fonction more ike aswell ax tative pssvesin which predicate adjectives than passive verbs Finally, Cslee- Murcia and Larsea-Freean tak sbout the i cmstaries under which the passive is used. Besies the two situssions provided by Frank, chese include: 1. when the agent obvious and, therefore nocexpresed(©, Giapes ae groom inthe Napa Valley) 2, when the writer wansrosound objective. It iransmal! aod hae hi sas among he most significant plc decisions of the decade.) 5. when the writer wishesto retain the sme grammatical sb ject in suocesive clauses (e.g Rene Arredondo eat Lomi ‘Sinith but he wa Beaten by Gato Gavia.) 4 when the themes shared information, but theagent is new (ee, Whara beautiful pice! fn i? leas pained byone of my aden.) eying looked at jst wo grammat references, one ESL. text, and one TESL training est, we already see problems. Al ofthe texts provide interesting and helpful information. However, none is 100 percent compete, Therefore irs necessary consult more than one text wten preparing to teach grammar point for the ist time, Since not all oF he sources wil agre, and not all wil agree with what we ‘ave eared through our own experiences, question which ars during preparation need tobe resolved to some dec before the lesson is presente since some right nd aniculte student wll probably notice fdlsctepancy and ask about, With this inoreation in ming, let us| row plan ous sttegy for teaching the passive, The first step i to deve which language factor cccurs most atually wi he passive, This structure doesnot seem prtcuarly sensitive to soci linguistic actors; whether one uses passive or active does not vary according to whom ones raking to (FTaold was struck ly Fghoing wold not necessarily change to Lighting rack Harold asa rest of whom one was addressing) Likewise, the semantic con tent of many (but cetnly not sll) acivelpasive pairs ssa, so approaching the passive voie from asemanic perspective would not every helpfl By the proces of elimination then, we conclude that the most natural mah seems tobe structure with discourse. With some experience iniatching, the proces becomes muchlessarbitay, snd it wll be easier tose which language factor most naturally com plement «particular structure. Nov that we have decided that che pssive voice isdscoursesensitive, we will have o provide ulicent iscoursecontetto give realistic picture af the structure. The ech- ‘igues whieh chi combination suggests include storytelling singing, find problem solving. Our resources wil be linguistic objects or texts uch as stories, songs, dialogs, and verse, combined with appropriate ‘The second step is to delimit the information so that wha we each matches the ability of our stents. nour hypothetical program, this is the Firs time the class wil be earning the passive voce 50 We tll no include all of the variations, such a et passives, complex sive with have and stative passives this ime. stead we will ‘onfiae our instruction to the simple Be passive. Depending on the Seas lve, we may also limit our focus to one or To tenses THE GRAMMAR LESSON “Thesecond step ostageisthe grammar lesson, which consists of four pans }, Presentation, in which we introduce the grammar structure, cithes indocively or deductively. There ae avarey of technigues and ‘sources shat an be used dutingthis sep. Selection shoud be made fsccoring to teacher strengths, student preferences, and he nature ofthe structure(eg, Whatis the sructreanguagefctor match?) 2, Focused practice, in which the leamer manipulates the struc ture in qvestion while all other variables are held constant, The purpose of thi stp is to allow the learner ro gain contol ofthe form without the added pressure and distraction of tying to use the form for communication. The teacher should not proceed fo the nent phase until most students have mastered at feast he form ofthe structure 5, Communicative practice, in whicithe learner engegesincom- munictve activities 10 practice the stractue being eared [According to Morrow and Jobson (1981), 2 communicative as Jncorpoate the actual processes of communication; the more of these Features an exerise incorporates, the more communicative 1 Injormation gap. Inthe course of doing the activity, one partic pat soul be in a position to tell one or more ater peopleSomething that che others do not yer know * Gio. Thespeaker mus have some lein devidingexacely what he will say and how he wil say it. (Options can be presented in advance by the eacher.) This also means that there should be some uncertainty inthe mind ofthe scenes) about what the speaker willy nex + Feitack. What the speaker says tothe person(s) he is com- ‘unicting with depends noc only on what the other person(s) says, but also on what the speaker wants ro accomplish vi the conversation (pp. 6263), 4. Teacher feedback and correetion. Although this is usually con sidered a fina step, i must take place throughout the lesson. We iso feel tha a eacherscoretion tatgy should probably change according‘ the pas ofthe leson. For example during the second art ofthe lesson, correction should be predominantly straight ‘orward and immediate. Duting the third port, however, con ‘munication should not be interrupted. Instead, the teacher should take note of errors and deal with them afer the communicative exercises. These sone element of correction, however that we el should remain constant; regardless of when corection is made, teacher feedback should always attempt to engage the student cognitively rather than to simply point out the error and provide the appropriate target frm. In any case the match in language fac tors, technique, and resources willbe used in each prt of theleson, Foradkitional discussion ofeach phase, se Chapes Ten which inchdesa remedial mingrammar lesson Thedlfeences between the sbbrevated version ofa grammar lesion described there anda regula lesson ar the length of each phase, the variety in the presentation, nd the remedial narure of the minigrammar lesson, The inilesson ‘assumes that the sueture hasbeen taughe, but for some reason hak ‘essed to bean etive par of the repertoire ofa least some ofthe students. A regular grammar son smh moze substantial and gener ally presens a grammar concep fr the first time. cause review is essential in our program (ike many adult ‘schools, ou imaginary school has policy afopenentllment, sth students may ener our classat anytime during the semester we wil ‘each the pasive voice after reviewing the major tenses and aspects [Ase cycle through each tene to review over the next few wes, sve will include the passive voice for hat particular tense and aspect. nother words, we wl introduce rhe passive’ present and pas tense row, but wien we review the preset perfect some weeks hence, We wil inroduce te pasive voice of the present perfect. In this Way. ‘we wil be ableto cover the passive voice with various verb enses and aspecrsonce the basic concept hs been understood and mastered and ‘we will not have to give students so much initial dats that they lose sight ofthe general pctore Since we have established that he active ad passive versions ofa sentence are not aways as closely ted as we had fist imagined, ‘we il nt teach pasive sentences by simply ransforming atv oes. ‘We wil each the pusive in ie own right, not asa structure derived fiomanactivesentene, We ill tart by teaching the passive with the agent fy-phrase because nang the agen: trough a y-phrase is ‘umusual—not commonplase—in the passive voice. Only Iter will we teach the exceptions that allow students ores the agent Finally for this lesson we should Keep in mind thar not all passives have an activ, transitive counterpart, and we wil therefore sa property ofthe verb Le. some verbs can teach “passsizto ‘be used in pasive sentences and some cannot; whother a given verb an or nots ota fnction of transitivity, but raher a property of the vt although ofcourse, tere isa strong corelaion between verbs hat are transitive and verbs that passiviz), ‘Now that we have made the basic preliminary decisions, we wll describe an actual lesson we observed in an adit school in terms of| thestepsoutlned above, We iste the class oFan experienced teacher ‘who had excellent rapport with her class, whick consisted of ifiy-one students, predominantly from Latin America about evenly divides tetween ale and female, The teacher was comfortable with the number ofstuents, ay well as withthe subject mater and he techniques use. ‘The techniques were appropriate forthe structure she was teaching and worked well fr her, bu they are not accesssrily appropiate for fveryone, Is important for each of us to explore and develop tech: nigues which are compacble with ou personalities and philosophies. ‘Recall ha weave suggested sha any grammar lesson hos fur pars (0) presentation, 2) structured, focused practice, (3) communicativepractic, an (4) feedbac’and correction, We wllbegin by describing the observed secher's presentation Presentation “The teacher's first objective was to focus students" attention on the seructue in a natural context forthe passive. Her second aim inthe resentation phase was to elicit the rule for forming the passive fom ‘the stadens eather tha simply telling them the rule. ler rechsique ‘wasa roleplaystoryelling combination. She began by selecting ast dent From the lass and having er come othe ren ofthe coor with hor pare, She whispered tothe stent brie, expining what was sping to happen so that che student would not be sarod ot ups. ‘She then seleced another student play se rleofa thier: Shedireted ‘the second student to run bythe first student, rab er purse and ran tothe bsck ofthe rom, The teacher assured ws that most students lovea roleplay, and that she had never seen smden'stake this one serous Ivor become upetoragitaed by it, We would auton, however, that ifyou think the students you re working wth would not respond well to this situation, you might want to selet another context in which ‘the focus will stray eon the ne who receives ather than the one who performs the action suchasbing invited othe moves by afimous person “The teacher ft that by the time students reach an intermediate lov they shouldbe proficient at both hamming it upand participating san audience, Her narration ofthe scene for the class follows: “You know lst niht Lisa as walking home rom he ends ‘house when suddenly something terrible happened. this point, the second student wes cued tora by and sta the pase “Her purse was stolen! Oh my goodness! ‘That was tribe! Laisa, what happened?” The teacher then alloted Luisa to enjoy her sole by giving the cass 1s much deti about the incidents she wanted, andinvolved he other stusents as much s they wanted. As oon as everything seed down, ‘he teacher helped Liisa to fe sat and si "You poor thing! That'stoo bad! Here, le me help you'o your ‘Then the teacher sid 0 the clase ‘Wasa’ sha awfil? Luise going ocallthe police righaway, and what is se going to tll them?” “Then the teacher exited answers fom the class and wroteon bard ‘My presale. She then shifted the class's attention tothe student at the back of he oom withthe purse who fad been forgoten in al the excitement Her naraton continued ‘Vel, here's the thief, Carmen, Let's see what happened r0 ther, She was chase all over the city by the police." ‘The teacher actedas both narrator and police fice, chasing Carmen around she room and giving commenzary on the action inthe pasive oie. Afer everyone had enjoyed the action, the teacher shouted, “al!” and then coatnued: “Finally Carmen wis caught. She wa fishedand thensbe wes hand ufed, and finally ae was taken to jal, And what ap pened to Laisa’s purse I was given back to her.” “The teacher returned Luisa’ purse, thanked the students for par scietng, andaskedeveryoneto be seated, Reutning othe chalkboard, she si “Now, what happened to Carmen? She wrote eacistatentent on the board air eliciting it fom suden [Notallo! the suggestions were grammatically correc, but when stents ‘oul’ provide the form exactly, the acer accepted appropriate “Conte an put the grammatically correct formon the board in oer ro give fendback ‘She was chased, she wos caught [Aral the forms were written onthe board the teacher proceeded 1 allows “Now this is sor of interesting. We havea new grammatical form here. Does anyone know what this scales ‘No student could provide the name of the form, so she sid “This is called the pasive voice. “Then explained why the context demanded use ofthe pasive Heroxplaation was more lke adialg ith he tudentsthanaestre, In went something like this “What important Ls “The stadents responded, “Ter purse