Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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CHAPTER I: Theoretical aspects of teaching grammar
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This definition is quite close to the common understanding of what grammar is.
The main difference is that it tells us how the rules of language actually work – they
arrange and shape words. Nevertheless, knowing what these rules do is not a very
motivating factor alone. Some additional information is provided in Thornbury’s
(2004) definition:
Grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a
language. Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with
analysis at the level of the sentence. Thus a grammar is a description of the rules
that govern how a language’s sentences are formed. (Thornbury, 2004:1)
Now we know that the rules of grammar are explicit. It does not only explain
how the utterances are formed, but also provides a tool to generate some possible
structures that have never been used before, which might be useful for people who
prefer to use the language in a creative way. However, since that might persuade only
the more ambitious learners, we may also refer to Komorowska (1980), who highlights
another aspect of grammar:
Commonly, the term grammar is used not only to describe a more or less
complete portrayal of a language system or, to put it differently, more or less
precise set of rules for creating sentences of a given language. It is also used to
establish a required level of correctness of the created sentences1.
(Komorowska, 1980:15)
1
Translated from Polish by the author of the thesis. All the following translations were also made by the
author of the thesis.
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At its heart, then, grammar consists of two fundamental ingredients – syntax and
morphology – and together they help us to identify grammatical forms which
serve to enhance and sharpen the expression of meaning. (Batstone, 1994:4)
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1.2. Attitudes towards teaching grammar
Teachers of English as a foreign language know the importance of grammar and
the level of its intertwinement with both the receptive and productive language skills.
Unfortunately, as it was said in the previous section, in the course of their work, they
are often faced with the questions of students, who try to undermine the necessity of
learning the rules of language use. In their perception, language consists of words and
things such as conditionals or passive voice are just annoying obstacles that teacher puts
in their way during the lessons. And even if they perceive the indispensability of
grammar, they often express their annoyance at the fact that in most cases there are
exceptions to the rules that they are provided with.
Interestingly enough, there were and there still are scholars who would agree
with the above view on grammar. Even the communicative approach, so popular
nowadays, has its more radical face that gives very little attention to grammar. What is
more, such attitude is not that modern. Actually, one of the oldest teaching methods, the
Direct Method, does not include any drills or other grammatical exercises. On the other
hand, another traditional method, the Grammar-Translation Method, would probably
become a source of nightmares for a learner that prefers to concentrate on
communication.
This variety of attitudes is not surprising. In the history of language teaching,
and especially in the 20th century, there were many debates on the topic whether and
how grammar should be taught and various ideas that emerged from those discussions
are present in the teaching methods that came into being. In the following subsections
some of those ideas will be presented along with the theories concerning various aspects
of grammar, especially in relation to teaching.
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their treatment of grammar, some placing it in the centre of attention and some
neglecting it quite severely. Those methods are: Direct Method, Grammar-Translation
method, Audiolingual Method and Cognitive Method.
According to Komorowska (2002), Direct Method is based on the authentic
contact between the teacher and the learner. In this method there is no systematic
learning of grammar, no selection and organization of what is being taught and the
errors are rarely corrected. However, Thornbury (2004) claims that there is actually a
syllabus of grammar structures being used in Direct Method, although he admits that no
explicit grammar teaching takes place. Additionally, since L1 is not used in the process,
there is no possibility of making any comparison between L1 and the target language.
We can also say that this method relies on inductive learning, since there are no rules
presented by the teacher and the learner must figure them out of the TL input that he is
subjected to.
Contrary to the Direct Method, Grammar-Translation method, as its name
suggests, puts grammar in the centre of attention. Analysis of the grammatical forms, as
well as comments and explanations referring to them, are just as important as the
knowledge of lexis. On the other hand, the communicative aspect of the language is
severely downplayed, as the exercises are focused mostly on learning the grammar rules
and translating the authentic or simplified written passages.
Thirdly, we have the Audiolingual Method, which relies on forming language
habits in the learner’s mind through mechanical drills and excessive repetition.
Interestingly enough, no grammar explanations are provided, and even though L1 is
noticed, it play only the role of a source of negative transfer – any comparison of target
language with learner’s native language is neglected and learners are actually
discouraged from trying to analyze and compare TL and L1 on their own.
Finally, there is the Cognitive Method, criticizing the idea that language can be
learned through mechanical repetition and proposing the view that language relies on
creativity and the ability to learn languages is inborn, which was an idea stated by
Chomsky in the late 1950s, as mentioned by Thornbury (2004). Therefore the aim of
this method is to supply learner with linguistic competence, enabling him to produce
and understand the unlimited number of correct sentences in the target language by
using a limited number of rules. Learners are expected to grasp those rules out of the
naturally used language and while they do that, errors are allowed and expected and if
any serious problems arise, there are always grammar explanations at disposal.
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Although traditional methods are seldom used in their pure form, they are still
being used, albeit in slightly modified versions, and various techniques basing on them
are used in the nowadays predominant Communicative Language Teaching. In contrast,
unconventional methods, which will be briefly presented in the following subsection,
have not gained a major popularity.
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which Thornbury (2004:22) calls “Shallow-end CLT” and “Deep-end CLT”, with the
former actually retaining grammar as the main component in its syllabus and the latter
“rejecting both grammar-based syllabuses and grammar instruction”. However,
presently there is no doubt that grammar cannot be totally excluded from the teaching
process, since even if the focus is placed on the ability to communicate, some grammar
forms must be learned to achieve a certain level of accuracy – not perfect, but sufficient
to avoid communication breakdowns. Nonetheless, L1 usage in CLT is avoided and the
frequency of grammar explanations is seriously reduced. The overall image of grammar
in CLT is presented by Doman (2005), who makes a following statement:
CLT does not deal with grammar directly. Rather, it disguises grammar rules in
functional labels. In the CLT method, students receive grammar practice
indirectly as they learn how to use everyday language (…). The textbooks of
today leave room for the teacher to decide how much grammatical instruction to
provide or not. (Doman, 2005:25)
It seems, therefore, that CLT has taken a more moderate stance. It focuses on
communication while not neglecting grammar, and at the same time it makes it possible
to hide the actual fact of teaching grammar for those discouraged by it and it also makes
space for introduction of new grammar structures, using as much instruction and
explanation as the teacher decides fitting. Additionally, since new grammar material is
presented along with exercises and context that require its use, it makes it easier to
convince all the grammar-sceptical learners that it this knowledge is necessary for
successful communication.
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TEACHING GRAMMAR TEACHING GRAMMAR TEACHING GRAMMAR
AS PRODUCT AS PROCESS AS SKILL
helps learners to notice and gives learners practice in carefully guides learners to
to structure by focusing on the skills of language use, utilize grammar for their
specified forms and allowing them to own communication
meanings proceduralize their
knowledge
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three stages were introduced quickly one by one and then developed at the same time,
but with the focus gradually being shifted from theory and repetition to communication.
It is most probably because learners simply tend to forget some facts and need to be
reminded about the rules, as well as due to the fact that in classroom situation learners
grasp the rules and proceduralize them at various pace.
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1.3. Formal grammar vs. pedagogical grammar
While in the previous sections the question of grammar concerned every stage of
the lesson, this one will be focused on the distinction that is important mainly in case of
grammar explanations that we provide the learners with, namely – the distinction
between the explicit and precise grammar rules and the rules presented to the learners.
When we compare the rules that the linguists provide us with and those provided
to the learners by their teachers, we can notice some significant differences between
them. The most obvious of them is their explicitness, the simplest manifestation of
which is the size of grammar books for ‘average’ learners in comparison to works such
as Quirk’s “Comprehensive Grammar Of English”, dedicated to advanced learners
interested even in the minute details. Batstone (1994) makes a distinction between
formal grammar and idealized grammar, and compares it to the situation of air travel,
when regularities and patterns can be seen from a very high altitude, then some detail
and irregularity emerges at middle altitude and finally at the ground level everything
can be seen in all detail. In this continuum, the perspective from high altitude
corresponds to idealized grammar, while the ground level is a metaphor of the formal
grammar. According to this idea, pedagogical grammar would be a kind of idealized
grammar, since rules provided by the former must be to some extent simplified,
depending on the learner’s level of proficiency. However, the choice of this extent
might become problematic, which is clearly described by Westney (1994):
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Such cautious attitude towards simplifying rules is supported by Batstone (1994), who
underlines that when we examine particular sentences closer, we may come across
structures that are governed by rules within rules, or that cannot be subjected to any
generalization at all.
On the other hand, he admits that there some rules of grammar may be strict and
not allowing any exceptions, referring to the case of sequence of the modal auxiliaries
in the English verb phrase. He also agrees that idealizing grammar is a necessary step in
language learning. Nevertheless, on the whole he objects to perceiving grammar as a set
of absolute rules. He claims that learners who expect that might find it difficult to
handle exceptions and their persistence in idealizing grammar might lead to common
developmental errors resulting from oversimplification.
In an attempt to help teachers solve the problems considered above, Westney
lists three types of problematic areas that must be taken into account when making
generalizations:
1. Establishing the nature and extent of a generalization: choosing what to include
in the generalization. I.e. we can provide only the generalized rule, or we can
present it together with the descriptive grammar rule and/or examples.
2. Finding an appropriate formulation for a generalization: choosing the
appropriate concepts to present the generalized rule, so that the learners can
understand it clearly.
3. Finding a safe generalization: deciding whether providing a generalization is
actually possible, since, as Westney states: “the evidence available may simply
not support any safe generalization” (Westney, 1994:80)
All things considered, teachers always have the possibility of referring to the
formerly prepared pedagogical grammar rules, which are provided in the coursebooks or
grammar books that they use in their classrooms. They must bear in mind, however, that
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sometimes even those carefully prepared rules might be perceived as either too complex
or too general by the learners. If such situation happens, the teacher must adjust the
extent of generalization in the explanation on his own.
The distinction between formal and pedagogical/idealized grammar is especially
important in the first stage of teaching grammar that is presentation. An important
choice must be made at that point, since it will facilitate or obstruct the following stages
and decide about the success of the whole teaching process. This crucial stage, as well
as those following it, is discussed in the following section.
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1.4. Stages of teaching grammar
Obviously, if the teacher chooses a method that includes more than just marginal
interest in grammar, his task is to find the best way of teaching it to his students, both by
proper structuring of the lesson and the optimal choice of techniques.
Teaching grammar must be organized in a way that makes is possible for the
learners to observe the new rule in the language, understand it and, through increasingly
meaningful practice, achieve the ability to use it freely in their speech. In
Communicative Language Teaching, which, as it was already mentioned, is the most
widespread approach to language teaching, the lessons are usually divided in three
stages. Interestingly enough, there are also three main approaches to how those stages
should be treated.
First possibility is the PPP, meaning Presentation, Practice and Production,
which is probably the most widespread one, possibly because it is “an easy one to use
and adapt” (Thornbury, 2004) and follows the logical order of progression from theory
to practice, as well as simply fulfilling most learners’ expectations in the topic of
language lessons. In the first stage, the new knowledge is presented to the learners using
their existing knowledge, context and meaningful repetition. Second stage concentrates
on familiarizing the learner with the new ideas and attaining the proper accuracy. This
stage moves into the direction of communication, which is in the focus of the third
stage, Production.
ESA, the second method, meaning: Engage, Study and Activate is quite
different. It was proposed by Harmer (2001). Its first stage, even though it might appear
quite similar in practice, has totally different aim, that is, not to present the new
knowledge to the learner, but motivate him. It is the second stage, study, that focuses on
the knowledge. And the third one is quite similar to PPP’s Production, except that it
does not concentrate on producing the new structures, but communicating using all the
knowledge of the language, including the newly acquired elements.
Finally, there is also the EEE method, Exploration, Explanation and Expression,
an idea of Sysoyev (1999). In contrast to the above methods, especially PPP, this one
puts much emphasis on the inductive learning, mainly in the first stage, when the
students are presented with the language material, i.e. some sentences, out of which they
have to extract the rule and the pattern. Their findings are then clarified and compared
with the actual rule in the second stage by the teacher, thus giving the learner a sense of
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security in possessing precise reference material. Afterwards, they move to Expression,
when they can use the newly discovered rules in a meaningful communication.
As we can see, even though the number of stages remains the same, there are
various ideas for their content, some of them overlapping, some excluding particular
elements, and some introducing totally new ones. The above methods, however, are
referring mostly to the lesson organization in general, although they can be used for
teaching grammar in detachment and actually they often are. There are, nevertheless,
some approaches that are devoted solely to grammar, and the division of grammar
learning into stages is often much more varied there, although they can be usually
related somehow to the three models mentioned above.
Let us take a closer look at one of such approaches, presented by Penny Ur
(1993), who differentiates four stages of teaching any given structure. These four stages
are:
a) Presentation
b) Isolation and explanation
c) Practice
d) Test
It is quite obvious that we could easily adjust this division to the three-staged approach.
Presentation naturally corresponds to the first stage of PPP, isolation and explanation
can either be attributed to the first stage as well, or if we prefer the EEE division, it will
correspond to the second stage. However, practice according to Ur (1993) is
encompassing both the second and third stage of PPP, as it includes both drills and
communicative activities. Testing might be the most problematic question here, since
formally it is just the same exercises used for practice and production but with evaluated
performance. The only difference here seems to be the purpose and perception of the
activity – whether it is seen as means of absorbing the new knowledge or evaluating to
what extent it has been absorbed.
Having said that, we can proceed to the comparison of various viewpoints
concerning how every stage of teaching grammar should be organized and what
techniques should be used, according to different situations in the classroom. For the
purpose of this paper it was decided that the following subsection will be based on the
three-stage PPP division, due to several reasons. First of all, PPP seems to be the
division most widely used in language classroom. Secondly, its stages correspond best
with the terminology used by the authors concerned with the organization of teaching
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grammar. And finally, the two remaining divisions either touch upon subjects which are
not in the centre of attention of this paper, as in the case of motivation in ESA, or they
are limited in the areas that will be covered in it, as in the case of EEE being devoted to
inductive teaching while downplaying the deductive aspect.
1.4.1. Presentation
As it was said before, in PPP the stage of presentation concentrates on
introducing new knowledge and letting students recognize and understand the meaning
that it carries, but not necessarily offering any clear explanation. Here we assume that
presentation is everything that comes before the actual practice, including explanation.
It has been already noted, that this stage incorporates the first two stages
proposed by Ur (1993), that is, [1] Presentation and [2] Isolation and explanation. As for
the role of the presentation, she states that:
The aim of the presentation is to get the learners to perceive the structure – its
form and meaning – in both speech and writing and take it into short-term
memory. (Ur, 1993:7)
This stage, as the author notes, is associated more with the context than the form. The
former is in the centre of attention during the isolation and explanation. Again, quoting
Ur (1993):
At this stage we move away temporarily from the context, and focus,
temporarily, on the grammatical items themselves: what they sound and look
like, what they mean, how they function – in short, what rules govern them. The
Objective is that the learners should understand these various aspects of the
structure. (Ur, 1993:7)
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The presentation stage exists also in the approach of Komorowska (2002) and it
actually corresponds almost directly to what is being covered in this subsection.
According to her, the proper presentation should include following elements:
§ using the new structure in a proper context, that makes it understandable for the
learner,
§ checking if the structure was understood properly,
§ repetition of the structure by the learners,
§ writing the structure on the blackboard,
§ clarification of the structure and underlining its relevant features (i.e. the -ed
ending in English Past Simple tense),
§ reading the structure
§ writing the new structure in the notebooks in a possibly characteristic context,
i.e. in a proper mini-dialogue
This plan is quite explicit in its form. However, Komorowska (2002) underlines, that it
is based on the deductive teaching of grammar, while there is also a possibility of using
the inductive teaching, where learner seeks the new forms in the text, then figures out its
meaning from the context and tries to formulate his own explanation, which then is
either accepted by the teacher or corrected, if a need arises.
Still, some approaches advocate additional elements used at this stage of
teaching grammar. As an example of such stance, Thornbury (2004) supports the use of
the advance organizer, that is, information presented at the very beginning of the lesson,
before the actual learning, which the learner can use for systematization and
understanding of the new knowledge.
In order to discuss how to choose proper techniques for conducting presentation,
we may begin with a reference to Komorowska (2002:125-126), who proposes a list of
the seven most important decisions that have to be made in order to present the new
material in a correct way:
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5. How are we going to introduce the new structure?
6. Which teaching aids and materials are we going to need in order to teach the
given structure?
7. Which vocabulary must the learners know in order to understand and practice
the new structure?
As for the selection of the structures, it all depends on the context in which the
teaching takes place. If teaching takes place in a very formal context, i.e. at school, the
selection will be based mainly on the syllabus and the coursebook. In a less formal
context, i.e. in some language teaching schools or in private teaching, selection will be
based mostly on the learner’s needs and the chosen coursebook.
Another two questions concern the amount of the material that is going to be
introduced. It should be administered according to the possibilities of the learners as
well as their level. Referring to the examples provided by Komorowska (2002), if we
teach Present Continuous tense to beginners, we are interested in its meaning expressing
doing something in the moment of speaking, not its more intricate usage such as when
we want to express annoyance. And, as for the amount, when we teach past forms of
verbs to beginners we should introduce either only the regular forms or 5 or 6 irregular.
The rest of the questions concern various aspects of explanations. Situation that
we use must agree with those that the given structure is meant to describe. An extreme
example of a wrong use of the situation would be saying “She plays guitar” to describe
what a given person is doing at the moment, which would require Present Continuous
tense and definitely not Present Simple.
To the question of how to introduce the new structure Komorowska answers
with several techniques that might be used: conversation with the learners, a short scene
or manual demonstration. Another problem – which teaching aids and materials are to
be used - depends on their availability, their appropriateness for the presentation of a
given structure and the age of the learners.
Finally, the question of vocabulary used in the presentation. In short, we should
not use voacabulary that the learners are not acquainted with, since that would lead to
them having to concentrate both on the new vocabulary and the new structure
simultaneously, which might greatly impede the learning process.
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Those seven decisions that Komorowska (2002) places in front of the language
teacher cover many of the features of presenting new grammar material. But what is
sometimes also needed after presenting new grammar is a certain degree of explanation.
As stated by Ur (1993), the length of the explanation and the way in which it is
conducted may vary according to the type of classes, the difficulty of the structure and
the learning style of the learners. The influence of such factors is accounted for by Stern
(1993), referring to Celce-Murcia, who provided a whole set of learner’s characteristics
and proficiency objectives that influence the importance of form-centered teaching:
Figure 2: Learner factors which influence a focus on grammatical form in language teaching
(Stern, 1993:129, adapted from Celce-Murcia, 1985)
What we can notice from the above table is the fact that some of those factors
actually influence the selection of learners into the classroom, while some of them are
simply considered individual differences. It actually does not happen that a learning
style plays a role in such selection and therefore teachers have to cope with their variety
among students. Usually it is the age and proficiency level that count the most and the
educational background is not considered important, except for consequences resulting
already from the age factor.
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Importance of a focus on form
Learner factors Less important Moderately More important
important
Learning style Holistic Mixed Analytic
Skill Listening, Speaking Writing
Reading
Register Informal Consultative Formal
Need/use Survival Vocational Professional
Figure 3: Proficiency objectives which influence a focus on grammatical form in language teaching
(Stern, 1993:133, adapted from Celce-Murcia, 1985)
1.4.2. Practice
After conducting a proper presentation of a new structure, the time comes to
make the learner acquainted with it, as well as provide him with enough training to
achieve the accuracy needed to move on to another stage – production. According to
Thornbury (2004), practice activities have three objectives – first is the precision of
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using the language system, second is the automisation of it and third is restructuring, by
which he means integrating new information into the previously acquired knowledge.
As said by Ur (1993), practice enables learner to “understand and produce
examples of it [material] with gradually lessening teacher support”. This view is
supported by Komorowska (2002), who claims that the main rule of L2 practice is
starting with almost totally mechanical exercises, then providing the learners with
exercises guided by the teacher and following the constant pattern and finally arriving at
more open-ended tasks and almost-natural situations, with teacher playing a less
important role.
There are many guidelines given by the scholars investigating the practice of
foreign language. Thornbury (2004) differentiates them according to the objectives that
the practice has. An exercise focusing on accuracy should pay attention to form and
encourage the learners to be accurate, include the familiar language, give enough
thinking time and provide feedback referring to their progress. An exercise focusing on
fluency should underline meaning, be authentic and have some communicative purpose,
divide the language into smaller, memorisable chunks and include proper amount of
repetition. Finally, an exercise focusing on restructuring should initiate problematising,
push the learners beyond their current level and provide enough security to make
learners feel safe when taking risks.
Similarly, Komorowska (2002) attempts to formulate seven rules of conducting
grammar exercises: [1] they must have their subjects and titles, [2] they must have a
clear purpose and instruction, [3] they should enable repetition of a given pattern in
natural situations, [4] they should be well-paced, varied and short – so that they do not
become boring, [5] learners should be active and motivated during practice, [6] the
more individuality and personalization during the practice, the better efficiency of
learning grammar, [7] learners must be informed whether the exercise aims at fluency or
accuracy.
Another set of guidelines is provided by Ur (1993) and it is divided into three
sets of factors: those concerning the structures of the task, those that contribute to
learner’s interest and those that influence learner’s motivation. Many of those factors
overlap with those previously mentioned, for example: clear objective, active language
use, open-endedness, and personalization. However, a lot more emphasis is put on the
precise activities done during practice.
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As for the techniques themselves, their number is only limited by the teacher’s
creativity. However, very often used during foreign language lessons the somewhat
controversial drills are being used, such as slot-fillers, multiple-choice exercises,
matching (Ur, 1993), substitution, transformation and integration (Komorowska, 2002).
On the other hand, their controversy disappears if we accept the need of the teacher to
slowly release control over his learners’ exercises.
We must bear in mind, however, that although such guidelines are quite precise,
they will never result in particularly similar outcomes, due to various individual
differences of the learners. What is a clear instruction for an adult might be
incomprehensible for a young learner and, conversely, what is interesting for a young
learner might be seen as useless or boring by adults or even adolescents. Teachers must,
therefore, be creative and flexible, conscious of the fact that what is good for one does
not have to be good for the others and vice versa, but also bearing in mind that they
cannot satisfy everyone and must find optimal solutions when faced with varied groups
of learners.
After being subjected to the sufficient amount of exercise in context, as well as
communicative activities, learners can enter another stage, which is Production.
1.4.3. Production
In the production stage learners arrive to the point where they need to develop
their fluency, while trying to retain as much accuracy achieved in the practice stage as
possible. The increasing contextualization and communicative purpose of the Practice
stage exercises leads them to the use of authentic materials and real-time
communication that tries to mimic the authentic talk of native speakers.
The organization of the production is similar to that of practice, with the
difference in the starting point. When the production stage starts, the learner achieved a
proper amount of accuracy and needs to develop a communicative level of fluency.
Therefore production exercises will move towards greater authenticity, as well as
towards requiring more and more accuracy in the fluent communication.
As said by Thornbury (2004), communicative tasks must possess the features of
real- life communication, that is: purposefulness, reciprocity, mutual intelligibility and
unpredictability. Therefore techniques used to exercise production very often include
pair work and group work, when learners communicate with on another. Komorowska
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(2002) lists also fun activities, being useful as a transition phase between the pre-
communication and communication exercises. Ur (1993) also provides some ideas for
communicative activities, such as brainstorming - where a single impulse may initiate a
great amount of responses, chain exercise - where students ask similar questions to one
another, fluid pairs – where students exchange information on the basis of a prescribed
dialogue, semi-controlled small group transactions – where learners are encouraged to
use certain patterns, but they control the content, and finally, free discussion – the least
controlled exercise, where learners have an opportunity to conduct an authentic
conversation in the foreign language.
As in the case of Practice stage, here we must also remember about the learners’
differences when choosing the activities and their topics, since some of them might
simply stay silent and avoid communication not due to the fact that they are not able to
produce a given structure, but simply because the activity does not appeal to them or
they have nothing to say on a particular topic.
Even though it might seem that the production stage reaches some kind of
“ending” in language learning process, this process is actually never-ending. All the
presented stages overlap in a way, since while one issue may be at Presentation stage,
another one may already be at Production. It is simply impossible to teach one structure
on a proficient level and then move on to another, forgetting the previous one. First of
all, it might lead to students simply forgetting the received knowledge, and secondly,
new structures are often built on existing foundations, i.e. we must know Present Simple
and Future Simple tenses to learn The First Conditional in English. Thus, the previous
knowledge will be repeated, in a more or less formal way, with more and more issues
reaching the Production stage and making the learner a skillful user of the foreign
language.
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1.5. Recapitulation
This brief inquiry into the matter of teaching grammar, next to presenting the
various and ever-changing attitudes towards this issue, definitely highlights one
important matter – if a teacher decides to put some more emphasis on grammar in the
classroom, he must make many decisions and face various problems that can appear.
First it must be decided ‘how much’ grammar should appear during the lesson, then to
what extent it has to be formal and how to present the new structures to the learners.
And later there comes the need to select and arrange the practice and production
activities. All in all, teaching grammar is a demanding task, but when conducted in a
reasonable and fine-tuned way, it can provide a great boost to learners’ accuracy of
language use, as well as providing them with a sense of understanding of the underlying
mechanics of what they are learning.
While grammar is the answer to the question “what is going to be studied?”,
another question that needs answering is “how is it going to be studied?” Therefore,
having discussed teaching grammar, I would like to proceed to the next chapter, devoted
to the issue of reflective teaching, which will hopefully answer the second question
stated above.
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CHAPTER II: Reflective teaching.
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and its application in the classroom. They also claim that reflective teaching, which
assumes that professional growth is a lifetime process, is more adjusted to the constantly
evolving conceptions of language and learning. A similar stance is taken by Richards,
who makes a following statement:
Teachers entering the profession may find their initial teaching efforts stressful,
but with experience they acquire a repertoire of teaching strategies that they
draw on throughout their teaching. (Richards, 1991)
It is probably the experience of every teacher that the first lessons require a lot of
preparation activities, the stress is present, sometimes even overwhelming, and every
departure from the original plan additionally increases it. Fortunately, when teachers
find their actions successful, they tend to use them automatically, which lets them
concentrate on other issues and reduces the amount of time devoted to the preparations.
Reflective teaching is actually promoted by BBC and British Council on their
website devoted to teaching English (www.teachingenglish.org.uk). In an article about
this approach, Tice supports the statements presented above, claiming the following:
The above statement mentions professional development and that is also what
reflective teaching is useful for. Obviously, every private reflection on the teaching
process is useful and has a part in teacher’s development, but when used deliberately as
a means of professional development, it might be more useful to teachers in training
than relying on the strictly theoretical knowledge. This topic will be more broadly
explored in one of the following subchapters.
Even though the presented views suggest that reflective teaching is something
that every teacher should employ to at least some extent, it does not mean that it
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requires no skills in order to be performed properly. Nunan and Lamb (1996) express
their views on that matter, dividing the required skills and knowledge into three
subcategories, each referring to one of the “key curriculum areas”, namely: planning,
implementation and evaluation.
It turns out, then, that not everyone is able to conduct reflective teaching in a
successful manner. The range of required skills presented in the above table is quite
wide and demands a lot of analytical approach on the part of the teacher, as well as a
sufficiently distanced attitude, making it possible for the teacher to see past his/her own
emotions and beliefs.
When it comes to the structure of the reflection process, Richards claims it to be
a three-stage process, regardless of the approach that is used. Those three stages are:
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Stage 1 The event itself
The starting point is an actual teaching episode, such as a lesson or other
instructional event. While the focus of critical reflection is usually the teacher’s
own teaching, self-reflection can also be stimulated by observation of another
person’s teaching.
In other words, the teacher must first experience the event, either his/her or
someone else’s lesson, then describe it in as much detail as possible and finally turn to
critical review of what has happened and start drawing conclusions. This sequence of
events is rather natural. However it must be conducted in a well-organized way to yield
creative outcomes.
It seems clear that although more than a quarter century has passed since the
earliest works on the topic of reflective teaching, written by Van Manen, Cruikshank
and Zeichner, it is still a widely discussed topic and a useful tool for teacher’s personal
development. Its purposes are going to be discussed in more detail in the following
subchapter.
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2.2. The purpose of reflective teaching
The first and foremost purpose of reflective teaching is teacher development. It
must be born in mind, however, that it does not concern only teachers-in-training.
Referring once more to Nunan and Lamb (1996), it is undeniable that teacher’s
professional development is a lifetime process. Therefore reflective teaching should be
concerned by every teacher, even a very experienced one. The model of professional
development will be discussed in the next subchapter.
Another purpose of reflective teaching can be seen if we relate it to action
research. Interestingly enough, the process of reflection is present in both those
approaches. Bailey explains the difference between them as follows:
What action research contributes that is different from reflective teaching is the
systematic implementation of planned actions as a result of observation and
reflection on the data (…) In addition, most models of action research depict an
iterative, spiraling sequence of planning, acting, observing, reflecting, and
replanning, which necessarily involves a certain longitudinality. In contrast, a
reflective teacher can contemplate, at one point in time, the difference between
two lessons enacted from the same lesson plan, for instance, without necessarily
systematically implementing and investigating a potentially lengthy series of
interventions, which would be required in order to label such efforts as action
research. (Bailey, 1997)
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to the more demanding action research as well as it can be a preparation and warm-up
for it. In the end, being accustomed to critical reflection is very valuable for any teacher
who would like to conduct some action research.
The last purpose of reflective teaching that will be presented here might be less
obvious, but still it has some impact on the teaching process. It is often said that teacher
should also set an example for his students. Therefore, as stated by Nunan and Lamb
(1996), “it would certainly be inconsistent got non-reflective teachers to encourage
reflectivity in learners”. It is very probable that students will notice the attitude of the
teacher towards his work and his learners, and reflective teaching is undoubtedly in
favor of them.
On the whole, the most important purposes of reflective teaching are teacher
training, their further professional development and preparation for the action research.
However, its value as means of introducing a ‘reflective atmosphere’ to the classroom
may also be useful, especially when working with more mature learners, willing to take
the critical and analytical approach towards their own learning.
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2.3. Reflective model of teacher’s professional development
The reflective model of professional development is a practical implementation
of the reflective teaching theory. One of such models, consisting of three main stages:
pre-training, professional education/development and goal (professional competence)
was presented by Wallace:
In this model, the first stage represents the knowledge possessed by the trainee
before entering any professional training – with his or her expectations, attitudes and
some possible basic experience in the matter. The second stage includes the interrelating
received knowledge (facts and theories) and experiential knowledge (practical
experience) which enters the reflective cycle, that is, the process of putting the
knowledge to use, reflecting on it, possibly implementing some changes and then
practicing it again. And finally, there is the goal: professional competence, which is
actually never reached since, as it was stated before, teacher’s development is a lifetime
process.
The reflective cycle in Wallace’s model is relatively simple. However, a more
complex version of it, including 5 stages, is presented by Bartlett:
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Figure 6: The elements of a cycle for the process of reflective teaching (Bartlett, 1993, adapted from
McTaggert and Kemmis, 1983; Smyth 1987)
In this version of the reflective cycle, mapping is gathering evidence about our
teaching, informing concentrates on our intentions, contesting tries to find the reasons
for our current idea of teaching, appraising is the search for alternatives and, finally,
acting as practicing our new, rearranged knowledge.
The model presented by Bartlett (1993) is definitely more detailed and provides
greater insight into the process of reflection than the simplified idea of Wallace (1991).
On the other hand, the more complex cycle will be applicable only to the structured
reflective process, since the unstructured one might not include all of the stages
presented on it.
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2.4. Self-observation techniques in reflective teaching
Having considered the question of reflective teaching in general, we can now
proceed to the techniques used in order to provide some structured data for reflection,
with the emphasis put on those that do not involve any third person in the reflection,
since that is going to be the case in the research section of this thesis.
Wallace (1991) distinguishes 5 types of “media” that can be used for this
purpose. First one is personal recall, that is, trying to remember the course of the action
and reflecting on it. Another type is the documented recall, using written report of the
lesson, notes, diaries, etc. Then there is audio – recording of the lesson, and respectively
– video. The final medium is the transcript, which is the most troublesome of all the
listed media and very often it requires the use of recording equipment in the first place
anyway.
Richards (1991) provides six procedures, out of which only four fulfill the
previously mentioned criteria, namely: teaching journals – a written response to the
teaching events, self reports – a structured list describing the occurrence of procedures
used by the teacher during the lessons, and audio and video recordings.
As for the audio and video recordings, Wallace (2000) comments that even
though they provide a relatively easy way of gathering data and at the same time very
detailed, as in the case of video recording, there are some problems - mainly their
intrusiveness, making the learners feel uneasy, as well as problematic access to the
fragments of the lesson that are of interest to the observer. Richards (1991) is more
optimistic when it comes to the problem of audio/video recorder’s intrusiveness and
assumes that the learners will eventually get used to their presence. He notes, however,
that the video recording equipment is not always available for use.
Personal recall, although it is the simplest and least expensive way of self-
observation, is also the faultiest, since it is easy to forget some smaller, but important
details or fill the missing information with mere suppositions.
Finally, we have the written reports, which fall into several sub-categories:
transcripts, journals and reports.
When it comes to transcripts, it has been already said that they require the use of
some recording equipment so the negative intrusive aspect also applies here.
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Additionally, as Wallace (2000) noticed, transcribing the whole lesson may consume a
lot of time. On the other hand, it provides us with a relatively convenient access to the
information we need.
Richards (1991) claims that self-reports let teachers make regular assessment of
how they fulfill their ideas in practice and how they are working in the classroom. It is
supposed to be especially efficient when teachers concentrate only “on specific skills in
a particular classroom context”.
As for the journals, they are supposed to include all the meaningful events
happening during the lesson, including also the comments and reflections of the teacher.
This provides the data for the teacher to analyze his own development.
The choice of the observation technique may depend on many factors. One of
them is the amount of time that teacher wishes to devote to his reflective activities. If it
is rather limited, the analysis of audio and video recording may be out of question, not
to mention transcripts, since even if they would be done by some appropriate third
party, the finding of it might become another problem. Reports, journals and notes seem
to be more useful in such situation, since teacher can concentrate on particular problems
that are of his interest and does not have to search through the whole recording to find
the crucial moments. And if the time is really scarce, there is always the minimum
version – personal recall. Another criterion is the classroom situation. Sometimes it
might be impossible to write notes during the lesson, since teacher may have to devote
all the attention to the learners. Additionally, techniques involving the use of recording
media, next to their intrusiveness, might encourage some younger and less disciplined
learners to misbehave. On the other hand, this can be only a temporary problem, lasting
until the learners get used to the situation and ignore the recording equipment’s
presence. Finally, there is a question of reliability of the selected technique, especially if
the data is to be analyzed by a group of researchers or when the situation requires some
solid proof, not the potentially subjective account of one teacher. Then it might be best
to select one of the recording techniques, providing raw material for analysis.
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2.5. Recapitulation
Reflective teaching seems to be a useful and flexible tool that every teacher can
adjust to his own needs and abilities. Even in its least demanding form it can help in
solving the persistent classroom problems. Its potential is far greater, however, as it can
facilitate the teacher’s professional development and serve as a first step into the action
research. Obviously, more benefits require more time, more preparation and more
skillfulness on the part of the teacher, but it is a profitable investment.
After discussing the two key issues of this thesis, I would like to proceed to the
study itself, which will put the theoretical aspects of those issues into practical use in
order to establish the optimal solutions for the investigated problem.
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CHAPTER III: Self-observation study
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The data written in the diary was collected during the lessons with individual
learners or in very small groups, consisting of two or three learners. The learners
belonged to different age and proficiency groups. There were six blocks of lessons, with
the participants placed according to the table below
During the classes with those groups and individuals, there had been many
syntactic phenomena of English language introduced, out of which eight structures were
chosen for the lessons which became the material for this study. Those eight structures
are:
Although the selection of the structures was limited by the number of the
grammar material presented during the lessons, it aimed at including both the structures
which are perceived as difficult by Polish learners and those perceived as easy.
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Additionally, it included the structures of certain similarity, as well as those
significantly different from the others, which provided even more variety.
Each of the structures listed above was introduced to at least three of the groups,
according to their level of proficiency.
Having described the self-observation study and its aims, I would like to proceed
to the presentation of its results and analysis, which will lead to the formulation of the
optimal ways of introducing new syntactic structures to the learners of English in the
following chapter.
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3.2. Data presentation and analysis
In this section of my MA thesis I would like to present the general tendencies
noticed during the course of the self-observation study, as well as some more detailed
information about particular situations happening during the lesson. Furthermore, I am
going to analyze those tendencies and situations in order to provide enough data to
establish optimal ways of introducing new syntactic structures to the Polish learners of
English.
The presented data will be divided into eight subsections, dealing with eight
issues that I considered important for teaching new syntactic structures and especially
focused my attention on them during the self-observation study.
In the first subsection I am going to present the data concerning the language
used during the observed lessons, that is, the use of L1 (Polish) and L2 (English), the
changes in balance between them and my response to the difficulties I encountered
The second subsection is devoted to the first stage of introducing the new
structure, when I was trying to organize students’ knowledge in a way that would foster
their understanding of the new structure and its use.
The third subsection is concerned with the complexity of the explanations – their
level of formality and the amount of metalanguage that they included.
In the fourth subsection I am exploring the issue of teacher control during the
explanations, including the balance between inductive and deductive teaching and
increasing students participation in the discovery and understanding of the rules
governing the introduced syntactic structures.
The fifth subsection deals with rule repetition frequency and explores the
contexts and situations in which this frequency has been adapted for the reason of better
memorization.
In the sixth subsection I consider the use of teaching aids and materials during
explanations, discuss their availability, present my perception of their usefulness and
problems with their use.
In the seventh subsection I concentrate on the coursebook and its usefulness in
terms of providing grammar explanations and reference, as well as the exercises for
practicing them.
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Finally, the eighth subsection is concerned with the selection and sequencing of
grammar exercises, the usefulness of drills and problems encountered during
progression to the more communicative activities.
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The situation with the adult beginner from group #2 was, fortunately, a lot more
simple. I used the same strategy that I used initially with group #1, starting with using
only L1, then moving to using L1 and L2 and ending up with all the instructions and
most if not all of the explanations provided in L2. This time the transition was rather
smooth and at the point of introducing Present Continuous to the learner, I provided
most of the instructions and some of the explanations in L2, only occasionally having to
clarify some misunderstanding.
Similarly, with the adult learner on the elementary level from group #3 the
transition was also executed with no significant problems, with the main difference
being that I started from using both L1 and L2, without the stage of using only L1, as
the learner already had some knowledge of vocabulary.
On the other hand, the transition that occurred in group #4 was quite
spontaneous. During the first lessons with that group that were a part of this observation
study, I used only L1 for instructions and explanations, even though the students’
knowledge of vocabulary was good enough to introduce L2 in that context. I think this
was mostly due to the very relaxed atmosphere of those classes and many off-topic
conversations started by learners (and sometimes even by me), which were conducted in
L1. Nevertheless, during one of the lessons I decided to try providing the instructions in
L2 and students understood them perfectly. What is more, even if they were slightly
surprised by this change, they did not show it. On the next lessons I started to provide
explanations mostly in L2 as well and again I encountered no negative feedback, so
from that point on I kept using L2 and only occasionally referring to L1.
As for the two pre-intermediate groups, with group #6 I had been using L2 for a
longer period of time and, obviously, it did not change during the classes that were a
part of this study. However, with the adolescent learner from group #5 I was still using
L1 together with L2 during some of the classes, since he was not accustomed to the
situation of only L2 being used during the lesson and while he had little problem with
understanding the written instructions and most written explanations in L2, the oral ones
were often difficult to understand for him. Fortunately, his understanding of spoken
instructions and explanations in L2 was constantly improving during the course of the
study.
It must be noted, however, that even when I began using mostly L2 during the
lessons, I switched to L1 in situations when the explanations were either too difficult in
terms of lexis or when they could be more or less understood by the learners, but I
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valued the clarity of the explanation and lesson time more than adhering strictly to the
L2 environment.
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adult learners, who often got engaged in the presentation and wanted to clarify
everything that was not totally understood by them or to test their own hypotheses. On
the other hand, young learners were almost totally disinterested with the provided
reference and they wanted to move straight to the exercises, downplaying explanations
as well. This was rather annoying for me, especially since they were asking a lot of
questions when doing the exercises, and during several next lessons I refused to change
my attitude, trying to keep their attention on the introduction and explanations. This,
however, turned out to be counter-productive, since I was spending the lesson time on
the introduction to which they paid little attention, if any at all. Eventually I abandoned
the introduction stage, made the explanations as short as possible and proceeded to the
exercises, answering the questions of the learners when they appeared. The main
problem with that strategy was that very often I had to repeat my explanations to each of
the learners separately, since they were concentrating on the exercise and not on the
explanations. Nevertheless, during the course of the study I did not manage to devise a
more efficient strategy.
As for the adults and adolescents, I tried to make use of as much of their existing
knowledge as possible. For example, during the lessons with groups #3, #4, #5 and #6,
when I was introducing Past Continuous tense, I always explained to the learners that in
terms of form it is exactly the same as Present Continuous, except for the conjugation of
the verb “to be” which is conjugated in its past form, and not the present one, and that it
uses different adverbs of time, for obvious reasons. Most of them had no problems with
remembering the form of Past Continuous, so although I cannot be totally certain, I
believe that introducing the new material with such reference to previous knowledge
facilitated their understanding. Additionally, the whole introduction rarely took longer
than three minutes and required very little preparation on my part. The only obstruction
happened during the lesson with the learner from group #5. I am not sure whether he
misunderstood my explanations (although it was provided in both L1 and L2) or just
developed a confusing association in his mind, but he very often conjugated the “to be”
verb in Present Simple instead of the Past Simple, which resulted in forming sentences
in Present Continuous instead of Past Continuous. Nevertheless, this was a single case
and after a certain amount of drills he learned to use both those tenses in correct
contexts.
There were also situations when I referred to the similarities and differences
between the two languages. For example, when introducing Present Perfect tense in
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groups #4, #5 and #6 I underlined that this tense is usually expressed in Polish through
Past Tense which, however, expresses also the meaning of English Past Simple. I
wanted to make learners conscious that what is expressed by one tense in Polish might
bed divided into two tenses in English, each appearing in a particular context. Such
reference seemed to interest mostly learners from groups #4 and #6, who expressed
linguistic curiosity during most of the lessons, whereas the learner from group #5
listened to it, but it did not seem to help him reach better accuracy in the use of newly
learned tenses. Contrastively, learners from group #4 and #6 performed much better
during the exercises and seemed to use the reference I provided to expand their own
knowledge of the phenomenon of language and use it to form their own hypotheses. I
make this assumption basing on the fact that their participation in the lesson increased
after several such lessons and the questions that they asked concerning the newly
introduced structures were becoming more and more complex.
Nevertheless, referring to the previously acquired knowledge was not the only
way in which I tried to facilitate learners understanding of the new syntactic structures. I
also tried to provide some less abstract means in order to fulfill this aim. Sometimes,
when introducing the use of a new structure, I tried to show its meaning by simply
acting it out its examples or describing the context in which it would be used. This was
extremely useful when I was comparing two tenses referring to the similar space of
time, such as Past Simple and Past Continuous. Conversely, it was not necessary to
provide a lot of context in order to describe the difference between Present Simple and
Past Simple, since all the explanation required at that point of the course was limited to
the difference between the present and the past, which is rather obvious for most people.
When it comes to acting out the meaning of examples of a particular structure, I
did it mostly in the classroom context. The main reason for this was the simple fact, that
in the classroom I was already standing and moving, so the transition from some verbal
introduction to the visual demonstration was smooth and natural, while during private
lessons I was usually seated at a table with the learner(s), so any action would require a
sort a disruption that I preferred to avoid. Additionally, I think I would not feel
comfortable enough interacting with the objects in the learner’s home, in contrast to the
classroom setting, which is my ‘territory’.
As an example of this technique’s use, I would like to refer to the lesson with
group #4 when I was introducing Present Perfect to the learners, who already knew
Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple and Past Continuous. I used this
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opportunity to revise the use of those tenses, showing a whole chain of comments
concerning the activity of opening the door using the listed tenses. This introductory
activity was based on the example of an ‘advance organizer’ presented by Marton
(1979). First I went to the door and slowly opened it, saying “I am opening the door”
during the activity, “I have opened the door” just after it and then I told the students to
imagine that an hour passed and I said “I opened the door an hour ago”. Then I asked
them about their definition of the contexts I used the three tenses in (the two of which
they were already supposed to know). Their idea was very close to the factual one and I
only had to clarify some matters after moving on to the explanation stage.
In situations when acting out the use of a particular structure would be
uncomfortable or simply difficult, I often preferred to give learners detailed description
of the contexts in which a particular structure would be used. I used this technique also
during explanations and when correcting their mistakes during exercises, but I assumed
it would be useful also at the very beginning of the lesson while presenting the new
structure. During the observation study I used this technique usually with slightly more
advanced learners, since the use of the structures presented to beginner rarely allowed
for ambiguities. However, it was already useful to some extent at the point of showing
the difference between Present Simple and Present Continuous when I was introducing
the latter to the learners from groups #2 and #3. At the beginning of the lesson I told
them that Present Continuous is used to describe actions done at the point of speaking as
well as plans for the future, in contrast to Present Simple which is usually used to speak
about things done in habitual manner. I explained that this is the reason they should not
say “I take out garbage” when they are doing it at the moment of speaking, since their
interlocutor might understand that this is their job or hobby. I also told them that, on the
other hand, saying “I am working in a bank” when asked about their job during a
conversation in the middle of the forest would probably not be understood as the
description of their current action, but nevertheless it would be much more proper if
they said “I work in a bank”.
Because of its humouristic aspect, this technique proved to be extremely
successful, since even after several lessons the learners remembered the ‘funny’
meaning that they should avoid. Additionally, it definitely helped to create a more
relaxed atmosphere during the classes and I must admit that I enjoyed the creation of
humouristic meaning and contrasting it with the proper one. What is more, it showed the
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learners that even grammar has its entertaining aspect which can be explored during the
lessons and does not have to be dull and boring.
It is worth noting that the positive feedback to my aims at fostering the learners’
understanding of L2 and language in general encouraged me to further experimentation
in this matter and implementation of new techniques in the introduction of new
syntactic structures, whereas lack of response and indifference on part of the learners
was rather frustrating. Nevertheless, I am quite convinced that even if only one group
encouraged me to develop my techniques of introduction, I would still do it, since it was
very rewarding.
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the latter, the situation was even simpler, since the learner rarely asked any question at
all. Thus all the questions concerning grammar appeared in the adult groups.
During one of the lessons with group #4, when I was introducing Past Simple,
one of the learners asked me whether this tense is only used simply to express
something that happened in the past. Thus I was faced with the dilemma to what extent
my answer should be simplified. If such question appeared during the lesson with young
learners, I would probably only confirm the learner’s idea and move on with the
explanations. However, since I was dealing with more analytical and abstract-thinking
age group of learners, I decided to lay some foundation for the future lessons. First of
all, I explained that Past Simple is not the only past tense in English and thus it cannot
handle all the expressions concerning the past, because otherwise there would be no
need for other past tenses. I told them that Past Simple deals with the past event that
happened at some particular point in the past, e.g. last week or on 20th of May 1990.
Additionally, I mentioned that Past Simple can be found also in the conditional
sentences, but I did not explain what those sentences are. Instead, I assured the learners
that those issues will be accounted for on the subsequent lessons. I believe that this way
I managed to prevent the learners from forming some false beliefs about L2 grammar
while providing them with a sense of continuity at the same time and not causing any
confusion that might result from presenting too much new knowledge at one time.
Judging from the aforementioned beliefs that this group presented during the
introduction of Present Perfect several lessons later, I think that my strategy was
successful.
I encountered a similar problem while teaching the adult beginner from group
#2. On the lesson introducing the verb “to be” in Past Simple, an expression in passive
voice was used for this purpose, namely “was/were born”. When I was providing him
with the translation of this expression, I realized that a lack of comment at that point
might lead to the formation of some false beliefs about language. Perhaps this was a bit
too paranoid of me, but nevertheless I decided to devote some lesson time to the
explanation of that structure and the difference that appears between L1 and L2 in its
case. First of all I explained that we are dealing with a structure called passive voice and
I provided the L1 counterpart of the term as well as some examples. Then I explained
that, similarly to L1, in L2 most of the sentences can be transformed from passive to
active voice and vice versa. I decided that this is enough information about passive
voice at this point of the course, so the only additional explanation was about the fact
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that some fixed expressions can have different forms in L1 in L2, as in the case of
someone’s birth which is expressed in active voice in Polish and passive voice in
English. Finally, I assured the learner that we would deal with the issue of passive voice
on the upcoming lessons.
Generally, when I was providing additional information to the learners, such as
those about the syntactic structures that were not introduced yet, I did it in hope that
even if they would not be able to use this knowledge in their writing or speech, they
would learn to notice those structures in L2 and know that they carry a different
meaning than those they already know. In other words, I was making a sort of pre-
introduction during my explanations. I think it was positive for the students’ motivation,
since it helped them know whatto expect on the future lessons and increase their
curiosity, that would at least boost their interest during the actual introduction of the
mentioned structure and perhaps even encourage them to work individually after classes
more often.
When it comes to metalanguage used in the explanations, I originally planned to
use very little of it during the classes with young learners, while maintaining a moderate
amount of it during the classes with adults and adolescents. While this kind
differentiation seemed to work perfectly with the young learners and adolescents, I
encountered some problems while teaching adults who had finished their education a
longer while ago. Actually, they remembered only the basic metalingual terms such as
the categories of words, so I had to re-introduce some knowledge to them, mostly about
the sentence, its structure and constituents. Initially, I planned to devote a lesson to two
issues, that is, the definitions of main metalinguistic terms in Polish and the English
translations of those terms. In the end, however, I decided to define and translate the
terms when the need for them would appear in the explanations, thus introducing them
in context and not in isolation, which I believe made the memorizations of those terms
easier. I assume this strategy was a good choice, since the learners did not exhibit any
problems with understanding those terms on the following lessons and I could not
attribute any of the appearing errors to a misunderstanding of a metalinguistic term.
Situation with the adolescents was easier, since they were relatively acquainted
with the knowledge about parts of speech and of the sentence. Thus the main need was
only to provide them with L2 translation of the required metalinguistic terms. As in the
case of adult learners, I finally decided to do that when a given term appeared in the
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explanations and, similarly, I could not notice any errors that could result from
misunderstandings.
Finally, when concerning young learners, it is actually difficult to say whether
the strategy I chose for them was successful or not, since, as I mentioned before, they
were rarely paying attention to my explanations and preferred to go straight to the
exercises. Nevertheless I doubt whether including more metalanguage in the course of
teaching them would have any positive results. I base my assumption on the fact that
even though I was very often emphasizing which word belongs to which category of
parts of speech, when asked to provide the examples of the words from given category
they chose words without paying any attention to which category it is.
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in group #1 and it was difficult to maintain the learners’ attention, so I assumed that any
less control could only make matters worse. Although I can imagine situations where
this assumption would prove faulty, they require some interest and motivation on the
part of the learner. Grammar, on the other hand, is often perceived as something boring
and troublesome even by adult learners, so the situation with young learners is usually
even worse. Additionally, whereas most adults and some adolescents are learning
languages because they want to, most young learners, as well as the rest of adolescents,
do this out of obligation and this does not support any independent action on their part.
This was also the case with group #5 learner. Although I did not have any
discipline problems with him, he did not make any effort to discover the rules on his
own until I started to lead him. As an example, on the lesson introducing the Present
Perfect tense when given a set of examples and encouraged to find a regularity which
would be a rule for the formation of this tense, he went silent observing the examples
and did not say a word until I started to ask him more detailed questions, eliciting the
information piece by piece and then having him recapitulate it as the whole rule.
Fortunately, the situation in the other groups was positively different. Despite
being seemingly unaccustomed to participation in the explanation process, they adapted
to it and, judging from their performance during exercises, it helped them memorize the
rules better. In group #4, I used inductive teaching in order to teach Present Continuous
tense. I presented 5 examples of sentences and asked the learners to find the rule
governing the formation of sentences in this tense. The learners performed very well,
providing a complete rule, which I only recapitulated. The learners from group #2 and
#3 were also initially surprised, but later on they started asking more and more
questions and often I had to mitigate their curiousity in order to avoid providing them
with too much information at one time. Finally, the learners from group #6 did not seem
surprised at all by my attempts to include them in the explanation process and they
actively took part in it.
Generally speaking, even if some of the motivated learners were initially
surprised by involving them in the explanation process, they gradually adapted to this
seemingly new situation. Obviously, their ideas were not always correct and often I had
to correct them in order to arrive at a well-formulated rule, but their demonstrated
visibly better performance at the memorization and proceduralization of the rules in the
discovery of which they participated.
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3.2.5 Rule repetition frequency
The two main questions that I had to answer concerning rule repetition
frequency were “how often” and “when”. My aim was to help learners memorize the
rule without making an impression of annoying mechanical repetition. At first, when I
rarely involved learners in the explanation process, I was providing the rule before
explaining it, about two or three times during the explanations and finally after finishing
the explanations. However, I had an automatic reaction of increasing the frequency of
repetition during explanations if suspected that the learners have problems with
understanding it. Obviously, this was not solving the problem in any way and if there
were any effects of such frequent repetition, they were probably negative, such as the
annoyance of learners and mine too, especially when I realized that I repeat the rule
mindlessly. However, I managed to limit this reaction and instead of useless repetition
of the rule, I tried other method of explaining it to the learners. Needlessly to say, the
effects of this strategy were much better and the explanations were more efficient,
leaving more lesson time at my disposal.
Obviously, repetition of the rule had to be structured differently if I chose to
have the learners discover the rule themselves. In such situation I only recapitulated the
rule discovered by the learners or provided it in case when then failed to do so. I usually
repeated it twice at that point and I considered that as enough. Most learners never
asked for additional repetition, except for the young learners from group #1. However,
once more repeating what I mentioned in previous subsections, learners from this group
were rarely concentrated on my explanations and asked for them only after they started
doing exercises, which meant repeating the rule for every learner whenever he decided
that he does not know how to deal with a particular example.
On the whole, the amount of repetitions of the rule that I established after the
initial problems seem to function well, as most learners had little problem with
remembering them and they never complained about the frequency of the repetitions
being too high and annoying.
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the structure of the sentences changes, e.g. when making interrogative and negative
sentences out of declarative sentences or passive voice out of active voice. It also
enabled me to underline the crucial or changing elements of the sentence by using
various colours of markers or to provide the learners with the examples of the sentences
that they can use to find the governing rule on their own. When it comes to other
teaching aids, I only had a set of playing cards used to memorize the irregular English
verbs. However, I did not use them in any way while providing explanations, but only
during exercises.
Only two groups were taught in the classroom context, group #1 and group #4,
and I was using the blackboard quite differently on the lessons witch each of those
groups. Due to the fact that group #1 was comprised of young learners, I tried to use
more visual stimuli to keep their attention and interest, that is, more colours, more
arrows signalizing the change of word order and more underlining of crucial elements.
However, during the earlier observed lesson with that group I noticed that when I
finished working with the whiteboard, all the information that I presented on it was so
cramped that it looked chaotic and confusing. This problem was caused by the fact that I
wanted to keep all the information visible for the learners for the whole duration of the
explanation, so that they could understand all the differences and changes that I was
presenting. After reflecting on this, I decided to present the information in smaller
chunks.
The above idea was implemented during on of the subsequent lessons with group
#1. For example, on the lesson introducing Present Continuous, I started with revising
the conjugation of the verb “to be” in Present Simple tense. When I was assured that the
learners remember it, I cleared the whiteboard and provided them with the examples of
sentences in Present Continuous, using different colours for the subject, auxillary verb
and the “-ing” ending. I tried to ask them to find some regularity in the provided
examples, but like I noted before, this group was rather reluctant towards participation
in the discovery of rules, therefore I had to provide it myself and then I explained how it
contributed to the formation of the example sentences. Then I made a drill exercise for
the formation of declarative sentences and only then cleared the whiteboard again and
moved on to explain the interrogative and negative sentences, each type followed by a
appropriate drill exercise as well.
In group #4 I used the whiteboard in a slightly more limited extent. First of all,
the learners in this group were thinking more analytically and they had enough
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metalinguistic knowledge for me to use the names of parts of speech and sentence. That
is why I abstained from using colourful markers, limiting myself to underlining and
drawing arrows that signalized changes in the word order. Additionally, their
coursebook had a well-developed grammar reference section and their knowledge of L2
at that point was developed enough to understand the information provided there on
their own. Thus I could use it instead of writing everything on the whiteboard.
During private lessons the availability of teaching aids was even scarcer, since I
had no whiteboard at disposal. However, I found a way to counter this shortcoming by
using A4-sized sheets of white paper and markers. The sheets were in front of the
learner(s) and I used them in the way similar to whiteboard, with the only difference
being that I could not wipe what I had written. On the other hand, learners could be
given those sheets in order to analyze them later on their own if they felt a need to do
so. Initially, I did not leave the sheets for them, but when the learners from group #6
asked me for that, I thought that they certainly would have more use of them than I
would and thus I employed this attitude with all the other private teaching groups.
The situation with teaching materials was slightly better, although my limited
experience and relatively low amount of resources gathered during teaching practice
was definitely an impediment. However, I used the Internet, some grammar books and
other coursebooks to provide more explicit explanations of the use of particular
structures as well as the exercises to practice it, since I was sometimes unsatisfied with
the amount of those elements in both coursebook and workbook. Another option was to
create the written explanations and exercises on my own. However, I was cautious
about making an exercise in which I might, for example, create an ambiguous context
that would allow multiple possibilities of answering where there should be only one, or
an explanation where I might miss an important point. What is more, creating of such
materials would consume a significant amount of my time, especially if I wanted to
make sure than they do not allow any ambiguity and do not miss anything important.
Therefore I preferred to rely on the materials present in the grammar books or other
coursebooks, which are prepared by professionals. Yet, this raised another problem,
since sometimes it was hard to find exercises for a given structure where the vocabulary
would be on the appropriate level and I had to devote more of my time to finding them.
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3.2.7 Use of the coursebook
As I have mentioned in the previous subsection, the coursebook was not always
satisfactory when it comes to quality and quantity of the explanations and exercises.
Additionally, it rarely accounted for the special difficulties that Polish learners may
have while learning English. It was quite problematic for me, being still a teacher-in-
training, since I preferred to follow the coursebook in most respects and modify its
content quite rarely. Nevertheless, the coursebook was not able to account for all the
doubts and questions raised by the learners, especially due to the fact that the
explanations present there were only in L2 and very often the learners had problems
with understanding everything clearly.
As a result, during the lessons with beginning students, I often had to provide the
translation of the explanations presented in the coursebook and translate the guidelines
for the exercises. When I considered the explanations unsatisfactory, I often omitted
those in the coursebook and provided my own, although this very often kept me stressed
due to the possibility of omitting something important, especially during my first
attempts. Nevertheless, with more and more experience in this matter and no arising
problems, my self-confidence rose and I become more independent in my teaching.
Concerning the issue of accounting for the particular needs of Polish learners,
the coursebook left me entirely on my own. Again, I was initially afraid of providing
guidelines based on my own knowledge and experience, but since my first small steps
brought no negative consequences and some learners appreciated my guidelines and
found them useful, I started to give them on more regular basis.
Finally, when teaching the groups with learners capable of more than basic
communicative exchange, I often used the exercises as starter for such exchange. For
example, if the exercise in the coursebook included describing the clothes of the people
on the pictures, after its completion I asked the learners to tell me what they were
wearing on that day, what kind of clothes they like or whether they are planning to buy
some new clothes and if so – which? Basically, my actions were based on the
assumption, that it would be easier to encourage learners to communicate basing on an
exercise that they just did and thus thriving on the raised confidence resulting from that
fact. Additionally, learners did not have to search for vocabulary needed to express what
they were asked about, since they had just recently used it. And since the
communication activity was rather short, discouraging periods of silence were limited.
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What is more, in groups with more than one learner if such situation appeared, I simply
asked the other learner(s) and only later came back to the previous learner, who thus had
more time to prepare their answer. And if it so happened that no learner could enter the
communication, I tried to help them as much as needed until the communication
eventually started.
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for most of the learners. Obviously, the situation could be different for native speakers
of language other than Polish. When this problem appeared for the first time, while I
was teaching group #1, I was a bit confused and did not know what to do. Seeing that
learners make constantly the same mistakes after finishing the drill exercises, I came
back to drilling the structure by means of spontaneously creating an exercise on the
blackboard and continuing to drill it until they finally managed to make mistakes rarely
enough. When I experienced the same problem with group #4, I simply moved to the
drilling exercises from the exercises book earlier (that is, before finishing the unit in the
coursebook). This, however, caused another distortion in my original plan, since I
usually use the drill exercise in the workbook as homework, in order to have learners
memorize and proceduralize the rule of forming a particular structure better. I devised a
short drill on the spot instead, but it was not satisfactory. Thus when I was introducing
the same structures to the learner from group #2, I had some additional exercises
prepared just in case and they turned out to be useful, as the same problem appeared
again. This time, however, I noticed learner’s difficulties while doing the drills from the
coursebook so I proceeded straight to the additional exercises and only later continued
to do other exercises from the coursebook.
Conversely, there were also situations when the most sensible solution was to
omit the drill exercise and continue to more meaningful ones. This happened especially
often in group #6 and sometimes in group #3. The ones from the former group were
handling new structures so well, that next to ceasing from giving them drills for
homework, I limited their number during the lessons. Naturally, situations when the
learners needed more practice happened as well, but quite rarely and they never needed
more exercises than those provided in the coursebook. The instance of the learner from
the latter group was similar, although in his case I only limited homework drills from
the workbook, while still doing most of those provided in the coursebook.
Logically, if I increased or limited the amount of drills, the amount of the
following more meaningful exercises also had to change. In case when the drills took
more time, I either chose slightly more meaningful exercises earlier or left the most
communicative ones for the next lesson or gave them as homework. The first strategy
turned out to be less successful, since in many cases the increased pace of progression
caused some difficulty for the learners. On the other hand, during the study I did not
observe any possible negative effects of the second strategy, since I usually
compensated for the lower amount of the more communicative exercises later, during
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revision lessons. However, when the pace of progression was higher, due to the limited
use of drills, the situation was much easier. I could devote the additional time for
practice of more meaningful exercises or, in case of more advanced groups, devote
some time to discussion or conversation.
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3.3. Recapitulation
In this charter I presented the aims of the self-observation study, which were
providing date for determining optimal ways of introducing selected syntactic structures
to Polish learners of English and, secondarily, exercising reflective teaching abilities. I
also provided the description of the study, including the method of data collection, the
overall structure of the groups that I conducted the lessons with and during which the
self-observation took place. I also listed the eight syntactic structures taught during
those lessons, which were selected for the purpose of the study. The next section of this
chapter was divided into eight subsections, according to the eight issues that were the
focus of my observation during the study. In those eight subsections I presented the
excerpts from the collected data and provided their analysis as well as some general
conclusions.
Having presented and analyzed the data in this chapter of this thesis, I was able
to establish several optimal ways of introducing selected syntactic structures to Polish
learners of English language. The results of this endeavor are presented in the following
chapter.
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CHAPTER IV: Interpretation of study results and
conclusions
4.1 Introduction
The last chapter of this thesis is devoted to establishing the optimal ways of
introducing selected syntactic structures to Polish learners of the English language
based on the analysis of the data presented in the previous chapter. Due to the fact that
this study was executed in a specific teaching environment, that is, during one-to-one
teaching and teaching in very small groups, as well as due to my limited experience as a
teacher and the lack of a enforced syllabus, I do not claim the findings of this study to
be optimal in every possible situation and they should be considered in terms of the
listed conditions. However, I believe that those finding may constitute a source of
possible teaching implications as well as to provide some insights valuable for the
further research in the field of grammar teaching techniques.
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explanations only in L1 for an extended period of time. Most learners have little contact
with L2 outside the classroom and even less possibilities of communication in it, so the
teacher must take advantage of every possibility to initiate it and the classroom, in spite
of it being always a slightly artificial environment, gives that possibility. Situation is
even better during private lessons, especially in one to one context, since
communication tends to be less formal then and thus more authentic.
Out of the two options that I employed during the observed classes, that is a
smooth transition or a sudden shift from L1 to L2, the optimal solution would be to
execute the former option, using the transitional phase during which both the languages
are used. Obviously, the pace of this transition and its starting point must be adjusted to
the students’ knowledge of vocabulary at a given moment in time, and teacher can
adjust it by simply monitoring students’ responses to the language used. It must be
noted, however, that the only sensible order of language being used then is to provide
the explanation in L2 and only after a while in L1. Otherwise it is highly probable that
the students’ will not pay attention to the explanation provided in L2 and will not
understand it when it is provided without the L1 counterpart.
Even though I find this solution optimal, it is not free of shortcomings. The main
factor that can be problematic during its application is the heterogeneity of the group,
which can decrease the pace of transition and make it harder to adjust the balance
between L1 and L2. What is more, it is evident that providing the instructions and
explanations in both languages doubles the time devoted to those activities.
Nevertheless, these problems are only temporary and disappear after students attain the
level of knowledge of L2 vocabulary which will allow to limit the use of L1 to
emergency situations.
Evidently, when starting to teach students whose L2 vocabulary is more
developed, the optimal solution for the teacher is to start with L2 right away or, in case
of lack of certainty, with L2 statement followed by its translation to L1 and then
deciding to what extent the use of L1 should be limited. However, every teacher must
bear in mind that even the slightly more proficient students were sometimes taught by
the teachers who downplayed the use of L2 during the lessons and may be simply not
accustomed to learning in L2 environment and those might need some transition period
as well.
Finally, when the teacher has to provide a lengthy but not crucial comment or
digression during the explanations, there is always an option of temporary switching
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back to L1, even when dealing with more proficient learners, if the situation requires us
to save the time of the lesson. It may be also advisable in situations when the comment
includes a lot of new vocabulary in L2 and would need excessive on-the-spot
clarification.
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Still, some problems still occurred, although it must be noted that they were
present no matter which solution was chosen. All the employed methods were very
limited in their efficiency while dealing with young undisciplined learners. Some
problems were to be expected, such as their problems with expressing their ideas,
resulting from very basic metalinguistic knowledge. However, the main problem was
their lack of interest in grammar and the rules of language. They rarely paid attention
during the presentation of new structures as well as during grammar explanations. Thus,
if they provided any response at all, which was rare, it was quite random and it was hard
to use it in any way. In such cases I believe it is best to introduce the material as if it
was completely new to the learners.
As I have stated in the introduction, there might be situations that did not occur
during this study, which might prove some other shortcomings of the solutions I
consider optimal. My main doubts concern the efficiency of the above solution while
teaching bigger groups of learners, with the most important one resulting from the
possibility that the teacher may not be able then to account for every idea that his
learners might have and help them build more knowledge on its foundation.
Organizing the knowledge that the students already possess is only the first step
in the introduction, however. Before the teacher proceeds to the actual grammar
explanations, it is possible to provide students with some more introductory
information, especially concerning the use of the introduced structure. I based some of
those activities on the ideas presented by Marton (1979). The decision to use them was
based on my assumption that it might be useful and motivating for the learners to
provide them with the answer to the question: “Why do we need to know this
structure?” Consequently, I used two methods of doing that. First one was to act out a
situation when a given structure should be used and the second one was to describe it
verbally. The optimal use of those techniques depends on several factors. First one is the
environment in which the lesson takes place. The acting technique was less comfortable
to use on the private lessons, since I was usually seated next to the learners and it would
require a disruption in the course of the lesson. Additionally, I felt more natural doing
this in the classroom, which I consider a kind of my ‘territory’, while I think I would
feel uneasy doing this in learner’s private quarters. Additionally, when conducting the
lesson in the classroom I am usually standing, so the transition to physical
demonstration of the context is much smoother. As a consequence, I consider it optimal
to use the descriptive verbal method during private lessons and both those techniques in
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the classroom context. It must be added, however, that even in classroom setting it was
not always possible to act out the use of particular tense and in such cases I had to limit
my presentation only to the descriptive method.
As for the age of the learners, both methods worked well with adults and
adolescents and while I expected the ‘acting’ method to be far better than the descriptive
one when dealing with young learners (since their way of thinking is less abstract and
analytic), in the end it is hard to say whether any of them was successful, due to the
reasons that I mentioned before, that is, the lack of interest and motivation on the part of
the learners, which were very difficult to overcome for me. As a result I cannot claim
that of those methods is optimal when teaching young learners, although I find it as such
in terms of the older age groups.
There is one more issue that needs to be raised in terms of the descriptive
method, which is related to the previous subchapter, namely the language in which such
description of the context should be presented. Even when the learners attained the
proficiency level that enabled them to understand the instruction and explanations
conveyed in L2, I often had to resort to L1 when describing the context, since the
examples I used often required more advanced vocabulary and were quite lengthy,
which would make the proper understanding of them problematic, were they given in
L2. Therefore it would limit the usefulness of such method for the teacher who prefer a
strictly L2 environment during their lessons.
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one great shortcoming – by using eat the teacher constantly presents his students with
white lies, and every time that he expands the information, he must admit that the truth
is not like he said and it is actually much more complex. The latter option, on the other
hand, does not force teacher to lie. Instead of constant updating of rules governing the
use of a given syntactic structure, it simply adds more and more chunks to them, finally
arriving at the complete set of rules.
Nevertheless, presenting the information in chunks has a certain deficiency.
Namely, it may make it more difficult for the learners to communicate in L2. When
provided with a simplified rule, the students might use it in improper contexts, but even
if they lack accuracy, they can still be understood by their interlocutor. If they are
conscious that they were only presented with one aspect of the structure’s use, they
might be reluctant to use it in different contexts.
The efficiency of those two methods differs according to the age of the learners.
While the adults and adolescents have little problem accepting that they are taught
grammar in chunks and seem to prefer it to being provided with simplified
generalizations, the young learners seems to feel more comfortable with the latter
option, which is probably due to the fact that they are still more able of acquiring the
language rather than just learning it and their language undergoes similar processes as
those encountered during L1 acquisition, with simplification and overgeneralization
being the recurring phenomena. Thus I believe it is optimal to use the chunk-method
with the more analytical, older learners while simplifying the rules for young learners.
However, no matter if we are providing grammar explanations in chunks or by
updating them, we might encounter learners’ questions that will require us to present a
bigger chunk or less simplified rules than we initially planned. In such situations the
teacher must be aware and provide sensibly extended explanations, avoiding too many
digressions and providing only some general information while assuring the learner that
their questions will be answered in more detail during the subsequent lessons. Again, I
consider this an optimal solution, since on the one hand it is discouraging to ignore such
questions and provide no clarifying information at all, and on the other the teacher
cannot try to explain everything in detail and including every aspect, because that would
lead to an almost infinite chain of explanatory digressions, which learners would simply
be not able to remember.
Teachers must be also very careful when using additional materials during the
lessons, since they may sometimes include syntactic structures that the learners are still
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not ready to be introduced to, and their presence would surely increase the number of
appearing questions, that having the teacher faced with the dilemma described in the
paragraph above.
Concerning the optimal use of metalanguage, the teachers have to be careful to
adjust its complexity to the metalinguistic knowledge of learners and if they consider
this knowledge not sufficient, they should expand it gradually during the lessons. The
group which is usually most accustomed to the use of the metalanguage are adolescents,
since they were being taught L1 grammar at school and they are learning other
languages there as well. The situation is different with adults, unless they are students
who learned some language recently or they are freshly after studies. Otherwise it is
quite common that their knowledge of metalanguage is quite limited, due to the gap in
time between the present and the time they were learning it, which causes them to forget
many details. Finally, the young learners are often before the stage when they are taught
the metalanguage and it might be left to the teacher to introduce its very basics, if
anything at all. Thus it is advisable to use and extend the knowledge of metalanguage
among the adolescents and adults, especially the more abstract thinking ones, while
using only basic or no metalinguistic terms when dealing with young learners, who
should be taught using a lot of visual aids and simple notions that they can easily
understand.
Finally, the last question deals with the contrasting of L1 and L2 (and even other
languages, if applicable) in order to help the learners understand the particular grammar
issues. I found this a very useful tool, which makes many new syntactic structures easier
to understand for the learners and often provides an interesting material for the more
curious among them. On the other hand we must be careful not to make an impression
on the learners that L1 is not really different to L2 (although there might be cases when
it is true, it is certainly not in case of Polish and English), which might lead them to
present an increased level of negative language transfer. Differences should be stressed
as much as the similarities, encouraging learners to treat only the particular phenomena
as similar or different, not the whole languages.
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4.2.4 Optimal amount of teacher control
There is no doubt that the learners should foster independence in their learners,
allowing them to expand their knowledge about language on their own outside the
classroom. However, most learners, and especially the beginning ones, expect quite a
serious amount of teacher control during the lessons, either because of their previous
learning experiences and individual preference or simply due to the fact that their
knowledge is too limited to work on their own and they need extensive supervision at
least during the first stages of learning the language. It is the teachers’ responsibility
then to develop the independence of their learners and gradually increase the amount of
control given to them.
Obviously, it is not only learners who are usually accustomed to the more
authoritarian style of teaching, but the teachers as well, and some of them might
experience difficulties when trying to share some responsibility with their learners. It is
advisable for them to plan the actions that increase the learners’ independence in detail,
because their spontaneous actions will likely tend to be in accordance to their own
preference. Evidently, it requires some effort and on the part of the teacher, but I believe
it is worth the time devoted to it.
What is more, teachers should not be discouraged if their initial attempts have
little effect on the learners and they express very little independence, even when given
the occasion to do so. They must remember that the learners may need to accustom to
the new situation of the shared responsibility. If their responses are rare and limited,
teacher should encourage the learners and try to lead their thinking in a way that would
enable them to arrive at some conclusions of their own.
However, if the teacher deals with an undisciplined and unmotivated group of
learners, the optimal solution would be to discipline and motivate before sharing the
responsibility, because otherwise it may lead to a situation when the loosened control
over the lesson on the part of the teacher will lead to disorganization and downright
chaos. It may also happen that the teacher will have to deal with learners who may not
cause any discipline problems, but they will be very reluctant participate in the lesson,
either due to lack of motivation or simply preferring to be led rather than advised. In
such cases I consider the optimal solution to maintain the high level of teacher control
during the lessons, while at the same time providing the learners with tools that they can
but do not have to use for independent learning.
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In case of motivated learners, however, promoting learner independence is the
best possible solution. It additionally increases that motivation, encouraging them to
perceive the language and its rules as an interesting object of their own discoveries and
leaves them with the appetite for knowledge.
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4.2.6 Optimal use of teaching aids and materials
During the self-observation study I had a rather limited access to teaching aids
and for the purposes of grammar explanations I was actually using the whiteboard in the
classroom and sheets of paper which I used in the similar fashion during private lessons.
My access to teaching materials was definitely better, although as a beginning teacher I
do not have many such resources at hand and I often had to devote my time to finding or
creating them.
Nevertheless, even with a relatively small access to resources I tried to use the
existing ones to the fullest. The whiteboard, even though it is one of the most basic
teaching aids, proved to be very helpful. However, it took me some time to develop an
optimal of using it. Initially, I was making the mistake of providing too much
information on the whiteboard at one time, which definitely decreased the clarity of
what was presented there and learners were sometimes complaining about this.
Eventually, I decided to present only the basic information for the whole time, while
providing the details in chunks, referring them to the basic idea that was constantly
present on the whiteboard. This strategy proved to be successful and since then I have
had no learners’ complaints referring to that issue.
The whiteboard gives the possibility of using colourful markers, which turned
out to be especially useful when dealing with young learners. Initially, I was using only
one colour during the lessons with both young and older learners. While adults and
adolescents had usually little problem with following the explanations that I wrote on
the blackboard, I was getting a lot of questions from the young learners, mostly in
situations when I contrasted the structure of the two tenses or declarative, interrogative
and negative sentences in a given tense. The problem of the learners was that they had
problems with seeing all the changes existing between the example sentences clearly.
Thus I decided to use the colourful markers, which underlined the differences between
the elements of the sentence and the changes in the structure of the sentence. I noted a
decrease in frequency of those problems after employing this strategy, which proved to
be optimal here. Obviously, I had also an option of using underlining or arrows for the
same purpose, but I decided that it would make the information present on the
blackboard slightly messy, so I used those signs only occasionally, to additionally
emphasize some more important changes.
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As I have mentioned before, I had no access to blackboard during private
lessons, so I had to devise a replacement for it and the easiest and most effective option
was to use white sheets of paper in a similar way to whiteboard. There obvious
difference was that I could not wipe off what I have once written. On the other hand, the
sheets of paper with all the information present on them could be given to the learner as
a reference material, which I started to do regularly after I was asked by one of the
learners whether he could take those sheets if I were not planning to use them.
Having considered teaching aids, I would like to proceed to the issue of teaching
materials. As I have stated before, I often had to find teaching materials and sometimes
even create them myself. Both of these activities required my time, but the latter was
especially time-consuming, since I had to be careful not to create ambiguous contexts
and not to use too difficult vocabulary. Therefore after several such efforts I decided
that it is best for me to temporarily limit my material-creating activities to making some
simple structural drills and gradually attempt to create more sophisticated exercises as I
gain experience in that matter.
Regarding the choice of teaching materials made by others, my concerns were
similar to those that I had when creating teaching materials by myself. The problem that
I encountered most often was the too difficult vocabulary present in the exercises, which
would create a situation when the students do not understand the sentences they operate
one, which might be annoying even during the simple structural drills, not to mention
the exercises that deal with the use of a particular structure. Very often the optimal
solution was to simply use the material from other coursebooks or pedagogical grammar
books, since it was problematic to find appropriate resources on the Internet, especially
for beginners.
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it is also a good occasion for him to practice his explanatory skills and exercise his own
knowledge of the language, thus increasing his independence. However, if the teacher
decides to rely on his own knowledge of grammar, he must constantly observe and
reflect on the errors that the learners make and control whether they could be attributed
to imperfections in the self-devised explanations.
Another problem that the teacher may stumble upon while using the coursebook,
characteristic to teaching beginners, is that the coursebooks for beginners are often
written only in L2, which makes it initially impossible or at least very difficult for the
learners to understand the instructions and explanations provided in the them. Definitely
such approach to coursebook writing is connected with the principle of immersion in L2
from the very beginning of the course, but the practice is that learners often get
discouraged by it and it is the role of the teacher to help them cope with that difficulty. I
believe the optimal way of dealing with this problem is similar to the one described in
the subchapter devoted to the optimal use of L1 and L2 during the lesson. Namely, the
teacher should start with providing the Polish translation of the explanations and
instructions and gradually limit them, according to the rising proficiency of the learners.
The coursebook is usually a source of exercises as well, but it might happen that
their range is not satisfactory as well, i.e. in terms of the number of communicative
exercises. Nevertheless, the exercises in the coursebook can be used as a foundation for
a more meaningful and communicative activity, instead of using other sources. Such use
of those exercises has the advantage of the fact that the learners are already familiar
with the vocabulary and the topic of the exercise and it might be easier for them to
communicate their ideas.
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However, what often needed to be optimalized was the amount of exercises at a
particular level of progress, since some structures were easy to learn and proceduralize,
but the context of their use was problematic for the learners to understand, while in the
case of other structures the situation was opposite. The amount of exercises for both
those matter was rather fixed in the coursebooks and workbooks, so if there was a need
to put more emphasis on one of those aspects and after completing all the available
exercises the learners still had problems with it, I had to devise exercises on the spot,
since I rarely had any additional materials with me. Fortunately, such situations were
not too frequent and usually I had to omit some exercises, especially drills, rather than
experience their shortage.
Evidently, the possible omission of exercises enabled me to devote more lesson
time to the more meaningful exercises and communicative tasks and had no negative
consequences. On the other hand, if the practice of drills had to be extended, it was
more difficult to arrive at the more meaningful tasks on the same lesson. In such
situations I usually told the learners to prepare for some more communicative task at
home, and I conducted it on the next lesson, thus saving some lesson time and giving
the learners an opportunity to familiarize themselves more with the new structure after
the classes. Another option was to omit some of the following less meaningful exercises
in order to complete the lesson and although I employed this strategy and rarely
encountered problems, I think it is slightly risky as the more meaningful exercises may
sometimes turn out to be too difficult for the learners.
Generally, I believe that the optimal solution for selection and sequencing the
exercises is simply to follow their order in the coursebook and workbook and be flexible
when the learners have little or, conversely, many problems with them. It is also
advisable to have some additional exercises prepared in case those in the books are not
sufficient.
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4.3 Recapitulation
As it can be observed from the presented findings of the study, it is hard, if not
impossible, to establish optimal solutions for presenting new syntactic structures due to
many factors that influence the teaching and learning process, both internal, such as the
teacher’s personality, beliefs and teaching style, and external, such as the number, age
and proficiency level of the learners, their previous learning experience and other
factors, such as the context in which the lesson is conducted. In general, I think that
there are two key factors to the success in optimalizing one’s teaching process. One is
self-reflection exercised during the practice of reflective teaching, which allows the
teacher to see his advantages and disadvantages and provide a critical but constructive
self-evaluation. The second factor is flexibility, which allows the teacher to adapt
himself to the constantly changing conditions in the classroom and experiment with
various techniques and methods, trying to achieve the one in which both him and his
learners will become successful.
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Appendix
OBSERVATION # 4
Learners’ age: adult Learner’s level: pre-intermediate
Syntactic structure being introduced: Past Continuous tense
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thus they seemed more confident in using it.
As for the use of P.C., I started with providing the
basic distinction between P.S. and P.C., with the
former describing a more point-like action and the
latter describing an action happening during a
period of time. The learners were already previously
acquainted with that distinction and they understood
it, so I decided to provide the more accurate details,
such as the completion of a task being expressed
usually by P.S., and the sentences in which the two
tenses are contrasted. I decided to stop at that point,
since I thought that those are the most frequent and
important uses of that tense and the other ones
would be mentioned only after a necessity for it
came during future lessons. Additionally, the
contrastive use of P.S. and P.C. posed a bit of a
difficulty for the learners, so any additional
knowledge would probably have been even more
difficult to digest. I think the number of the new
contexts that were introduced was big enough to
expand the learners’ knowledge appropriately while
not to big to cause too much chaos in their
perception of the use of Past Continuous (and Past
Simple).
The language used Almost all the explanations were provided in L2,
in the explanations except for some background stories which I used to
illustrate the contexts in which Past Continuous
would be used rather than Past Simple and the other
way round. Initially I tried to tell them in L2, but
eventually I decided to provide them in L1 in order
to speed things up and avoid any
misunderstandings, which were actually happening.
Repetition of the While most of the explanations posed no problem
rule for the learners and I didn’t have to repeat them
more than twice, the contrastive use of P.S. and P.C.
turned out to be a bit problematic and I had to repeat
it three times and then additionally draw sentences
with the diagrams and use them for clarification.
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The use of teaching I used no additional aids. Just the coursebook and
aids and materials the workbook.
Selection of I chose one pure drill for a warm-up, and then,
exercises seeing that learners have no problems with the form,
I decided to move on to the more creative exercises,
concentrating on the appropriate use of P.C. At first
the students made quite a lot of errors, but supported
with the knowledge of why their choices were
erroneous, they managed to arrive at a satisfactory
amount of accuracy.
The use of the The was no appropriate production exercise
coursebook provided by the coursebook at that point, so I
decided to devise a simple yet communicative one
myself.
The use of teaching No aids or materials were used.
aids and materials
Selection of I told the learners to describe me their previous day.
Students were
exercises They could do it in pair, providing additional
encouraged to
information or comments on the way. The main
participate in some
production activities problem was that one of the learners was more
fluent and talkative than the other, who on the other
hand seemed to place a bit more emphasis on the
accuracy of his utterances (which might be the
reason of his decreased amount of speech).
Nevertheless, I think it gave an opportunity for one
to learn from the other, cooperating in
communicating ideas to me.
OBSERVATION # 9
Learners’ age: adult Learner’s level: elementary
Syntactic structure being introduced: can/can’t
Investigated
Course of the lesson Comments
problems
Purpose of the Next to presenting “can” as an important element of
introduction everyday English, I wanted to relate “can” to some
knowledge already possessed by the learners,
therefore I mentioned the category of “modal verbs”
in English and described their behaviour in the
sentences as similar to that of the “to be” verb in
A brief introduction terms of forming questions and negatives, as well as
was made in L1 about possessing a special conjugation. Judging from the
the verb “can” and the low number of mistakes that the learners made during
consequences of it the lesson, it is probable that this strategy was
being a modal verb, as efficient.
well as about the The language used The explanation was provided in L1, as the learners
similarities and in the introduction were not comfortable enough with my use of L2
differences of “can” during the lessons and I preferred to avoid any
and “to be”. possible misunderstandings.
The length of the The introduction took about 2 minutes. It was enough
introduction to recall the behaviour of “to be” verb” and relate it to
behaviour of “can”, providing all the similarities and
differences. I was asked some clarifying questions by
the learners but in most cases I simply approved their
conclusions.
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The use of teaching I used the whiteboard to present and contrast the
aids and materials sentences using “to be” can “can” verb using various
colours to highlight the main parts of the sentences
and their shifting positions.
The use of the The coursebook provided only the information about
coursebook the structure and meaning of the sentences using
“can”, so I decided not to refer to it and instead used
only my own explanations on the blackboard, which
allowed me to include the reference to the knowledge
already possessed by the learners, that is, about the
“to be” verb.
I presented the The complexity of The explanations were quite simple, since the issue
behaviour of positive, the explanations discusses on that lesson was rather uncomplicated.
interrogative and The students understood everything perfectly and I
negative sentences believe that any complication of the matter would be
with “can” and “to be” counter-productive.
verb The language used I provided all the explanations in L1 in order to avoid
in the explanations any misunderstanding that would require further
clarifications and extend this phase of the lesson too
much.
Repetition of the I repeated the rule twice, although learners seemed to
rule understand it quite well after the first time.
The amount of I controlled the whole explanation process. I decided
teacher control that the matter is too simple to suggest the learners
that there is a “catch” that they must discover.
Additionally, presenting everything to them sped
things up a lot.
The use of the All the exercises were taken from the coursebook and
coursebook workbook. They contained various types of exercises
and no external source of those was needed.
The use of teaching I used no additional aids. Just the coursebook and the
Students were asked to
aids and materials workbook.
do some practice
exercises. Selection of I started with purely drill-oriented exercises and them
exercises moved on to exercises contrasting the two meanings
of “can” (permission and ability) and ended at
exercises in which the learners were to describe other
people’s abilities as well as their own.
The use of the I selected only one, rather simple exercise from the
coursebook coursebook for production purposes.
The use of teaching No aids or materials were used.
aids and materials
Students were
encouraged to Selection of The exercise was supposed to have learners ask
participate in some exercises questions to each other about the various things that
production activities they can or cannot do, so it was a more
communication-oriented variation of one of the final
practice exercises. Learners were also encouraged to
provide additional comments, not just the questions
and answers, but they rarely did that.
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OBSERVATION # 26
Learners’ age: adolescent Learner’s level: pre-intermediate
Syntactic structure being introduced: Present Perfect
Investigated
Course of the lesson Comments
problems
Purpose of the While both the structure and use of Present Perfect
An introduction was
introduction tend to be problematic for the learners, the latter
made about the use of
seems to be especially difficult. This is why I decided
Present Perfect tense
to emphasize this matter in the introduction. What is
and its place in relation
more, this enabled me to revise the use of the
to Present Continuous
previously introduced tenses.
and Past Simple. I
The language used The introduction was provided in L2 and a part of it
contrasted the use of
in the introduction was also translated to L1, since I saw that the learner
those tenses by
had problems with understanding several sentences.
description of the
The length of the The introduction took about 3 minutes. Most of that
action of opening the
introduction time was devoted to a more detailed presentation of
book. “I am opening
the context in which Present Perfect is used,
the book”, “I have
contrasted with Present Continuous and Past Simple.
opened the book” and
“I opened the book Acting this context out was not enough and I had to
half a minute ago”. provide additional information for the learner to make
him understand it properly.
The use of teaching I used a sheet of paper on which I wrote the
aids and materials exemplary sentences of all three types, underlining
the changes in word order between those types. The
sheet was given to the learner after the lesson.
The use of the The coursebook provided some more exemplary
coursebook sentences and the abstract structure of the Present
Perfect tense.
The complexity of The explanations were only using some basic
the explanations metalanguage and were to a large extent visual,
thanks to the use of sheet of paper. As for the use of
P.P., I provided only the basic context in which it is
I presented the used, including speaking about recently completed
behaviour of positive, actions and thing that have been done for some period
interrogative and of time until the moment of speaking. I decided that
negative sentences in this is enough at this point.
Present Simple Tense. The language used I provided all the explanations in L2 and fortunately
I also provided the in the explanations this time I didn’t have to translate them to L1 as the
most general rule of learner understood everything.
P.P.’s use. Repetition of the I repeated the rule of P.P. formation about 5 times. In
rule the beginning, three times when working with
exemplary sentences and one more time at the end.
The learner seemed to understand the explanations
and his good performance in the drill exercises
suggests he actually did. As for the use of P.P., it has
been already mentioned in the introduction, so I
provided the rule twice. One before giving some more
examples and one afterwards.
The amount of The whole explanation process was controlled by me
teacher control and I preferred to stick to deductive teaching, as the
learner was rather reluctant to participate in the lesson
Students were asked to The use of the All the exercises were taken from the coursebook and
do some practice coursebook workbook, except for one which I made myself.
exercises.
The use of teaching I used mostly the coursebook and the workbook, but I
aids and materials also employed a sheet of paper on which I made an
exercise spontaneously.
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Selection of The exercises were mostly uncreative drills,
exercises exercising the formation of Present Perfect and the
Past Participle forms of regular and irregular verbs.
Additionally, I devised a short exercise that I wrote
on a sheet of paper while the learner was doing the
drills, which exercised the use of Present Perfect in
contrast with Present Simple. The learner had to
know which tense to use basing on the phrases
dealing with time, present in the sentences (such as
“for 5 years”, “since 1995”, “already”, “in 1981”,
“two days ago”, etc.). However, I made a mistake of
not telling the learner which of those phrases are
characteristic for Present Perfect before and I had to
do it whenever he made a mistake.
The use of the None. Only one exercise was done and it was
coursebook spontaneously devised by me.
The use of teaching No aids or materials were used.
aids and materials
Students were Selection of Only one exercise was done at this point and I created
encouraged to exercises it on the spot. The learner was supposed to tell me
participate in some about some things that he had done for some time,
production activities such as “I have played computer games since 1998”.
Although this was a rather controlled exercise, the
learner communicated the facts, so I believe this was
a good start for meaningful activities with the use of
Present Perfect tense.
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Bibliography
Group.
Fraszka Edukacyjna.
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· Richards, J. C. 1991. ‘Towards Reflective Teaching.’ The Teacher Trainer
5/3:4-8
University Press.
Limited.
University Press.
University Press.
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Webgraphy
12.03.2008. <http://iteslj.org/Articles/Sysoyev-Integrative.html>
<http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/reflection.shtml>
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Summary
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Streszczenie
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Imię i nazwisko autora Robert Gleń
pracy/rozprawy
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/podpis/
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