REFLECTION ABOUT PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR

By Blanca Janeth Chi Velazquez and Citlali Hau Dzib

In the next pages, we will give summarize all the important topics we study
throughout the class of pedagogical grammar. As future English teachers we must
to know what grammar is, even if our students are children we should know as
background. First, we will abord the first topic we had learned at the beginning of
the class, the sentences and the parts of it, and how it is classified, etc. Also, we
will abord the ways in which we can teach grammar (approaches) giving examples
of our experiences. The final point we will give a personal reflexion of our learnings
and pedagogical grammar class of English 1.
Grammar according to Carter, R & Nunan, D. (2009) grammar is defined as the
study of possible structures in a language, other authors had defined grammar in
different ways. We agree that grammar can take many meanings and all of them
are valid. We can say grammar is the description of words in a language, the ways
it takes also can be the study of the syntax and morphology in sentences. For
Thornbury (2002), Grammar is the mental system of rules and categories that
allows humans to form and interpret the words and sentences of their language.
Anyways grammar helps us to identify the forms in which a sentence is transmitting
a complete idea and another aspect.
So, ideas are expressed in different ways, one of these on one we use many times
are sentences. A sentence is a group of words that has a definite structure and
must express a complete meaning. For being able to transmit something in a
language we take in count understand the part of the sentence subject and
predicate; the subject in the sentences is defined as the person, thing, place or
idea about which something is being stated in sentences we can find the object
there are two: direct object and indirect object. The predicate is the element that
indicates what the subject does, it can be a verb or any other element.
Type of sentence according to the meaning: All sentences can be classified into
different types according to the meaning they portray. The standard classification
of sentences according to meaning is the following: Basic sentences, Negative,
Affirmative, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclamatory, these transmit different
intentions of a message or idea.
Types of sentences according to structure: simple and compound.
Phrases, A phrase is a group of words that performs a given function in a
sentence. This group of words does not have a subject and a verb.
Phrases may be classified in two ways: According to their form (Noun phrases,
Adjective phrases, Adverb phrases, Verb phrases, Prepositional phrases),
According to the function they perform in the sentence (Noun phrases, Adjective
phrases, Adverbial phrase, Verb phrases).
Leaving aside the specific aspects of grammar, sometimes as students or teacher,
we usually ask why grammar should be taught it. We already know that even in our
native language grammar plays an important role, so for communicating we use
grammar structures many times we don’t know the specific name of certain
sentences but we use it, for leaning a language is important when we write,
speaking, read we use it maybe not explicitly but unconsciously we have and
general idea.
For this Thornbury (2002) proposes seven arguments for putting grammar in the
foreground in the second language. He describes grammar as a sentence-making
machine because we can offer to the students unlimited linguistic creativity to
make sentences. We think beginners’ students have the attitude and motivation for
learning another language so is important that they know if not all the grammatical
aspect but the necessary to understand the ideas when they are reading or when
they want to communicate.
In the same way, it is argued that grammar teaching is not necessary when the
important thing is to learn to communicate our ideas. Some linguistics had made
distinctions of the descriptions of grammar, Carter, R & Nunan, D. (2009):
Formal grammars take as their starting point the form or structure of language, with
little or no attention given to meaning (semantics) or context and language use
(pragmatics). Functional grammars, conversely, conceive of language as largely
social interaction, seeking to explain why one linguistic form is more appropriate
than another in satisfying a particular communicative purpose in a particular
context (p.34)
“Grammar is not only a collection of forms it rather involves the three dimensions of
what linguistics refers to as (morpho) syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
Grammatical structures not only have morphosyntax’s forms, but they also used to
express meaning (semantics) in context-appropriate use (pragmatics). These three
dimensions are form meaning and use there are interrelated one each another that
change involves a change in another” (Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D.
1999).
Taking these aspects into account and based on the experience that we had as
students and as future teachers in practice, there must be a balance between
teaching students with complex grammatical terms and teaching what is necessary
to communicate, sometimes if necessary to teach in a formal grammar way, but
many times we overwhelm them with structures and terms that consequently make
them lose interest in the language.
For the presentation of grammar there are many approaches, we will write about
the tree approaches we had learned in how we can teach grammatical rules.
“A deductive approach starts with the presentation of a rule and is followed by
examples in which the rule is applied” (Thornbury,2002). In deductive approach or
rule-driving learning, there are many aspects when we teach in a deductive way to
take in count firstly what we consider as a good “rule” for example the limitations
we teach differences and limit, the clarity, simplicity, familiarity if our students are
not familiar with certain words they are not going to understand the rules we are
teaching so use words according to the level is important. For us the most of our
classes of English since secondary school was through deductive way, with
something we call “formulas” like Subject+ predicate, we consider it is good in
some occasion but it is not functional ton do it in all our classes, also depend of our
students need and the level of English and age. The advantages are that we don’t
spent much time teaching a topic, it is useful for their writings.
“an inductive approach starts with some examples from which a rule is inferred”
(Thornbury,2002). Knowing also as rule discovery path, the students are in charge
of discovering the grammar rules through patterns that the teachers present to
them in the examples of the topic that we are going to present. Personally, until
university we learn sometimes through inductive way, but we think is an interesting
way to teach because we teach the students the use in context the topics, so it is
functional and useful for them. The advantages are they can work collaboratively,
and they learn autonomy. On the other hand if we want to teach in this way we
should take into account the time we had because students should be able to
identify the rules by themselves and sometimes is difficult for some students, some
prefer learn by deductive way, also it is important that our examples must be guide
and use concordance data.
Carter, R. & Nunan, D. (2009). The Cambridge guide to teaching English to
speakers of other languages. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL
teacher’s course. 2nd ed. New York, USA: Heinle & Heinle.
Crovitz, Darren & Devereaux, Michelle, D. (2017). Grammar to get things done. A
practical guide for teachers anchored in real-world usage. New York, Routledge.
Harmer, J. (2006). The practice of English language teaching. England: Longman.
Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach Grammar. England: Longman.