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CoEd ENGLISH 110 TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF GRAMMAR

MODULE I

Lesson 1: Key Terms and Concepts in Managing and

Implementing Standards-based Grammar Teaching

Prepared by: Marianne A. Cabarles, LPT

CoEd Instructor, English
Christ the King College

I. Introduction:
This module covers the opportunities to see grammar rules and concepts in context,
review rules and concepts in conference. It includes both implicit and explicit grammars,
universal and language-specific grammars, the way that language “ought to be used”
and the way it actually is used, theoretically exclusive grammars and more eclectic
ones.

II. Learning Objectives:

At the end of this module, the students will be able to:
 Discuss the grammar rules and concepts in context;
 Identify the error correction and feedback in a certain context;
 Share the implication of one’s knowledge of key concepts.

III. Content:

Definition of Grammar

An overview:

-the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as
consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and
semantics.

-is the study of words, how they are used in sentences, and how they change in different
situations?
-The study of sentence structure. Rules and examples show how the language should be
used. This is a correct usage grammar, as in a textbook or manual/guide. The system which
people learn as they grow up.

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Grammaring

-Larsen-Freeman says “grammaring” can be seen as a “fifth skill.” Her definition of the

word is as follows: “the ability to use grammar structures accurately, meaningfully, and
appropriately. Grammaring emphasizes grammar as a dynamic process rather than a system of
rules.

Practical Activities for “Grammaring”

-The practical activities that are used in “grammaring” fall into three categories as
specified by Freeman’s definition of the term. Given that language should be used accurately,
meaningfully, and appropriately, emphasis is laid upon form, meaning, and use. For example, in
teaching phrasal verbs, the form is presented first. What should be explained is that a phrasal
verb consists of a verb plus a particle such as “break up.” However, explaining form alone is not
enough for understanding what the word means. Thus, meaning is a very important dimension to
evade any possible confusion that surrenders the phrasal verb “break up,” as the latter cannot be
guessed from the form only. Again, it is not enough merely to instruct students how to use
“break up” in speaking or writing in English unless an explicit teaching has been supplied. Thus
form, meaning, and use are equally important for the teaching and learning of grammar. In
general, the practical activities that are used in “grammaring” can be categorized into: a. form, b.
meaning, and c. use.

A – Focus on form:

-A distinction is often made between language use and language form. In other words,
there has been a continuous debate over whether to teach students the language or teach them
about the language. For Larsen-Freeman, both language form and language use are equally
important.

B –  Focus on meaning:

-Linking form with meaning can be carried out by the use of different activities. In fact,
meaning should call for some sort of associative learning (cf. Ellis 1998). This activity gives
students the opportunity to associate the form with the meaning of a particular target structure.

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For example, it is by associating form and meaning that a phrasal verb can be understood.
Moreover, meaning can also be made clear by using realia and pictures. By using real-world
objects or pictures, the relationship between word and referent can be made more explicit. For
example, if someone asks you what a cabbage means, and you have a cabbage, you will tell him
this is a cabbage. Mimicry of the appropriate action is another way of making the meaning of
linguistic “signs” more clear.

C – Focus on use:

-The right form with the right meaning should be selected for the right context to ensure
successful communication. A practical way of going about sensitizing students to the effect of
context on language is through making use of role playing. The latter can be described,
according to Larsen-Freeman (2001).

-Role playing can be considered one of the most effective activities for developing the
appropriateness of the linguistic behavior of students due to its simulation of real-life contexts.

Error correction vs. Feedback

-Error correction performed by the teacher followed by a feedback is a usual part of most
traditional and even non-traditional school approaches. However, if we think about it, our
ultimate goal is to teach the students how to become independent learners and be able to check
their own work. Lack of awareness about the necessity of doing this has become one of my
teaching challenges.

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The main aspects of the approach and some examples:

1. Define what a “mistake” is. A mistake is a misuse of the rule/s that has ALREADY BEEN
STUDIED AND EXERCISED. A mistake is NOT a wrong use of rule/s or vocabulary that have
not yet been studied in class.

2. Make sure the assignment contains only the material that has been thoroughly studied and
exercised in class.

3. Change the assignments’ instructions to include self-check as its integral part.

Example: "Please compose 10 sentences describing your day. Check your composition using the
provided checklist".

4. Provide a checklist of the typical mistakes. (Especially important for beginners).

Example:

 Grammar
 Capital letters
 Punctuation
 The use of time expressions (usually, sometimes, often)
 Spelling

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5. Provide any visual materials that can improve mistakes correction, such as charts, tables,
pictures, lists

6. Encourage using colorful markers and special editing signs.

7. Refuse to grade papers that have not been self-checked.

8. Structure reference materials, such as grammar rules, vocabulary, etc. in a way that students
can easily access the necessary “help” page. I suggest that each student has a folder separated
into sections, such as “Grammar”, “Reading”, “Writing”, etc. We file each page into a
corresponding section and create a table of contents of each section.

9. Do not highlight mistakes in the material the student has not yet studied as mistakes, but rather
as suggestions.

Example: I can not to read.  – Mistake. No “to” after “can”. His name was Kristofer. –
“Christopher”. Students often are unaware of the right spelling of foreign names.

10. Always discuss corrections. Encourage reasoning rather than saying which answer is “right”
or “wrong”.

Example:

Student: “She is read the book” is wrong. Me: Are you sure? Student: No. Me: Let’s try to check
the sentence structure. Let’s use the scheme we have…

Student: “She is read the book” is wrong. Me: Are you sure? Student: Yes. Me: Please explain.
Student: It’s because we must use –ing ending if the verb is in the Present Continuous.

11. In your final error check highlight mistakes, provide suggestions and create a list of repeating
mistakes. Give the students more exercises to practice specific points that they have probably
misunderstood. If grading is necessary, suggest some extra points for completing the correction
assignment.

Spoken Vs. Written Grammar

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Grammatical Assessment

-In the language assessment literature, grammatical ability is widely accepted as a key
component of second language (L2) ability in general and L2 writing ability in particular.
Indicators of grammatical ability have been investigated in L2 writing research, but the
indicators L2 writing teachers attend to when determining grammatical ability levels of their
students have not been studied. Furthermore, there is no research on what students know about
their teachers’ assessment criteria and how that knowledge might affect their writing and
learning process. This mixed methods triangulation study examines these questions in university
L2 academic writing classes through a quantitative text-based analysis of academic essay exams,
student questionnaires, and teacher and student interviews. The combined results of all data
sources indicate that the teachers in this study focus primarily on accuracy when assessing
grammatical ability. This leads to risk avoidance behavior by students and may have a negative
impact on their learning as students adapt their writing to meet above all their teachers’
expectations for grammatical accuracy.

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Pedagogical Issues

What do we know?

 Teachers' role needs to change

 Some activities are more successful than others e.g. Sketchy
 Teachers can be reluctant due to previous technological problems
 Culture has led teachers to be reluctant to innovate
 Teachers listen to other teachers
 Teachers involved in large scale projects share best practice
 Activities involving m-learning engage learners/learning

What more do we need to know?

 How to help teachers plan for learning

 Why do some activities succeed more than others?
 What characteristics do they share?
 How to assess and record learning journeys
 Which theories of learning apply
 How to future proof

What do we need to do/can do about it?

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 A convincing research project which identifies benefits of and issue with new ways of
learning
 Provide opportunities for teachers to communicate, collaborate and reflect
 Listen to the students
 Move away from such a narrow definition of academic success
 Embed m-learning within university teaching
 Professional development for teachers and lecturers

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Assessing grammar & vocabulary

-In term of assessment, grammar is central to language description and test taker
performance. Today, the knowledge of grammar is evaluated by its correct use in communication
through listening, speaking, reading, and writing in second language. ◦ Communicative
competence has four components: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic
competence. Grammatical knowledge consists of three elements; a) Grammatical forms or the
structures of a language. Form is both morphology or how words are formed, and syntax, how
words are strung together, both of them are concerned with the linguistic accuracy of language.
b) The grammatical meaning of those forms. Grammatical meaning consists of both the literal
and intended message that is conveyed by the form. It concerned with the meaningfulness of the
language used. c) Their pragmatic meaning or use in a given context. The pragmatic or implied
meaning results from the appropriate language choices a learner makes in a given
communicative event.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS

SELECTED RESPONSE

-Multiple-choice tasks ◦ The most common selected response task presents a blank or
underlined words in a sentence and the test taker must choose the correct response from the

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options that are given. (Grammatical form, Grammatical meaning, Grammatical for and
meaning)

-Discrimination tasks ◦ The tasks that asks the test-takers to attend to input that can be
either language or non-language and to respond in the form of a choice between or among
contrasts or opposites, such as true/false. (grammatical form and meaning) Noticing tasks or
consciousness-raising tasks

-Test-takers are asked to indicate (underline or circle) that they have identified a specific
feature in the language sample. (grammatical meaning)

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:

LIMITED PRODUCTION

-Gap-filling tasks ◦ The language is presented in the form of sentence, dialogue, or

passage in which a number of words are deleted. The test-taker must choose the appropriate
response for the deletion or gap based on the context in which language is presented.
(grammatical form, grammatical form and meaning).

-Short-answer tasks ◦ The input is presented in the form of a question following reading
passage or oral/visual stimulus. The expected test-taker response can vary from single word to a
sentence or two. (grammatical form and meaning, testing grammatical form and meaning)

-Dialogue-completion tasks ◦ The input is presented in the form of a short conversation

or dialogue in which a part of the exchange or the entire exchange is left blank and the expected
response meant to be grammatically correct.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:

EXTENDED PRODUCTION

-◦ Five-point scale for assessing syntactic knowledge (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) ◦ 0
none, 1 limited, 2 moderate, 3 extensive, 4 complete.
-Information Gap Tasks ◦ Presents the input in terms of incomplete information. That is,
one test-taker is given half-or some- of the information and another test taker are given
complementary information. Both test-takers then have question each other to get all the
information. (grammatical form, meaning, and pragmatic use)

-Role-play or Simulation Tasks ◦ The input presents test-takers with a language or non-
language prompt that asks them to take on a role or stimulate a situation to solve a problem,
make decision, or perform some transaction collaboratively. (grammatical form, meaning, and
pragmatic use)

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ASSESSING VOCABULARY

-The Nature of Vocabulary ◦ We can identify words as tokens and types. Tokens are all
the words in the paragraph. Types, on the other hand, do not count words that are repeated, only
words that are different forms.

-The difference between function words and content words. Function words –
prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and other “little” words- are seen as belonging more to the
grammar of the language than vocabulary. Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs.

-Some vocabulary tests have might focus larger on lexical items such as phrasal verbs
(“put up with”, “run into”), compound words (” personal computer”), or idioms (“a pretty
penny”), which have meaning only as a whole unit.

Four types of lexical phrases:

◦ Poly words are short fixed phrases that are perform a variety of functions such as
qualifying, marking fluency, disagreement, etc. for example: for the most part, so to speak, and
wait a minute.

◦ Institutionalized expression are longer utterance that are fixed in form such as proverb
and formulas for social interaction. For example: nice to meet you, how’s it going, etc.

◦ Phrasal constraints are medium-length phrases that have basic structure with one or two
slots that can be filled by various words or phrases. For example; yours truly/ sincerely, as far as
I know/ can tell, etc.

◦ Sentence builders are phrases that provide the framework for a complete sentence with
one or two slots where whole ideas can be expressed. For example: on the other hand, X, not
only X but also X, etc.

IV. Activities:

Activity 1: ESSAY

On a short bond paper, make a journal about the most interesting ideas you discover or you
learn from the lessons provided. This can be submitted written, encoded/printed, or online.

Activity 2: QUIZ; IDENTIFICATION and COMPARE AND CONTRAST

1. A distinction is often made between language use and language form.

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2. In spoken grammar, what is the basic unit of construction?

3. It is central to language description and test taker performance.
4. It is a misuse of the rule/s that has already been studied and exercise.
5. Involved in large scale projects share best practice.
6. Performed by the teacher followed by a feedback is a usual part of most
traditional and even non-traditional school approaches.
7. It consists of both the literal and intended message that is conveyed by the form.
8. Identifies benefits of and issue with new ways of learning.
9. The input presents test-takers with a language or non-language prompt that asks
them to take on a role or stimulate a situation to solve a problem and make
decision.
10. The input is presented in the form of a question following reading passage or
oral/visual stimulus.

11-20. Compare and contrast written and spoken grammar

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