Celce-Murcia (1993) When should grammar be taught?

The answer depends on learner variables instructional variables

Grammar Pedagogy

Grammar is an interacting component of communicative competence . It does not stand alone as an autonomous system to be learned for its own sake. She elaborates on feedback and correction in this context Finally considers the way grammar can be integrated into the curriculum. Historically CM looks at four historical approaches and their relation to grammar. Audiolingual Cognitive Code Language as habit formation Language As hypothesis formation and rule acquisition (anti AL) deductively or inductively. Grammar important. Errors have L1 and developmental sources. Sentenceoriented Chomskyan influence Recreate L1 experience. Comprehension primary (Krashen, TPR). Language is an instrument of communication (Hymes, Halliday) so language learning is communication of meaning rather than learning forms).

Comprehension Communicative

CURRENT PROBLEM

Not clear what should be done by teachers (no clear evidence as to communicative approachs efficacy (Richards, 85). What do we do? Here are some guidelines about teaching grammar. Learner variables: Learners learn differently (age, proficiency, individual variation) Instructional variables: Depends on educational objective. Receptive skills (semantics and recognition) need less focus on form, whereas productive skills (e.g. writing) need more of a focus on formal accuracy. Dont forget to take into account the learners needs. CM presents a grid to help you evaluate the importance of grammar in different situations with different learners.

If grammar instruction is deemed necessary dont forget that it is part of a larger competence and should relate to the other components meaningfully. Teaching grammar as meaning depends on good contextualized examples. Teaching grammar as social function should alert learners to consequences of inappropriate use. Teaching grammar in discourse (cohesion) is especially important in writing (e.g. definitions in relative clauses) Feedback and correction Local vs global errors restated as sentence level vs. discourse level with CM arguing discourse level errors are more serious. Stages for error correction Being able to identify incorrect items in isolated sentences Being able to identify contextualized errors

What do we do about exceptions to rules? Get students to induce general rule, and then deal with exceptions (Tomasello & Herron) rather than teacher explicitly telling them. Holistic error correction Students work with their own texts (e.g. tape themselves speaking & then transcribe it without errors). Teacher reformulates students text Correction of written work. E.g., drawing attention but not correcting, indicating number of errors, location, peer correction Direct intervention If necessary (e.g. mini grammar lesson). Answering questions (quickly and concisely or with questions). Grammar ought to be integrated into the way the course is organized (tasks, functions, puposes of learner). Problem of grading and sequencing of grammar or anything else in a syllabus is not simple (See Richards course books). Is content based/task based teaching the answer?