Grammar—Functional

Approach
TEFL

Office of Overseas Programming &

Training Support (OPATS)
Grammar—Functional Approach
Before we begin, let’s think.
• What are some important grammatical
features?
• What are some important steps in a
language lesson, including grammar
lessons?

• How might you teach grammar to

younger learners differently from adults
and why?
 Another Issue in
Grammar Teaching
When teaching grammar,
we may want to be...
… Descriptive NOT Prescriptive when
we teach (and correct) grammar.

• That is, we want to teach the grammar

that most people actually use,

• not what “experts” say we should use.

 Examples of Prescriptiveness
For example, experts think these phrases are
wrong:
* The man who I talked to…
* To boldly go where no man has gone
before...
* There’s two things I have to do...
• However, these phrases are often used by
native speakers, esp. in oral language.
With so much English to teach, do we want to invest
our EFL learners’ time focusing on mistakes that
native speakers don’t even notice?
If we base our lessons on …
authentic language
—that is, what people really say or write in
certain situations,

we will almost certainly be descriptive in

our grammar instruction, and provide
language that solves our learners’ real
world communication problems.
problems
Prescriptivism & UK vs. US English
• If your host country school system favors U.S.
English, no problem.
• If your host country school system favors British
English, then sorry, you have to teach it; esp. in
terms of vocabulary differences and written
language.
• However, you do NOT need to produce British
forms when speaking, and should someone insist,
graciously decline, stating that neither British or
U.S. English is superior to the other, they are
merely different.
WHAT TO TEACH
WHEN TEACHING
GRAMMAR?
GUESS--WHAT DO YOU THINK IS
THE MOST IMPORTANT
GRAMMAR FEATURE?
 VERBS!
• Both in terms of VERB FORM:
*I be going.
*He swimmed.
*Thank you for to help me.

• And VERB CHOICE.

* I study English since 2008.
* He is knowing the answer.
* If he knew, he will have told me.
 TENSE and ASPECT
• Tenses: I go, I will go, I went
• Aspects (progressive or continuous): I am going.
(perfect): I have gone.

• If you ever studied physics, think about the simple tenses

as the base and the perfect and progressive aspects as
functions applied to the base [ f(x) ].
Progressive  on-going action
Perfect past action that has a continuing effect.

I (often) study, I am studying (I’m keeping busy).

I have studied (from then until now).
 See chart and
explanation handout
What communicative
problem does this grammar
feature solve?
 A Functional Approach to Grammar

• If instead of teaching grammar structures,

“Today students, we are going to study the present
prefect!”

• We teach the communicative functions that

grammar structures address,
• “Today we are going to talk about things in the past
that affect what we are doing now.”

• We teach students the structures they need to

talk about things they want to talk about.
When grammar is learned in context...
• students discover the kinds of
situations where they could use this
grammar form.
• They also learn other forms and
vocabulary conventionally associated
with the target grammar form.
Case Study: failure to show the problem that
the grammar feature solves.
• Consider this traditional exercise for
learning the passive voice in English:
 Now think…
• How often in real communication are
we obliged to stop and produce and
active form and then construct its
passive form (or vice versa)?

Let’s Brainstorm: What problems

does the passive voice really solve?
 Problems that the Passive
Voice Solves..
It is conventionally used–
• when we don’t know the agent; e.g., when our
house is burgled.
• when we don’t want to emphasize the agent of the
action, but what was affected but the entity
affected,
e.g., The delivery was made on time.
• when we want to appear more objective by
depersonalizing the statement; to give the
impression of, “it’s not just me who holds this
opinion, anyone would see the sense in this.”
e.g., The hypothesis was disproved.
So what are some contexts
where the passive voice
might commonly occur?
• Accident and crime reports
• Descriptions of devices or locations

• Academic writing where we want to

minimize the “I / me”
me out of respect for our
peers, and to emphasize that we are
describing less our opinions than
phenomena that anyone would similarly
observe.
A (humorous) function for a form:
Try your luck with function and form
(Click on a speaker to hear the answer)

What’s a function of:

• The present progressive tense?
– I am leaving tomorrow.
• The modal “could”?
• The definite article?
– This is the student I mentioned.
• The (affirmative form of) the simple present?
– I’ll help you tomorrow.