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Options in Grammar Teaching
Recent research says grammar teaching works - in some situations. The challenge is to design lessons that affect language acquisition.
Explicit knowledge (knowledge about language) is easier to teach. It is useful because it facilitates the intake and development of implicit language. However, it does not convert directly to implicit knowledge because the parts of the brain that store explicit and implicit knowledge are totally different. Explicit knowledge helps you to monitor language output, especially in writing - helps you to edit, for example.
Implicit knowledge is automatic and easily accessed, and needs to be developed to build communicative skills. Increasingly, implicit knowledge is seen as a complex network of neural connections that store chunks of language. Production that is based on implicit knowledge can give the appearance of being rule-like but this does not mean that this type of knowledge actually consists of stored rules.
As teachers we need to provide texts (structured input) that frequently practise the target forms, that make clear the meaning of the target forms and where understanding the target forms is essential for understanding the whole text. At this stage the learners don't need to produce the target structures. Teachers can use either input flooding or interpretation tasks where students must process the information.
Consciousness-raising is the teaching of explicit knowledge. We can tell learners the rule (direct option), or we can give learners the data and learners discover the rule themselves (indirect option).
The goal of production practice has traditionally been implicit knowledge. However, there is doubt whether drills help in acquisition of new L2 forms. They may help learners achieve better control over existing L2 forms.
Teachers may use error- inducing options or error -avoiding options. Error-inducing works better because it is connected with feedback.
There is growing evidence that to develop implicit knowledge while teaching grammar we need to use focussed communication options. These occur where the focus is on communicating a message but the specific grammatical structures are being practised. They cater for incidental, rather than intentional learning. These activities are hard to design, because students will avoid using difficult structures, they will paraphrase or use alternative, more familiar structures.
Negative feedback is most crucial in a focused communication structure. Research is showing this is effective in aiding language acquisition. This feedback can be indirect (reformulating) or direct.
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OPTIONS IN GRAMMAR TEACHING
(Speech Notes)
Rod Ellis
University of Auckland
A. What are options?
A 'methodological option' is a design feature that results in some form of classroom activity which teachers recognize as distinctive (e.g. learning about a grammatical rule vs. practising the grammatical rule).
Stern (1992) identifies three broad categories of options ('treatment strategies'):
1. teaching strategies (crosslingual/ intralingual; analytic/ experiential; explicit/ implicit)
2. timing strategies
3. social strategies
The challenge is to identify options that have some psycholinguistic validity (i.e. a design feature that has the potential to affect acquisition).
Note: Grammar teaching typically involves clusters of options.
B. A Model of L2 Acquisition
C. Structured input
Texts are contrived in such a way that a) target forms are frequent, b) texts provide clear evidence of the meaning of target forms and c) comprehending the target forms is essential for comprehending the whole text.
Learners are not required to produce the target structure.
Two ways of structuring the input:
1. Input flooding
2. Interpretation tasks
D. Consciousness-raising
Consciousness-raising options are directed at explicit knowledge. Two kinds:
1. Direct (i.e. learners are told the rule)
2. Indirect (i.e. learners are supplied with data and asked to discover the rule for themselves).
E. Production Practice
The goal of production practice has traditionally been implicit knowledge. However, there is considerable doubt as to whether production practice results in acquisition of new L2 forms but it may help learners to gain more control over existing L2 forms.
Major options include:
- Error-inducing
- Error-avoiding
a. Text manipulation (i.e. pattern practice and contextualized grammar activities)
b. Text creation
F. Focussed communication
Focussed communication options occur in activities that attempt to direct learners' attention to specific grammatical features while their primary (focal) attention is on message-conveyance. Thus, they cater for incidental rather than intentional learning.
- Structure-based communication tasks
a. use of the target structure is 'natural'
b. use of the target structure makes the task 'easier'
c. use of the target structure is 'essential'
- 2. Pushed-output i.e., learners are encouraged to reformulate ungrammatical utterances through implicit feedback.
G. Negative Feedback
- Explicit vs. implicit
- Context; production practice vs. communicative activity (Johnson (1988): 'learners need to see for themselves what has gone wrong in the operating conditions in which they went wrong').
- Negative feedback and uptake
H. Using the Framework
The framework can be used as a basis for research (i.e. systematically investigating the effects of utilizing specific options or clusters of options or describing the pedagogic constructs that guide teachers in their teaching).
It can also be used for pedagogic purposes; as a basis for designing teaching materials or for micro-evaluation carried out by teachers (i.e. teachers can experiment with tasks that involve different options and examine their effectiveness).
J. Selected References
Doughty, C. and Varela, E. 1998. Communicative focus on form. In C. Doughty and J. Williams (eds). Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fotos, S. and Ellis, R. 1991. Communicating about grammar: A task-based approach. TESOL Quarterly 25: 605-628.
Loschky, L. and Bley-Vroman, R. 1993. Grammar and task-based methodology. In G. Crookes and S. Gass (eds.). Tasks and Language learning: Integrating Theory and Practice. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Lyster, R and Ranta, L. 1997. Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation of form in Communicative Classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 19: 37-66.
Trahey, M. and White, L. 1993. Positive evidence and preemption in the second language classroom. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 15: 181-204
VanPatten, B. and Cadierno, T. 1993. Explicit instruction and input processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 15: 225-41.
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