First, read this article reflecting the teacher's opinion. Does it correspond with your school experience? Which group did you belong to at high school? Consider your position in other foreign languages than English.
Read the texts in the following links. Order the suggestions according to your own preference: start with the strategies that will suit you best.
TASK 2
How are these quotations connected to the relation between accuracy and fluency?
"grammatical accuracy on its own is a dead end, unless used
to receive and produce interesting and purposeful meanings within the context
of real-life language use." (Ur 1996: 78).
"A communicative approach, properly conceived, does
not involve the rejection of grammar. On the contrary, it involves a recognition
of its central mediating role in the use
and learning of language. (Widdowson 1990: 98)
"... it is wrong to imply that teachers are confronted with two mutually exclusive
choices when it comes to teacher grammar: either avoiding the teacher of grammar
altogether, or returning to a 'traditional' form-focused approach. (Nunan 1991:
151).
TASK 3
Use a textbook. Identify tasks/exercises which focus on accuracy/fluency. Discuss your choice with your classmate.
Make a list of typical tasks focused on ACCURACY.
___________________
Teaching Grammar - Approaches and Methods
grammar-translation vs.
direct method
natural acquisition or communicative approach
the specific purpose of
learning languages should be defined first
other factors: age, level,
abilities, background + tradition (textbooks);
effectivness
in relation with the goals and purposes
in general: learn or acquire?
G-T: "Divide
the whole of the English language up into manageable bite-sized chunks, and
then introduce these to the students, one chunk per lesson, so that they
gradually and systematically accumulate a complete picture of the language.
COM: Create an environment where a
lot of language, known and unknown, is met ... and where the students are
helped with the new language only when they already have some awareness of it,
and have curiosity or questions about it." (Scrivener 1994: 114).
inductive X deductive
covert X overt
“…there are no studies that provide evidence that overt
grammar instruction is essential.”
“... no one should dismiss
grammar instruction altogether, because there is no empirical evidence that to
do so is ultimately more beneficial to second-language learning. Indeed, some
of the alternatives may be harmful in the long run." (Celce-Murcia 1988:
14)
Dangers:
overemphasis on communicative function at the expense of
grammatical accuracy
___________________
TASK 4 - Questions to consider:
Which items of English grammar should be taught covertly/overtly and why?
Which items of English grammar should be taught
inductively/deductively and why?
Should we base teaching grammar on comparative principles
and translation?
To which extent are we authorised to use simplification?
Present your ideas on the system of articles, give examples.
Hot Tip: Air-flight approach – higher level gives less details but
the pattern is more recognisable.
In my opinion, vocabulary should be taught covertly via multimedia,because it is just clearly the most efficient way.For overt aproach I would say that sentence syntax should be taught overtly as there is not a lot that has such free structure.
OdpovědětVymazatInduction should be used when teaching tenses and other grammatical cases, as there is a great grey area, that could be minimized when learning through examples.
Deduction should be used when teaching more complex structures in grammar, as you don't face the risk of memorizing something incorrectly.
I would say that it can vary depending on the mother tongue, in czech to english translation, it is much harder to stay on the grammaticaly correct and relevant level, therefore i wouldn't suggest that.
Simplification should be used as a revision or proof of concept, we should simplify in such manner that the core should be understood well and clearly.
I think it depends on what kind of a student you have. If you teach an adult (maybe even motivated to some extent), it might be a good idea to cvertly teach often used phrases which the student will demand (ex. for vacation abroad). I think the same goes with school students, but eventually we will want them to create phrases and sentences of their own. For that, they will need to know the sentence structure (questions, declarations,...). That can be taught both ways. (with simple structures)
OdpovědětVymazatAlso covert teaching might be good for pronunciation, as there are so many rules that it is impossible to memorize them all (and students will mostly pronounce just the words they know).
Inductive teaching might be good (and fun to use) for teaching grammatical and syntactic changes which come hand in hand with the usage of different tenses. On the other hand, deductive approach should be used to explain in which situtations we can use the tenses (ex. habits, routine,...with present simple).
With Czech students, I would not teach on the comprarative principles. In some situations it is possible to use it as it might help a little, but direct translations from Czech to English usually do not work, because the rules often differ.
Pavel Bruckner
OdpovědětVymazatI think that basic phrases and frequently used vocabulary should be taught covertly via multimedia (e.g. series/movies, videogames etc.). Overt teaching can be used for simple grammar because of the given set of rules.
Deduction and induction should be used very carefully. Deduction is ideal for teaching more difficult grammar (e.g. tenses and their usage in practice etc.). Induction on the other hand can be used when teaching sentence structure.
Translation shouldn't be used when teaching English to Czech or any other Slavic students because of the different language rules.
The usage of simplification shouldn't be used when teaching new topics, but it could be used for revision of previously learned topics.
Some grammar is better to teach covertly, because it focuses learners attention on the task itself without realising the rule at first. It then comes more naturally. On the other hand, more advanced grammar is better to teach overtly because the rules are usually needed to understand how and why the structure is created. In the end it comes down to the fact what kind of learners is available to the teacher.
OdpovědětVymazatDeductive approach is useful for advanced grammar when explanation is needed first. It is usually used when teaching second language that has different tense than the first. In such case it is good to explain it first, because induction wouldn't make much sense for the learner. On the other hand Induction is clear choice for simple sentence structure, because learners are much more likely to adopt it from practical examples than from memorising rules.
Comparative teaching can be tricky because of structure and tense differences that might be confusing when the teacher is trying to compare them to something that is not present in learners first language. it can lead to oversimplification or misinterpretation. Simplification is not a bad thing in itself but is useful only when there is a similarity between first and second language. When there is none, it can cause more harm than help.
Covert approach is good for teaching pronunciation and vocavulary but I think grammar should be taught overtly.
OdpovědětVymazatFrom my own experience at high school and elementary school, the inductive method failed colosally as the teacher tried to give examples and make us form the rule but the class wasn't able to understand and eventually lost attention. The teacher got back to deductive nethod but lost a part of the lesson. Inductive method may be good for adult student who speak English for several years.
Simplification is good for summaries or revision of what was done i the previous lesson. It is sad that teachers use simplification with some grammar rules for younger learners with the commentary: "It is much more complicated but you will ve explained further on high school."
I don't see why should be comparative principles and translation bad.