Теория и методика обучения иностранному языку (стр. 6 )

Activity

Both deductive and inductive approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. Study the lists of advantages of both approaches, read the statements about the disadvantages and divide them into 2 lists: deductive and inductive plete the chart above.

1.  It is a boring approach and therefore less likely to attract students’ attention and so be less effective.

2.  The time and energy spent in working out rules may mislead students into believing that rules are the objectives of language learning, rather than a means.

3.  The time taken to work out may be at the expense of time spent putting the rule to some sort of productive practice.

4.  Starting the lesson with grammar presentation may be off-putting for some students, especially younger ones. They may not have efficient metalanguage.

5.  Teacher explanation is often at the expense of student involvement and interaction.

6.  Students may hypothesise the wrong rule, or their version of the rule may be either too broad or too narrow in its application.

7.  It can place heavy demands on teachers in planning a lesson. They need to select and organize the data carefully so as to guide learners to an accurate formulation of the rule.

8.  Many language areas such as aspect and modality resist easy formulation.

9.  Explanation is seldom as memorable as other forms of presentation such as demonstration/

(From ‘How to Teach Grammar’, Scott Thornbury)

Grammar presentation techniques

Activity.

Analyse different presentation techniques and fill in the chart with advantages and possible problems of grammar presentation techniques.

1.  If you were introducing the present perfect tense for the first time, which of the twelve presentation techniques would you use? (You may choose to combine several of them.)

2.  In which order would you use your chosen presentation techniques?

Share your answers with your class and the reasons for your choices(s).

Grammar presentation
Technique	Advantages	Possible problems
1.  Using a song text
2.  Using a time line
3.  Reading
4.  Using a picture
5.  Using realia
6.  Personalising
7.  Explaining directly
8.  Practising and presenting	·  uses Ls’ real lives; ·  clear explanation given ·  Ls begin with the use, then learn the form ·  some amusing questions	·  Ls might not understand the questions ·  needs good elicitation techniques from T ·  Ls have to be used to working in pairs ·  not much context provided
9.Discovering
10.  Using a chart
11.  Eliciting
12.  Comparing L1 and L2

Activity. Answer the questions.

Questions on grammar presentations 1.  The structure itself. Was the structure presented in both speech and writing, both form and meaning? 2.  Examples. Were enough examples provided of the structure in a meaningful context? Are you sure the students understood their meanings? 3.  Terminology. Did you call the structure by its (grammar-book) name? If so, was this helpful? If not, would it have helped if you had? What other grammatical terminology was (would have been) useful? 4.  Language. Was the structure explained in the students’ mother tongue, or in the target language, or in a combination of the two? Was this effective? 5.  Explanation. Was the information given about the structure at the right level: reasonably accurate but not too detailed? Did you use comparison with the students’ mother tongue (if known)? Was this/would this have been useful? 6.  Delivery. Were you speaking (and writing) clearly and at an appropriate speed? 7.  Rules. Was an explicit rule given? Why/why not? If so, did you explain it yourself or did you elicit it from the students? Was this the best way to do it? (from Penny Ur ‘A course in Language Teaching’ CUP)

Guidelines on presenting and explaining a new grammatical structure:

1.  In general, a good presentation should include both oral and written forms, and both form and meaning.

2.  It is important to have plenty of examples of the structure in the context and to understand them. Visual materials can also contribute to understanding.

3.  Older or more analytically-minded learners will benefit more from the terminology.

4.  Depends on your own situation.

5.  Your explanation should cover the great majority of instances, but too much detail may only confuse. A simple generalization is more helpful to learners than a detailed grammar book explanation.

6.  These are basic and important points! Ask the observer.

7.  You have to ask yourself which is more effective in your situation. If the learners can perceive and define the rule themselves, then let then do it. But don’t waste a lot of valuable class time, sometimes it is better to provide the information yourself

Teaching grammar at a good grammar lesson includes:

1)  clear presentation

2)  communicatively organised practice through speaking activities

3)  production ended with a free discourse

Form and use

Activity

This task focuses on presenting both the form and the use of a new grammar point. 1.  Read the passage opposite, Form and Use, and then do the task in pairs. 2.  In the twelve presentations in Task3: Let me count the ways …, the form and the use were both presented. But which use of the present perfect tense was presented in each one? Complete the table below with the use of the present perfect which was presented in each case. Two examples are done for you.

Form and Use When we present a new grammar point to learners, it is useful to present two different aspects: its form and its use. Form means the grammatical form of an item and the rules for it. For examples, does a word have an s at the end? When do we add an –ed to the end of a verb and when not? What is the word order of a question? When do you use do and when do you use did in a question? Use deals with context. When or where is an item used? To discover the use of an item, ask yourself, in which situation is an item used in natural communication? For example, one use of the present simple tense is for describing actions that people do every day (I get up at 7.30), so in your presentation for the present simple tense you might include a natural situation where a person is telling someone else what they do every day, such as a learner writing to a new penfriend, telling her about a typical day at his school.

Technique	Which use of the present perfect is presented?
1. Using a song text
2. Using a time line	Unspecified time in the past
3. Reading
4. Using a picture
5. Using realia
6. Personalising
7. Explaining directly
8. Practising and presenting	Questions and tag questions; General questions in the past with ever
9. Discovering
10. Using a chart
11. Eliciting
paring L1 and L2

Activity. Mind the difference between accuracy and fluency

Accuracy – a practice activity which is a good for improving accuracy will have these characteristics: ·  Attention to form: the practice activity should motivate learners to want to be accurate, and they should not be so focused on what they are saying that they have no left – over attention to allocate to how they are saying it. ·  Familiarity: learners need to be familiar with the language that they are trying to get right. ·  Thinking time: monitoring for accuracy is easier and therefore more successful if there is sufficient time available to think and reflect. ·  Feedback: learners need unambiguous as to how accurate they are – this traditionally takes the form of correction.

Fluency – where the meaning is the goal, practice activities should have these characteristics: ·  Attention to meaning: the practice activity should encourage learners to pay attention less to the form of what they are saying (which may slow them down) and more to the meaning. ·  Authenticity: the activity should attempt to simulate the psychological conditions of real-life language use. That is, the learner should be producing and interpreting language under real-time constraints, and with a measure of unpredictability. ·  Communicative purpose: to help meet these last two conditions, the activity should have a communicative purpose. That is, there should be a built-in need to interact. ·  Chunking: at least some of the language the learners are practising should be in the form of short memorisable chunks which can be atomized. ·  Repetition: for atomization to occur, the practice activity should have an element of built-in repetition, so that learners produce a high volume of the targeted forms.

Activity. Read the types of grammar practice and underline the key words

Box 6.3: Types of grammar practice: from accuracy to fluency Type 1: Awareness After the learners have been introduced to the structure, they are given opportunities to encounter it within some kind of discourse, and do a task that focuses their attention on its form and/or meaning. Example: Learners are given extracts from newspaper articles and asked to underline all the examples of the past tense that they can find. Type 2: Controlled drills Learners produce examples of the structure: these examples are, however, predetermined by the teacher or textbook, and have to conform to very clear, closed-ended cues. Example: Write or say statements about John, modelled on the following example: John drinks tea but he doesn’t drink coffee. a) like: ice cream/cake b) speak: English/Italian c) enjoy: playing football/playing chess Type 3: Meaningful drills Again the responses are very controlled, but learners can make a limited choice. Example: In order to practise forms of the present simple tense: Choose someone you know very well, and write down their name. Now compose true statements about them according to the following model: He/She likes ice cream; or He/She doesn’t like ice cream. a) enjoy: playing tennis b) drink: wine c) speak: Polish Type 4: Guided, meaningful practice Learners form sentences of their own according to a set pattern, But exactly what vocabulary they use is up to them. Example: Practising conditions clauses, learners are given the cue If I had a million dollars, and suggest, in speech or writing, what they would do. Type 5: (Structure-based) free sentence composition Learners are provided with a visual or situational cue, and invited to compose their own responses; they are directed to use the structure. Example: A picture showing a number of people doing different things is shown to the class; they describe it using the appropriate tense. Type 6: (Structure-based) discourse composition Learners hold a discussion or write a passage according to a given task; they are directed to use at least some examples of the structure within the discourse. Example: The class is given a dilemma situation (‘You have seen a good friend cheating in an important test’) and asked to recommend a solution. They are directed to include modals (might, should, must, can, could, etc.) in their speech/writing. Type 7: Free discourse As in Type 6, but the learners are given no specific direction to use the structure; however, the task situation is such that instances of it are likely to appear. Example: As in Type 6, but without the final direction.

Activity. Point out the examples of

Controlled drills____________________________

Meaningful drills_______

Practising how much/how many? Using a sequence of oral drills (Elementary) Grammar practice is often associated with drilling. In this example, the teacher of an elementary class has presented how much? and how many? with uncountable and countable nouns respectively, and is now providing practice through a sequence of different types of drills. Step 1. The teacher says the following sentence two or three times: How much milk have we got? At a given signal, the class repeats this in chorus. Then the teacher indicates to individual students to repeat it. He corrects pronunciation where necessary. Step 2. The teacher repeats the sentence and the class choruses it again. Then the teacher supplies the prompt: Rice and indicates to a student to supply the response: How much rice have we got? The teacher supplies further prompts, such as meat, juice, sugar, spaghetti etc, and individual students provide the correct response. Note that all the examples (meat, juice etc) are uncountable – i. e. they do not normally have a plural form. Step 3 The teacher repeats Step 2, but this time uses pictures (of meat, juice etc.) rather than word prompts. Step 4 The teacher repeats Step 1, but this time with the sentence: How many bananas have we got? The teacher then supplies prompts that are countable nouns, such as potatoes, eggs, onions, tomatoes, etc. Initially the prompts are words, and then pictures. Step 5 The teacher then supplies prompts that are a mixture of countable and uncountable nouns, first words and then pictures. For example: Teacher: eggs Student1: How many eggs have we got? Teacher: meat Student2: How much meat have we got? Teacher: coffee Student3: How much coffee have we got? Teacher: apples Student4: How many apples have we got? Step 6 The teacher describes pictures to the students, who in pairs test each other.

How to test grammar 1.  Questions and answers. Simple questions, very often following reading, or as part of an interview; may require short or long answers: What is the (family) relationship between David Copperfield and Mr. Murdstone? 2.  True/false. A statement is given which is to be marked true or false. This may also be given as a question, in which case the answer is yes or no. Addis Ababa is the capital of Egypt. IS Addis Ababa the capital of Egypt? 3.  Multiple-choice. The question consists of a stem and a number of options (usually four), From which the testee has to select the right one. A person who writes books is called a) a booker b) an editor c) an author d) a publisher 4.  Gap-filling and competition. The testee has to complete a sentence by filling a gap or adding something. A gap may or may not be signalled by a blank or dash;the word to be inserted may not be given or hinted at. They (go) to Australia in 1980. or They ___________to Australia in 1980. (go) or A_____________ is someone who writes books. or I’ve seen that film. (never) 5.  Matching. The testee is faced with two groups of words, phases or sentences; each item in the first group has to be lined to a different item in he second. Large small Unhappy many A lot big Little sad 6.  Dictation. The tester dictates a passage or set of words; the testee writes them down. 7.  Cloze. Words are omitted from a passage at regular intervals(for example, every seventh word). Usually the first two or three lines are given with no gaps. The family are all fine, though Leo had bout of flu last week. He spent most of it lying on the sofa watching _______when he wasn’t sleeping. His exams___________ in two weeks; so he is ___________about missing school, but has managed to ___________quite a lot in spite ______feeling ill. 8.  Transformation. A sentence is given; the testee has to change it according to some given instucion. Put into the past tense: I go to school by bus. 9. Rewriting. A sentence is given; the testee rewrites it, incorporating a given change of expression, but preserving the basic meaning. He came to the meeting in spite of his illness Although ….. 10. Translation. The testee is asked to translate the expressions, sentences or entire passages to or from the target language. 11.  Essay. The testee is given a topic such as “Childhood memories”, and asked to write an essay of a specific length. 12. Monologue. The testee is given a topic or question and asked to speak about it for a minute or two. From Penny Ur “A Course in Language Teaching”, CUP)

There are six factors that need to be taken into account when assessing the value of a test:

1.  Its practicality – how easy is it to set up, administer and mark?

2.  Its reliability - does it give consistent results, e. g. do the results tally with those of similar students, and when marked by different people?

3.  Its validity - does it test what we want to test, and not something else?

4.  Its face validity - do the students recognize it as a fair test, and will they therefore perform to their ability?

5.  Backwash - does it positively influence the teaching that will be done in preparation for it?

6.  Spin-off - can the test be used subsequently for review and remedial teaching?

Where discrete-item tests lose points with regard to their overall validity, they are more reliable, practical and, from the student’s point of view, they look like tests. They can also be used afterwards for reviewing purposes. Their backwash effect is less powerful than of performance tests, however.

Activity.

Sample test. Test 1. Testing grammar using discrete-item tests

The teacher of an intermediate class has been working or, the differences between yet, already, and still - adverbs that present problems not only in terms of meaning, but also in terms of syntax that is their position in the sentence and the kinds of verb structures they combine with. The teacher now wishes to test her students` command of these adverbs. She can’t decide between the following five short tests.

1.

In each sentence chose the best place (/) to put the words in brackets: 1.  The 7.25 train/hasn’t/arrived/. (still) 2.  /Haven’t you/ done your homework/? (yet) 3.  I/have/sent/all my Christmas cards. (already) 4.  /Ben/is/doing his homework. (still) 5.  How many cookies/have/you eaten/? (already) 6.  /The film/hasn’t started/. (yet)

2.

Complete this text with yet, still, or already Preparations are underway for the Pan-World Games in Lomoka next year. Many new hotels have___________been built and tourists are __________making reservations. But the main stadium hasn’t been started _____. They are _______deciding where to put it. The Athletes` Village is_____being built, and the swimming complex isn’t completed __________.

3.

Look at the information in the chart and decide if the sentences are true or false. WORD CUP UPDATE Morocco-Tunisia___ USA-Germany: in progress S. Korea-Morocco_____ Japan-Austria: in progress Croatia - England 0-0 Austria-USA 3-0 Tunisia-Croatia 3-1 Germany-Japan 0-0 Morocco - England 2-1 Austria-Germany 1-1 1.  English have already played Morocco. 2.  Tunisia hasn’t played a match. 3.  The United States have already lost one. 4.  South Korea hasn’t played yet. 5.  Germany still hasn’t scored a goal.

4.

Complete these sentences to make true statements: 1.  Scientists still haven’t __________________________________________ 2.  People have already __________________________________________ 3.  Explores have already_________________________________________ 4.  My teacher has already_________________________________________ 5.  My best friend ____________________________________________yet 6.  I am still___________________________________________________

5.

Write a letter to a friend of between 75 and 100 words. Ask him/her about their news, and tell them some news of your own. Include two examples of yet, still, and already.

From Scott Thornbury “How to Teach Grammar”, Longman