Transcript Enrich, Enhance, and Empower Grammar Instruction Using Discourse Data Sun, Hao

Enrich, Enhance, and Empower
Grammar Instruction
Using Discourse Data
Sun, Hao
Indiana-Purdue University
The role of grammar instruction
• Strongly debated in the past three decades
or so
• Varied from priority to zero position
• Teaching grammar & acquiring grammar
• “Focus on forms” to “focus on form”
Focus on forms
(traditional)
• Isolation or extraction of linguistic features
from context or communicative activity
Focus on Form:
(proposed)
• [F]ocus on form … overtly draws students'
attention to linguistic elements as they arise
incidentally in lessons whose overriding
focus is on meaning or communication.
•
(Long, 1991)
Focus on Form:
(proposed)
• Aspects of the L2 input learners need to
notice, but have not
• Will require some kind of pedagogical
intervention when persistent problems arise
incidentally during language use in the
classroom that is otherwise meaning
oriented.
General perceptions
of grammar instruction
• Boring
• Mechanical
• uninteresting
Grammar in Language Education
• Using language grammatically and being
able to communicate are not the same.
• Language teaching needs to help learners
accomplish both.
(Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman
1999)
Approaches to
Grammatical Analysis
Formal grammars (Mental
grammar)
Functional grammars
• Concerned with
grammatical competence
• Aiming to explain
syntactic facts (without
recourse to pragmatics) on
the basis of formal
grammatical properties of
sentences
• Meaning is central;
grammar is a resource for
making and exchanging
meaning (Halliday 1978)
• Contextual features
constitute primary
importance in selection of
language use
• Unit of analysis extends
beyond the sentence
Functional Grammar
(A) I had also been rejected by the law faculty.
(B) The law faculty had also rejected me.
In addition to formal feature differences, functional
grammarians are more concerned with:
• The communicative effect of the message in the two forms
• What contextual factors have led to the passive choice
Traditional way of
grammar instruction
• A sentence-based view of grammar
• Decontextualized with unrelated sentences
• Inconsistent with communicative
competence (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain
2000)
A discourse approach
to grammar instruction
• But what is discourse?
Discourse
•
•
•
•
Language use beyond the sentence level
Occurring naturally in context
Written discourse
Spoken discourse
A discourse approach
to grammar instruction
• A functional view of language (Halliday & Hasan 1976)
• Communicative competence
(grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse & strategic)
• Rules of grammar context sensitive: e.g. passive, indirect
object alternation, tense-aspect-modality (Celce-Murcia &
Olshtain 2000)
• Few grammar choices strictly at sentence level and
completely context free (e.g. determine-noun agreement,
Celce-Murcia & Olshtain 2000)
•
A discourse approach
to grammar instruction
• Pragmatic rules determine which form works best
in which context and why
• Grammar teaching integrated with language skills
• Emphasis on language use in context
• Grammatical analysis at the discourse level
necessary
• Some learning difficulties lie beyond the sentence
level (e.g. Sun 2006)
• Awareness of form, meaning and use
Using discourse data in teaching
• For both grammar explanations and student
assignments, following approaches
suggested by several scholars (e.g. CelceMurcia & Larsen Freeman 1999; Celce-Murcia &
Olshtain 2000; Lock 1996; McCarthy 1991)
Authentic texts
e.g.
• News reports
• Newsletters
• Editorials
• Public notices
• Email messages
• Novels
Using authentic texts in teaching
Examples
• The passive voice
“The Russian submarine”
• The present perfect
“Jobs in Wyoming”
Assignments incorporating
discourse data
For whom?
• Prospective English language instructors
• Advanced or intermediate English language
learners
Focus of analysis
•
•
•
•
•
•
Tense/aspect
Passive
Articles
Conjunctions
Connectives
Relative clauses
Tasks
•
•
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Select authentic texts
Identify the target form in discourse context
Explain its meaning
Discuss its effect
Explain the differences with regard to
related forms and other options
Passive voice assignment
• Identify six passive voice sentences from (at
least) two different sources
• Provide the full citation of the sources of
the texts
• Provide the grammatical context (preceding
and following sentences)
• Write out the active voice counterpart for
each of the passive voice sentences
Passive voice assignment (2)
• Discuss what differences in meaning,
rhetoric effect, or discourse cohesion such a
change brings about, compared with the use
of an active voice
• Discuss contextual differences if relevant
(register, genre, topic etc.)
• Discuss what problems are encountered in
the analysis, if any, and why
Samples of student analysis (1):
Passive voice
Samples of student analysis (1):
Passive voice
Samples of student analysis (1):
Passive voice
• “Desert nomads traditionally live in easily
portable, black, goat-hair tents. These are
partitioned with a curtain, one half taken up
by women, children, storage of cooking
utensils and other necessities, and the other
half used for entertaining.”
Samples of student analysis (1):
Passive voice
•  Active (generated): Desert nomads
traditionally live in easily portable, black,
goat-hair tents. Somebody partitions these
with a curtain. Women, children and the
storage of cooking utensils takes up one
half, people entertain in the other half.
Samples of student analysis (1):
Passive voice
• Student analysis: As is plain, the former
paragraph clearly attains a discourse
cohesion that the latter does not. The flow
of ideas is much smoother in the original
paragraph. The altered version is stilted,
clunky and it progresses rather unlogically…
Samples of student analysis (2):
The present perfect
• “Is the ‘war on Terror’ passé? Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld has started to talk more about a
‘global struggle again violent extremists.’
Terrorism experts, who for years have requested
more nuanced language, are pleased…”
•  Simple past (generated): Is the ‘war on Terror’
passé? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
started to talk more about a ‘global struggle
against violent extremists.’…
Samples of student analysis (2):
The present perfect
• The meaning of the present perfect sentence
from the Newsweek article indicates that
the Secretary of Defense has begun to speak
in new terms. The use of the present-perfect
implicitly carries meaning that the writer
intends to convey – specifically, it allows
Samples of student analysis (2)
The present perfect
• for further development…. On the other
hand, given the use of the verb “to start”
here, the sentence in the past tense seems to
imply that the starting… at some point
concluded…. That is, this talking ceased.
Such an actuality is neither specified nor
intended.
Benefits
• Enhance a deeper understanding of the
grammatical functions at the discourse level
(what)
• Increase awareness of grammatical options
and rhetorical effects (why)
• Encourage exposure to and exploration of
authentic texts
• Improve communicative competence
Benefits
• Bridge the connection between learning and
application
• Make learning meaningful, useful and practical
• Motivate learning by providing choices
• Create a variety of learning tasks
• Promote discovery learning and learner autonomy
• Practice problem solving
Feasibility
• More authentic texts available nowadays
due to the internet
• All students have access to English
discourse data
Challenges
Students’ views:
• Identify the forms in real texts among many
others not as easy
• Determine the function and effect can be
challenging
Rewards
Students:
• “A long-time problem overcome” (in
writing)
• Confidence in differentiating forms
• Gain insights into discourse level
grammatical functions
• An effective way to enhance learning
Challenges
Instructor:
• Complexity of structures and analyses can
vary tremendously among students’
selection of texts and samples for analysis
Rewards
Instructor:
• Students gain knowledge of both the
grammatical forms and functions
• Students are able to apply their
understanding to natural discourse
(language use) in the real world beyond
classrooms
Conclusion
• Discourse-based approaches to teaching hold great
potential
• Effective implementation of such an approach
requires consideration of issues such as goals and
context of learning
• Both instructors and students need to have an
understanding of what they will gain from such an
approach and why they are doing it
References
• Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The Grammar book:
An ESL/EFL teacher’s
• course. Heinle & Heinle.
• Celce-Murcia, M. & Olshtain, E. (2000). Discourse and context in
language teaching.
• Cambridge University Press.
• DeCarrico, J. (2001). Vocabulary learning and teaching. In CelceMurcia (ed.) Teaching
• English as a second or foreign language (3rd). Heinle & Heinle.
• Halliday, M., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London:
Longman.
• Hinkel, E. & Fotos, S. (2002). New perspectives on grammar teaching
in second language
• classrooms. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
References
• Hinkel, E. (2004). Teaching academic ESL writing. Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
• Liu, D. & Master, P. (2003). Grammar teaching in teacher education.
TESOL. Inc.
• Lock, G. (1996). Functional English Grammar. Cambridge University
Press.
• McCarthy, M. (1991). Discourse analysis for language teachers.
Cambridge University Press.
• Sun, H. (2006). Sources of difficulties in cross-cultural communication
and ELT: The
• case of the long-distance “but” in Chinese discourse. Reflections on
English Language Teaching 5.1 (2006): 23-46.