成人学生语法教学新思路

兰志丰

摘要:语言教学的最新发展对语法教学提出了许多质疑。传统的语法教学方式受到交互式语言教学法的冲击。怎样有效地讲授英语语法、怎样把语法课讲得妙趣横生是我们面临的问题。文章探讨怎样在语境中利用交互式教学法来讲授语法而不是孤立地讲授语法。

关键词:交互式教学法 语法 教学

Abstract

Recent developments in language teaching have left many doubting about how to teach grammar. How

to teach it effectively and meaningfully is the problem we face. The traditional ways of grammar teaching has been beaten by the communicative approaches. This paper tries to introduce some interactive methods of teaching English grammar in context instead of in isolation.

Introduction

In designing a language class, one of the first things is to identify the influential factors that have to be taken account. At least the designer should consider the features unique to the learning of a language. Learning a language well always means the use of ears, mouth, hands, brain, etc. as well as the eyes. This will mean significant adjustment of a learning class involving a lot of contents including the materials and the activities. And this is one of the reasons why modern language classes are usually all communicative, with very rare exceptions.

The students background

1. Features of adult learners

If a language class is communicative, it is then basically learner-centred. Therefore most of the influential factors in the designing of such a class will be very much related to or decided by the nature and need of the learners in question.

A language-teaching plan may be viewed as the teachers main guidelines, but it is the students who are set to benefit. Therefore when planning a class, first one has to learn about the learners, who the learners are and what they do. Research has shown the differences between adult and child language learners, which must be considered in the planning of a language class. Birchbichler(1984) summaries 10 characteristics of adult language learners, which may serve as a guide for the class planning. Adults, for instance, are more likely to be learning rather than acquiring a new language, and this feature should exclude some popular materials and activities as unsuitable to adult learners. Yet adults can learn more efficiently (Littlewood, 1984: 66), because they have “a greater memory storage capacity, a greater capacity for analytic reasoning and can develop a strong instrumental motivation” (Van Els, 1984: 119). To them, the subject matter involved in the learning can be more abstract, serious, less playful but more formal, and, so far as the input is comprehensible, and at the appropriate level, they can be quite efficient classroom learners (Krashen, 1981: 104-105). All these differ from child learners needs, creating wholly different teaching plan.

2. Students needs

Most of the students have learned English for six years with a vocabulary of about 1000 words and little knowledge of grammar. Some of them have jobs and even have quitted learning English for many years. English is mostly taught at middle schools using the traditional grammar-translation method, because of the exam centered education system. This emphasis on examinations is due to the perception that results are superior to other qualifications in evaluating a teachers work. In order to cope with the demands of these exams, lessons are usually teacher oriented, with teachers predominantly using Chinese to teach English. Therefore, students had little opportunities to accept a new teaching method. They want to obtain more knowledge of grammar in order to understand and use the target language correctly and effectively.

Designing a grammar class

1. Rationales

Designers should not forget the finding in language learning that learners, adults or children, share a similar language acquisition sequence. Teachers should work with such a process rather than against it. Thus, the theoretical basis of the design of the grammar class is supposed to include the following elements.

A. Teaching methodology----traditional and communicative approach

Recent developments in language teaching have left many doubting how to teach grammar. Traditional ways have been questioned and new approaches are being tried. Grammar should be taught in a context, not rules and structures alone. Penny Ur (1988) suggests that: “When we teach grammar, we are --- or should be --- getting the learners to learn quite a number of different, though related, bits of knowledge and skills: how to recognize the examples of structure, how to produce the form, how to understand its meaning in context, and produce meaningful sentences using it themselves.”

As described above, grammar should be taught and practiced as a means of communication, rather than as a means of correcting the accuracy of individual sentences. Learners should be taught how to form correct structures and also their functions, as the first step towards meaningful communication. Learners should have a reason to use the information given in an exercise. Grammar should be best introduced through a traditional approach. Then, once students have a fairly thorough understanding of the grammar point, they are gently led into some communicative activities that allow them to demonstrate and consolidate their knowledge of that grammar point. In this way the communicative approach is not intended as a replacement for the traditional one, but as a supplement to it.

B. Psychological basis---- Humanistic psychology

This theory initiates the full development of individual potential and realization of self-value. It proposes that a friendly and harmonious environment is the premise to satisfy the needs of both teachers and learners. S. P. Corder, a famous applied linguist, has pointed out that language teachers actually cannot teach a language to students, what they can do is to create a harmonious language-learning environment for them.

C. Center of the grammar class ----- Learners and learning

Since learners are the cores of the learning and learning is the process to achieve learners target, the grammar class is to focus primarily on both the learners and the learning. It is both learner-centered and learning-centered and the learners autonomy is to be emphasized.

2. The principles and aims of the teaching plan

The teacher should prepare his/her lesson thoroughly, explain clearly and use various teaching aids to stimulate the students interest. Good classroom control should be maintained and the teaching content should not only be presented theoretically but also put into practice.

At the same time, the students should be more relaxed, increasing the effectiveness of their study. They should be encouraged to participate and interact closely both with their classmates and the teacher. An environment should be created where they feel free to express their ideas without inhibition. So the aims are:

A. To provide students with opportunities to develop their language use.

B. To raise awareness of the communicative approach to grammar.

C. To get the students to study grammar using the communicative approach.

3. Teaching content: comparison of the simple past and the present perfect

4. The objectives:

A. To give the students practice in the use of the present perfect and the simple past

B. To understand the principles of a communicative approach to grammar.

Teaching Procedure

Step One

After explaining the distinctions between the simple past and the present perfect, give each student a copy of the following exercises and ask them to rewrite the sentences.

e.g. You/be/tired/all day.

What time/you/go to bed/last night?

You have been tired all day.

What time did you go to bed last night/

1. Francis/leave/home/6 oclock this morning. He/drive/since then.

2. Brazilia/the capital of Brail/since 1960. Before 1960, Rio de Janiero/the capital.

3. Carol/move/to Oxford/in 1975. she /live/in Oxford/since 1975.

4. I/not/see/the new manager/yet. When/she/start working for the company?

5. Paula and Laurence/be/married/since last year/they/meet/at university.

Did you find the exercise interesting? Probably not. Because the format is very familiar and it provides a very routine practice. Students find this a very simple but tedious task and are fully aware how to manipulate the language to provide the correct answers. No communication is necessary to complete the exercise. Students are provided with an opportunity for practicing the language forms as they are introduced in the target grammar and can demonstrate a good command of in this context.

Step Two

Ask the students to think of about three things in their lives that they have done recently and they are pleased or excited about, and three things they havent found time to do. Give them some minutes to prepare and then ask their partners questions by using “What have you done?” “What havent you done?” As B answers questions, A should make notes and then the pair can exchange roles.

After it is finished, ask students to report to the class. The teacher may ask such questions as: “Who do you think is the busiest student in the class?” or “Who has done the most interesting thing?”

The activity above is based on the form of a simplified role-play that is a communicative activity completed in pairs. Pairs can develop the exchange by expanding the topic with further questions, e.g. “Why havent you had time to do these things?” or “When did you complete these things?” (Providing a contrast with the usage of the simple past). In this way the students will be eager to participate in the conversation. The instruction to write the information down and report to the class makes the exercise truly communicative. It is also the personalization of the activity that increases activity, interest and real communication.

Step Three

Ask students to form five groups and hand out a slip of paper --- the following exercise --- to each student. Ask them to fill the blanks using the correct verb forms. After they have finished, the groups should decide the correct order to produce a coherent text. Instruct them to stand in a line according to the sentence order and then once completed, ask them to read out the words on the slip.

1. See the man over there? I am sure ______ (see) him on TV.

2. He is a wonderful piano player and he and his family _____ (do) a lot of different things in their lives.

3. He ______ (travel) all over the world and he _____ (meet) many interesting people.

4. His daughter is only 20 and she _____ ( ) already _____ (write) a very successful book.

5. His wife is a musician too, and they _____ (play) together many time in different countries.

At first, it seems that it is a typical traditional grammar exercise; students are asked to fill in the blanks. However, this is seen only as the first step towards text reconstruction, giving a great volume of practice of the target item. Secondly, students have more opportunities to talk and discuss. It also shows how practice at an individual sentence level can be extended to lead to the production of a text. It can improve their motivation, contributing to a feeling of co-operation.

Step Four

Give each student a copy of the following materials, and ask them to notice the underlined tenses used in the newspaper extracts.

1. Former Labor MP Faulds dies.

Controversial former Labor MP Andrew Faulds has died at the age of 77. Mr. Faulds, who was MP for Smethwick in the Midlands between 1966 and 1974 and represented Warley East until 1997, died at a nursing home in Stratford-Upon-Avon

2. Cuban boy Elian barred from seeking asylum.

Relatives of Cuban tug-of-love boy Elian Gonalez have suffered a major setback in their fight to keep him in the U.S. An appeal court in Atlanta yesterday ruled the six-year-old was not entitled to an asylum hearing, siding with his father who wants him to return to Cuba.

3. Star to spilt from secret husband.

The man who was pop star Janet Jacksons secret husband for nine years has made the union public --- by filling for divorce.

4. Hunting the first of the sea wolves.

Hollywood has rediscovered the book office clout of the underwater adventure movie to raise the first submarine to sink another ship, the Hunley.

After reading, ask the students to think about the following questions:

1. Where do these texts come from?

2. What language features do these four pieces of news all have in common?

3. What do notice about the tenses used? Which tenses is used to begin these articles?

4. Why do you think this tense is used?

5. Is the present perfect an appropriate tense for introducing the news? Why?

These texts all come from authentic material and relate the present perfect to a communicative function, for example, reporting news, or introducing news topics. It is comprehension-based and it involves students discovering how the grammar works in producing the present perfect. The students learned the simple past and the present perfect in middle school. They are very familiar with the rules, but sometimes have difficulty in using them appropriately. Through the four activities they have compared, and obtained a general idea about the two tenses.

Conclusion

The learning activities based on this design turn out to be effective, but it seems a little time-consuming. Many teachers adopted approaches of deducing and inducing when teaching English grammar in the past decades. It was helpful in language learning. But I think the traditional approaches are not the most effective ones, especially in stimulating the students interest, motivation and tactics in language learning. Communicative ways of grammar teaching makes the students more active in class and understand what they learn more thoroughly.

References

David, N. 1987. “Communicative language teaching: Making it works”[J]. ELT Journal, 41/2.

Jeremy, H. 1983. The practice of English language Teaching [M]. Longman Ltd.

Liu Longxi. 2003. “Designing A Grammar Workshop”[J]. Teaching English in China, Vol.26 No.2

Susan, H. 1993. Grammar Matters [M]. CITL

Xia Jimei. 2003. Foreign Language Course Design Modern Theory & Practice [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Zou Xiandao. 2002. “Planning A Language Programme”[J]. Teaching English in China, Vol.25 No.3