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Professional Development Workshops for
Teachers of English
Communicative Learner-Centred Grammar
Peter Lucantoni
Peter Lucantoni
• Started teaching in 1979 in UK, lived and worked in Europe and Middle East, now based in Cyprus
• MA TESOL (Edinburgh) – Dissertation: Expectations of Cypriot Teachers of English
• Author & Teacher Trainer– Cambridge University Press (IGCSE English as a Second
Language levels 1 & 2, Our English Levels 1, 2 & 3, Teaching and Assessing Skills in IGCSE E2L)
– Longman (KET Practice Tests Plus)– Macmillan (Super Skills A, B & C)– Hodder Murray (International English Levels 1, 2 & 3
• Cambridge TKT, CELTYL, CELTA & DELTA trainer, CELTYL assessor & examiner for speaking tests
• Classroom teacher
• What is grammar?• What is a mistake?• Who decides what’s wrong?• Why do learners make mistakes?• Grammar activities• Conclusions
Workshop overview
• What is grammar?
Discuss with your colleagues and try to agree on a working definition.
Activity 1
• Use the words provided here to complete the gaps in the paragraph below.
grammatical parts of speech meaning rules
• Grammar is a set of …………… for combining words to express ……………. . Words are given “labels” to help us to identify their …………… roles. These labels are known as …………… .
• Grammar is a set of rules for combining words to express meaning. Words are given “labels” to help us to identify their grammatical roles. These labels are known as parts of speech .
Words carry more meaning than Words carry more meaning than grammar, so, in general, words grammar, so, in general, words determine grammardetermine grammarMichael Lewis,Michael Lewis, The Lexical Approach, The Lexical Approach, LTP 1999LTP 1999
Grammar is a process for making … Grammar is a process for making … meaning clear when contextual meaning clear when contextual information is lackinginformation is lackingScott Thornbury, Scott Thornbury, How to Teach GrammarHow to Teach Grammar, Longman , Longman 20012001
Language without grammar would … leave
us seriously handicapped (Batstone, 2000)
up and he that the in Bill Jane
stand announce spring marry
Activity 2
Can you understand the following ‘grammar-less’ exchange?
A Coffee?B Please.A Milk?B Just a drop.A Sugar?B I’m on a diet.A Juice?B Mmm.
Activity 3
• 6 + 7 = 14
can never be right• Did you go to the beach yesterday?
Yes, I go yesterday
wrong structure, but effective communication, comprehensible
usefully he kitchen like black the by
wrong and incomprehensible
What is a mistake?
• English is constantly changing, acquiring new words and usages from other languages, and excluding others
• English has wide variety of dialects, variations, registers, modern vs old-fashioned
• Dictionaries do not always agree• Anybody’s knowledge of language can
only ever be partial
Who decides what’s wrong?
• Mistakes are part of learning a language
• They are inevitable
• Teachers/learners may be able to eliminate some mistakes, but not all
• “Some mistakes should be encouraged” (Bartram & Walton, 1994)
Do you agree? Which ones?
Activity 4
He goed to the cinema yesterday
He went to the cinema yesterday
He go to the cinema
yesterday
Speaker knows
everything about past
simple
Speaker knows
nothing about past simple
Speaker knows
something about past
simple
I’m sorry sir, I did a mistake.
You didn’t DO a mistake, you idiot, you MADE a mistake!
An L2 learner …• is exposed to language• forms ideas about how language works• tries out language using ideas• is exposed to more language• changes original ideas• tries out new ideas
Adapted from Bartram & Walton, 1994
Why do learners make mistakes?
Approaches and methods in teaching grammar
The grammar-centred approach, grammar translation
Communicative language teaching CLT
And now … a return to grammar …
• There is a need for grammar• If learners’ attention is directed solely to
expressing meaning, they may neglect attention to accuracy and precision
• Noticing an aspect of form is the first stage of learning it – teachers can help learners do this
• But, learner has to do the learning – just teaching grammar doesn’t make it happen
• There is a role for the explicit teaching of grammar and metalanguage
Principles
• Noticing – an active process in which learners become aware of structure and notice connections between form and meaning
• Structuring – bringing new grammar patterns into learners’ internal grammars. Usually requires controlled practice
• Procedurising – making the new grammar ready for instant and fluent use in communication
Rob Batstone, Grammar, OUP 2000
• You are going to participate in some more activities which involve ‘grammar’. What do you like/dislike about each one? Which of your classes could/n’t you use the activities with? Why/not? What variations can you think of?
A sloobie is a brumpting silop which draches in a layod. It okuls from Klooblie, an ert in Fring. In order to ning a sloobie, the layod is larted by a ticfrous layoder.
Sloobie
Use these words: country, fish, dancing, river,
comes, Asia, lives
A sloobie is a brumpting silop. It draches in a layod. It okuls from Klooblie. Klooblie is an ert in Fring.
Sloobie
• Grammar is more than lists of labels and rules found in grammar books – it is closely tied to the meaning and use of language and interconnected with vocabulary
• Communicating through a language and learning a language can conflict – focussing on meaning does not guarantee language development on all fronts
Conclusions
