4 28 contextualizing grammar teaching using authentic materials

8/4/2019 4 28 Contextualizing Grammar Teaching Using Authentic Materials

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Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

Contextualizing Grammar TeachingUsing Authentic Materials

LEARN ConferenceApril 28, 2010

Jong Oh Eun,Dept C Chair, Asian School II


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The problem

Teachers tend to teach grammar featuressimply by translating invented sentences.

Existing literature in Korean does notsufficiently explain how and in what contexts

forms are used and how they can bedisambiguated using a discourse-basedperspective.


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Why context? Example 1


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Context can change the meaning.


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Example 2: .


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Example 3: .

Why? 1. It should be something edible.

2. Koreans dont eat raccoon for lunch.


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Three Dimensions of Teaching Grammar

1. Form (how is it formed?)

Accuracy: syntax2. Meaning (what does it mean?)

Meaningfulness: semantics3. Use (When/why is it used?)

Appropriateness: pragmatics(O)

. (X)

Three are interrelated.(Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, 1999)


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Example: Verb stem +.

Form

VS+

Meaning

Reason

Function

making excuses


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Three Levels in Teaching Grammar

1. Sub-sentential level: (morphology) (actionin the past)

2. Sentential level (Syntax)

.*Traditional grammar usually stops here.

3. Discourse level

..

Topic marker expresses contrast.


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Approaches to Grammar

1. Prescriptive Grammar

2. Descriptive Grammar

3. Transformational-Generative Grammar

4. Functional Grammar

5. Discourse Grammar


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Prescriptive Grammar (Quirk et al, 1985)

Concerned with rules about the structure of alanguage

Focus on what is right/correct and

wrong/incorrect

Prescriptive rules make a valued judgmentabout correct way to speak and write rather

than the way people actually speak and write

e.g., Musics are my favorite subject (X).

Mass noun is not countable.


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Descriptive Grammar(Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, 1999)

Concerned with how people actually use alanguage and then attempts to analyze it andformulate rules about the structure.

Descriptive rules allow for different varieties esp.in spoken language

However, people can still use this prescriptively.They tend to follow what these rules say.

e.g., 1) .

2) .


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Transformational-generative grammar (Chomsky,1957, 1965, 1981, 1991, 1995; Cook & Newson, 1966;Radford, 1988)

Concerned with competence (native speakersknowledge) rather than performance (actualrealization)

Provide a methodology for describing sentencestructure through the concept of underlying "deepstructure" by means of various transformational rules

Discover a finite set of rules/mechanisms whichgenerate an infinite set of sentences

Determine how words and phrases combine to formlarger syntactic units, up to the sentence level.


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Example

Questions are formed by moving the modal verbwill to the front of the sentence.

a. The audience will enjoy this presentation.

b. Will the audience enjoy this presentation?

Subject-Aux inversion


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Functional grammar (Halliday, 1973; Givn, 1995)

Focus on meaning and functions of language as

conveyors of information rather than just on forms

Contextual in orientation--looking at how languageis used for different purposes in differentcontexts.


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Functional grammar (Halliday, 1973; Givn, 1995)

Formal grammar

Boys (subject: noun) throw (verb) stones (object: noun)

Functional grammar

Boys (actor/agent) throw (process) stone (patient)

a. John lost his wallet. (Stress occurs in the lastlexical item because it is new information.)

b. John lost it. (Main stress in different positionbecause pronominal element is given information)


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Discourse grammar (Coulthard, 1994; McCarthy, 1999;Chafe, 1994; Ochs, Schegloff, & Thompson, 1996)

Discovers recurrent patterns Inductive methodology and data-driven analysis

Looks at forms from functional approaches using

actual data and large stretches of discourse.

By looking at grammatical forms as they occur inactual discourse (both spoken and written), we can

find many more patterns and help studentsunderstand the usages and formulate their ownanalyses of these forms to account for larger

number of patterns.


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Discourse Grammar

Data include: spoken media (e.g., telephoneand face-to-face conversations, classroom

interactions, narratives, interviews, TV shows,

commercials, etc.) and written media (e.g.,

newspaper and magazine articles, essays,

literary works, contracts, policies, etc.)


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Example: count noun vs. non-count noun

Traditional grammar categorizes nouns ascount vs non-count nouns, but this cantalways apply to actual instances. Non-

count nouns are mass nouns such aswater, paper, coffee, music

It depends on how people conceptualizethe entity. For example, I like coffee. Butwe can say Can I have two coffees,

please? (Two cups of coffee)


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Example: count noun vs. non-count noun

1) Email: could be email message.a. I received an email from my friend. (Email message)

b. I think I must have sent 6 emails to Dr. Roberts.

2) Email: Electronic mail system

c. I sent a message by email.

The choice of counting is motivated by speakers

conceptualization or categorization (e.g., Lakoff, 1987)


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Discourse Grammar

Formal grammar:Polite form: / formal

Deferential form: : more formal

Discourse Grammar:

Polite form: shared information, inclusion

Deferential form: new information, exclusion

(Eun & Strauss, 2004; Strauss & Eun, 2005)


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Teaching Grammar Using Authentic Materials

The resources that have been developed for nativespeakers.

Authentic materials include:TV Commercials, TV drama clips, movie clipsFace-to face/ telephone conversations,talk shows, interviews, debatesnews broadcasts, newspapers, magazines,Cartoons, songs, pictures, etc


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Teaching Grammar Using Authentic Materials

Contextual in orientation: focus on how thegrammar feature is used

Can provide larger stretches of discourse, notdiscreet phrases or sentences

Can show more naturally occurring data rather

than made up sentences Can capture prosodic features and non-verbalcues


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Examples from Authentic Materials

Example


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Grammar Project at Korean School (DLI)

Example


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Conclusion

Multiple approaches to teaching grammar (Formfocused + functional, Deductive + inductive)

Grammar is dynamic, not static

Grammar doesnt have to be boring.

Beyond the sentence level discourse level

Teach grammar in context

Use of a variety of authentic materials

Culture and grammar integration


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4 28 contextualizing grammar teaching using authentic materials

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