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Teaching Grammar in Context : Text-based Strategies 2-1

Topic 2-1Teaching Grammar through Text-based Strategies

Part 1: Building-Up Texts – The Reconstruction Strategy

A. Secondary Level

What is it?

Learners reconstruct an unseen text after hearing it several times. As they reconstruct it, they notice and

explore grammatical features of the text, before producing their own text containing the target grammatical

features (pushed output).

Procedure

1. Select a text containing grammatical features you wish your students to notice and explore. These

could be grammatical features which are often confused e.g. use of -ing vs. infinitive (prefer

eating/want to go).

2. Produce an enlarged version of the text blanking out the target grammatical feature:

3. Cover everything except the first line with strips of paper (or use PPT).

4. Learners listen to the text (read by the teacher, or in a recording) several times and commit it to

memory.

5. Learners ‘dictate the text back’ to you, (i.e. students tell the teacher the story from memory).

6. Reveal the lines that they can recall accurately, but keep the target grammatical feature blanked out.

7. Learners have cards with the target grammatical feature printed on them, e.g.:

Learners place the cards in the appropriate blanked out spaces on the text you have revealed.

TRY IT OUT, playing the role of a Secondary 4 student

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Hey, this looks good. , maybe in Thailand or somewhere.

long

I’d love

adore

to get away

to try scuba diving

scuba diving


Another teaching idea for gerund vs. infinitive: Creating Context

The overlapping verbs

Ask students to study contrasting pairs of sentences containing gerund or infinitive complements. Ask students to a) tell the difference in meaning between the two sentences in each pair; b) create a story for each sentence in the pair to show the difference in meaning.

For example:

1a. I stopped to think about it.1b. I stopped thinking about it.

2a. I tried to take French lessons.2b. I tried taking French lessons.

3a. I would like to go bungee jumping.3b. I like going bungee jumping.

B. Primary Level

How different kinds of verbs and tenses make meaning

Play the role of a Primary 5/6 student.

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1. The teacher is going to read you a story. She was working hard on a Sunday. For a break, she thought of what she could be doing instead.

First your teacher will explain a few words that you may not know.

Now listen to the story once. When you hear the new words (just explained) touch your nose.

2. Now you will write up the story following these steps:

a. There are pieces of paper on the board which contain words / phrases used in the story. The teacher will tell the story again. While she is telling the story, a student comes to the board and finds the verbs used in the story, sticks them in the column of verbs, following the order in which they are used in the story. The teacher will keep reading the story to you while you are looking for the verbs. All other students can help.

b. The teacher will keep reading the story. This time another student will come to the board and find all the subjects in the story. The student will stick them in the column of Subjects beside the verbs they are used with. The teacher will keep reading the story while you are doing this and all other students can help.

c. When all the Subjects in the story are placed on the board, another student comes to the board and finds the other parts* of the sentences in the story and sticks them in the column of “Other parts” in the correct order.

d. Now read the text together with your teacher.

(*A note for you as a teacher – these other parts can be the Object or Complement. Also, the instructions above are mainly for your reference in future i.e. to remind you how to conduct this activity. You may not need to provide your students with all these instructions in writing, which may be too complicated for your students; some of them can be given orally and in the form of demonstration.)

Subject Verb Other parts

3. Now, work in pairs, divide the verbs into 3 different types: doing verbs, being verbs and feeling verbs. Put the verbs in the correct box in the following table.

Doing verbs Being verbs Feeling verbs

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Tense= Tense = Tense =

In the last row of the table, write down the tense used in each type of verbs.

4. The teacher will give you a copy of the story. In pairs:

▪ Underline all the verbs (verb groups). Where are they in the sentence (before/ after the

Subject)? What does each type of verb tell you about the Subject? What meaning does each type of verb make?

▪ Change all the tenses into the present continuous tense.

▪ Tell your partner the meaning of the story (with all the verbs in present continuous tense).

[Students will need to use their first language to do this effectively].

▪ Now, explain why it is not appropriate to use the present continuous tense with the being

verbs and feeling verbs. [Note: Let students have a go at the explanation first (and this is where students can be allowed to use Chinese if needed] before you explain/ clarify]

I am standing on a beach. It feels warm. The sun is shining. The sky is so blue.

The sand is so soft. Some teenagers are playing beach volleyball. Three old ladies

are sitting on their beach chairs. They are chatting happily. The water is

splashing against the shore. I really love this place.

5. Now, use the words in the box below to write your own story (Use the teacher’s story as a model). Use the present continuous or the simple present tenses with the verbs. Think about the type of the verb to help you choose the tense.

Swim, beach, feel, cold, rain, sky, grey, sand, muddy, people, run away, hate

Write your story below. When you have finished, underline all the verbs and notice the tenses you have used.

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Option 1: Focus on formS (-ing)Instructions:

I will read a version of the story again. However, my version is different than yours. Listen very carefully and underline any differences that you hear.

Example

Student’s version

I am standing on a beach. It feels warm. The sun is shining. The sky is so blue. The sand is so

soft. Some teenagers are playing beach volleyball. Three old ladies are sitting on their beach

chairs. They are chatting happily. The water is splashing against the shore. I really love this place.

Teacher’s version

I am stand on a beach. It feels warm. The sun shining. The sky is so blue. The sand is so soft.

Some teenagers are play beach volleyball. Three old ladies are sit on their beach chair. They

chatting happily. The water splashing against the shore. I really love this place.

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Rationale for Activity #3, “The Beach”

Learners are often given a “rule” for the use of the simple present tense along the lines of “we use simple

present tense to talk about habitual actions and general truths”. Later they may also be taught that the present

continuous (or present progressive) tense is used to talk about what is going on at the moment of speaking.

Sometimes this may be followed by information that there are “exceptions” to these rules, for example the

verbs be, and have and verbs of perception are rarely used with the present continuous tense. This can be

confusing and is somewhat misleading. Thus the activity above is helpful as it helps students become aware

of different types of processes of verbs (e.g. doing, feeling, being) and to explore and practice the

relationship between tense and process type. [Adapted from Jones and Lock, 2011, p. 61].

Thinking back…. Grammar teaching principles

1.a. noticingb. pushed outputc. focus on tenses

2.a. comprehensible outputb. pushed outputc. noticing

3.a. focus on meaningb. scaffoldingc. noticing

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Part 2: Building Up Texts Strategy: Adapting Local Textbooks

The general procedure:

1. Find or create a short text containing the target features.2. Have the students listen to the text several times and slowly build it up on the board,

noticing the target features and exploring how they are used.3. Have the students orally practice the text.4. As a way of getting students to notice again the target features, gradually remove parts

of the text with the target features being the first part OR the last parts to be removed.5. At each stage of removal have one or more student recite the text, filling in from

memory what has been erased (pictures or diagrams may be used as prompts) in order to practice using the target features.

6. Finally, remove the entire text and have students recite it entirely from memory.[From Jones and Lock, 2011]

Example 1: Magic 6B

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Focus: Past tense; present used in dialogues

i. Cut the text into segments for display on the board or for group work:

One day a lion caught a mouse. ran away “Thank you lion”

“Dear Lion, please “You can go” “I can help you someday”

help me?” the lion laughed. don’t eat me,” said the mouse.

The mouse “Little mouse how can you

ii. Draw pictures of a lion and a mouse on the board together with a speech bubbles for each character.

iii. Read the text aloud to the class and ask them to notice the words spoken by the lion and the words spoken by the mouse and the actions performed by the two characters.

iv. Read the text aloud a second time and have students place the text segments in the appropriate speech bubbles. Everything else goes next to/under the picture according to which character performed the action.

v. Draw a table on the board with four columns as follows:

What the lion did What the lion said What the mouse said What the mouse did

vi. Have students come out and move the text segments into the appropriate columns of the table according to what they recall of the text.

vii. Have students notice the different uses of tenses as they appear in the columns on the board, and the use of quotation marks to signal speech. (Underlining together).

viii. Have students retell the story, based on the information in the table. Gradually take away the text segments on the board, following the procedure described above, until students can retell the story from memory.

ix. Produce a worksheet with a table similar to the one you drew on the board. Ask students to complete the four columns with what they recall of the story, reading it aloud again as many times as necessary to facilitate this.

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Example 2: English to Enjoy 3B“Joe and the Magic Fish”

Original Focus: All/ no; positive/ negative descriptionsRewritten version:

Joe was an old fisherman. He lived with his wife in a little hut in a small village. Joe was kind to everyone in the village. He was helpful, too. All the villagers liked him. His wife was lazy and greedy. No villagers liked her.

Joe was an old fisherman He lived with his wife

in a little hut in a small village Joe was kind to everyone in the village

He was helpful, too. No villagers All the villagers

liked her liked him His wife was lazy and greedy

Follow the procedures above. Read the story. Ask students to come up and place the cards under the headings: Joe, Joe’s Wife, Where Joe Lived.

Joe Joe’s Wife Where Joe Lived

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From the list that students create, the teacher could ask students if the descriptions are positive or negative by eliciting which symbol to place beside each ( + or – ).

The rest of the text expands the story and also includes a focus on ‘some’ and ‘most’. A continuum could be used to show the differences in the concepts of ‘all’, ‘no’, ‘some’, ‘most’. (Teacher would need to refer students back to the text to look for evidence).

The villagers

Liked Joe Thought Joe was silly Thought Joe was kind Liked Joe’s wifeALL SOME MOST NO

Example 3: Open English Secondary 2, Unit 3

How might you apply the Reconstruction Strategy to the text ‘Sara’s Journey to the East’ on the next page? Discuss with a neighbor and jot down some ideas here:

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Possible focus: simple past tense; past progressive tense; time clauses with as and while.

Example 4: Longman Elect: New Senior SecondaryOriginal textbook: Focus on Present Tense

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Adapted: Focus on verb types and meaning made1. Teacher reads and shows visuals. 2. Students listen.

Teacher’s script

This is a photo of a happy time when I visited Ocean Park with a friend.(teacher shows the photo)

We had only $500 dollars, but as you can see from this photo, we were having a great time.

We look happy, don’t we? Yes—we were happy…and hungry! So we went to the Panda Café.

Here we are looking at the menu of the Panda Café. (teacher shows photo)

I ordered a hot dog. It smelled really good but it tasted really odd. I tasted it, and spat it out!Here, I am tasting the hot dog. Ew!! teacher shows photo)

We saw some children at the aquarium. They were looking at the fish in the tank. (teacher shows photo) They look really excited!

It was a really fun day. We think Ocean Park is great!

3. Teacher re-reads as student volunteers place the verbs under the correct category (either on the board at the front of the class or on a worksheet below).

Relational/connecting to a description

Nouns/adjectives Action/doing Nouns

Present Past Photo of a happy time

Present Past Ocean Parkis was Am tasting went

The verbs could be printed on cards to be placed in the appropriate column. Nouns and adjectives could also be included. [See Answers below for ready-made “cards”]

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4. Once the completed list is up on the board, the students can begin to reconstruct the story with the help of the visuals. Gradually the teacher erases or takes away the words (support).

ANSWERS

The Beach (1)Subject Verb Other parts

IItThe sunThe skyThe sandSome teenagersThree old ladiesTheyThe waterI

am standingfeelsis shiningisisare playingare sittingare chattingis splashinglove

on a beachwarmso blueso softbeach volleyballon their beach chairshappilyagainst the shorereallythis place

The Beach (2)Doing verbs Being verbs Feeling verbs

am standingis shiningare playingare sittingare chattingis splashing

isis

feelslove

To describe what To describe things as they are To describe how

The Lion and the MouseWhat the lion did What the lion said What the mouse said What the mouse didOne day a lion caught a mouse.the lion laughed.said the mouse.

“Little mouse how can you help me?” “You can go”

“Dear lion, please don’t eat me,” “I can help you someday.”“Thank you lion”

The mouse ran away.

Joe the fishermanJoe Joe’s Wife Where Joe Lived

Joe was an old fisherman. His wife was lazy and greedy.

He lived with his wife in a little hut in a small village.

Joe was kind. He was helpful, too.All the villagers liked him. No villagers liked her.

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Ocean ParkRelational/connecting to a description

Nouns/adjectives Action/doing Nouns

Present Past Photo of a happy timeHappyHappyReally goodReally oddExcitedReally fun daygreat

Present Past Ocean Park$500The photoA great timeThe Panda CaféThe menuHot dogItThe hot dogSome childrenFish in the tankOcean Park

IsLook Lookis

wasWereSmelledtasted

Am tastingthinkAre lookingSee

Wentwere lookingOrderedSpatTastedSawWere havingVisitedhad

References

Jones, R. & Lock, G. (2011) Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003) Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

Larsen-Freeman, D. & Celce-Murcia, M. (2016) The Grammar Book: Form, meaning and use for English Language Teachers. (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning with Heinle Cenage Learning.

Scrivener, J. (2011) Learning Teaching: The essential guide to English language teaching. (3rd ed.) Oxford, Macmillan Education.

Thornbury, S. (2005) Uncovering grammar: How to help grammar emerge. London, Macmillan Education.

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3-2-1 Reflection3 ideas from today that you will/may use in the future

____________________________________________________________

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2 things that you will do as a result of what was learned today

____________________________________________________________

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1 question that you still have

_____________________________________________________________

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