A different approach to grammar in class
Are you a teacher suffering OGS (Obsession Grammar Syndrome) like million of other EFL teachers around the world? Then, just relax, stop suffering and take a look at a different approach to grammar in class.
In the review of Thurnbury´s “Uncovering Grammar” , Scott Shelton points out the fact that the EFL teacher has an essential role in the process of making grammar emerge naturally. This role consists of being a guide, creating the appropriate conditions, or interacting with learners to eventually ‘uncover’ their grammar.
He also makes reference to the fact that Thornbury’s ideas about the natural emergence of grammar in learners present a change, not only in the way language acquisition is understood, but also the way a second language is taught.
The following paragraphs are meant to help EFL teachers change their point of view about the teaching-learning process and thus help learners to deal with the grammar emergence process.
Have you thought about making changes in the way you teach?
Forget about all the rigid rules that you’ve learnt from your expensive text books. Native English speakers don’t learn English grammar, for sure, and we must try to teach English the way they learn it, without studying grammar. Eventually, grammar will appear by itself to serve communicative purposes.
So doing, it might be similar to what a group of Danish movie-makers decided in 1995. They proposed themselves to liberate cinema from an obsessive concern for technique and retake their concern for the story itself and that behind the characters (Dogme 95). The sheer amount of complementary and supplementary material available today for ELT may be burying the real story, the ultimate point for learning a foreign language: real communication.
What is proposed here, in Thornbury (2000) words is: “Teaching should be done using only the resources that teachers and students bring to the classroom – i.e. themselves – and whatever happens to be in the classroom. If a particular piece of material is necessary for the lesson, a location must be chosen where that material is to be found (e.g. library, resource centre, bar, students’ club…)” 2
Most students who learn English think they must study English grammar rules. Likewise, most English language schools and most English teachers make grammar study the core of their lessons.
New research, however, refutes this belief. Research in the field of English language education increasingly finds that grammar study is a very inefficient and ineffective way to master English.
Based on the research of Dr. James Asher, Dr. Stephen Krashen, Dr. Ashley Hastings, and Dr. Brenda Murphy, new teaching methods are yielding powerful results– without grammar study.
As Thurbury (2001) states “The process of learning is slippery and messy – not the step-by-step, one-thing-at-a-time process enshrined in coursebook syllabuses. In fact, it is sometimes the case that certain features of the grammar seem to get worse before they get better”. (p. 46)3
So, what should teachers of English do? The answer is as simple as: Let students discover grammar rules or even let them make their own. They will do this as soon as they get engaged in the learning process.
It is the EFL teachers themselves who can promote or discourage students’ engagement in language learning by the way a successful language learner is defined. Define a successful language learner as the one who can pass tests and make good grades, then success is defined by the mastery of rules and forms. When the successful language learner is the one who has the ability to use the language to accomplish communication goals, success is defined as making the language one’s own.
To promote engagement in language learning teachers should:
encourage students to use the language naturally to communicate ideas, feelings, and opinions.
set strong connections between formal (in class) and informal (outside class) language learning experiences.
ask students to evaluate their progress.
In conclusion, it is worth for EFL teachers changing their teaching practice to take the chance of getting grammar to sum up to the language learning process. It just consists of letting it emerge naturally in a communicative context that learners themselves create setting their own goals and purposes.
Further reading:
1. Larsen-Freeman, D (2003) Teaching Language: from grammar to grammaring; Massachusetts: Newbury House.
2. Thurnbury, S. (2001) Uncovering Grammar. Oxford: Macmillan.
3. Thornbury, Scott . A dogma for EFL. IATEFL Issues 153, Feb-Mar 2000
4. O´Maggio Hadley, A. (2001) Teaching Language in Context. 3rd Edition. New York: Heinle & Heinle
Also see:
7 ways to see grammar by the newschoolnyc youtube.com
Authors: Marcela Cristina Rubio Romero, Mirtha Mercedes Roldán, Ramón Oscar Esteban Ledesma y Miriam Beatriz Alvarado Barrios