Evey--Week 4 Using Functional Grammar

Why do students still feel very confused at a certain grammar although a teacher has taught again and again?

Please allow me to start with a real story that happened around me. My friend’s daughter is a year and a half. When the baby girl is taught to recognize various animal cards, she is able to remember some common animals such as cats, dogs and rabbits very quickly. However she fails to recognize the pictures of penguins and rhinoceros every time no matter how hard my friend had tried. Then I said ‘is it possibly because your daughter has never seen a penguin and a rhino before? ’ She said yes. Then I recommended her to take her daughter to the Ocean Park to see a real penguin and try again. The result was very interesting that after their returning home form the Ocean Park, her daughter was able to recognize the penguin picture and felt very happy when seeing the picture, but still could not recognize the rhino picture. From this I find: children can have a better understanding on the things they have encountered before, but it is difficult for children to understand the thing they have never seen let alone to understand the meaning of knowing them!

It is also the case while learning grammar, the picture of penguin is correspond to abstract grammar rules; the real penguin is the language we use; and students are like the baby girl. When students are not exposed with enough real context (not seeing the penguin), they are unwilling to use it. When students do not see a certain grammar in real language context they do not have the motivation to learn it.

Therefore, I can explain why students still feel very confused at a certain grammar although a teacher has taught again and again.

Firstly, if students do not have enough exposure to a certain grammar in real context and they do not have enough chance to practice, they may feel unsafe to use it. In addition, the situation and cultural background of using the grammar are not clear stated before teaching, so students do not know when and where to use it. Another key factor is that traditional grammar teaching methods often separate the grammar rules with authentic text that has a certain function in our daily life. For example, when teaching simple present tense teachers often give students a definition ‘we use simple present tense to talk about habitual actions and general truths’, but how to define ‘habitual actions’ and ‘general truth’? Is it a habitual action that I used to go to school at 7.00 am everyday? Is it a general truth that Einstein is handsome? Or should we say Einstein was handsome because he just endured disfigurement? Therefore students can hardly understand the abstract rules and definitions without enough input and reading enough authentic texts.

How to teach grammar?

According to the reading ‘functional grammar is not a set of rules but a set of resources for describing, interpreting and making meaning.’ ‘Being able to see the relationship between the often unconscious language choices each of us make all the time and the intricate social lives we lead is one of the most exciting language experiences for students and teachers.’

So it would be better if the teacher can 1. Provide a text of present tense (provide a real situation) and tell the background information of the text(provide the context of situation)--This passage is the homepage of a twelve-year-old boy, Justin Wong, 

the teaching material that I used in China(produced by Longman Hong Kong Education)

2. Then design proper activities to let them practice the form of this grammar (get enough exposure) 3. Let the students themselves to discover the use of simple present tense. 

                        the teaching material that I used in China(produced by Longman Hong Kong Education)

4. Supply further exercise.

the teaching material that I used in China(produced by Longman Hong Kong Education)

Then they can have a deeper understanding on abstract grammatical rules.

In conclusion, teachers should not separate grammar teaching with real situation, cultural background and authentic texts, and they also need to set up proper classroom activities and offer enough practice to students so that they can feel safe to use the grammar they just learnt.

Reference:

Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks., S., & Yallop., C. (2000). Using functional grammar: An explorer’s guide (2^nd ed). Sydney: NCELTR

Jones, R. H. & Lock, G. (2011). Functional grammar in the ESL classroom: noticing, exploring and practising. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillian.

Jo Ann Nelson., Kitty Chan., Alex Swan., (2004) Unit One Welcome to My Homepage : Hong Kong Longman Express Second Edition. Hong Kong: Longman Hong Kong Education

Genre and language teaching

I might be inclined to think that learning genres with language teaching is an invaluable experience as it has far more real-world applications than a bog standard textbook to exam curriculum.  As Dias et al. (1999), as cited in Paltridge, (2001), p.17 points out; the relationship between writing in university and writing in workplace settings are worlds apart, and it is important for language learners, at least at a non-beginner level, to recognise these.

I do agree with the statement that spoken skills are just as important as academic listening, reading or writing.  Eggins & Slade (1997), as cited in Paltridge, (2001), p.34 argue that “..casual conversations are used to negotiate social identity and interpersonal relations..”.  Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995), as cited in Paltridge, (2001), p.26 make a good point that having conversations with one’s peers/colleagues etc is as important to assemble genre knowledge as doing so through written texts.  They go on to mention about appropriate content – language learners knowing what is appropriate to say or write, in a given social situation, which I think would be hugely advantageous for a new learner.  Which leads me into my thoughts on cross-cultural awareness – from my experience of learning Japanese – there are numerous complicated social contexts for example, how one would (verbally or written) address a senior or a customer, (with entirely separate verb forms, and honorific prefixes & suffixes) is different from ‘formal’ Japanese.  Problems further arise with ‘semi-formal’ and ‘casual’ forms.  This is hugely confusing for none-native speakers and knowing when to use what is imperative, especially in a business scenario.  As a result AUT’s Japanese program has an entire 15 point paper (Japanese for formal contexts) devoted to this.

I also thought the teaching and learning cycle from Hammond et al. (1992), as cited in Paltridge, (2001), p.31 looks like a great model, I was particularly attracted to the flexibility in a teaching scenario, leaving the cycle open for teachers to join at any point to suit individual learners’ needs.

References

Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the language learning classroom.  Ann Arbour: Michigan University Press

Evey--Week 3

Genre and Language Teaching

The importance of analyzing genre in language teaching

Writing structures and expression rules of articles vary according to different genres, so teacher should well recognize the features of different genres and choose appropriate teaching methods in order to accurately grasp the value of the text to achieve better teaching effect and meet the needs of students. One of the most important aspects of learning writing is to learn the way of expression, and the emphasis on genre teaching can improve students’ writing skills effectively. It is not helpful for students to improve their writing skills if a teacher ignores the characteristics of different genres and only teach grammar and vocabulary. So the style of teaching is an essential part in language teaching .

Since genre teaching is so important, what should a language teacher pay attention to while teaching?

Cross-cultural comparisons should be taken into account. Paltridge. B(2001) mentioned ‘It is also helpful to ask students to consider particular genre systems in their first language. They can then do cross-cultural comparisons of systems of genre to see what is the same and what is different in English and in their first language. They can also compare differing assumptions and expectations between the genre systems in the two languages and cultures. in the chapter ‘Cross-Cultural Comparisons’, which arouses my interest and cross-cultural comparisons are usually ignored by most language teachers. My Chinese students’ English writings can be easily affected by Chinese writing styles. Taking a Chinese and an English thank you letter as an example:

the structures; the choice of punctuation; the ways to express gratitude of writing a thank you letter are of great differences. Chinese believe that longer letter means more sincere, and quoting pomes is romantic, so the letter is much longer than the English one. Besides Chinese are more implicit so they tend to utterance their emotion at the end of the article.

In view of cultural differences, the task of a language teacher is not only to teach the language, but also analyze the differences of culture; and make a comparison, and help students avoid the influence of their first language.

Reference: Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and The Language Learning Classroom. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press

Week 2 The lexical approach

I think it is a really interesting topic for me as it relates to my teaching so much. I don't like to force students to memorise those rules. I want to provide them an environment how we use it. I want them to discover how native speakers use the word or how they structure their sentences. Sometimes I find it's hard for certain people. After reading the article, I know they don't notice the words they use or the sentences they structure are different from what native speakers do. Besides, I think it is a good idea to collect different sentences they contain the target words or phrases you want your students learn and let them find out how to use the word or phrase by themselves first. I think they think by themselves when doing the activity. It can facilitate them to notice something and it does help them learn something. From my own experience, when you only teach students a new word, they will use it improperly as many Chinese words share the same sound but different word. Students will create some funny phrases as well as they have no sense about how to use it. Thus, lexical approach can build up complete and comprehensive sense for students.

The Lexical Approach

This week's lecture topic was good and in a lot of ways made me think about my own language.

I found the differentiation between language learning and language acquisition food for thought.  As a Japanese language major student I have myself questioned the environment of learning in a classroom environment within an English-speaking country.  Not that I fully agree with Krashen’s position, I don’t believe conscious learning is “effort wasted”.  It has indeed formed the groundwork for my understanding of the rules of Japanese grammar, along with being able to read and write a Chinese-derived written language with considerable accuracy.  I will say though that studying the language in New Zealand I feel as though the learning has bottlenecked somewhat, and when I spend time in Japan, there is definitely a different kind of learning that one experiences.  Immersive, unconscious, non-linear perhaps as the article suggests.

I was quite interested in the point regarding activities that ensure that learners can recognise input in ways that convert it to intake, being more beneficial for long term retention of language.

Evey--Week 2

Evey--Week 2

Declarative and Procedural knowledge—different teaching approaches should be applied

Declarative knowledge is objective. It cannot be undistorted by emotion or personal bias, so it is either true or false. For example, ‘The capital city of China is Beijing’is declarative knowledge.

However, Procedural knowledge is usually combined with what a person already knew. It is not as general as declarative knowledge and is usually an act of task. For example, computer drawing is procedural knowledge. It requires the skills of manipulating the computer software and the skills of drawing. People need to practice a lot to gain such kind of knowledge.

As far as I am concerned, English language teaching procedure includes both declarative and procedural knowledge. Speaking, writing and listening skills are procedure knowledge; grammar and word-formation are declarative knowledge. It is impossible for students to obtain speaking and writing skills without any practice. That is the reason why students spends hours learning grammar, but still have difficulty communicating. That is because grammar is declarative while communication is procedural.

Therefore a teacher should not only focus on ‘delivering knowledge’, but also provide many chances to let students speak, write and listen; and allow them to make mistakes. Only by doing this, students can gain these abilities. 

Reference: Teaching Collocations Further developments in the lexical approach Michael Lewis (2000) Language Teaching Publications