Grammar and Language Teaching

1. Grammar and Language Teaching A professional development workshop UC Consortium on Language Learning and Teaching

2. The standard view • We used to do grammar and now we don’t. • Should we start doing grammar again? …..But this is the wrong view.

3. The right way to look at the issue • We know that learners develop their own unconscious mental grammar. • Is there anything we can do to help (beyond lots of input and interaction)? • If so, what?

4. These are real questions • The answers aren’t obvious. • We don’t know everything we would need to know… • …but we do know some things, and that is what we will learn about at this workshop.

5. This is a live research area • There are many things we don’t know yet. • There is disagreement about what we do know, • And disagreement about how to implement pedagogically what we do know.

6. As a result… • Our speakers will agree about many things • But they may disagree about some others. • This is to be expected, and should make things more interesting.

7. Our goal is not to brainwash you • This workshop will not try to present some “party line” or single way of teaching. • You are the best judge of what is most appropriate for your circumstances.

8. What you should get from this workshop: • An understanding of what is known about the topic and what is still unresolved. • Ideas on how to apply this understanding to classroom practice.

9. We want you… • To question your assumptions about language teaching (even those very close to your heart). • To explore new and interesting ways of promoting grammatical development in your students. • To choose and adapt the ideas that are a good match for your class, program, institution.

10. Much still remains to be discovered But we already know a lot. Here are some basic facts that everybody agrees on (or should)…

11. What you teach ≠ What students learn • The brain has its own syllabus. • When exposed to a new language, your brain begins to process the incoming information: • New sounds • New words • New structures • The brain has its own way of doing this. The teacher and the learner have little direct control.

12. The implicit/explicit distinction • When the brain processes information “on its own”, this is “implicit learning” and it results in “implicit knowledge”. • Ordinary language learning and use are mostly implicit. • In language classrooms, students often acquire conscious knowledge of how the language works. This is “explicit learning/knowledge”.

13. The implicit/explicit interface • Clearly, you can have implicit knowledge of some property of the language without explicit knowledge. • E.g. You know something sounds right, but you can’t explain why. • You can also have explicit knowledge without implicit knowledge. • E.g. You understand how some property of the language works, but you can’t actually do it in spontaneous speech.

14. The implicit/explicit interface • Can implicit and explicit knowledge influence each other (is there an “interface”)? • This is the big question. What is clear: If there is an interface, it is limited. • This is why you can’t assume that what you teach (explicitly) is what students learn (implicitly).

15. The problem for language teachers • Explicit knowledge can be taught and tested in a relatively direct fashion. • Implicit knowledge can only be taught and tested indirectly. • But for many people (teachers and students), implicit knowledge is the main objective.

16. 2. Anecdotes are not always reliable • Acquiring a language is like acquiring a pot belly. • Once you have acquired implicit knowledge of a particular property of the language, it is hard to know what caused that acquisition.

17. Anecdotes • Teachers and learners are often eager to report what works and what doesn’t, but how can they be so sure? • Conclusion: Reports of personal experiences are often valuable and full of insight, but still they must be taken with a grain of salt and balanced against research results.

18. 3. All languages have grammar • Narrower definition of “grammar”: How words are constructed How sentences are constructed

19. Constructing words can be easy… • Mandarin Chinese pronouns: wo ‘I’ women ‘we’ ni ‘you’ nimen ‘you pl.’ ta ‘he/she’ tamen ‘they’

20. …or kind of hard • Spanish verbs stem + tense/aspect + agreement com e s com a n com iera mos • Mandarin Chinese verbs Ta lai-le. Ta lai.

21. Constructing sentences can be easy… • Basic word order English: The cat chased the mouse. Japanese: Nekoga nezumio toraeru. cat mouse chased

22. …or kind of hard • French causatives Jean a fait manger le gâteau par Marie. Jean made eat the cake by Marie ‘Jean made Marie eat the cake.’

23. Broader definition of “grammar” • All aspects of the structure of the language, including pronunciation. Mandarin Chinese: hěn + hăo = hén hăo ‘very good’ Spanish: dedo = deðo ‘finger’

24. Moral of the story • No matter how you define “grammar”, all languages have it.

25. 4. Learners learn all languages in same way • Basic processes and stages of learning seem to be the same no matter what the language is. • No basis for idea that different languages require significantly different teaching techniques.

26. 5. There is more to grammar than “the grammar” • No book covers all the grammar. • Many crucial topics are often ignored.

27. An example from Spanish • Las acelgas detesto, no las espinacas. ‘Swiss chard I hate, not spinach.’ • Las acelgas, las detesto. ‘Swiss chard, I hate.’

28. An example from Spanish FOCUS • Las acelgas detesto, no las espinacas. ‘Swiss chard I hate, not spinach.’ TOPIC (Clitic Left-Dislocation) • Las acelgas, las detesto. ‘Swiss chard, I hate.’

29. More examples of focus • Las acelgas detesto, no las espinacas. • Algo hiciste. Nada compré. something you-did nothing I-bought ‘You did something’ ‘I bought nothing’

30. The two constructions compared • Focus Las acelgasdetesto, no las espinacas. NEW INFOOLD INFO • Topic Las acelgas, las detesto. OLD INFONEW INFO

31. One more thing • Focus: Preverbal subject not possible. *Las acelgas yo detesto, no las espinacas Las acelgas detesto yo, no las espinacas. • Topic: Preverbal subject possible. Las acelgas, yo las detesto. Las acelgas, las detesto yo.

32. Lessons • Textbooks often leave out major topics. • We don’t know how to explain everything: Algo hiciste vs. Hiciste algo • We sometimes “simplify” things in very misleading ways. Similar examples could be given for any language.

33. So beware of statements like: • “I already taught them that; I don’t know why they’re still making that mistake.” • “Reading aloud helped my pronunciation.” • “My language doesn’t have any grammar.” • “You can’t teach Chinese the same way you teach Spanish.” • “We covered the whole grammar in one year.”

34. Conclusions • Students’ development won’t necessarily follow our syllabus. • Implicit learning (our primary goal) can’t be taught directly. • This is true for all languages. • What is useful for one language will probably be useful for all. • No book contains all the grammar.

35. Overview of workshop • Today and tomorrow Public lectures and demonstrations • Monday Closed sessions for funded UC participants. Small working groups, development of materials.

36. Today • Leonard Newmark: “Explanation vs. Experience: Time Economy in Language Teaching” • Robert Kluender: “How Linguistic Knowledge Can Ease Learning” • Bill VanPatten: “Mental Representation versus Ability in Second Language Acquisition” (Part 1) • Georgette Ioup: “Putting Error Correction into Proper Perspective”

37. Tomorrow • Grant Goodall: “Fitting Grammar into the Language Learning Experience” • Victoria González Pagani: “Beyond Drills: Web Technology in Teaching Grammar” • Bill VanPatten: “Mental Representation versus Ability in Second Language Acquisition” (Part 2) • Robert Kluender: “How students acquire things you never teach them” • Elke Riebeling and Patricia Zuker: “Grammar-focused activities based on Internet materials” (demonstration) • Grant Goodall: “TPR and the teaching of grammar” (demonstration)