Teaching Grammar in Context

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Teaching grammar in context
David Nunan
Metaphors for
second language
acquisition
From a grammatical perspective, many foreign language programmes and
teaching materials are based on a linear model of language acquisition.
This model operates on the premise that learners acquire one target lan-
guage item at a time, in a sequential, step-by-step fashion. However, such
a model is inconsistent with what is observed as learners go about the
process of acquiring another language. In this article I argue for an alter-
native to the linear model which I call, for want of a better term, an organic
approach to second language pedagogy. In the first part of the article I
shall contrast both approaches, and look at evidence from second lan-
guage acquisition and discourse analysis which supports the organic view.
In the second part of the article I shall outline some of the pedagogical
implications of the organic approach, illustrating them with practical ideas
for the classroom.
A strictly linear approach to language learning is based on the premise
that learners acquire one grammatical item at a time, and that they
should demonstrate their mastery of one thing before moving on to the
next. For example, in learning English, a student should master one
tense form, such as the simple present, before being introduced to other
forms, such as the present continuous or the simple past. Metaphorically,
learning another language by this method is like constructing a wall. The
language wall is erected one linguistic 'brick' at a time. The easy
grammatical bricks are laid at the bottom of the wall, providing a
foundation for the more difficult ones. The task for the learner is to get
the linguistic bricks in the right order: first the word bricks, and then the
sentence bricks. If the bricks are not in the correct order, the wall will
collapse under its own ungrammaticality.
When we observe learners as they go about the process of learning
another language, we see that, by and large, they do not acquire
language in the step-by-step, building block fashion suggested by the
linear model. It is simply not the case that language learners acquire
target items perfectly, one at a time. Kellerman (1983), for example,
notes the 'u-shaped behavior' of certain linguistic items in learners'
interlanguage development. Accuracy does not increase in a linear
fashion, from 20% to 40% to 100%; at times, it actually decreases. It
appears that, rather than being isolated bricks, the various elements of
language interact with, and are affected by, other elements to which they
are closely related in a functional sense. This interrelationship accounts
for the fact that a learner's mastery of a particular language item is
unstable, appearing to increase and decrease at different times during
the learning process. For example, mastery of the simple present
deteriorates (temporarily) at the point when learners are beginning to
ELT Journal Volume 52/2 April 1998 © Oxford University Press 1998 101
acquire the present continuous. Rutherford (1987) describes this process
as a kind of linguistic metamorphosis.
The adoption of an 'organic' perspective can greatly enrich our
understanding of language acquisition and use. Without this perspective,
our understanding of other dimensions of language such as the notion of
'grammaticality' will be piecemeal and incomplete, as will any attempt at
understanding and interpreting utterances in isolation from the contexts
in which they occur. The organic metaphor sees second language
acquisition more like growing a garden than building a wall. From such a
perspective, learners do not learn one thing perfectly, one item at a time,
but numerous things simultaneously (and imperfectly). The linguistic
flowers do not all appear at the same time, nor do they all grow at the
same rate. Some even appear to wilt, for a time, before renewing their
growth. The rate of growth is determined by a complex interplay of
factors related to speech processing constraints (Pienemann and
Johnston 1987), pedagogical interventions (Pica 1985), acquisitional
processes (Johnston 1987), and the influence of the discoursal
environment in which the items occur (Nunan 1993). For comprehensive
reviews of work in second language acquisition, see Larsen-Freeman
and Long (1991) and Ellis (1994).
Language in In textbooks, grammar is very often presented out of context. Learners
context are given isolated sentences, which they are expected to internalize
through exercises involving repetition, manipulation, and grammatical
transformation. These exercises are designed to provide learners with
formal, declarative mastery, but unless they provide opportunities for
learners to explore grammatical structures in context, they make the
task of developing procedural skill—being able to use the language for
communication—more difficult than it needs to be, because learners are
denied the opportunity of seeing the systematic relationships that exist
between form, meaning, and use.
As teachers, we need to help learners see that effective communication
involves achieving harmony between functional interpretation and
formal appropriacy (Halliday 1985) by giving them tasks that dramatize
the relationship between grammatical items and the discoursal contexts
in which they occur. In genuine communication beyond the classroom,
grammar and context are often so closely related that appropriate
grammatical choices can only be made with reference to the context and
purpose of the communication. In addition, as Celce-Murcia and
Olshtain (forthcoming) point out, only a handful of grammatical rules
are free from discoursal constraints. This, by the way, is one of the
reasons why it is often difficult to answer learners' questions about
grammatical appropriacy: in many instances, the answer is that it
depends on the attitude or orientation that the speaker wants to take
towards the events he or she wishes to report.
If learners are not given opportunities to explore grammar in context, it
will be difficult for them to see how and why alternative forms exist to
102 David Nunan
express different communicative meanings. For example, getting
learners to read a set of sentences in the active voice, and then
transform these into passives following a model, is a standard way of
introducing the passive voice. However, it needs to be supplemented by
tasks which give learners opportunities to explore when it is commu-
nicatively appropriate to use the passive rather than the active voice.
(One of my favourite textbook instructions is an injunction to students,
in a book which shall remain nameless, that 'the passive should be
avoided if at all possible'.)
We need to supplement form-focused exercises with an approach that
dramatizes for learners the fact that different forms enable them to
express different meanings; that grammar allows them to make meanings
of increasingly sophisticated kinds, to escape from the tyranny of the here
and now, not only to report events and states of affairs, but to
editorialize, and to communicate their own attitudes towards these
events and affairs. Unfortunately, many courses fail to make clear the
relationship between form and function. Learners are taught about the
forms, but not how to use them to communicate meaning. For example,
through exercises such as the one referred to in the preceding paragraph,
they are taught how to transform sentences from the active voice into the
passive, and back into the active voice; however, they are not shown that
passive forms have evolved to achieve certain communicative ends—to
enable the speaker or writer to place the communicative focus on the
action rather than on the performer of the action, to avoid referring to
the performer of the action. If the communicative value of alternative
grammatical forms is not made clear to learners, they come away from
the classroom with the impression that the alternative forms exist merely
to make things difficult for them. We need an approach through which
they learn how to form structures correctly, and also how to use them to
communicate meaning. Such a methodology will show learners how to
use grammar to get things done, socialize, obtain goods and services, and
express their personality through language. In other words, it will show
them how to achieve their communicative ends through the appropriate
deployment of grammatical resources.
Some practical In the rest of this article I shall focus on the implications of an organic
implications approach to language teaching. Such an approach offers exciting
opportunities for teachers and students to look at language in a new
way—as a vehicle for taking voyages of pedagogical exploration in the
classroom and beyond.
There are many different ways of activating organic learning, and many
'traditional' exercise types can, with a slight twist, be brought into
harmony with this approach, particularly if they are introduced into the
classroom as exploratory and collaborative tasks. (For examples, see
Wajnryb's (1990) 'grammar dictation' tasks, and Woods' (1995) gap and
cloze exercises.)
In my own classroom, I try to activate an organic approach by:
Teaching grammar in context 103
—teaching language as a set of choices;
—providing opportunities for learners to explore grammatical and
discoursal relationships in authentic data;
—teaching language in ways that make form/function relationships
transparent;
—encouraging learners to become active explorers of language;
—encouraging learners to explore relationships between grammar and
discourse.
Teaching language As indicated in the preceding section, one of the reasons why it is difficult
as a set of choices to give learners hard-and-fast grammatical rules is that, in many
instances, once grammar is pressed into communicative service, decisions
about which forms to use will be determined by the meanings learners
themselves wish to make. For example, if learners wish to give equal
weight to two pieces of information, they can present the information in a
single sentence, using co-ordination. If they wish to give one of these
pieces of information greater weight, they can use subordination.
In order to help learners see that alternative grammatical realizations
exist in order to enable them to make different kinds of meanings, and
that ultimately it is up to them to decide exactly what they wish to
convey, I often begin my language courses with 'ice-breaker' tasks such
as Example 1. In completing this task, learners come to fashion their
own understanding of the functional distinctions between contrasting
forms. They also come to appreciate the fact that in many instances it is
only the speaker or writer who can decide which of the contrasting forms
is the appropriate one.
Example 1
In groups of 3 or 4, study the following conversational extracts. Focus in
particular on the parts of the conversation in italics. What is the
difference between what Person A says and what Person B says? When
would you use one form, and when would you use the other?
1 A: I've seen Romeo and Juliet twice.
B: Me too. / saw it last Tuesday, and again on the weekend.
2 A: Want to go to the movies?
B: No. I'm going to study tonight. We have an exam tomorrow, you
know.
A: Oh, in that case, I'll study as well.
3 A: Looks wet outside. I'm supposed to go to Central, but I don't
have an umbrella. / / / went out without one, I'd get wet.
B: Yes, I went out a while ago. If I'd gone out without an umbrella,
I'd have got wet.
4 A: I finished my essay just before the deadline for submission.
B: Yes, mine was finished just in time as well.
5 A: My brother, who lives in New York, is visiting me here in Hong
Kong.
B: What a coincidence! My brother, who is visiting me in Hong
Kong, lives in New York, too.
104 David Nunan
Providing
opportunities for
learners to explore
grammatical and
' discoursal
relationships in
authentic data
6 A: I need you to look after the kids. You'll be home early tonight,
won't you?
B: Oh, you'll be late tonight, will you?
7 A: I won a prize in the English-speaking competition.
B: Yeah? I won the prize in the poetry competition.
8 A: The baby was sleeping when I got home.
B: So, he'll be sleeping when I get home, then?
9 A: Are you hungry?
B: No, I've already eaten.
A: Well, I'll have already eaten by the time you get home.
Compare explanations with another group. What similarities and
differences are there in your explanations?
Non-authentic texts are meant to make language easier to comprehend,
but an unvarying diet of such texts can make language learning more,
not less, difficult for learners. Authentic language shows how gramma-
tical forms operate in the 'real world', rather than in the mind of a
textbook writer; it allows learners to encounter target language
items—such as the comparative adjectives and adverbs in Example
2—in interaction with other closely related grammatical and discoursal
elements. What learners need is a balanced diet of both types of text.
Example 2
Study the following extracts. One is a piece of genuine conversation, the
other is taken from a language teaching textbook. Which is which? What
differences can you see between the two extracts? What language do you
think the non-authentic conversation is trying to teach? What grammar
would you need in order to take part in the authentic conversation?
Text A
1
A: Excuse me, please. Do you
know where the nearest bank
is?
B: Well, the City Bank isn't far
from here. Do you know
where the main post office is?
A: No, not really. I'm just
passing through.
B: Well, first go down this street
to the traffic light.
A: OK.
B: Then turn left and go west on
Sunset Boulevard for about
two blocks. The bank is on
your right, just past the post
office.
A: All right. Thanks!
B: You're welcome.
Text B
2
A: How do I get to Kensington
Road?
B: Well you go down Fullarton
Road. . .
A: . . . what, down Old Belair,
and around . . .?
B: Yeah. And then you go
straight. . .
A: . . . past the hospital?
B: Yeah, keep going straight,
past the racecourse to the
roundabout. You know the
big roundabout?
A: Yeah.
B: And Kensington Road's off to
the right.
A: What, off the roundabout?
B: Yeah.
A: Right.
Teaching grammar in context 105
Teaching language
in ways that make
form/function
relationships
transparent
Encouraging
learners to become
active explorers of
language
This principle can be activated by creating pedagogical tasks in which
learners structure and restructure their own understanding of form/
function relationships through inductive and deductive tasks. Example 3,
taken from Badalamenti and Henner-Stanchina (1993: 105), is useful for
exploring a range of structures, including 'there + be', articles, yes/no
questions, and conjunctions. The teacher can determine which form/
function relationships are focused on by giving the learners certain types of
prompts, for example: Whose apartment is this? How much can you tell
about the person who lives here? Is the person poor? Why is the person fit?
Example 3
Look at the picture. Whose apartment is this? Make guesses about the
person who lives here. Circle your guesses and then explain them by
circling the clues in the picture.
1. The person is a man/a woman
2. The person has a baby / doesn't have a baby
3. The person has a pet / doesn't have a pet
4. the person is athletic / not athletic
5. The person is a coffee drinker / not a coffee drinker
6. The person is well-educated / not well-educated
7. The person is a smoker / not a smoker
8. The person is middle class/poor
9. The person is a music lover / not a music lover
10. The person is on a diet / not on a diet
By exploiting this principle, teachers can encourage their students to
take greater responsibility for their own learning. (A striking example of
this principle, in an ESL setting, can be found in Heath (1992).) Students
can bring samples of language into class, and work together to formulate
106 David Nunan
Encouraging
learners to explore
relationships
between grammar
and discourse
their own hypotheses about language structures and functions. I
sometimes give my students a Polaroid camera, and get them to walk
around the campus taking photographs, either of signs and public
notices which they believe are ungrammatical, or of signs which they
think are interesting, or puzzling, or which contain language they would
like to know more about. The photographs then become the raw
material for our next language lesson. In fact, the last time I did this, the
lesson culminated in the students writing a letter to the university estates
office pointing out the errors and suggesting amendments.
Classrooms where the principle of active exploration has been activated will
be characterized by an inductive approach to learning in which learners are
given access to data and provided with structured opportunities to work out
rules, principles, and applications for themselves. The idea here is that
information will be more deeply processed and stored if learners are given
an opportunity to work things out for themselves, rather than simply being
given the principle or rule. (For numerous practical examples, see Woods
1995.)
Tasks exploiting this principle show learners that grammar and discourse
are inextricably interlinked, and that grammatical choices (for example,
whether to combine two pieces of information using co-ordination or
subordination) will be determined by considerations of context and
purpose. Such tasks help learners to explore the functioning of grammar
in context, and assist them in deploying their developing grammatical
competence in the creation of coherent discourse.
Example 4
Consider the following pieces of information about nursing.
The nursing process is a systematic method.
The nursing process is a rational method.
The method involves planning nursing care.
The method involves providing nursing care.
These can be 'packaged' into a single sentence by using grammatical
resources of various kinds:
The nursing process is a systematic and rational method of planning
and providing nursing care.
Task 1 Using the above sentence as the topic sentence in a paragraph,
produce a coherent paragraph incorporating the following information.
(You can rearrange the order in which the information is presented.)
The goal of the nursing process is to identify a client's health status.
The goal of the nursing process is to identify a client's health care
problems.
A client's health care problems may be actual or potential.
The goal of the nursing process is to establish plans to meet a client's
health care needs.
Teaching grammar in context 107
The goal of the nursing process is to deliver specific nursing
interventions.
Nursing interventions are designed to meet a client's health care
needs.
The nurse must collaborate with the client to carry out the nursing
process effectively.
The nurse must collaborate with the client to individualize approaches
to each person' s particular needs.
The nurse must collaborate with other members of the health care
team to carry out the nursing process effectively.
The nurse must collaborate with other members of the health care
team to individualize approaches to each person' s particular needs.
Task 2 Compare your text with that written by another student. Make a
note of similarities and differences. Can you explain the differences? Do
different ways of combining information lead to differences of meaning?
Task 3 Now revise your text and compare it with the original. [This is
supplied separately to the students.]
(Adapted from D. Nunan. 1996.)
Conclusion In this article, I have argued that we need to go beyond linear
approaches and traditional form-focused methodological practices in the
— grammar class, and that while such practices might be necessary, they do
not go far enough in preparing learners to press their grammatical
resources into communicative use. I have suggested that grammar
instruction will be more effective in classrooms where:
—learners are exposed to authentic samples of language so that the
grammatical features being taught are encountered in a range of
different linguistic and experiential contexts;
—it is not assumed that once learners have been drilled in a particular
form they have acquired it, and drilling is seen only as a first step
towards eventual mastery;
—there are opportunities for recycling of language forms, and learners
are engaged in tasks designed to make transparent the links between
form, meaning, and use;
—learners are given opportunities to develop their own understandings
of the grammatical principles of English by progressively structuring
and restructuring the language through inductive learning experiences
which encourage them to explore the functioning of grammar in
context;
—over time, learners encounter target language items in an increasingly
diverse and complex range of linguistic and experiential environ-
ments.
In making a case for a more organic approach to grammar teaching, I
hope that I have not given the impression that specially written texts and
dialogues, drills, and deductive presentations by the teacher, have no
108 David Nunan
place in the grammar class. What we need is an appropriate balance
between exercises that help learners come to grips with grammatical
forms, and tasks for exploring the use of those forms to communicate
effectively.
In seeking to explore alternative ways of achieving our pedagogical
goals, it is important not to overstate the case for one viewpoint rather
than another, or to discount factors such as cognitive style, learning
strategy preferences, prior learning experiences, and the cultural
contexts in which the language is being taught and learnt. However,
while there are some grammatical structures that may be acquired in a
linear way, it seems clear from a rapidly growing body of research that
the majority of structures are acquired in complex, non-linear ways.
Received April 1997
Notes
1 I have not acknowledged the source of this
extract, because I do not wish to appear to be
criticizing the text from which it was taken. It is
cited here for contrastive purposes only.
2 Source: D. Nunan (1993).
Acknowledgement
The author and the publisher would like to thank
Heinle and Heinle for their kind permission to
reproduce copyright material from Badalamenti
and Henner-Stanchina (1993).
References
Badalamenti, V. and C. Henner-Stanchina. 1993.
Grammar Dimensions One. Boston: Heinle and
Heinle.
Celce-Murcia, M. and E. Olshtain. (forthcoming)
Discourse as a Framework for Language Teach-
ing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. 1994. The Study of Second Language
Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1985. An Introduction to Func-
tional Grammar. London: Arnold.
Heath, S.B. 1992. 'Literacy skills or literate skills?
Considerations for ESI/EFL learners' in Nunan
1992.
Johnston, M. 1987. 'Understanding learner lan-
guage' in Nunan 1987.
Kellerman, E. 1983. 'If at first you do succeed . . . '
in S. Gass and C. Madden (eds.). Input in
Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass.:
Newbury House.
Larsen-Freeman, D. and M. Long. 1991. An
Introduction to Second Language Acquisition
Research. London: Longman.
Nunan, D. (ed.). 1987. Applying Second Language
Acquisition Research. Adelaide: NCRC.
Nunan, D. (ed.). 1992. Collaborative Language
Learning and Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Nunan, D. 1993. Introducing Discourse Analysis.
London: Penguin.
Nunan, D. 1996. Academic Writing for Nursing
Students. Hong Kong: The English Centre,
University of Hong Kong.
Pica, T. 1985. 'The selective impact of classroom
instruction on second language acquisition'.
Applied Linguistics 6/3: 214-22.
Pienemann, M. and M. Johnston. 1987. 'Factors
influencing the development of language
proficiency' in Nunan 1987.
Rutherford, W. 1987. Second Language Grammar:
Teaching and Learning. London: Longman.
Wajnryb, R. 1990. Grammar Dictation. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Woods, E. 1995. Introducing Grammar. London:
Penguin.
The author
David Nunan is Director of the English Centre
and Professor of Applied Linguistics at the
University of Hong Kong. He has worked as a
language teacher, teacher educator, curriculum
consultant, and materials writer in many countries.
His teaching and research interests include task-
based teaching, learner-centred instruction, and
classroom observation and action research.
E-mail: <[email protected]>
Teaching grammar in context 109

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