Model of communicative competence, Canale and
Swain (1980) show three separate elements interacting
and influencing each other as parts of communicative
competence:
• grammatical competence
• sociolinguistic competence
• strategic competence.
Leech (1983), in discussing grammar, separates the
elements of language use and shows their interaction.
In these models, both Canale and Swain and Leech
separate grammar from pragmatic and semantic forces,
both these other forces have an effect on grammar.
Halliday (1970, 1973, 1978), in his functional grammar
(sometimes known as systemic grammar or functional-
systemic grammar), sees all these forces as part of
grammar. His three functions:
• ideational
• textual
• interpersonal
In his opinion, all aspects of grammar in that they
play a part in arranging the form in which we combine
the words to convey our message.
GRAMMAR
• Grammar is the means by which we organize our
messages in any communicative act.
• With grammar, we are concerned with how we make
up the message we are communicating, not simply in
terms of forms and structures, but in terms of
meaning.
• Interpreting messages effectively and as efficiently
as possible. In order that this should happen, our
messages contain signals to guide the listener to a
proper interpretation and to avoid any
misunderstanding or ambiguity.
• The grammar is the means we have to send these
signals.
• It does this through the ordering of the words or
group of words, through time, and through mood.
• Knowing grammar is not enough for real
communication, but an inadequate knowledge of
grammar would severely constrain one’s capacity
for effective communication.
• Grammar is a lexicogrammatical resource for
making meaning.
• In the process of making meaning, grammar changes
in both form and meaning to ensure appropriate use
in different situations.
GRAMMARING
• Was put forward by Larsen-Freeman (1992)
• The grammar system is not closed, but is rather
constantly evolving
• Grammar has features of duality to English majors,
that is, it should be taken both as knowledge and as
ability.
✓ Knowledge- focus on the acquisition and
research of rules for sentence formation.
✓ Ability- focus on how grammar is used as a
resource in the creation of spoken and
written texts. (Richard and Reppen)
2 PERSPECTIVES OF GRAMMAR
1. Syntactocentric Perspective of Language
2. Communication Perspective Language
Both focuses more on the overall message being
communicated and the interpretations that this message
might invoke.
1. Syntactocentric Perspective of Language
o Syntax, or the way in which words are arranged in a
sentence, is the central feature to be observed and
analyzed
o formal grammar is defined as a systematic way of
accounting for and predicting an ‘ideal’ speaker’s or
hearer’s knowledge of the language.
o examines sounds that are combined to form words,
words that are put together to form phrases, phrases
combined to form clauses, and clauses assembled to
form sentences.
o In other words, this approach is concerned with the
structure of clauses and sentences, leaving the
literal meaning and contextual use of these forms to
other approaches (i.e., to the fields of semantics and
pragmatics)
o Syntactocentric theories of language have provided
L2 educators with a wealth of information about
grammatical forms and the rules that govern them.
2. Communication Perspective Language
o the observational and analytic emphasis is on how
language is used to convey meaning
Form-Based Perspectives of Language Several
Syntactocentric, or form-based, theories of language
have provided grammatical insights to L2 teachers.
a. Traditional Grammar
- One of the oldest theories describe the structure
of language
- based on the study of Latin and Greek, drew on
data from literary texts to provide rich and
lengthy descriptions of linguistic form.
- revealed the linguistic meanings of these forms
and provided information on their usage in a
sentence
 - supplied an extensive set of prescriptive rules a. Austin’s Speech Act Theory
along with the exceptions
- Austin (1962) proposed that the action performed by
- criticized for its inability to provide descriptions
pronouncing an utterance during interaction
- lack of generalizability to other languages.
involved more than the literal conveyance of
- traditional grammar postulated a separate,
information
uniquely language-specific set of rules or
- Utterances are also said to ‘do’ things in a language
‘parameters’ for every language.
context; they have a language function
- Austin (1962) maintained that an utterance involves
three related speech acts:
b. Descriptive/ Structural Linguistics
a. Production – of a meaningful proposition
- influential theory of linguistic analysis grew out
b. locutionary act- literal meaning
of a concerted effort by linguists in the United
c. illocutionary act – intended meaning
States both to teach English to Native American
d. perlocutionary act – perhaps a feeling of
Indians and to learn the indigenous American
satisfaction on the part of the host that the
languages
invitation was accepted.
- Bloomfield (1933) and Fries (1940), offered a
fairly rigorous method for describing the b. Hymes’ Linguistic Competence & Communicative
structure of a language in terms of both its Competence
morphology and its syntax.
- Hymes (1972) effective communication was not
- ‘patterns’ or ‘structures’ are said to constitute a
simply perceived as a function of linguistic accuracy.
unique system for that language.
Rather, he argued that utterances in communication
- not based on a set of prescriptive rules.
must also be appropriate for the context.
- they seek to describe the language as it appears
- In short, speakers must have both ‘linguistic
with a strict focus on grammatical form.
competence’ and ‘communicative competence’.
- downplayed the semantic aspects of grammar,
- Hymes (1967) related appropriacy of context to
and provided little information on how linguistic
situational factors:
forms are used in context.
✓ the setting (i.e., time and space)
2. Form-and Use-Based Perspectives of Language
✓ the actual form of the message (i.e., the
corpus linguistics grammatical form of the message)
✓ the topic (i.e., what the message is about)
- contributed greatly to our understanding of the
✓ the purpose (i.e., its goal or intention)
grammatical forms found in language use, as well as
✓ the key (i.e., serious, sarcastic)
the contextual factors
✓ the channel (i.e., oral)
- Not a theory of language per se
✓ the norms of interaction (i.e., loudness,
- embodies a suite of tools and methods designed to
interruptions)
provide a source of evidence so that linguistic data
✓ the norms of interpretation (i.e., how
can be analyzed distributionally
violations of the norms of interaction are
- linguistic corpora - large and principled collections of
viewed
natural spoken and written texts
✓ the genre (i.e., informal letter, speech, lab
- One type of study examines the use of one linguistic
report).
feature (i.e., a lexical item or grammatical structure)
in comparison with another. c. Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Linguistic
- corpus linguistics has provided information on the
- According to Halliday (1994) and Halliday and Hasan
different semantic functions of lexical items.
(1976, 1989), this approach views language primarily
- corpus linguistics provides distributional and
as a tool for human communication.
frequency information on the lexico-grammatical
- communication is manifested in language by
features of the language or those features that could
meaning or semantics, and grammar is available as
be taken as both lexical and grammatical.
one of the many resources to express meanings.
- One of the main tenets of systemic-functional
grammar holds that context and meaning take
3. Communication-Based Perspectives of Language
precedence over linguistic form.
- expresses the notion that language involves
- grammatical form is seen as having a symbiotic
more than linguistic form.
relationship with meaning and pragmatic use
- views grammar as a set of linguistic norms,
- experiential functions used to express experience,
preferences and expectations that an individual
- interpersonal functions used to establish and
invokes to convey a host of pragmatic meanings
maintain social ties, and
that are appropriate, acceptable and natural
- textual functions used to structure information in
- assumption: linguistic form has no absolute,
oral and written texts.
fixed meaning in language use, but is mutable
- Within each functional component are numerous
and open to interpretation
subfunctions (e.g., socializing) and several ways of
- Grammar in this context is often coterminous
realizing those functions grammatically (e.g.,
with language itself, and stands not only for
introducing people)
form, but also for meaningfulness.
c. . Why are we interested in grammar?
Source: • “Criteria in Development of Communicative
Grammar Tasks” by Dickins and Woods (1988)
1. “knows a language,” - person has acquired the
ability to produce grammatically acceptable
sentences in the target language, together with
an ability to use these forms correctly as the
occasion demands.
o Cummins (1979) found that basic
interpersonal language skills may be
acquired fairly rapidly, whereas literacy –
takes longer time
2. In terms of language teaching and learning texts,
several further points may be made:
a. In some commercially available materials,
grammar has been devalued as an organizing
principle and subordinated to the
presentation of notional, functional, and
communicative categories.
b. It sometimes appears practical to assume
that target language learners have already
acquired a “basic level of grammatical
competence,” and as a result, learning
materials then concentrate on the
development of the relevant communication
skills for a variety of specific purposes.
c. Although some textbooks claim to be
communicative/functional, this is not
actually the case, as syllabuses may be
derived from an essentially structural base,
realized by materials and learning tasks that
concentrate on grammar largely at the level
of accuracy
3. General held view: students disadvantaged if
they have limited proficiency in the target
language. studies suggest that students with
language weaknesses are more likely to
underachieve in their studies than those
students considered proficient.
D. Why should we teach grammar?
1. The Sentence-Machine Argument
2. The Fine Tuning Argument
3. The Fossilization Argument
4. The Advance-Organizer Argument
5. The Discrete Item Argument
6. The Rule Of Law Argument
7. The Learner Expectation Argument
III. Error Correction and Feedback
- feedback is information that is given to the learner
about his or her performance of a learning task,
usually with the objective of improving this
performance
- feedback can be distinguishable components based
on assessment and correction.
1. Repair
- “a term for ways in which errors, unintended forms, or
misunderstandings are corrected by speakers or others
during conversation”
- “repair may focus on either meaning or form, and
operate at any level: phoneme, morpheme, word,
phrase, clause, sentence, or discourse
- replacement of errors in language that is made by the
speaker of a language.
2 TYPES:
- a self-repair (correction of the speaker’s own
utterances);
- and other repair (correction of the interlocutor)
2. Reconstruction
- “In reconstruction, errors and mistakes are simply
corrected. The results will be sentences free from gross
malformations, but ones which may not remotely
resemble sentences a native speaker would produce to
express the same content because reconstruction
focuses on errors and mistakes, it may well provide the
learner with information on where he or she went
wrong.”
3. Reformulation
- “reformulation provides a model of what the behavior
should look like; and though its clearest use is for writing.
There is no reason why spoken language should not be
reformulated”
1. Spoken Grammar Less Rigid than Written Grammar
In spoken language, the participants usually do not pay
much attention to lexical content and meaning, which
are strictly used in written language.
2. Subordination
“subordination is the asymmetrical relationship between
an independent and dependent clause(s) in which the
dependent clause is introduced by an overt
subordinating conjunction”
The use of subordination between spoken and written
language is not balanced
Two of the subordinating factors, which clearly exhibit
the differences between written and spoken language,
are adjectivals and adverbials.
Adjectivals. With regard to adjectival relative pronouns,
this type of subordination occurs more frequently in
spoken than in written language.
Adverbials. The difference is not the same in every
adverbial, but in general, adverbials in written language
are much more frequent than in spoken language
(Tannen, 1984).
Albert Mackwardt (1972)
- “changing winds and shifting sands”
- Cyclical patterns of emerging methods (found in
ALM)
CLASSICAL METHOD
- Latin was taught
- Focus on grammar rules, memorization of vocab
- Various declensions and conjugations
- Translation of texts
- Adopted as the chief means for teaching foreign
languages
- Fl were taught for the sake of being “scholarly”
- 19th century it came to be known as Grammar
Translation Method
- Withstood reformation at 20th century
- Accd. R & R method is stalwart but does virtually
nothing to enhance a student’s communicative
ability
- “Theorylessness”
LATIN
- Was thought to promote intellectuality through
‘mental gymnastics”
GRAMMAR TRANSLATION
- Accd. R & R method is stalwart but does virtually
nothing to enhance a student’s communicative
ability
- Remains popular: requires few specialized skills
on teachers
- Test of grammar rules are easy to construct, can
be objectively scored
- Accd. R & R method is stalwart but does virtually
nothing to enhance a student’s communicative
ability
- R & R points out “it has no advocates, a method
with no theory. No justification”
GOUIN AND THE SERIES METHOD
- Modern foreign language teaching began in late
1800s
- Taught learners directly (without translation)
and conceptually (without grammar rules and
explanations)
- 15 sentences with unconventionally large
number of grammatical properties, vocab items,
word orders, and complexity
- Series of sentences that are easy to perceive
- With François Gouin
➢ French teacher of Latin
➢ Book: The Art of Learnning and Studying
Languages (1880)
➢ Overshadowed by Charles Berlitz (popular
German founder of direct method)
➢ Language learning is primarily a matter of
transforming perceptions into conceptions
➢ Children use language to repre conceptions
➢ Language is means of thinking, representing
the world to oneself
THE DIRECT METHOD
- Founder: Charles Berlitz
- Established applied linguistics; became widely
known
- Premise similar to Gouin’s: L2 language learning
should be more like L1
- The naturalistic stimulating the natural way in
which children learn first languages
- Lots of oral interaction, spontaneous use of
language, no translation between l1 and l2 , and
little to no analysis of grammar rules
- Considerable popularity during the twentieth
century
- Most widely accepted in private language
schools (native speaking teachers are employed)
- Criticized for its weak theoretical foundation
- Middle of 20th century direct methos was revived
THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD (1950s)
- Coleman Report (1929) persuaded foreign
language teachers that oral skills are impractical
to teach; reading should become the focus.
- Thus, schools in 1930 and 1940s returned to
GMT “The handmaiden of reading”
- WW2 broke out US was thrust into a worldwide
conflict.
- Heightened the need to become orally proficient
in the languages of their ally and enemy
- That time was ripe for a lamguage-teaching
revolution
- US Military funded intensive language courses
that focused on aural/oral skills.
- These concepts came to be known as Army
Specialized Training Program (ASTP) or the army
method
- Oral activity: pronunciation and pattern drills
and conversation practice
- Firmly grounded in linguistic and psychological
theory
- Structural linguists—were engages in “scientific
descriptive analysis”
- Behavioristic psychologists: advocated
conditioning and habit formation through
mimicry and pattern practices
- Wilga Rivers’s eloquent criticism of the
misconception of ALM and its failure to teach
- Discovered that language was not really acquired
through a process of habit formation and
overlearning.
COGNITIVE CODE LEARNING
- Chomskyan evolution = deep structure of
language
- Focused attention on rule-governed nature of
language and language acquisition
- Led kanguage-teaching programs to promote
deductive approach rather than the inductivity
of ALM
- Added healthy does of rue-explanations and
reliance on grammar sequencing of material.
 - It was not so much of a method but an
approach
- Emphasized conscious awareness of rules and
their applications to l2 learning
- Reaction to strictly behavioristic practices of
ALM
- A return of some GMT practices
- Rote drilling bored students, overt conginitive
attention to rules, paradigms intricacies,
overtaxed mental reserves
DESIGNER METHOD OF THE SPIRITED 1970S
- 1) modern language teaching research on L2
Learning grew offshootof linguistic as a
discipline
- Spirited atmosphere of pioneering research,
conceived methods
- such as TPR.
COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING
- Affective-based method
- Charles Curran (1972) “Counsel-Learning”
learners in a classroom are regarded not as
class but a group in need of certain therapy or
counseling.
- Social dynamic of the group were important
THE SILENT WAY
- Rested on cognitive rather than affective
- Caleb Gattegno was interested in humanistic
approach
- Problem-solving approach
- Discovery learning popular 1960
- Should develop independence and autonomu
and responsibi;oty
- Cooperate with peers
- Teacher: stimulator but not a
THE PHYSICAL RESPONSE
- James Asher (1977) the developer of TPR.
➢ Began experimenting in 1960’s
➢ Noted that child in learning her first
language appear to do listening before
speaking. Listening is accompanies by
physical responses (reaching, grabbing,
moving, looking, and so forth)
➢ Gave attention to right-brain learning
➢ Motor activity is a right brain function. Left
brain is language processing
➢ He wished to device a stress free method.
Where learners would not feel overly self-
conscious and defensive. Teacher was very
directive
- Principles of child’s language acquisition is
important
- Heavily utilized imperative mood, even into
more advanced proficiency levels
- Commands were easy to pick up. No verbal
response was necessary.
- More complex syntax would then be
incorporated into the imperative.
- Eventually students would feel more
comfortable
- It had limitations: lost distinctiveness as
learners advance in competence
NATURAL APPROACH
- Stephen Krashen (1982, 1997) developed by his
colleague, Tracy Terell (K & T, 1983)
➢ Learners would benefit from delaying
production until speech emerges. Would be
relaxed as possible in the classroom
➢ Great deal of communication should take
place
- Krashen made comprehension based approach
- Goal was to build the basic personal
communication skills for everyday use
- Teachers’ task: to provide comprehensible input
. spoken language that is understandable
- Learners do not need to speak in “silent period”
until they feel ready
- Teacher creates a stimulating topic
1. preproduction stage development of listening
comprehension skills
2. early production stage marked with errors.
teacher focuses on meaning not on form. No
point of correcting errors (unless they are gross
errors that hinder meaning)
3. extending production stretches discourse more
complex games, role plays. Promote fluency.
Sparse in error correction
- Delay in oral production has shortcommings
(Gibbons 1985):
➢ Teacher Talk- is guided more on topic of
conversation rather than structure of
language
FUNCTIONAL SYLLABUSES (NFS)
- Began to be used in UK in 1970s
- Contrast with structural syllabus
- Sequenced grammatical structures served as
organizers
- Focused strongly on pragmatic purposes
- It was not a method but an approach, gmbut
specifically focused on curricular structure
- Functional part refers to the language functions