Professional Documents
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Role of Grammar
Role of Grammar
Role of Grammar
MONITOR
HYPOTHESI
S
MONITOR
HYPOTHESI
S
The fundamental claim of Monitor Theory is that
conscious learning is available to the performer only
as a Monitor. In general, utterances are initiated by
the acquired system our fluency in production is
based on what we have picked up through active
communication. Our formal knowledge of the
second language, our conscious learning, may be
used to alter the output of the acquired system,
sometimes before and sometimes after the utterance
is produced. We make these changes to improve
accuracy, and the use of the Monitor often has this
effect.
LEARNE
D
SYSTEM
ACQUIRE
D SYSTEM
UTTERANC
E
Monitor Under-user
Monitor Optimal
User
According
to
the
Monitor
Model
for
performance, conscious learning acts as an
editor, as a Monitor, correcting the errors, or
rather what the performer perceives to be errors,
in the output of the acquired system. This can
happen before the sentence is spoken, or written,
or after.
Learning
that
never
seems
to
become Acquisition
(occurs when the performer has
learned a rule, but has not acquired
it)
P, a fairly typical successful Monitor user was studied by
Krashen and Pon (1975). P was a native speaker of Chinese in
her 40s, who had begun to learn English sometime in her 20s
when she came to the United States.
Krashen and Pon studied Ps casual, everyday language
production. Observers, native speakers of English (usually Ps
son), simply recorded her errors from utterances she
produced in normal family living or in friendly conversational
situations. Immediately after an utterance containing an
error was recorded, it was presented to the subject. The data
was gathered over a 3-week period and about 80 errors were
tabulated.
Case Example:
The first lesson of the session was focused on the present
progressive tense. The objective was to inform the students
that the present progressive had three meanings:
1. A current, on-going action that would soon be completed.
2. An action that began some time ago in the past and may
or may not be taking pace at the moment, and would end
sometime soon in the future
3. Future tense
1. What is that noise from the other room? (John is playing
the violin.)
2. Whats John doing this summer? ( He is playing the violin
for the local symphony.)
3. Whats John doing tomorrow? (Hes playing the violin in the
talent show.)
The Place of
Grammar
Grammar is a term synonymous with
conscious learning. It has 2 possible role in the
second language teaching program. First, it can
be used with some profit as a Monitor. A second
use for grammar is as subject matter, or for
language appreciation (sometimes called
linguistics). Neither role is essential, neither is
the central part of the pedagogical program but
both have functions.
about
What can be
monitored.
What can be
monitored.
All the rules of
English
Subset of English
described by formal
linguists
What can be
monitored.
All the rules of
English
Formal Linguists
knowledge
Applied Linguists
knowledge
What can be
monitored.
All the rules of
English
Formal Linguists
knowledge
Applied Linguists
knowledge
Best Teachers
knowledge
What can be
monitored.
All the rules of
English
Formal Linguists
knowledge
Applied Linguists
knowledge
Best Teachers
knowledge
Rules taught
What can be
monitored.
Rules actually
learned by the best
students
Rules used in
performance
REFERENCE:
Stephen Krashen, Principles and Practices in Second Language Acquisition,
University of Southern California
Stephen Krashen, Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Lerning, University of Southern California