Grammaring: Language

Detectives at Work

in the EFL Classroom

Teaching the grammar and usage of English to teacher trainees

and pupils in the light of LU13

Karen Lassen Bruntt, Associate professor,VIA University College

Ulla Bryanne,Academic coordinator & associate professor,University College North

What you’ll hear

1. Brief theoretical outline of the Handbook

2. Examples of different types of exercises and approaches

3. How Karen teaches grammar by using the Handbook

The three dimensions

FORM

How is it formed?(Accuracy)

MORPHOSYNTAX

MEANING

What does it mean?(Meaningfulness)

SEMANTICS

USE

When/Why is it used?(Appropriateness)PRAGMATICS

Based on Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman: The Grammar Book, p. 4

For each of these grammatical structures, which of the three dimensions do you think Danish learners will have most problems with:

• How it is formed? • What it means?• When and why to use it?

1. Phrasal verbs (e.g. My boyfriend ran up a huge phone bill)2. The simple or continuous perspective (e.g. She painted/was painting the house)3. The –ly of adverbs (e.g. She took it very seriously)4. Irregular plural (e.g. mouse – mice)

Bruntt & Bryanne, p. 34

The three dimensions

The three dimensions – how are they learnt?

• FORM-dimension:– Lots of repetitions – Task-Based Learning

• MEANING-dimension:– Dictogloss – Running dictation

• USE-dimension:– Role playing

Various dilemmas when teaching grammar

• Why work with grammar?• Prescriptive or descriptive grammar? • Oral or written language?• What to focus on?• Proactively or reactively/integrated ?• Inductive (guided noticing) or deductive

approach? • Declarative and/or procedural knowledge?• Terminology for teachers and for pupils• In Danish or English?• Teaching grammar or teaching learners?

Traditional assessment: Interlanguage analysis:

- Focus on the target language - Focus on the learner language- Compares learner language to - Sees learner language as a the target language language in progress- Focus on product - Focus on process- Points out mistakes - Points out progress- Focus on the things the learner - Focus on the things the cannot do learner can do- Summative assessment - Formative assessment

Fig. 2-2. Differences between the traditional way of assessing learner language and the interlanguage analysis

Bruntt & Bryanne, p. 22

Examples of different

types of exercises

and approaches

Elicitation of prior knowledgeExercise 11. What do you already know about adjectives?

What do they do to a text? What forms can they take? Which grammatical words do you connect with adjectives?

2. How were you taught adjectives at school? What was good/bad and why?

3. How do you best learn adjectives?4. Can you think of some good ways of teaching

adjectives?Bruntt & Bryanne, p. 303

EXAMPLE 1

Inductive, guided noticing approachenables working in study groups

(MEANING & USE) B.When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the sky outside to suggest that things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled Dudley into his chair. None of them noticed an owl flutter past the window.

AWhen Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

Rowling, J. K.: Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s Stone, Bloomsbury, 1997, pp.7-8.

EXAMPLE 2

Bruntt & Bryanne, p. 303

Adjectives and genres (MEANING & USE)

Below are excerpts from a variety of texts1. In each text find some adjectives and discuss their effect on the

mood, atmosphere etc.2. Remove all adjectives from a text: How does it change? Replace

some of the adjectives, e.g. the negative ones from text C, with others and discuss the effects and what this tells you about the importance of adjectives.

3. What genres do the texts belong to? In which ones do you expect to find many/few adjectives? Why?

4. Find your own text. Remove the adjectives and ask a partner to insert some new ones. Compare with the original text.

Bruntt and Bryanne p. 320

EXAMPLE 3

Dickens, Great Expectations(Fiction, description of place)

I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. From that room, too, the daylight was completely excluded, and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up, and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air – like our own marsh mist. Certain wintry branches of candles on the high chimneypiece faintly lighted the chamber…

EXAMPLE 3 – cont.

Tolkien, The Hobbit(Fiction: description of persons)

All the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which his long white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots […]. Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

EXAMPLE 3 – cont.

K. Donovan, Blind Colours (excerpt)(Poem: to describe feelings and things)

But turquoise is mysteriousAnd langourous,My mouth lets the word goRegretfully, and I thinkOf strange places,Exotic fragrances that I’ll never know.

EXAMPLE 3 – cont.

Overview for teachers

Adjectives give us precise and vivid descriptions of people, feelings, situations, things etc. regarding their colour, size, looks, age, and other properties. In the dull, grey Tuesday the two adjectives dull and grey give us precise details about the noun Tuesday and enable us to easily picture the day. Not only do they tell us about nouns, they can also tell us about pronouns: She was happy. Happy describes the pronoun she.

EXAMPLE 4

Overview for teachers (cont.)

Adjectives are important for creating atmosphere, or for making us like or dislike a certain character in a story, or for appealing to our senses in poetry. Obviously, they are more common (and appropriate) in narration, lyric poetry, advertisements and reviews than in genres without descriptions, such as scientific reports in which we want to appear objective.

Bruntt & Bryanne, p. 304

EXAMPLE 4 – cont.

The functions of the adjectives are introduced by guided noticing and summed up in an overview afterwards

1. PrM in NG (attributive function)2. SC (and OC) (predicative function)3. PoM in NG4. H in NG

Comparative approach: focus on what is difficult for Danish learners (FORM)

EXAMPLE 5

Comparative approach: (FORM)

Exercise 10A boy in Year 9 was ill in your lesson today and you sent him home.1. Write a letter to his parents in which you explain the

matter. You should include the adjectives listed below. Examine whether you have used each adjective attributively or predicatively and whether it would be possible to use it both ways by writing other sentences: sick, able, elder, afraid, alone, content, keen, sorry, glad, ill, and well. Check the adjectives in your English-English dictionary to see what help it offers concerning this issue.

EXAMPLE 5 – cont.

Comparative approach (FORM)

2. Find the equivalent adjectives in Danish: can they be used both attributively and predicatively?

3. What do you do if you want to use an adjective in front of a noun, but this adjective can only be used predicatively? Or if you want to use an adjective predicatively, but this adjective can only be used attributively? E.g., you want to express the following in English: Han er en meget bange dreng og siger ikke så meget i timerne (afraid is not possible)

(This is then summed up afterwards)

EXAMPLE 5 – cont.

Automatisation and integration in communicative activities and communication

1. Go to the web activities: http://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/handbook-language-detectives

2. Choose Chapter 103. Choose Web activities 2-4

EXAMPLE 6

Discussion of didactics: how to teach adjectives

• Enter: http://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/handbook-language-detectives

• Choose ”Chapter 10”• Choose ”Web activity 5”

(Examples of activities at different levels and in different topics)

EXAMPLE 7

Summing up: didactics and the student’s own knowledge of adjectives(evaluation)

• Enter: http://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/handbook-language-detectives

• Choose ”Chapter 10”• Choose ”Web activity 8”

EXAMPLE 8

Automatisation of terminology

• Enter: http://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/handbook-language-detectives

• Choose ”Chapter 11”• Choose ”Web activity 6”

(Vocabulary training)

EXAMPLE 9

EXAMPLE 10

Identify, categorize, correct and explain problems regarding modal verbs in the following sentences: is the problem due to FORM, MEANING or USE?

1. I must in now because it’s cold.2. As far as I know the book shall be really good.3. I’d like to can swim.4. He should start his new job as a teacher today.5. He can German.6. …

Training students to become English teachers

Summing up: how to help learners regarding

interlanguage development(evaluation)

A whole interlanguage text is found after most of the chapters, e.g. in chapter 11 on adverbs, which compares adjectives and adverbs:

• Enter: http://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/handbook-language-detectives

• Choose ”Chapter 11”• Choose ”Web activity 9”

EXAMPLE 11

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkuuZEey_bs

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/adjectives

• http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizz

es/adjectives_quiz2.htm

Further activities and links at the end of each web section

EXAMPLE 12

Karen’s structure of the grammar course in LU13

Karen’s structure

Introduction to the module

• Examples of exercises from exam after Year 9 + example of a learner’s text

• Introductory grammar course (compendium + Stifinderen)

Karen’s structure (cont.)

• Parts of chapter 4: Word classes, word formation + dictionaries

• Chapters 5 + 6: Sentence analysis

(4 lessons)

Afterwards:• One sentence analysis every lesson• Test in sentence analysis

English Latin DanishSx Subject Subjekt GrundledVo Verbal Verballed Udsagnsledn noun substantiv navneordNG Noun Group Subst. Navneords-

gruppe helhed

Help for terminology (jacket)

Glossary (p. 439)• Adjective Group: A group of words clustered around an adjective (he

was very happy that she had come)

Grammar terminology in English, Latin and Danish

English Latin Danishadjective adjektiv tillægsord

Help for terminology (at the back)

Karen’s structure (cont.)Learning and Teaching Grammar (3 lessons)The individual topics in grammar (each topic 3 lessons):

• S-V agreement + word order: 5.5-5.7 (Karen)• VG1: VG structure, auxiliary verbs and lexical verbs, main forms, regular and irregular

verbs: chapter 7.1 - 7.5.2 • VG 2: focus on modal verbs and modality (chap. 13)• VG 3: time and tenses: remaining chapter 7• NG1: 8.1 - 8.4: NG structure + nouns, the genitive, articles and reference• NG2: 8.5 - 8.7: pronouns• Adjectives, adverbs and Circumstantials (chap. 10-12)• Punctuation and prepositions (chap. 9 + 15)

Afterwards: Test in grammar (Identify, categorize, correct and explain problems underlined in a learner’s text)

• Words and idioms (chapter 4) (Karen)• Text grammar (chapter 3) (Karen)

Karen’s course

Before class in study groups (approx 7-8 hours)

• All study groups to study the topic by reading and discussing exercises and web activities.

• They sum up by using web activities at the end of the chapter.

Karen’s course (cont.)

In class: (3 lessons/topic) • Discussion of a mind map made by study

group xx to give an overview with their own examples in a Google Docs file.

• Interlanguage analysis: sentences + learner’s text (Karen)

• Didactics in relation to the topic (study group xx)

Karen’s course (cont.)

Chapter 16: Interlanguage analysis (5 lessons)• The model• Argumentative text• Narrative text• How to give feedback and assess

Afterwards: Paper written in study groups• Interlanguage analysis of a learner’s text (chosen by Karen)• Conclusion and interpretation (help for the learner)

• in language appropriate for colleagues • in language directed to the learner

Literature

• Bruntt, Karen Lassen & Ulla Bryanne: Handbook for Language Detectives: Learning and Teaching English Grammar, Samfundslitteratur, 2012• Øvelser hertil:

http://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/handbook-language-detectives#tab2• Celce-Muria, Marianne & Diane Larsen-Freeman: The Grammar Book: An

ESL/EFL teacher’s Course, Heinle & Heinle, 1999• Larsen-Freeman, Diane: Teaching Grammar: From Grammar to Grammaring,

Thomson-Heinle, 2003• Karen Lund, ”Fokus på sprog” in Michael Byram et al, Sprogfag i forandring,

Samfundslitteratur, 2009