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REVIEWS .

SPOKEN GRAMMAR:
A Guide for English Language Teachers
Ken Paterson
Sold by Udemy, San Francisco, USA GARETH WILLIAMS/FLICKR

efore we begin, how well versed are
you in the following terms: ‘Heads
and tails’, ‘binomial phrases’, not
Bto mention ‘lexical bundles’ and
‘synonymous language’? Lost already?
Don’t worry, this online guide is for
you. In just twenty-two short, on-screen
lectures delivered by the author, with
the aid of continual advances in corpus
analysis, the guide introduces techniques
and material for teaching the newly-located
items of grammar that appear in everyday
conversation.
You’ll not only learn what they are, you’ll
very quickly be able to implement them.
Following the introduction, which describes
the course rationale and how it works,
items are covered under the five headings:
‘word order and ellipsis’, ‘emphasis’, ‘vague
language’, ‘marking spoken discourse’, and
‘response language’.
Examples of these have, of course, always
existed in spoken English; it’s just taken a
while for someone to sit down to label and
categorise them. For which, language teachers
should be very grateful.
Material is presented in dialogue
format, spoken throughout by the author
alone. This is perhaps a strength such
online material has over the printed
book. I should add, however, that lesson A work of public art in Havana, Cuba by Étienne Pirot (2012). Entitled The Conversation,
plans are available which may be freely it emphases the importance of face-to-face conversation
downloaded.
A typical lecture, usually of five to six
minutes, begins with dialogues for reading
followed by dialogue exercises such as Heads you win at
aloud, which are accompanied by noticing
and commenting activities. These are
gap-filling and transformations. Answers
are then provided along with summaries
of rules and useful language. Lectures spoken grammar
end with role-plays and simulations in
order to practice the grammar point
under focus.
Space limits me to only a brief selection.
For example, the ‘Heads and tails’ terms Wayne Trotman loves this new on-line course
coined by those giants of English grammar
study, Carter and McCarthy. One example for anyone interested in spoken grammar
of a head is: That guy who writes the reviews,
he’s the one who lives in Turkey. This is often evaluative, for example, “Have you seen I know, and at any stage of their career,
stylistically superior to the much more The Post? Great film”. who have a distinct interest in teaching
conservative and coursebook-sounding, The The guide also focuses on aspects such as English as it is really spoken. For further
guy who writes the reviews is the one who lives declarative questions: Speaker A: I’ve been details simply key ‘udemy’ into a search
in Turkey. driving around looking for your house for hours. engine, which will take you to their learning
Speaker B: You got lost? Which is clearly more platform.
nuanced and idiomatic English than simply,
But why, one might Did you get lost?
ask, do we use heads The first part also includes ellipsis, the
removal of unnecessary lexis, with which
and tails at all? most students at a basic level are familiar.
For example, Speaker A: Where’s that Wayne Trotman is a
But why, one might ask, do we use heads reviewer guy from? Speaker B: (He’s from) teacher educator at Izmir
and tails at all? The answer is that heads Izmir. Katip Çelebi University,
allows you to say the important thing first, This guide would be useful on the Izmir, Turkey.
and ‘do’ the grammar later, while tails are electronic devices of all language teachers

40 January/February 2019