Page 209 - Beyond Methods

Activating intuitive heuristics 197
8.1.7 Now, extend the focus to include use of the zero article before first mentions of plural countable nouns and uncountable (mass) nouns. Again, provide your learners with a cluster of appropriate examples, such as
There are 􏰀 apples on the table; There are 􏰀 books on the table; There is 􏰀 grass in my garden;
and ask them in pairs or in small groups to find out and explain the rules governing these usages.
8.1.8 Ask your students to bring a newspaper to class. In pairs, have them select a few headlines, insert suitable articles into the headlines, and then rewrite each of the headlines in complete sentence form. Have them also focus on any variation of meaning if the article usage is varied.
8.1.9 Select a short text that is linguistically and conceptually appro- priate to your learners, one which also has a variety of article usages. Delete each of the articles and insert a blank of equal length (——). Re- member to insert a blank wherever the 􏰀 article occurs. Ask your learners to fill in each blank with a, an, the, or 􏰀 on their own in class. Then they should form pairs, exchange their completed work, and dis- cuss each other’s responses. Then, ask each pair to talk before the class about one item that they were not able to agree on. Ask other students in class to resolve the differences; you should step in only if they are not able to do it by themselves.
8.1.10 Finally, reflect on (a) the degree to which this kind of activity achieves your objective of activating the learners’ intuitive heuristics, and (b) the feasibility and the desirability of designing and imple- menting a microstrategy like this, in terms of your time, effort, and the result. Also think about which part of the activity you will keep, which part you will modify, and why.
Microstrategy 8.2: Dictating Grammar
8.2.0 Dictogloss as a grammar task was originally popularized by Ruth Wajnryb (1990). It encourages learners to communicate about grammar and, through the process of communication, makes them “confront their own strengths and weaknesses” (1990, p.10) and find out what they need to know. A dictogloss task has the potential to result in a context-sensitive knowledge of grammatical rules because form, function, and meaning are so intimately linked in the way this task is normally done (Swain, 1995). It basically involves listening to a short