Page 27 - EL108 Learrning Module

Sharwood Smith (1993) notes that whether or not to use grammatical

terminology is still an empirical question. However, once again, general
prescriptions are probably not in order because there are aspects of certain

languages, e.g., in French, sometimes the masculine and feminine forms are
homophones (bleu, masculine for blue, and bleue its feminine counterpart), such

that the concept of gender and the way it is marked would seem to be needed to

help learners understand why there are two forms in writing.
Swain and Lapkin (1998) track students’ use of metalanguage in

collaborative dialogues. For example, they report on an episode where two
learners of French discuss the verb sortir and whether it does or does not take the

reflexive form. The researchers assert that such “language-related episodes,”

where learners work together to use grammatical metalanguage and the reasoning
of others to expand their knowledge of the language, helps learners at the same

time to regulate their own cognitive functioning.

Syllabus Design
While developmental sequences may indeed be impervious to instruction,

it is likely the case that instruction accelerates the overall rate of acquisition.

Lightbown suggests that grammar instruction in advance of learners’
readiness may prime their subsequent noticing (Lightbown, 1998).

Terrell offers a role for grammar instruction in providing students with
advance organizers (1991).

Acknowledging the constraints that developmental sequences may pose,
but mindful of the accelerated learning that comes with grammatical

instruction, Larsen-Freeman (2003) recommends that teachers adopt a

“grammar checklist” rather than a sequence. In this way, teachers have an
unordered set of grammar structures they need to teach, but they can do so

locally in a way that attends to their students’ readiness to learn. It also

means that grammar structures can be worked on as they arise in content
or during communicative activities, thus the contextualization that is

facilitative of learning the grammar is already present. Finally, using a

Teaching and Assessment of Grammar 15