Tópico em Lingüística Aplicada (Inglês): Gramática pedagógica (online)

LET 076 – 2007/2

Faculdade de Letras - UFMG

Profa. Deise P. Dutra

Student: Érika de Pádua

December, 2007

PORTFOLIO

Introduction

In this course we discussed pedagogical grammar - its definition, its characteristics and possibilities as teaching guidelines or tools. In our online forum, we discussed texts by Dutra & Mello, Hinkel & Fotos, Lewis, Larsen-Freeman, Hughes & McCarthy, Thornbury and Richards. These contributed with various facets on the subjects, and our forum discussion helped us deepen our understanding of them. Besides forum participation, we were asked to prepare tasks based on the information on some of the texts read. These tasks were important because they helped us understand how the theory applies to practice. These tasks made possible for us to have a glimpse at the extent of the application of such theories in real life. The difficulties, challenges and questions raised made me, personally, understand more the importance of pedagogical grammar in English classes. In this portfolio, I decided to put examples of each of those activities. First, I posted some of the texts that we read during the course. Then, I posted some interesting comments of some of my classmates and professor that enlightened some points about grammar teaching. Next, I posted videos of two of the Powerpoint presentations that Bruno, Raquel and I prepared as tasks for the course. Finally, I posted an example of a teaching material that I developed during the course and that I used in my own classes.

Artifacts

1.  Texts

I found many texts related to the class. Below are some of the extra texts related to the pedagocical grammar that I found interesting during my course. I found many texts related to the class. Below are some of the extra texts related to the pedagocical grammar that I found interesting during my course.

[PDF]

Translation in the Classroom

This text talks about the role of translation in language teaching. I found this text relevant because it questions the assumption that translation should never be used as a technique in the classroom. While there are many linguists that condemn it, the author of the text claims that there is a place for translation in language teaching, especially if you have "careful application aimed at specific goals and situations." If used appropriately, translation can be a useful tool in English teaching.

Hinkel and Fotos's New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classroom

The first chapter of this book consists of a quick review of historical approaches to grammar. It is a good summary of these approaches characteristcs and takes on grammar.

Lewis's The English Verb: an Exploration of Structure and Meaning

With this text I learned to see language as patterns, as opposed to as facts. Language, like other complex systems, presents repeated elements that can be grouped as patterns. When we do this with language, learning it becomes much simpler.

Carter, Hughes and McCarthy's Exploring Grammar in Context

This text focuses on what escapes traditional grammar - real language, authentic communicational contexts, both spoken and written. This perspective is important because it shows the shortcomings of traditional grammar, of what has been traditionally taught in classrooms. When we take into account real language, our approach to it has to change, because it cannot be contained by a rigid set of rules.

Thornbury's Uncovering Grammar

The novelty of this text's perspective, for me, is to see grammar as a process, something that is built little by little from the context and the teacher and student's contributions. For me it is refreshing, because grammar becomes something in which we do participate and hence, we care, as opposed to something imposed to which we have to adjust. In this course I noticed that grammar is, in fact, fluid, free, changeable, and unable to conform the rigidity of rules. Thus, our approach to language must be one that includes all these characteristics which are its nature.

2.  Forum Participation

The forum participation was quite profitable. It was very important to exchange ideas about the texts we read because it allowed me to see pedagogical grammar from diferent perspectives, besides raising some points I had never thought of before. Some of the comments that were interesting are the following:

* About Lewis's text:

“Because for Lewis there is no such thing as X = Y in terms of language use. If an idea can be expressed in different ways with different words, there is a choice to be made, and that usually tells much about the speaker, such as their age, social status, gender, level of education etc. Therefore, the act of speaking conveys much more than just the content of the verbal message itself. Besides, by simplifying things that way the teacher will be discouraging students to understand the subtleties and contextual relevance of language.”

- Paulo Wagatsuma

I posted Paulo's comment here because it highlights the problem of oversimplification when the subject is learning/ teaching strategies. There is not only one answer, only one correct way to do that. We should keep trying different strategies, paying attention to what the contexts tell us. Context is a crucial word here, because it establishes the groungs for communication to take place. I agree with Paulo when he says that communication is also a matter of choice.

* About Larsen-Freeman's text:

“Many times, we as teachers, take for granted that students, because they understand pragmatics very well in their native language, can transfer that knowledge to the second language being learned without being thought. However, if we do not call their attention, they won’t see the differences, because they definitely see grammar as something inflexible.”

- Demetrios Tzitas

Demetrios's comment is relevant because we tend to take for granted many things related to students. Teachers do not usually put themselves in the students' shoes, and this bring consequences to the classroom. I agree that it is important to open students' minds as for the flexibility of language. We tend to simplify concepts and forget that language is very complex and involves a number of aspects, which sometimes we don't take heed of. Demetrio alerts us about this problem.

* About Hughes and McCarthy's text:

“Traditionally, the term 'paradigm' is used to refer to a list of items from which one can be chosen to figure in a given position of a sentence or utterance. For example, one could in principle choose from among the subject personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) for the subject position of a sentence. What the authors suggest in the text is that the paradigms of choices that emerge in real situations do not always correspond to these paradigms of items. The first example given has to do with the items 'it', 'this' and 'that'. In a traditional grammar, the first would be classified as a personal pronoun, while the last two as demonstratives. This could give the impression that these are two fundamentally distinct groups that could never constitute a single paradigm of choice. However, in practice there are several situations where a speaker may choose from among these three items, with each choice having a different function in discourse. This distinction emerges only in discourse and cannot be apprehended by analysing sentences in isolated form, and that is why it is important in understanding the concept of discourse grammar.”

- Bruno Russo

Bruno's comment on Hughes and McCarthy's text shows, once more, the complexities of the language and, at the same time, where traditional grammar falls short. I learned take we should take traditional grammar for what it is - traditional grammar. It should be taken critically, knowing that it fills a purpose in certain contexts, but that, at the same time, it is limited and cannot account for all uses of language, especially for authentic language.

* About Thornbury's text:

“Again, we need to consider students’ interest, level and at the same time should challenge them to use the language accurately and fluently [...] If we consider genre as a central issue in language choice, this should also be part of our teaching concerns.”

- Deise Dutra

With this comment Deise highlights the importance of taking the student's background, previous knowledge, interests and limitations as a sort of starting point, along with communicational context. I think this is what bridges teacher and student and makes communication more efficient and faster. 

3.  Tasks

These are the video versions of the Powerpoint presentations that I did together with my group. The Powerpoint presentations were taske for the course. They were converted into pdf documents, posted in the forum and subjected to peers appreciation. I posted all of them here because I learned with all of them. The process of organizing a class based on the principles of different texts served to point to different approches that proved, in different ways, advantageous.

4.  Teaching Material For My English Classes

This is a teaching material that I prepared for one of my classes. The instructions are in Portuguese because I intended them to be as clear and straighforward as possible. I gave the students some examples of what I intended them to do in the project. The topics are meant to touch a chord in the students, to connect with them in a way that the activity becomes meaningful. The students should pick a picture and write a sentence about them, using their knowledge of the English language. This activity focuses on drawing previous knowledge as well as recently learned linguistic items previously taught. It is also focused on the production of language, or output.

Yearbook Powerpoint

Os alunos deverão fazer uma apresentação de Powerpoint de 10 à 15 slides sobre os acontecimentos do ano de 2007. Cada grupo irá escolher 1 tópico e selecionar da Internet 1 imagem sobre cada evento. Cabe ao grupo elaborar a frase que descreverá a imagem.

Exemplo de Slide de Powerpoint:


In 2007, the new Playstation 3 videogame got many good games!

Os tópicos são os seguintes (links da Wikipedia dos acontecimentos de 2007 até agora)

• 2007 in art
• 2007 in film
• 2007 in video gaming
• 2007 in home video
• 2007 in literature
• 2007 in music
• 2007 in television
• 2007 in politics
• 2007 in science

• 2007 in sports

Exemplos de tópicos para a apresentação: esportes, cinema, saúde, ciência, eventos religiosos, eventos políticos, programas de televisão, novelas na televisão, múisica (rock, hip hop, música caipira, axé, etc.), videogames, etc.

Pode-se colocar eventos e acontecimentos no Brasil, desde que sejam separados dentro de um dos tópicos. Por exemplo, pode se colocar imagens e descrições dos eventos de esporte, política, cinema, etc. no Brasil em 2007.

Alguns links de notícias:

CNN.com - Breaking News, US, World, Weather, Entertainment & Video ...

Google News

Aggregated headlines and a search engine of many of the world's news sources.
news.google.com/ - 154k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

G1 - O Portal de Notícias da Globo

- [ Translate this page ]Acompanhe as últimas notícias de política, economia, ciência, saúde, cultura e mais, no Brasil e no Mundo de forma organizada e clara, com muitas fotos e ...
g1.globo.com/ - 114k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Terra Notícias - Informações em tempo real sobre Brasil, Mundo ...

Conclusion

This course was very important especially because it made me aware of many possibilities of pedagogical grammar. I was able to apply a lot of what I learned in my own classes, which become more fruitful not only for me as a teacher, but also for the students. These views of pedagocial grammar showed me that we should not too rigid as for developing teaching strategies, but to be flexible. Each techinque has its own advantages if used at the right time, in the right context. They can all contribute to the learning process, and we, as teachers, need to be attentive to that.

Bibliography

Carther, R.; Hughes, R.; McCarthy, M.. Exploring grammar in context. Cambridge: Cambridge, 2000.

Dutra, D.; Mello, H. (Ed.). A gramática e o vocabulário no ensino de inglês: novas perspectivas. Belo Horizonte: POSLIN/FALE, 2004.

Hinkel, E.; Fotos, S. (Ed.). New perspectives in grammar teaching in second language classroom. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002.

Hughes, R.; McCarthy, M. From sentence to discourse: discourse grammar and English language teachin. TESOL Quarterly. Vol. 32, n. 2. 1998.

Lewis, M. The English verb: an exploration of structure and meaning . Hove: LTP, 1986.

Thornbury, S. Uncovering grammar. Oxford: Macmillan, 2001.