Teaching Grammar: Mission Impossible? Marion Engrand-O’Hara Ce

Teaching Grammar:
Mission Impossible?
Marion Engrand-O’Hara
Centre for Development of Academic Skills (CeDAS)
Outline
• The context
• The old Academic Grammar course
• Some trends in Grammar T. & L.
• Course content selection
• Syllabus design
• Evaluating success
The Context
3
Academic English for International Students Courses
•
4 or 8 weeks, 1 or 2 hours / week
• Term time, free
• Open to all NNS on campus (UG/PG)
• Choice of 10 Courses in T1, 11 in T2
• 30 groups in total in T1, 22 in T2, max. 20 students
• Students can take up to 4 hours / week
• Moodle (VLE) support for all courses
•Mostly Management , some from Psychology, Information
Security, CeDAS and visiting students, English, Media Arts,...
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Grammar for Academic Writing (Old Course)
Week
1
Clause patterns
- includes identification of subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial elements
of sentences.
2
Dependent and independent clauses
- includes linking two independent clauses and linking a dependent to an independent
clause.
3
Relative clauses
- making sentences using who, which, that etc.
4
Nominal clauses
- making wh- and that- clauses which function as nouns.
5
Adverbial clauses
- includes identification and punctuation of adverbial clauses.
6
Review of dependent clauses
- using what we’ve learned to improve reading comprehension.
- further practice of punctuation.
7
Non-finite verbs
- how to write phrases with –ing or to+infinitive verb forms.
8
5
Topic
Online practice
Grammar for Academic Writing (Old Course)
6
Grammar for Academic Writing (Old Course)
•Feedback:
From tutors:
A lot of grammatical terminology to teach first
Not suited to most students
Too narrow
Not easily applicable to students' own writing
From students:
Too narrow (mostly sentence structure)
‘Boring’
Not enough practice
•Retention rate Spring 2014: 33 %
7
Some Trends in Grammar Teaching & Learning
•Student writing as a starting point: What do our students need?
•Necessity to step away from the ‘study skills’ approach (Wingate, 2006):
What do students need to express their ideas in an academic context
(discourse-level grammar)?
•Unclear distinction between Grammar and Vocabulary. For example in
high-frequency clusters or lexical bundles (McCarthy, 2006, p.7).
•Need to teach grammar and vocabulary together: Genre analysis (Swales
and Feak,2001) , corpus linguistics (Coxhead & Byrd, 2007; McCarthy, 2006)
= specific lexicogrammatical features of particular types of text or discourse.
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What do students need ?
Essay Writing Framework (Wingate, 2012,p. 153) :
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Course Content Selection
Sentence structure (clauses),
tenses/prepositions/articles
Academic style: nominalisation,
information flow, cohesive
Student writing feedback shows
our students need:
devices, functional language for
definitions, comparisons, taking
a stance, etc.
Awareness of own strengths and
weaknesses, independent learning
skills.
10
Course Content Selection
Variety of approaches in published materials :
•
A focus on verbs and tenses, and nominalisation (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998)
•
Sentence-level grammar (Bailey, 2011 and many others)
•
No specific grammar point, inclusion in writing course (Swales and Feak, 2001)
•
Bite-size ‘language focus’ sections within an EAP course (Argent and Alexander, 2010)
Two recent publications stand out:
•
Paterson, K. (2013) Oxford Grammar for EAP, Oxford: OUP
•
Vicary, A. (2014) Grammar for Writing, Reading: Garnet
Benefits: They seem to achieve what research calls for: a discourse-based lexicogrammatical approach that is clearly based on the needs of the academic writer.
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Designing the Syllabus
Guiding principles:
• Only the most needed content is included
(2 x 4 lessons only)
• Readily usable content / transferrable skills
• Develop learner independence
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Course Content Selection
Activity:
1. Rank the core grammar point and function cards in order of priority
2. Make two piles: independent study vs. classroom activities
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Academic Grammar and Vocabulary Par t A
Course Outline
Functions
Grammar points / vocabulary covered
Unit A1 

Overview
Using academic style 1(being
formal, using impersonal language)


Nominalization
Academic words/phrases
Unit A2 
Using academic style 2 (using
impersonal language)
Using the right tense




The passive
Tense formation and use
Tense use in academic writing
Tense consistency
Unit A3 
Structuring your writing at sentence
level

Simple and complex sentence structure
Unit A4 
Using a concordancer to improve
accuracy and vocabulary range
Accuracy in writing
Improving an essay



Vocabulary in context
Recording vocabulary
Agreements (subject/verb;
qualifier/noun…)
Information flow, sentence structure
Using articles and prepositions accurately



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

Academic Grammar and Vocabulary Par t B
Course Outline
Functions
Grammar points / vocabulary covered
Overview
Structuring a piece of writing
(cohesion,
signposting/connectors)




Writing definitions
Using your own voice:
Expressing degrees of certainty

Unit B3


Referring to published literature 
Writing about research 1:

aims and results


Unit B4

Writing about research 2:
findings and conclusion
Working independently
Unit B1
Unit B2



15







Making a text ‘flow’
Signposting and using connectors (expressing
cause and effect, showing contrast, clarifying,
illustrating…)
Using cohesive devices
The structure of definitions (e.g. X is a Y
which…)
Using modal verbs and adverbs
Cautious and emphatic language
Sentence types used to refer to academic
sources
Reporting verbs and their use
Expressing study aims
Commenting on quantitative data
Summarising findings
Writing a conclusion
Understanding and recording vocabulary
Improving your essay
The Approach
Developing noticing
skills:
• Compare two texts and identify features of academic style.
Learning inductively:
• Observe the following text, can you work out any rules
about where independent markers appear in a sentence or
how they are punctuated?
Working with authentic
materials:
• Look at a student’s essay extract below. The point that s/he
is trying to make is quite simple, but it does not come out
clearly here. Can you work out why? (lack of signposting).
Using studentgenerated materials:
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• In small groups, brainstorm reporting verbs you know and
sort them into your own meaningful categories.
The Approach
Providing plenty of
practice (and more...):
Taking advantage of
classroom setting:
• gap-fills, grids to complete, annotated essay
extract to rewrite,...
• pooling knowledge and skills (brainstorm,
explain,…), negotiating meaning, etc.
Providing self-study
• Using a concordancer to check the meaning/use
of a word in context
resources, but also
developing independent • Awareness raising activities (Needs Analysis,
Influence of native language)
learning skills:
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Evaluating Success
Retention rate increase (non-compulsory students):
Autumn 2013
Spring 2014
40 % (51 sts)
33 % (22 sts)
Autumn 2014
Spring 2015
G & V Part A
70 % (67 sts)
69 % (13 sts)
G & V Part B
N/A
59 % (34 sts)
Old G course
18
19
Evaluating Success – Student Feedback
Tutor
explained well
Enhanced
acad. Skills
Materials,
Activities
Comments
Acad. Grammar 9
& Voc. Part A,
Academic Year
2014-15
1.0
1.11
0.78
+ Interactive mode of teaching/discussions
+ Grammar, e.g. articles, prepositions and sentence structure
+ the feedback of the essay after checking
- Optional homework exercises will be useful. I feel that I want
to practice what I learn in the class.
Acad. Grammar 15
& Voc. Part B,
Academic Year
2014-15
1.20
1.40
0.80
+ Voc (2), + Gram., + Very good material (practical approaches)
and resources provided also for further studies, good teaching
atmosphere, + Materials
- More examples/practice/exercises would be good (5)
- Better explanations, more vocabulary exercises - in relation
to good scientific resources/papers
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Total
responses
Course
Evaluating Success
Tutors’ comments:
 “This was quite popular and generally well attended. I found it easy to adapt
the materials to suit the needs of the group, and I thought there was a good
balance of input and pairwork/groupwork. Most of what was studied in the
lessons was very practical and easy for students to use in their written work.”
 “Appropriately pitched and good range of topics, but too much in each lesson
so I’ve had to be quite selective.”
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Implications
So...
• More practice? More online materials, including new points
not mentioned in class? Effective? Useful?
• Low score on ‘enhanced academic skills.’ What are we doing
wrong?
• Further address retention rate issue?
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Mission impossible?
The new course is successful to an extent, but there are still some issues to address…
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Bibliography
Bailey, S. (2011) Academic Writing, a Handbook for International Students. 3rd ed. , London: Routledge
Coxheard, A. & Byrd, P. (2007) Preparing writing teachers to teach the vocabulary and grammar of
academic prose, Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, pp. 129-147
Dudley-Evans, T. and St John, M.J. (1998) Developments in ESP: a multidisciplinary approach. Cambridge:
CUP
McCarthy, M. (2006) Explorations in Corpus Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP
Paterson, K. (2013) Oxford Grammar for EAP. Oxford: OUP
Swales, J. and Feak, C. (2001) Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Ann Arbor: U. for Michigan Press
Vicary, A. (2014) Grammar for Writing. Reading: Garnet
Wingate, U. (2012), ‘Argument!’ helping students understand what essay writing is about, Journal of
English for Academic Purposes, 11 (2), pp. 145-154
Wingate, U. (2006), Doing away with ‘study skills,’ Teaching in Higher Education, 11 (4), pp. 457-469
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