Teaching Grammar - Week 4 - Grammar as a Process

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 4 of the course Teaching Grammar for the Licenciatura in English Teaching at ULACIT. In this class we will do several activities to challenge the traditional view of grammar as a product and instead consider how it can be seen as a process. We will also look at a model for language acquisition called Processing Instruction and explore a teaching technique associated with it called Structured Input. 

Today's Goals:

• Discuss ways grammar can be viewed as a dynamic process or action rather than a product or object.
• Describe the relationship between grammar and context.
• Consider the three stages of Processing Instruction as a model for grammar learning and teaching.
• Analyze sample Structured Input activities to identify their key features.

Guiding Questions:

• What are some differences between product and process views of grammar?
• What is the relationship between grammar and context?
• How can Processing Instruction (PI) provide a model for grammar acquisition?
• What are the features of a Structured Input activity?

Task 1: Valentine's Day Knock Knock Jokes

To celebrate the day of love and friendship you will tell each other some "corny" knock-knock style jokes. Remember that knock-knock jokes follow a very particular pattern.

• Joke Teller: "Knock, Knock"
• Listener: "Who's there?"
• Joke Teller: "X"
• Listener: "X who?"
• Joke Teller: ...THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE FUNNY PART

Do not share your screen for this activity. Take turns opening the jokes in order and telling them to your partners. If you are a listener you should NOT be reading the joke. If you don't understand the joke, ask you partner to repeat it. If nobody understands the joke, move one and we can talk about it when we come back to the main room.

• Example: CLICK HERE
• Joke 1: CLICK HERE
• Joke 2: CLICK HERE
• Joke 3: CLICK HERE
• Joke 4: CLICK HERE
• Joke 5: CLICK HERE
• Joke 6: CLICK HERE
• Joke 7: CLICK HERE
• Joke 8: CLICK HERE

Task 2: Group Discussion - Grammar as a Process

For homework you read the chapter "Grammar as a Process" from the book Uncovering Grammar (Thornbury, 2001). Take a few minutes to discuss the questions below to review some of the concepts.

• Thornbury begins the chapter by asking the question "Is grammar a thing or is it something that happens?"

•  What does he mean by that? 
• In what ways can we think of grammar as a noun and in what ways can we think of grammar as a verb?

• Consider this quote from the beginning of the chapter. Read it carefully with your partners then describe what it means to you and what you think about it.

• "Inferring the process of language acquisition from its product (grammar) is like inferrring the process of 'omeletting' from the omelette... It ignores the fact that the product and the process are two quite different things - that there is grammar and there is grammaring, and the latter is not easily inferable form the former. In short, a description of used language is not the same as language being used."

• Another part of the chapter descriped situations in which very little (if any) grammar is needed to communicate and other situations in which grammar is needed to "fill in the gaps". 

• What are some examples of situations where less grammar is needed? 
• In other situations, what are the kinds of gaps that grammar is needed to fill?

• There chapter also contained the first two diagrams below talking about the relationship between context and grammar. I also added a third diagram to illustarate the influence of social distance and status on grammar. Explain in your own words what you undertand these diagrams to mean.

Click to view full size image.

• In the chapter there were two sample dialogues. Read each one aloud with your partners then discuss these questions.

• Which dialogue sounded more natural? Why?
• Which circle(s) from the diagrams above help does this example help to illustrate?

Click to view full size image.

Task 3: Input Processing and Structured Input Activities

Let's consider one popular theoretical model that has been proposed to explain the process of language acquisition and also to explore a grammar teaching strategy in alignment with that theory . We will look at Bill VanPatten's 1993 article Grammar Teaching for the Acquisition Rich Classroom to explore his idea of Processing Instruction.

• "...there are no cases of successful first or second language acquisition without some form of comprehensible input present during learning. Conversely, an absence of comprehensible input is consistent with unsuccessful first and second language acquisition.”

• “From second language research, we also know that the output of learners is not simply a reflection of the input. First, something happens to the input as it is processed. In addition, there is nonlinear development of the learner’s linguistic system over time. Thus, the output of learners at any given stage may bear only a partial resemblance to the input that they have been exposed to (pp. 435-436)."

Click to view full size image.

Based on these ideas, VanPatten presents a model of second language acquisition that consists of three parts:

• Input Processing: “...involves the conversion of input to intake. Intake is that subset of the input that is comprehended and attended to in some way. It contains linguistic ‘data’ that are made available for acquisition.”

• Accommodation and Restructuring: “Since the internalization of intake is not a mere accumulation of discrete bits of data, data have to ‘fit in’ in some way and sometimes the accommodation of a particular set of data causes changes in the rest of the system.”

• Access: “...involves making use of the developing system to create output. Access may be totally, partially, or not at all successful, depending on task demands, previous experience (practice), and other factors (pp. 435-436).”

Click to view full size image.

• “If we recall that traditional instruction involves explanation followed by some kind of output practice, then in what way is the language acquisition system being provided with relevant input data that is both comprehensible and meaning-bearing?”

• “...traditional grammar instruction and practice actually works on those processes involved in accessing a developing system. In short, traditional grammar instruction and practice are akin to putting the cart before the horse when it comes to acquisition; the learner is asked to produce when the developing system has not yet had the relevant intake data (pp. 435-436).”

Click to view full size image.

• “...what would happen if explicit instruction in grammar involved the manipulation of both input and input processing in some way? What if the input were structured in such a way as to channel the processes responsible for the conversion of input to intake (pp. 435-436)?"

• “The type of instruction discussed here is called processing instruction, given that its aim is to alter the way in which learners process input. Put in other words, its purpose is to direct learners’ attention to relevant features of grammar in the input and to encourage correct form-meaning mappings that in turn result in better intake (p. 438).”


• The input used in processing instruction is called structured input. The term “input” is used because…learners are not engaged in producing language but are actively engaged in processing input. The term ‘structured’ is used because the input is not free-flowing and ‘spontaneous’ such as the input one might receive when involved in a communicative interaction. Instead the input is purposefully ‘prepared’ and ‘manipulated’ to highlight particular grammatical features based on the processing strategies described previously.”

• Principles of Structured Input

• Teach only one thing at a time.
• Keep meaning in focus.
• Learners must do something with the input.
• Use both oral and written input.
• Move from sentences to connected discourse.
• Keep the psycholinguistic processing mechanisms in mind.

• What about Structured Output?
• It is possible to use the same guidelines from structured input to design structured output tasks: focus on one form at a time, keep meaning in focus, require a response, etc.

Task 4: Analyzing Structured Input Activities

Now you will take a look at some sample Structured Input tasks. Since this teaching strategy was first designed for Spanish as a foriegn language classes, I think it would be nice to see some examples. Then you will also analyze some English examples made by your teacher. Open each document and quickly skim through the activities. For each one, answer the following questions.

• What are students asked to do with the input?
• How are they processing the form-meaning relationship?
• If there is an extension activity, what are they asked to do?

• Spanish Activities: CLICK HERE
• English Activities: CLICK HERE

Task 5: Our Structured Input Brainstorm

With your time remaining, brainstorm a possible Structured Input task of your own. Click your group link below and get started. 

• Group 1: CLICK HERE
• Group 2: CLICK HERE
• Group 3: CLICK HERE

 

References:

Thornbury, S. (2001) Uncovering Grammar. Macmillan Education.

VanPatten, B. (1993). Grammar Teaching for the Acquisition-Rich Classroom. Foreign Language Annals 26(4). 435-450. 1111/j.1944-9720.1993.tb01179.x