Alessandro Benati University of Greenwich A.Benati@gre.ac.uk

1. RGTSARoyal Greenwich Teaching School AllianceWhat is the role of grammar in second language learning and teaching? Alessandro Benati University of Greenwich A.Benati@gre.ac.uk

2. Topics of Discussion • Research insights • Traditional Grammar Teaching • Rethinking grammar teaching • Inputoption: Textual Enhancement tasks • Noticing and Processing • Input Processing • Input option: Structuredinput tasks

3. Research insights • ‘I am interested in the question of what grammar one can most profitably teach, when and how. I would like to know what the second language acquisition experts have to say about this’ (A foreign language teacher) • Can we offer a detailed answer to this question?

4. Research insights 1. Acquisition involves the creation of an implicit system (developing system) Even when learners are explicitly taught they create their own systematic patters There are not rules in the classic sense! Representation is built up over time through the processing of data from input coupled with internal mechanisms Skill—speed and accuracy during the execution of an activity—is developed over time by performing the activities one wants to develop skill in Knowing a rule does not mean learners will be able to use in a communicative interaction 2. Grammar instruction cannot alter the route/sequences of acquisition Predictable sequences with structures – No drink – I no can do – I don’t - I can’t do Orders of acquisition with forms –ing–ed– s- Learners must be developmentally ready

5. Research insights 3. Learners have internal strategies for organising language data Primacy of Meaning Principle (form-meaning connections) First Noun Principle (parsing syntactic structures) 4. Acquisition moves from Input to Output Input Intake Developing system Output •  Grammar Teaching Grammar Teaching is constrained It is beneficial ifmanipulates input

6. Traditional Grammar Teaching • Learners follow a very structural syllabus focus on structure and form rather than meaning • Learners are exposed to correct models/patterns of the target L2 (paradigms) • Learners are engaged in mechanical practice (drills) • ‘‘Today we are going to learn about past tense forms. Does anyone know what the past tense is, how is formed and how we use it? (silence from the class) Well, the past tense in French is formed by…..(present the class with a paradigm of past tense). For example in this sentence we add/change…..(quizzical look from students)…What is the past tense of the verb ‘to go’? If I need to say ‘Yesterday I went to the Cinema with a friend’ how do you say this in French? (one student ventures an answer)…..’’

7. Traditional Grammar Teaching • Prototypical scenario = Paradigms + Exercise sequencing (drills) • Traditional grammar teaching is largely mechanical • Focus on a grammatical feature to produce sentences (skill not representation!) • Focus on input and message is absent! • Acquisition moves from input to output! • What are the options?

8. Rethinking Grammar Teaching • What is needed is a new pedagogical approach to grammar teaching that takes as its point of departure what we know about how grammatical forms and structures are acquired • Drawing learners’ attention to form within a meaningful context (developing the system) • Interventions that provides meaningful input and takes into consideration learner’s internal mechanisms and strategies • Input options

9. Input option: Textual Enhancement tasks Textual enhancement tasks = use typographical cues as bolding and italics to draw learners’ attention to grammatical forms and provide meaning-bearing input • 1. Determine the goalof instruction • 2. Choose an appropriate form (communicative value, transparency) • 3. Chose a text that it is appropriate to the level of your students • 4. Consider the frequency of exposure • 5. Consider how you draw learners’ attention • 6. Keep meaning in focus

10. Input option: Textual Enhancement tasks • My cousin Billy and I have a lot of pets. I have two cats and one hamster but Billy has for hamsters. Billy has a bird called Polly. I have two birds….. • I must get more sleep. If not, I may not wake up for work. I may have to drink lots of coffee and then I may be nervous all day….I must stop staying up so late at night…. • French: à and en (to express in with geographical location) • Spanish: the use of ser and estar

11. Noticing and Processing • Noticing: to become aware of something in the input • Processing: the connection of form with meaning • Data must be processed (linked to meaning) during comprehension. It cannot be merely noticed (e.g. a past tense marker such as –ed has to be tagged as meaning <+past> <-present> for it to be acquired • Grammar instruction requires a simultaneous focus on meaning and form

12. Input option: Structured input tasks • Structures input is concerned with those psycholinguistic mechanisms and strategies by which learners derive intake from input (e.g. processing words before grammatical features!!) • Principle 1. The Primacy of Meaning Principle. Learners process input for meaning before they process it for form L2 learners must make good form-meaning connections = L2 learners must be able to connect a form with its meaning in the input they receive (the morpheme –ed- on the end of the verb in English refers to an event in the past) Yesterday, I played tennis with John in the park’ • Principle 2. The First Noun Principle. Learners tend to process the first noun or pronoun they encounter in a sentence as the subject or agent L2 learners must be able to determine, for example, which is the subject and which is the object in a sentence they hear or read. The police officer was killed by the robber

13. Input option: Structured input tasks • Enhance the form-meaning relationship and make one form more salient in the input • Referential activities are those for which there is a right or wrong answer and for which the learner must rely on the targeted grammatical form to get meaning • Affective structured input activities are those in which learners express an opinion, belief, or some other affective response and are engaged in processing information about the real world

14. Input option: Structured input Guidelines • 1. Present one thing at a time • 2. Keep meaning in focus • 3. Move from sentences to connected discourse • 4. Use both oral and written input • 5. Have the learner do something with the input • 6. Keep the learner’s processing strategies in mind

15. Concluding remarks • 1) Second language acquisition research has shown that learning rules is not what makes the difference • 2) Acquisition is not driven by explicit rules but by interaction with input data and then output data • 3) Learners have internal mechanisms and strategies to process grammar • 4) One size does not fit all! However, drills practice does not work! • 5) Consider the nature of the target form (transparency form-meaning connections, redundancy, communicative value) • 6) Keep in mind the goal of enhancement and processing

16. Suggested Reading • Benati, A. (2013). Issues in Second Language Teaching. London: Equinox. (Chapter 1 and 2). • Benati, A., Laval, C., Arche, M. (2013). The Grammar Dimension in Instructed Second Language Learning. London: Bloomsbury. • Benati, A. and Lee, J. (2008). Grammar Acquisition and Processing Instruction. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. • Nassaji, H., and Fotos, S. (2011). Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classrooms. New York: Routledge. • Wong, W. (2005). Input Enhancement: From Theory and Research to the Classroom. New York: McGraw-Hill. • Wong, W., VanPatten, B. (2003). The evidence is IN: Drills are OUT. Foreign Language Annals, 36 (3), 403-423.