Sequencing and Feedback in Teaching Grammar

1. Sequencing and Feedback in Teaching Grammar

2. Problems in Sequencing • How do we sequence the grammar in a teaching programme? • From easy to difficult? • Not easy to determine • Based on some form of ‘natural order’? • Research is inconclusive about a natural order

3. Problems in Sequencing • If declarative knowledge, then presented bit by bit • Additive process • But, difficult structures may mean they should be introduced early so that given more treatment • What do students need then? Often when we teach, we require students to use a structure that will only be taught later. • 10 divided by 2 is a passive construction; passives taught later, 10 divided by 2 is taught early

4. Traditional Divide-up-the-grammar curriculum (Byrd & Reid, 1998) • LEVEL 1 (Beginner) • Simple sentences • Compound sentences • Nouns (single and plural) • Pronouns (objective, demonstratives) • LEVEL 2 (Low Intermediate) • 75% mastery of level 1 • Complex sentences with time clauses • Noun phrases • Pronouns (reflexive) • Simple questions (yes and no) • LEVEL 3 (Intermediate) • 75% mastery of level 2 • Complex sentences with cause and effect clauses • Simple questions • Nouns (collective and abstract)

5. Problems in this Tradition • Division is inauthentic because students often cannot wait for a higher level to use the language (e.g. cannot delay noun phrases because language will have NPs) • Division is unrealistic because it is difficult to “master” a grammatical structure in a specific period of study • Cannot characterise “Beginner” in terms of features such as simple past tense and nouns; or “Intermediate” in terms of progressive tense and abstract nouns

6. Implications of this tradition • Curriculum and materials can become distorted • E.g. simplifying texts can lead to more difficult texts as loss of connectors and other language used to keep text coherent; Ss learn to read unnatural texts rather than developing strategies for reading authentic texts

7. Sometimes, difficulty is not the grammar but the background knowledge • Message: cannot build around lists of grammar structures that limit student access to certain items – and that require reading materials that they use contain only those items

8. Alternative: Ordering according to clusters • Particular features of grammar are clustered in sets used in different types of discourse (Biber, 1988) • Narrative communication (story telling etc. based on past time events) • Interactive communication (interacting with audience by asking questions and using language that is thought of as ‘oral’) • Informational communication (stating facts, and using language to give information)

9. Narratives • Simple past tense with some past perfect and past progressive; • Proper nouns for characters • Personal pronouns (especially he and she) • Time words and phrases to coordinate chronological organisation of passages

10. Informational Writing • Long, complicated Noun phrases • A very accurate tool for measuring work • The main component of the device • Passive verbs (as focus is on processes) • A limited set of verbs • Present tense

11. Principles of Sequencing Grammar (Byrd & Reid, 1998) • P1: Students work with authentic reading materials and take on authentic writing tasks • P2: These materials require Ss to learn about grammatical features characteristic of the text/task • P3: Grammar is selected based on the features of the discourse they have to handle • P4: Grammar is presented in clusters rather than in specific segments of a course • P5: Proficiency levels are determined not by individual items of grammar but by complexity of reading/writing text/task • Curriculum gives Ss multiple opportunities to encounter these grammar structures (spiral/cyclical model)

12. Sequencing Now • Focus on fluency activities have given rise to new criteria for sequencing (functions, notions/concepts, even integration with skills) • Focus on fluency allows for some student inaccurate use of forms • In focus on fluency, impossible to predetermine grammatical structures

13. FEEDBACK • Various types • Direct and indirect • Positive and Negative • Cognitive and Affective • Recast/reformulation; repair; clarification requests etc. (see. Pp 117-119 Thornbury)

14. Decisions to make • Who responds? • Teachers/classmates/self • What kind of response? • Positive as well as corrective/prescriptive/just to errors?/just to content?/detailed or holistic? • When to respond? • In speaking – immediately?/at the end of class?/when common errors are made?/when errors affect meaning? • Where to respond? • In writing – in the margins/end comments • Why respond? • To teach/to grade/to build trust/to stimulate revision

15. Should teachers • Respond to every error/not respond to errors/respond to only what they are teaching • As teachers identify errors, should they • Correct them/merely indicate them/prioritise errors based on – how much they intefere with communication; commoness of occurrence; reason(s) for occurrence (error gravity) • How might a teacher incorporate errors into overall evaluation? • How can teachers analyse patterns of error that will help students learn correct language structures?

16. Common Sources of Errors • First language interference • Overgeneralisation of rules • High level of difficulty of the language structure (should not confuse difficult to explain and difficult to learn) • Production errors – called mistakes

17. Awareness of Student Preference • Quantity: Every error marked? Only important errors marked? • Affect: How does the student react to teacher feedback? (Cognitive feedback – explanation; affective feedback – motivational) • Interaction: Does the student learn better through interaction/negotiation

18. Bottom line in treating errors is that teachers “should not stifle the students’ attempts at production by smothering them with corrective feedback” (H.D.Brown)