Учебное пособие: The English grammar
Unit Five: Grammar practice activities
Application Look at the grammar exercises in a locally-used foreign language course book, and classify them roughly according to the types listed in Box 3. Many course books provide plenty of exercises that suit the descriptions of Types 2-3, but tend to neglect the others. Is this true of the book you are looking at?
Box 3. Types of grammar practice: from accuracy to fluency
Type 1: Awareness
After the learners have been introduced to the structure (see Unit four above)? They are given opportunities to encounter it within some kind of discourse, and do a task that focuses their attention on its form and/or meaning.
Example: Learners are given extracts from newspaper articles and asked to underline all the examples of the past tense that they can find.
Type 2: Controlled drills
Learners produce examples of the structure: these examples are, however, predetermined by the teacher or textbook, and have to conform to very clear, closed-ended cues.
Example: Write or say statements about John, modeled on the following example:
John drinks tea but he doesn’t drink coffee .
a) like: ice cream/cakeb) speak: English/Italianc) enjoy: playing football/playing chess
Type 3: Meaningful drills
Again the responses are very controlled, but the learner can make a limited choice.
Example: In order to practice forms of the present simple tense:
Choose someone you know very well, and write down their name. Now compose true statements about them according to the following model:
He/She likes ice cream ; OR He/She doesn’t like ice cream .
a) enjoy: playing tennisb) drink: winec) speak: Polish
Type 4: Guided, meaningful practice
The learners form sentences of their own according to a set pattern; but exactly what vocabulary they use is up to them.
Example: Practising conditional clauses, learners are given the cue If I had a million dollars , and suggest, in speech or writing, what they would do.
Type 5: (Structure-based) free sentence composition
Learners are provided with a visual or situational clue, and invited to compose their own responses; they are directed to use the structure.
Example: A picture showing a number of people doing different things is shown to the class; they describe it using the appropriate tense.
Type 6: (Structured-based) discourse composition
Learners hold a discussion or write a passage according to a given task; they are directed to use at least some examples of the structure within the discourse.
Example: The class is given a dilemma situation (‘You have seen a good friend cheating in an important test’) and asked to recommend a solution. They are directed to include modals (might, should, must, can, could , etc.) in their speech/writing.
Type 7: Free discourse
As in Type 6, but the learners are given no specific direction to use the structure, however, the task situation is such that instances of it are likely to appear.
Example: As in Type 6, but without the final direction.