Учебное пособие: The English grammar
Inquiry Learner errors
Stage 1: Gathering samples
Gather a few samples of learners’ writing that does not consist of answers to grammar exercise: answers to comprehension questions, essays, letters, short paragraphs. Alternatively, record foreign learners speaking.
Stage 2: Classifying
Go through the samples you have collected, noting mistakes. Can you categorize them into types? What are the most common ones?
Stage 3: Ordering
Together with other participants, make a list of the most common mistakes, in rough order of frequency.
Stage 4: Reordering
There are, of course, all sorts of other factors, besides frequency, which may affect the level of importance you attach to an error. It may be, for example, less urgent to correct one which is very common but which does not actually affect comprehensibility than one that does. In English, learners commonly omit the third-person –s suffix in the present simple, and slightly less commonly substitute a present verb form when they mean the past; on the whole, the second mistake is more likely to lead to misunderstanding than the first and therefore is more important to correct. Another error may be considered less important because a lot of very proficient, or native, speakers often make it. And so on.
Rearrange your list of errors, if necessary, so that they are in order of importance of correction.
Chapter 6Presenting and practising language
1 Structures; grammar and functions126
2 Vocabulary142
3 Pronunciation153
One of the teacher’s main roles is to introduce, or ‘present’, and practice new language and to revise language that the students have met before. Presentation and practice techniques are particularly useful at lower level where much of the language that students come across is new. Of course some of this new language will be acquired naturally through exposure to native speaker discourse, but learners also need and want important areas of language to be highlighted by the teacher: to be explored or illustrated in terms of meaning and form (including spelling and pronunciation), and then practised. The relative amount and the type of presentation and practice depend on a number of factors which are explored in the rest of this chapter under the following headings: 1 Structures: grammar and functions, 2 Vocabulary , and 3 Pronunciation .
It is convenient to categorize language under these three headings, but it must be noted that the principles behind the presentation of language items (as opposed to the development of skills as discussed in Chapter 5) apply – whether we are dealing with structures, vocabulary or pronunciation. So there are many areas of commonality and overlap in the approaches and techniques described in these three sections.
Structures: grammar and functions
Although it is recognized that people learn languages in different ways, it seems that many people can learn a language more easily if they can perceive regularities or patterns. Many of the patterns that students learn are particular grammatical items: verb forms such as the past simple, modal verbs such as will or could , particular combinations such as the first conditional (for example: If she gets the job she’ll move to London ). A list of grammatical items which are regularly focused on in language classes can be found in the contents list of any good learner’s grammar book such as An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage by Leech (Nelson), Practical English Usage by Swan (OUP) or The Heinemann English Grammar by Beaumont and Granger (Heinemann).
Language can not only be seen in terms of grammatical form; it can also be seen in terms of ‘what it does’ or its ‘function’ in communication. Often, one language item can be used to perform more than one function in communication: for example, Can for both requesting –Can you pass the salt? – and expressing ability -Can you swim? And one function can often be performed by using more than one grammatical structure: for example, Let’s … What about …? How about …? All perform the function of suggesting. (There is no definitive list of functions as there is for grammatical structures.)
Many coursebooks aim to have an integrated syllabus – one which combines certain grammatical structures with the functions thought most useful for students at a particular level. So at beginner level the present simple is introduced with the function of describing ‘facts’: My name’s Marta. I’m 18 and I live in Mexico City. I have three brothers . At intermediate level the same verb form can be introduced with a different use – timetabled events in the future: The plane leaves at 10.00 am. We arrive at Orly Airport at noon. From there we go straight to the hote l. Then at advanced level we may want to introduce the use of the present simple to tell stories and anecdotes about past events: So there I am, in the café, when up comes Jeff. He picks up my drink and he pours it all over my head .
Some books may be designed with particular groups of people in mind, and introduce structures with functions thought most useful for the students’ special needs and situation. For example, books targeted at business people usually focus on the language needed for making introductions, for arranging meetings, for negotiating, and other business-oriented functions.
What aspects of a structure should you consider?
When focusing on a structure, either for the first time or for revision, the following can be considered:
1 The form
o The parts of speech. For example, is it made up of a verb plus a preposition (to put off )?
o Whether it is regular or irregular. For example, a regular simple past ends in –ed (listened ), irregular verbs have different forms (heard, spoke, read, wrote );
o The spelling;
o the pronunciation. For example, does the structure contain contractions (I’m, haven’t, should’ve)?
o the word order and whether the item follows or is followed by any particular words or structures. For example, does the verb usually have to be followed by a noun (I bought the car )?