Recently, linguists and professionals in education have shifted away from viewing grammar through a traditional lens and have focused their attention more on the functional use of grammar. Functional grammar does not view language as simply a set of rules; instead, it focuses on the way language is put together so that meaning is communicated for a specific purpose. It is concerned with how the various bits of language in a text work together to fit varying ranges of cultural and social contexts. Unlike the prescriptive, traditional approach, functional grammar is a meaning-based, descriptive approach. Functional Grammar purposes to explore the wide range of relevant choices available to the writer which can be used to convey specific meanings. …show more content…
It helps students to deconstruct meanings in texts, helps them to improve their writing skills, and strengthens their vocabulary, language, and critical thinking skills. Classrooms in the United States are becoming more and more multilingual. Approximately 5,119,561 of the students enrolled in U.S. public schools are classified as being English Language Learners (ELL) (Achugar 9). These students have greater difficulties with reading, writing, and language in particular, and often feel overwhelmed and frustrated when given a complex test or writing assignment. Functional grammar is beneficial for these students because it gives them a framework for understanding the purposes of all of the linguistic rules and elements they are faced …show more content…
However, conducting literary analysis using the Functional Grammar approach provides these students with a toolkit of steps that they can use to analyze the text in a systematic way. For example, if the students are studying Harry Potter, the teacher can guide the analysis by asking the students to search for ways that the language used by Harry and Hermoine differ. They can then discuss what the differences say about the characters? Or the students can be asked to explore the relationship between the student and teacher in The Giver. This becomes almost like a treasure hunt for the students as they look systematically for evidence in the text. Furthermore, when giving students specific details to look for, being given a smaller more concrete task prevents them from being overwhelmed with the whole
Flynn, K. & Hill, J. (2005). English language learners: A growing population. Mid-Research For Education And Learning, 1-11.
Myers, discusses the purposes of this article by saying, "I want to show (…) that it is indeed the "linguistic" component (vocabulary and syntax) that ESL students as much or more than what is considered the "writing" (rhetorical0 component that ESL need most, and that their "errors" are persistent evidence of normal second-language learning and processing" (Myers 52). Myers believes that tutors should be cultural informants, similarly to "Guilt-Free Tutoring." She believes that being a cultural informant is more than just the structure of a society, but also the "way that a language determines, subordinates, complements, coordinates, pluralizes, counts, modalizes, interrogates, and lexicalizes"(Myers 55). She goes on to say that “writing tutors need to acknowledge and respond to the central role of lexis in language learning” (Myers 65). From reading the article, Myers opinion seems to be that tutors need to realize that ESL/EFL students are not on the same level of writing as native speakers especially when it comes to the lexical part of the English language so they need to be taught in a different way. Some tutors might think of her teaching method as unethical, but this only so with native speakers who knows the language better than ESL
When observing and studying ELLs, there are many advantages and disadvantages in a classroom and school for these students. In the classroom, ELL students have many individual opportunities to develop their literacy, especially in small reading groups. English learners also, are pulled aside by an ESL teacher during class hours to focus on reading and writing skills of English. According to Netten, Droop, and Verhoeven (2010), reading is “an activity which benefits from practice” (414). Many of these students struggle to become literate at a young age, but the more practice they receive the better they will become when focusing on developing literacy. Also, ELL students have an advantage when learning two languages because this makes them bilingual. The goal of bilingual education is to develop
Grammar Matters “People are judged everyday by their grammar.” suggests Lynne Truss, the bestseller of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance approach to Punctuation. People are downgraded in the workforce or just in school if someone uses incorrect grammar. In spite of critics, grammar is critical to learn in school. Even though Brock Haussamen says grammar isn’t important, Mignon Fogarty, Douglas Rushkoff, Lynne Truss, and Kyle Wiens think otherwise.
English Language Learners range from Newcomers learning survival English and developing foundational literacy skills to Long-Term English Learners who have had 6 years or more of their education in English yet continue have significant language gaps. These students may speak English with little or no accent and still lack the vocabulary, grammar and grade level literacy to be successful in school. English language learners may remain silent in the classroom as they adjust to a new school, environment, and culture unless he is a native language comrade to interact with. The English language learners are concerned about decoding verbal and non- verbal communication as well as understanding the social culture framework of the school. Most of the time English language learners are observing during instruction, trying to repeat words used by others, memorizing simple phrases and sentences, tired by midday or be frustrated attending long lectures unaccompanied by visual and gestures, relying on first language translation used peer translation or bilingual dictionary, as the students begin to learner they become more involved in the classroom, they can respond non-verbally to commands, statements, and questions in simple form. As their oral comprehension increases, they begin to use simple word and phrases and may use English spontaneously. They can understand short conversation on a simple topic when reading students can understand a narrative text and authentic materials, although they will be below
Ithas beengiven acentralattentionwhenteaching or learning any language.Teaching grammar is aneeded aspect of school education or adult learning.
Systemic Functional Grammar looks at language in terms of form and meaning but pays very close attention to the linguistic level at which the analysis takes place. It then integrates subanalyses into a semiotic system. Readers and addressees need to be reassured that they are following the development of the text. Many texts are signposted by placing elements from the Rheme of one clause into the Theme of the next, or by repeating meanings from the Theme of one clause in the Theme of subsequent clauses.
On the other hand, teachers prefer using L1 for a more effective approach to teaching grammar and checking students’ understanding. Macaro (1997) commented that teachers often lack enthusiasm in using the target language for grammar explanation. Many students have difficulty in learning grammar, especially for those whose L1 system is entirely different from the TL. L1 can be more efficient, particularly when a teacher wants to discuss the learning contract with students, or tries to explore the needs of his/her students, especially those in the lower level (Harmer, 2007). Evidence provided by Harmer (2007) also indicates that the classroom environment can be enhanced through the use of L1 to establish a positive social relationship with students, which ultimately leads to a more effective teaching process.
The aim of a theory of language is to describe a speaker's linguistic competence. (Class notes) In order for a grammar to be satisfactory it must satisfy two main conditions: descriptive adequacy and explanatory adequacy. A grammar that satisfies descriptive adequacy "describes the grammatical sentences of a language in such a way as to uncover deeper principles and rules, which capture in a more satisfactory way the intuitions of the native speaker. A grammar which is formulated in accordance with the principles and conventions of a general i.e., universal linguistic theory with explanatory power is said to meet with explanatory adequacy." (Class notes)
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Essex: Longman Ltd.
Johnson, Edward D. The Handbook of Good English. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1982
A large part of an English teacher’s job deals with helping students find their own voices amidst the many teachings of their parents and peers. A student’s voice can be their values, their interests, and their perspectives of the world in which they live. Their voice can be their critical questioning of the many situations they face, whether in a text, the school cafeteria, or a park after school. It is the job of an English teacher to aid in finding this voice through their writing. It is by putting words and thoughts down on paper that a student can sometimes feel comfortable enough to take risks and find their true voices. Although traditional grammar instruction has long been thought to improve this skill, this is no longer the case. Instead, by providing a classroom environment in which students are immersed in classic literature from many genres including poetry, short stories, and novels, students will learn how to harness grammar for their own purposes of finding their voice in their writing.
When grammar is put to use in a society, people will often have different beliefs at what is the "right" or "proper" usage. This had led to the formation of two widely accepted forms of grammar, Prescriptivism and Descriptivism. These forms will often separate those who believe their form of grammar is the only correct way from those who use many forms they find to be acceptable. Descriptive grammar is formed by analyzing how speakers use a language, and deducing the rules they follow. Linguists create descriptive grammars in order to understand language more deeply. They understand that a single language can have multiple dialects, and that each dialect will have its own grammatical rules--internally
Language, according to Owens (2012, p. 6), “can be defined as a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those symbols”. Language is thought to be a complex system; however, it can be broken down into three different components. These three components consist of content, form, and use. Within these three components, language has five main components which includes semantics, morphology, phonology, syntax, and pragmatics (Owens, 2012, p. 18).
In the article, “Current Developments in Research on the Teaching of Grammar” by Hossein Nassaji and Sandra Fotos two main issues had been discussed. The first one is whether grammar teaching make any differences to language learning where the questions raised are whether grammar should be taught or not. The second issue is what kinds of grammar teaching have been suggested to facilitate second language learning. If grammar should be taught, how much and should it be implicit or explicit grammar teaching? Lastly, the article discussed on the current approaches to grammar teaching in which formal instruction can be integrated with communicative activities which are processing instruction, interactional feedback, textual enhancement, task-based