scholarly journals Exploiting parsed corpora in grammar teaching

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Wallis ◽  
Ian Cushing ◽  
Bas Aarts
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Formal Grammar ◽  
Subject Knowledge ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Multiple Challenges

The principal barrier to the uptake of technologies in schools is not technological, but social and political. Teachers must be convinced of the pedagogical benefits of a particular curriculum before they will agree to learn the means to teach it. The teaching of formal grammar to first language students in schools is no exception to this rule. Over the last three decades, most schools in England have been legally required to teach grammatical subject knowledge, i.e. linguistic knowledge of grammar terms and structure, to children age five and upwards as part of the national curriculum in English. A mandatory set of curriculum specifications for England and Wales was published in 2014, and elsewhere similar requirements were imposed. However, few current English school teachers were taught grammar themselves, and the dominant view has long been in favour of ‘real books’ rather than the teaching of a formal grammar. English grammar teaching thus faces multiple challenges: to convince teachers of the value of grammar in their own teaching, to teach the teachers the knowledge they need, and to develop relevant resources to use in the classroom. Alongside subject knowledge, teachers need pedagogical knowledge – how to teach grammar effectively and how to integrate this teaching into other kinds of language learning. The paper introduces the Englicious web platform for schools, and summarises its development and impact since publication. Englicious draws data from the fully-parsed British Component of the International Corpus of English, ICE-GB. The corpus offers plentiful examples of genuine natural language, speech and writing, with context and potentially audio playback. However, corpus examples may be age-inappropriate or over-complex, and without grammar training, teachers are insufficiently equipped to use them. In the absence of grammatical knowledge among teachers, it is insufficient simply to give teachers and children access to a corpus. Whereas so-called ‘classroom concordancing’ approaches offer access to tools and encourage bottom-up learning, Englicious approaches the question of grammar teaching in a concept-driven, top-down way. It contains a modular series of professional development resources, lessons and exercises focused on each concept in turn, in which corpus examples are used extensively. Teachers must be able to discuss with a class why, for instance, work is a noun in a particular sentence, rather than merely report that it is. The paper describes the development of Englicious from secondary to primary, and outlines some of the practical challenges facing the design of this type of teaching resource. A key question, the ‘selection problem’, concerns how tools parameterise the selection of relevant examples for teaching purposes. Finally we discuss curricula for teaching teachers and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention.

scholarly journals ENGAGING STUDENTS IN A FLIPPED CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION: JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL GRAMMAR PROGRAM

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Elih Sutisna Yanto ◽  
Ghyarlina Triyani ◽  
Hikmah Pravitasari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Teaching Innovation ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
English Grammar

The importance of grammar pedagogy in learning and teaching of foreign language has been the focus of discussion for many years which has resulted in a variety of views on grammar and grammar teaching and different teaching approach as well depend on  various perspectives and contexts of language learning. The present study reports students’ perception on flipped classroom mode in learning English grammar. Drawing on classroom action research through reflective journal, photo elicitation and interviews data. Qualitative findings show that:  All of the students enjoyed watching the video materials and had an interest in using them for learning grammar; (2) the use of the flipped classroom mode in learning grammar made students’ independent and active in learning grammar; (3) flipped classroom engaged them in learning grammar in different discourse contexts; (4) flipped classroom mode motivated students in learning grammar. The findings of this study may  be useful to other researchers who are interested in EFL teaching innovation or teachers who seek effective grammar teaching method.

CROSSLINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES IN IMPLICIT LANGUAGE LEARNING

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janny H. C. Leung ◽  
John N. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Word ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Group ◽  
Chinese Group

We report three experiments that explore the effect of prior linguistic knowledge on implicit language learning. Native speakers of English from the United Kingdom and native speakers of Cantonese from Hong Kong participated in experiments that involved different learning materials. In Experiment 1, both participant groups showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and noun animacy. In Experiment 2, neither group showed learning of a mapping between articles and a linguistically anomalous concept (the number of capital letters in an English word or that of strokes in a Chinese character). In Experiment 3, the Chinese group, but not the English group, showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and a concept derived from the Chinese classifier system. It was concluded that first language knowledge affected implicit language learning and that implicit learning, at least when natural language learning is concerned, is subject to constraints and biases.

scholarly journals Constructing a Second Language

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 277-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Dąbrowska
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Special Section ◽  
First Language ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
L1 Acquisition ◽  
The Relationship

All the papers in this special section address issues central to cognitive linguistics research: usage-based models with their focus on frequency; multi-word units and the relationship between lexical and grammatical knowledge; and the nature of lexical meaning, especially construal or “thinking for speaking”. Cognitive Linguistics is thus clearly a useful paradigm for L2 research. The contributors also emphasise that many of the processes operating in L1 acquisition are relevant in L2A as well. In this paper, I discuss the opposite side of the coin: how cognitively-inspired L2 research can inform work on first language learning and theoretical linguistics, focussing in particular on three issues that have been extensively studied in an L2 context but neglected by the other language sciences: transfer of knowledge between constructions, the role of explicit learning, and individual differences in linguistic knowledge.

scholarly journals Teaching English Grammar through Animated Movies

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
HAMMAD MUSHTAQ ◽  
TASKEEN ZEHRA
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Positive Reinforcement ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Learning Speed ◽  
Present Participle ◽  
The Difference

This study seeks to examine how various components of English grammar can be taught through animated movies. The study demonstrates the use of gerunds in a sentence or a discourse through an animated feature film Tangled. The data for this research was taken from the students of grade eight. The students were shown various video clips, comprising dialogues and songs, from the movie and asked to identify the use of gerunds. Later, the students were given various worksheets containing tasks, based on the use of gerunds in a sentence. The students remained very responsive during the whole lesson and effectively learned the use of gerunds and the difference between gerunds and the present participle. The study concluded that animated movies in grammar teaching classes can serve as a positive reinforcement tool for the language learning process as the animated movies considerably increase the learning speed and proficiency of the students.

scholarly journals The Application of Task-based Approach in English Grammar Teaching in Junior High Schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 304
Author(s):  
Simin Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Junior High ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Junior High Schools ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
International Contact

With the increasing of frequent international contact, people pay close attention to the cultivation of communicative competence in foreign language learning. Grammar course deserves a primary status on the curricula for English teaching reform. In order to improve students’ grammar skills, the National New English Curriculum Syllabus advocates that Task-Based Language Approach should be adopted in English classroom, which has become popular since the mid-1980 in grammar teaching. When compared with traditional teaching method, TBLA could effectively settle the existing problems in grammar teaching. Therefore, this paper is to confirm that the application of Task-based Approach has a great impact on English language teaching and learning. Based on the theory of tasked-based approach, the paper summarizes the design principles of teaching tasks, teaching process and contexts. In the end, it encourages teachers to apply Task-based approach into English grammar teaching in junior high schools.

scholarly journals Grammar and Grammaring: Toward Modes for English Grammar Teaching in China

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengyu Nan
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Grammar Instruction ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
Social Perspectives ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Teaching Grammar

<p>The value of grammar instruction in foreign language learning and teaching has been a focus of debate for quite some time, which has resulted in different views on grammar and grammar teaching as well as different teaching approaches based on different perspectives or in different language learning contexts. To explore some modes for grammar teaching in China on the basis of distinguishing grammar and grammaring, this research reviews briefly the current situations of grammar teaching at colleges in China and the various teaching modes adopted in different teaching contexts. Two teaching modes are suggested, linguistic mode and story-telling mode, which may activate inquiry learning and active learning. Linguistic mode, which emphasizes the dual features of grammar learning, is more reasoning-centered than knowledge-centered and is designed from linguistic and academic perspective for advanced learners. Story telling mode, which focuses on smooth communication in different contexts, is more skill-centered than rule-centered and is designed from social and communicative perspective for beginners. Exploring the modes for teaching grammar from linguistic and social perspectives will be a pilot study for inquiring other aspects of grammar teaching as well as for teaching grammar to the learners of other languages.</p>

Individual differences predict ERP signatures of second language learning of novel grammatical rules

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily S Nichols ◽  
Marc F Joanisse
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Grammatical Rule ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Anterior Negativity

We investigated the extent to which second-language (L2) learning is influenced by the similarity of grammatical features in one’s first language (L1). We used event-related potentials to identify neural signatures of a novel grammatical rule - grammatical gender - in L1 English speakers. Of interest was whether individual differences in L2 proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) influenced these effects. L2 and native speakers of French read French sentences that were grammatically correct, or contained either a grammatical gender or word order violation. Proficiency and AoA predicted Left Anterior Negativity amplitude, with structure violations driving the proficiency effect and gender violations driving the AoA effect. Proficiency, group, and AoA predicted P600 amplitude for gender violations but not structure violations. Different effects of grammatical gender and structure violations indicate that L2 speakers engage novel grammatical processes differently from L1 speakers and that this varies appreciably based on both AoA and proficiency.

FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING THROUGH TEXTBOOKS IN ALBANIAN SCHOOLS (COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF ALBANIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS)

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2319-2324
Author(s):  
Rina Muka ◽  
Irida Hoti
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Grammatical Knowledge ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
The Third

The language acquired from the childhood is the language spoken in the family and in the place of living. This language is different from one pupil to another, because of their social, economical conditions. By starting the school the pupil faces first the ABC book and then in the second grade Albanian language learning through the Albanian language textbook. By learning Albanian language step by step focused on Reading, Writing, Speaking and Grammar the pupil is able to start learning the second language on the next years of schooling. So, the second language learning in Albanian schools is related to the first language learning (mother tongue), since the early years in primary school. In our schools, the second language (English, Italian) starts in the third grade of the elementary class. On the third grade isn’t taught grammar but the pupil is directed toward the correct usage of the language. The textbooks are structured in developing the pupil’s critical thinking. The textbooks are fully illustrated and with attractive and educative lessons adequate to the age of the pupils. This comparative study will reflect some important aspects of language learning in Albanian schools (focused on Albanian language - first language and English language - second language), grade 3-6. Our point of view in this paper will show not only the diversity of the themes, the lines and the sub-lines but also the level of language knowledge acquired at each level of education. First, the study will focus on some important issues in comparing Albanian and English language texts as well as those which make them different: chronology and topics retaken from one level of education to another, so by conception of linear and chronological order will be shown comparatively two learned languages (mother tongue and second language). By knowing and learning well mother tongue will be easier for the pupil the foreign language learning. The foreign language (as a learning curriculum) aims to provide students with the skills of using foreign language written and spoken to enable the literature to recognize the achievements of advanced world science and technology that are in the interest of developing our technique. Secondly, the study will be based on the extent of grammatical knowledge, their integration with 'Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing' as well as the inclusion of language games and their role in language learning. The first and second language learning in Albanian schools (grade III-VI) is based on similar principles for the linearity and chronology of grammatical knowledge integrated with listening, reading, writing and speaking. The different structure of both books help the pupils integrate and use correctly both languages. In the end of the sixth grade, the pupils have good knowledge of mother tongue and the second language and are able to write and speak well both languages.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Competences in Applying Knowledge of Mathematics and Language in Mathematical Fiction

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-261
Author(s):  
Vaiva Grabauskienė ◽  
Vaiva Schoroškienė
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
Primary Students ◽  
Subject Knowledge ◽  
Specific Target ◽  
Mathematical Fiction ◽  
Subject Integration

The article explores possibilities of integrating mathematics and language learning. The language of mathematics differs remarkably from everyday speech, which may cause some difficulties not only for primary students, but also for pre-service teachers. One of the methods to resolve this issue is integrating mathematics and language learning. This method also develops university students’ skills to apply didactic and subject knowledge. The article examines skills of pre-service teachers that are revealed in their fictional stories on a chosen mathematical subject. The analysis of mathematical fiction demonstrates that subject integration emphasizes students’ abilities to distinguish essential aspects of the chosen mathematical phenomenon, as well as how students are able to apply and explain concepts, and to adjust to age-specific target audience.

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