TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF THE GRAMMAR

MODULE 3 (6 hours)

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE COMPETENCE

Objectives

1. Define English grammar and grammaticality

2. Identify the three dimensions of grammar.
3. Explain the interrelationship between vocabulary and grammar.
4. Demonstrate how words are formed by adding affixes.

Anticipatory Set

What is the course “Teaching and Assessment of the Grammar” about? The course description
reads:

The course engages learners in understanding the distinctions between and among the four
types of grammar: functional, descriptive, prescriptive and pedagogic. Aside from the
emphasis on how teaching and assessment vary considering the four types, the course also
provides opportunities to discover the role of grammar in achieving communicative
competence.

In Module 1, you have read some theories about language development for you to understand
how students learn language. In Module 2, you were introduced to the English Program
Outcomes and Performance Indicators being BSEd students majoring in English based on CHED
Memo No. 75 s. 2017. In Module 3, you will be introduced to some key concepts in teaching
and assessment of the grammar, specifically, concepts relevant to development of
communicative language competence.

Can you recall some of the ways by which you have learned English Grammar?

Lesson Proper

To achieve communicative competence, we need to pay attention to grammar and

grammaticality.

GRAMMAR AND GRAMMATICALITY*

For most people, the essence of language lies in grammar. When someone is said to “lack skills in
language,” or the popular press decries what it sees as the declining standard of English, they are
generally referring to an actual or perceived decline in the ability of individuals to express themselves
grammatically. It is therefore fitting that this exploration of language should begin with an
examination of the notions of grammar and grammaticality.
  Defining grammar

Grammar… teaches us how to make use of words; that is to say, it teaches us how to make
use of them in the proper manner… to be able to choose the words which ought to be placed,
we must be acquainted with certain principles and rules; and these principles and rules
constitute what is called Grammar (Cobbett, 1819).

Cobbett’s notion of grammar suggests that grammar had to do with correctness; that the object
of English Grammar (as a subject) was to teach those who use the English language to express their
thoughts correctly, either in speech or writing; that the role of the teacher was to impart the rules that
would result in correct usage.

At present, grammarians focus on describing language as it is used, rather than prescribing how
it should be used. In linguists’ terminology:

 Grammar as linguists define it is:

(1) An analysis of the structure of a language, either as encountered in a corpus of speech or
writing (a performance grammar). A contrast is often drawn between a descriptive
grammar, which provides a precise account of actual usage, and a prescriptive
grammar, which tries to establish rules for the correct use of language in society.
(2) An analysis of the structural properties which define human language (a universal
grammar).
(3) A level of structural organization which can be studied independently of phonology and
semantics.

Grammaticality is defined as conformity of a sentence or part of a sentence to the rules defined

by a particular grammar of the language (Crystal, 1992: 35-36).

 Grammar as defined by other authorities

Description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units such as words
and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language (Richards, Platt and Weber,
1985).

Grammar is a problematic concept. A test of grammaticality was administered to 80 native (NS)

and nonnative speakers (NNS) of English as foreign language given a set of sentences asking them to
indicate which were grammatically acceptable and which were grammatically unacceptable. The results
are shown in Table 4.1. The figures in the table indicate a disagreement between both the native and
non-native teachers, although the majority believe that most of the sentences are acceptable despite
the fact they violate a range of grammatical rules. This disagreement was also revealed even among
linguists (experts) as to the grammaticality of the statements, thus making grammar a problematic
concept.
Three Dimensions of Grammar: Form, Meaning and Use

The most comprehensive recent conceptualization of grammar has been provided by Larsen-
Freeman (1995). She sees grammar as a higher-order concept within linguistics, arguing that it has three
interrelated dimensions: form, meaning and use. Her model thus attempts to integrate three aspects
of linguistics that have traditionally been kept separate: syntax (study of form), semantics (the study of
meaning), and pragmatics (the study of use).

 Grammar from Halliday’s perspective is:

The study of how syntax (form), semantics (meaning), and pragmatics (use) work together to enable
individuals to communicate through language.

Not Acceptable NNS

Not Acceptable NS

Acceptable NNS
Table 4.1*

Acceptable NS
NATIVE
.1* SPEAKERS = NS
NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS = NNS

The gang were plotting to take-over.346309

Everybody is ready now, aren’t they?3282316
Neither Fred nor Harry had to work late, did they346318
Someone has deliberately made themselves homeless.24162415
Anyone running a business should involve their spouse.3372514
My hair needs washed.832831
When the cat did was ate the rat.10301524

*Taken from Nunan and Keobke, 1997. In Nunan, David. (2009). Second Language Teaching and Learning. Singapore:
Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Vocabulary is more than lists of language words. As part of the language system, vocabulary is
intimately interrelated with grammar. In fact, it is possible to divide the lexical system of most language
into “grammatical words,” such as prepositions, articles, adverbs, and so on, and content words. The
“grammaticality” of vocabulary also manifests itself in word morphology, this is the grammatical
particles that we attach to the beginning and ends of words in order to form new words. The following
task is designed to focus learners on this aspect of language.
PERFORM TASKS 1, 2 & 3
Task 1:
What is the meaning of the following prefixes?

Prefix Examples Meaning Additional Example

a, ab, abs abnormal, absent away, from, off
ad, ac, as advance, advantage to, towards, up
Ambi ambivalent,
ambidextrous
co, cor correspondent,
correlate
Contra contradict, contrary
ex, e external, exit
In internal
in, il, im, un illegal, unhelpful
Inter international, interval
Mis mislead,
misunderstand
Ante antecedent
Post postgraduate
Sub submarine
Super superman, supersonic

Task 2:
Pair work. Now come up with additional examples for each prefix and write them in the column headed
“Additional Example.”

Task 3:
What do the following suffixes mean? What does each suffix tell you about the word? How many words
can you think of that end in these affixes?

-ate ______________________________________________________________________________

-tion ______________________________________________________________________________

-less ______________________________________________________________________________

-ness ______________________________________________________________________________

-er ______________________________________________________________________________

-or ______________________________________________________________________________

___________________
(Source: Adapted from M. Hill. Learning Vocabulary. The English Center, University of Hngkong.) In Nunan, 2009.