Language Teaching Methodology

Sida Cong, 1st year

Evaluation and analysis of textbook pages for a grammar lesson focusing on “can, have to, must” and the negative forms

According to Scrivener (2011, p. 129), teachers can apply “present-practice” pattern to English grammar teaching. Specifically, presenting grammar requires teachers to show rules and give accurate explanations to learners. Practice focuses on restricted output and authentic output, and “authentic output is also known as production or simply as speaking or writing skills work” (Scrivener, 2011). The pattern of English grammar teaching is known as Present, Practice, Production (PPP). In this essay, I will evaluate and analyse the textbook pages given in the order of PPP, discuss the strengths and weaknesses in the grammar focus, and find ways to improve upon them. A brief discussion of how the materials relate to the concept of Global Englishes will also be included.

Strengths: Presentation

Starting with a direct explanation of the grammar without any context clues is not recommended in English teaching. Learners need some examples to get lexical information about the grammatical items. The article “Are Traditional Ways Of Learning The Best?” (Scrivener, 2011, p. 40) shows example sentences including the target grammatical items. Besides, on Page 41, Exercise 4 shows six example sentences that use these items to express necessity and possibility. Teaching with examples can help learners distinguish between items and prepare to learn the relevant grammar formally.

Correct examples of grammar in use should be shown during the presenting process. There exists a brief and clear statement of grammar rules with positive examples on Page 134. In addition, it is recommended that the presenting stage show the learners highly relevant grammar rules only. For example, the modal verb “can” has two meanings one expresses the possibility of doing something, and the other expresses the ability to do something. The focus on grammar within these textbook pages allows learners to revise and distinguish the use of “can”, “have to,” and “must” as modal verbs expressing present obligation. The meaning of “be able to do something” does not belong to the grammar focus in this lesson. Practice and production

Production is also a type of practice that is more creative and gives learners more flexible ways to use grammar as opposed to other activities such as drills, which are easier to control by teachers and get predictable answers from learners. Practice for English grammar learning is encouraged to contain both meaningful and structured exercises. Exercise 5A on Page 40 shows a sentence completion task, which requires learners to use the target grammatical items. This task focuses on the form of the grammar.

6A on the same page is a writing activity including grammar practice. Learners are asked to use “can “, “have to,” and “must” as well as their negative forms to write sentences according to the context given in 5A. It is also a structured task. As mentioned above, writing skills work is a kind of production. The instructions for 6A contain “work in pairs”, which according to Nation (2008) belongs to Shared Tasks. The benefit of such instruction makes it possible for partners to help each other complete the task. According to Ur (2012), Free discourse requires learners to complete speaking or writing tasks about a certain topic, but there is no instruction to use the target grammar. Thus, as a free discourse task, 6B is more flexible than a controlled practice and can focus more on the meaning of the grammar. The task requests the learner to give explanations and reasons for their opinions and gives them the opportunity to use the target grammar naturally. For example, if one of the learners says home-schooling is a good idea, he might give the reason that the students “don’t have to” wait for the school bus.

Weaknesses: Presentation

Since “students might need to use the grammar in both speech and writing” (Ur, 2012), grammar presentation should include International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions of the grammatical items. The textbook pages only demonstrate how to pronounce “have to”, which is inadequate for the learners. Negative examples are as essential as positive examples in the explanation as they stress how the grammar is allowed to be used within the rules. On Page 134, there are no negative examples such as “can(‘t)” and “must(n’t)” when the subject in the third person singular is missed in the statement. In addition, there are some subtle differences and overlaps between “can” and “must”, “can’t” and “mustn’t”, which have not been explained at all.

Practice and production

Weaknesses to do with the subject in the third person singular are not limited to the presenting stage, and there is no practice for this usage in the whole grammar lesson. A learner should know that a modal verb will not change form with a change of subject or number. Furthermore, the production tasks are too restricted by the topic of home-schooling, which results in limited space for learner output and makes the task boring.

How To Improve The Weaknesses:

The following text will focus on one of the weaknesses mentioned above and state some of the author’s own ideas. To improve the weakness of the missing third-person singular subject and make its usage clear to the learners, teachers can give some accurate examples and set a gap-fill drill. An example such as “Monica must get home before 8 pm” or, “Monica get home before 8 pm” might be used. After receiving the responses from the learners, the teacher should then ensure all of the learners clearly understand this.

Discussion On Global Englishes (GE):

The concept of Global Englishes (GE) builds on World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and states that all speakers of English own English. To evaluate the relations between English teaching materials and GE, the Global English Language Teaching (GELT) framework was created. In GELT, the target conversation partners should be NESs (Native English Speakers) and NNESs (Non-native English Speakers), which is demonstrated in the picture shown on Page 41 featuring non-native Englishspeaking children. The target culture in GELT is a mixture of different cultures, and on Page 41, about Exercise 7A and 7B, the examples and discussion topics given contain cross-cultural communication elements. These two exercises also include materials from various countries in which English is spoken, rather than just those that speak it monolingually, therefore further aligning with GELT principles.

References:

Nation, I. S. P., & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. New York: Routledge

Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning teaching: the essential guide to English language teaching (3rd ed.). Macmillan Education.

Ur, P. (2012). A course in English language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.