INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
1. The role of grammar in communicative language
2. Some approaches used to integrate grammar into communicative language
2.1. Design a lesson plan that focuses on meaningful tasks.
2.2. Use grammar games for teaching communicative language.
2.2.1. Examples of using games for teaching English
Activity 1: Playing with phrasal verbs
Activity 2: Who’s won the lottery: The question quiz
3. Integrate communicative activities into grammar teaching
3.1 The benefits of using communicative activities in teaching grammar
3.2. Example of using communicative activities for teaching English grammar
Activity 1: Using modals for polite requests
Activity 2: Accepting and declining invitations: Using contracted forms
PART THREE: CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
PART I – INTRODUCTION
In recent years, teaching and learning English has shifted from teacher-dominated
classroom to student – centered and communicative approach. Students now are expected
not only to know how the language forms but also know how to use it effectively in
different situations in their lives. Many researches have proved that to help students
master the required language, teaching and learning language should place their focus on
what students can do with language, not on what they know about the language (Lee and
Van, 1995; Terell, 1991). However, there is also widespread agreement that grammar
structures are extremely important for learners to master a language since they form the
framework of a language. These two viewpoints create an increasing demand of changing
the way grammar is taught for students. In Vietnam, grammar used to be taught through
structures and forms. This pedagogy focused mainly on the drills of forming sentences
and memorizing the structures, which prevents students from using English in
contextualized situations. However, teaching English language is now changing to meet
the demand of learners. The objective of teaching and learning a language currently focus
on helping students to express their feelings, thought, and ideas in certain contexts.
Therefore, to achieve this learning outcome, it is necessary for teachers to integrate
grammar into communicative language. Aiming to help teachers of English to be flexible
in teaching grammar according to communicative approach, this paper will present some
specific methodologies to integrate grammar into teaching communicative English
effectively in classroom.
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
1. THE ROLE OF GRAMMAR IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
Grammar plays an essential role in language learning. It is defined by linguistics that
grammar is a set of different linguistic components including phonetics (the production
and perception of sounds), phonology (how sounds are combined), morphology (the
study of forms, or how elements are combined to create words), syntax (how words are
strung together into sentences), and semantics or meaning. It can be seen that these
components are an integral part in language frame. In other words, without grammar,
language does not exist. While communicative language is regarded as an approach of
teaching whose primary function of language use is communication (Richards and
Rodgers, 2014). In other words, its main goal of Communicative Language is to help
students make use of real-life situations. While grammar focuses on grammatical
competences, communicative language emphasizes on communicative functions of
language. “The role of grammar in communicative language” refers to the relationship
between grammar and communication. As the development of English language learning
and teaching, students now learn English language not to get academic success but also to
build better social interactions workplace relationships. In other words, communicative
English teaching now has more emphasis on the role that semantics plays in the language.
English learning currently fundamentally concerned with meaningful tasks such as
interpreting someone else's message, expressing one's own, or negotiating the ideas. This
trend helps students to make effective use of grammar in English communication.
2. SOME APPROACHES USED TO INTEGRATE
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
GRAMMAR
INTO
2.1. Design a lesson plan that focuses on meaningful tasks
Terry (1996) has pointed out that if teacher designs a lesson plan that emphasizes on
meaning-based language acquisition, grammar can be integrated naturally into
communicative language. The lesson plan that he suggested is designed mainly on the
theme or topic developed.
Some questions that teachers can ask themselves during the process of making such
lesson plan are:
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
a. In this lesson, what is major theme or topic (e.g, family, daily routines) will be
developed.
b. What kinds of thematically related tasks (e.g., interviews, picture descriptions) do
I want my students to be able to carry out?
c. In order to perform these tasks, with what vocabula ry, grammar, and cultural
information do my students need to be familiar?
By constructing the lesson in this way, teachers can naturally integrate grammar into
meaningful communicative tasks. All the things that students learn including grammar
will be linked together thematically. When students keep practicing repeated meaningful
tasks, they will be able to use English more naturally and fluently. More importantly,
introducing grammatical structures in a specific meaningful situation will enable students
to learn better and help them memories more easily.
The lesson plan can be designed through different stage: Setting the Scene in which
teacher will focus students on topic and raise their interest about the topic; Providing
Input is the stage where learners are introduced about target language of vocabulary,
grammar, and cultural information; Guided Practice is the stage where students are
practice specific meaningful situation with the support from teacher; Extension Practice
is the step where students practise all the content of lesson without the guide of teacher.
The last stage is testing - Assess students’ skills and understanding.
2.2. Use grammar games for teaching communicative language
Games in learning are undeniable to be one of preferable activities that motivate
students to learn. Arif Saricoban and Esen Metin, who wrote the book "Songs, Verse and
Games for Teaching Grammar" has argued that games not simply motivate students to
learn grammar knowledge but also enable them to internalize grammar, structure and
vocabulary extensively. While games are used to motivate students to learn, they also
strengthen the bonds between students and students, and between teachers and students.
By using games in teaching grammar, students can develop their grammar skills in an
interesting way, which surely motivate students learning.
The following examples are some meaningful games retrieved from the website
http://orelt.col.org/module/unit/3-grammar-games-fun. These activities can be used in
teaching different grammatical points.
2.2.1. Examples for using games in teaching grammar
Activity 1: Playing with phrasal verbs
This activity should help students practise the use of phrasal verbs. It is a pairing
game. Students are divided into two groups called Verbs and Prepositions, and then
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
have to find partners to form phrasal verbs. The game ends with the partners making
sentences with the phrasal verbs.
To prepare for the activity, on page-sized placards, write down, in large letters, the verbs
and prepositions from the lists below:
Verbs: go, get, bring, give, look, turn, pick, put, let, take, fill, break, clear, speak, show,
try, cut, keep, cross
Prepositions: in, out, up, down, on, off, back, around, away, along, through, about, for,
after
Announce to the students that they will play a game called Phrasal Partners. The
objective of the game is to team the verbs with the appropriate prepositions to form
phrasal verbs, and then to use them in sentences.
First, the students should divide themselves into the two groups —
Verbs and Prepositions. Then a member of each group quickly collects the words
representing their group (Verbs or Prepositions).
Next, each Verb has to find a matching Preposition. The pair then runs to the board and
write their pair name there (e.g., look for, go through, and bring up). If two Verbs want
the same partner (e.g., off for put off/show off), the pair that can think of a grammatical
sentence with that Preposition first gets to keep the partner.
Each group then has to make and say aloud a sentence to illustrate their partnership
(e.g., My grandfather looked after me when my parents went on a holiday/My friends did
not turn up for my birthday party because they had exams). (See Resource 1 for phrasal
verbs from the list used in sentences in a passage.)
If time permits, the groups can now swap round and play again. The Verb and
Preposition with the most sentences win the game.
Activity 2: Who’s won the lottery: The question quiz
In this activity students have an opportunity to practise using polarity-type
questions to seek information, using several tense forms. This is a guessing game in
which students have to guess the name of one of their classmates who has “won a
lottery.” The game involves students asking polarity questions (i.e., questions that get the
response Yes/No) to discover information about the lottery winner. The challenge is to
find the answer by only asking the Yes/No questions. The activity will help students
practise interrogative structures in a real-life context.
First, announce to the class that one of them has just won a lottery. They will have to
guess the name of the person by asking questions about him or her.
Divide the class into groups of five or six. Tell one member of each group (you can call
him or her the Group Leader) the name of the classmate who is supposed to have won a
lottery. The rules of the game are:
Only the Group Leader knows the name of the “winner.”
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
Each group member has to ask the Group Leader a question to find out who the
person is, and the Group Leader can only answer by saying Yes or No.
The questions should be about the person’s appearance.
The questions should be in the format Does he…/Is she (e.g., Does she have curly
hair?/Is he tall?).
Each group member takes a turn to ask one question and try to guess the name. If
they guess wrongly, the next group member asks another question, and so on until the
group has guessed the correct name.
Because this is only a game, and the whole class has to be involved, even the
person whose name is being guessed should not know that he or she is the “winner.”
Only the Group Leaders will know, and they should not share the name with their group
mates beforehand.
The game ends when one of the groups guesses the name correctly.
A tip: When you choose your group leaders, be careful to choose students who are
good observers and quick to take decisions, because when their group mates ask probing
questions, they will have to quickly decide whether to answer Yes or No, and to resist the
temptation to look at the person being described. Otherwise the game will soon be
spoiled, and many students will not have the opportunity to practise the structures.
3. Integrate communicative activities into grammar teaching
3.1 The benefits of using communicative activities in teaching grammar
Communicative activities are defined as the activities that help students to develop
their communication. Researches on language acquisition have pointed out that learning
takes place when students take part in meaningful tasks within dynamic learning
environment (Moss & Ross-Feldman, 2003). Integrating communicative tasks while
teaching English grammar help learners to be more familiar with different grammar
structures. In addition, using communicative activities in teaching and learning English
will prepare students with skills to deal with changeable communicative circumstances in
life.
3.2. Example of using communicative activities for teaching English grammar
The activities below are three examples that help learners to learn English grammatical
points effectively in the light of communicative approach. These activities are retrieved
from the website http://orelt.col.org/module/unit/2-grammar-social-skills
Activity 1: Using modals for polite requests
This activity is designed to make students aware that English requests can be made more
(or less) polite by using different modal verbs, or changing the tense of a modal verb.
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
Because the students will practise functional grammar (the structures necessary to
perform language functions) in this activity, they need to use these structures themselves.
The first step is to test their existing knowledge about requests in English. On slips of
paper, write a situation where a request would be required (asking for a glass of water,
borrowing a pen, running an errand, etc.). Put the students into groups of four or five, ask
them to pick a slip of paper and have them use the phrase on it to write a request. In the
feedback session, use their responses to collect a sample of different structures ( Please
give me a glass of water/Can I borrow your pen? etc.). Put these on the board (correcting
any grammatical mistakes).
Next, show the students these structures in appropriate contexts. For this, distribute the
exercise in Resource 1a to each group and tell them to complete the dialogue using
expressions from the list on the board. Each group can then do a role play with their
dialogue.
Once the students have practised using some expressions for polite requests, they can
learn to differentiate sentences according to the degree of politeness. Give them the
requests in the short exchanges listed in Resource 1b and ask them, in their groups, to
grade them according to which request they think is more polite. Point out that requests
can be made by using the polite form of modal verbs. For example:
Could you bring me a pen, please?
Would you mind closing the door, please?
are more polite than
Can you bring me a pen, please?/Please bring me a pen.
Can you close the door, please?/Please close the door.
Activity 2: Accepting and declining invitati ons: Using contracted forms
The language used in the classroom is usually restricted to questions, answers and
discussions related to the lesson — the story, poem, play or essay — that students are
expected to read. As a result, students end up learning to speak in a formal way. In fact,
we actually discourage students from replying in half sentences or with a simple Yes/No
and instruct them to “speak in full sentences.” As students will need to use English in
“real life” after they leave school, we need to help them learn and use the grammatical
forms of oral communication.
One such grammatical form is contracted forms (of modal verbs and not), such
as isn’t, can’t, wouldn’t, I’ll and so on, which we frequently use in oral communication
situations. A real-life situation in which these structures are used is accepting and
declining invitations. This activity is therefore intended to give students practice in
using contracted forms appropriately when dealing with invitations.
First, you should find out how familiar your students are with informal/ oral language
expressions. For this you will need to provide them with samples of language used for
different functions such as invitations, requests, and apologies and so on. Divide the
students into small groups and ask them to match a set of situations (below) with their
corresponding spoken invitations played out on audio/video (see Resource 2 for
samples). This will test their existing knowledge of language functions, and motivate
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
them as they embark on their task. Remember not to give them the answers as they
listen/watch!
Situations:
Agreeing, congratulating, apologising, disagreeing, requesting
To extend the task one step further, you can give the students a jigsaw puzzle task
on invitations. Prepare a set of expressions (or use the samples given in Resource 3) that
include comments from different exchanges on invitations. The students’ task is to
rearrange the pieces to make meaningful conversation exchanges. After they have
finished, play the video/audio in Resource 3a and let them check if they put the
sentences in the correct sequence. To add some complexity to the task, you could add
some formal expressions (that contain full sentences instead of utterances with contracted
forms) so that they have to do two tasks: select the appropriate expressions
and rearrange them. After the students have finished the task, play the audio/video
version in Resource 3b and allow them to correct their versions if necessary.
To make the students focus on the grammar point, give them conversation cards on which
the exchanges have been written in two formats: one with the contracted forms and the
other with the more formal sentences. Pick out one sentence from each comparable
conversation exchange and put them on the board. For example:
1a I’m not sure I’ll be able to attend.
1b I am not sure I will be able to attend.
Draw their attention to the structural differences: ask them what is different, and
have them notice that both (1a and 1b) are correct, but that 1a is more appropriate as it
sounds more natural. Highlight the fact that in natural conversations people use short
cuts such as contracted forms, do not repeat entire questions when responding, and add
expressions such as thank you, I’m sorry, I’m afraid and so on to sound more polite.
Now that the students have had some practice with these structures, ask for volunteers to
do role plays based on the exchanges. They can watch the videos or listen to the audios of
the same conversations for rehearsal, and then act out the situations. Make sure that they
use the contracted forms they encountered in the tasks. The role play will not only give
them confidence, it will also help them practise using the grammatical forms in a natural
context.
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
PART THREE: CONCLUSION
Teaching and learning English has changed for over the past few year. It is now shifting
from “grammatical competences” to “communicative competences”. To enable students
to achieve communicative competences, English teachers nationwide has been changing
their methodologies in language teaching, which has resulted some improvements for
English teaching and learning. Communicative language teaching is widely defined as the
teaching approach that focuses on functions of language through communicative tasks.
However, the communicative tasks are still mostly used in teaching four English skills
including Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. The challenge raised among the
teachers of English is how to integrate grammar into communicative language. It appears
an uneasy task for many people in the profession. Addressing this challenge requires
much time and efforts. Due to limited time frame and resources, this paper can only
present brief understanding about this issue. It also suggests some approaches that can be
useful to help English teachers and learners in learning grammar with communicative
approaches. The main focus of these activities is to motivate students to use grammar in
meaningful tasks. The integration between grammar and communicative language,
therefore, can enable students’ communicative skills and make them more proficient in
using English.
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
REFERENCES
1. Moss, D., & Ross-Feldman, L. (2003). Second language acquisition in adults: From
research to practice. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved June, 16,
2006.
2. Lee, J F., & Bill, V. (1995). Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
3. Terrell, T. D. (1991). The role of grammar instruction in a communicative
approach. The Modern Language Journal, 75(1), 52-63.
4. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language
teaching. Cambridge University Press.
5. Saricoban, A., & Metin, E. (2000). Songs, verse and games for teaching grammar. The
Internet TESL Journal, 6(10), 1-7.
INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
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