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Teaching Grammar:

Mission Impossible?

Marion Engrand-O’Hara
Centre for Development of Academic Skills (CeDAS)
Outline

• The context
• The old Academic Grammar course
• Some trends in Grammar T. & L.
• Course content selection
• Syllabus design
• Evaluating success
The Context

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Academic English for International Students Courses

• 4 or 8 weeks, 1 or 2 hours / week


• Term time, free
• Open to all NNS on campus (UG/PG)
• Choice of 10 Courses in T1, 11 in T2
• 30 groups in total in T1, 22 in T2, max. 20 students
• Students can take up to 4 hours / week
• Moodle (VLE) support for all courses
•Mostly Management , some from Psychology, Information
Security, CeDAS and visiting students, English, Media Arts,...

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Grammar for Academic Writing (Old Course)

Week Topic
Clause patterns
1 - includes identification of subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial elements
of sentences.
Dependent and independent clauses
2 - includes linking two independent clauses and linking a dependent to an independent
clause.
Relative clauses
3 - making sentences using who, which, that etc.
Nominal clauses
4 - making wh- and that- clauses which function as nouns.
Adverbial clauses
5 - includes identification and punctuation of adverbial clauses.
Review of dependent clauses
6 - using what we’ve learned to improve reading comprehension.
- further practice of punctuation.
Non-finite verbs
7 - how to write phrases with –ing or to+infinitive verb forms.
Online practice
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Grammar for Academic Writing (Old Course)

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Grammar for Academic Writing (Old Course)

•Feedback:

From tutors:
A lot of grammatical terminology to teach first
Not suited to most students
Too narrow
Not easily applicable to students' own writing

From students:
Too narrow (mostly sentence structure)
‘Boring’
Not enough practice

•Retention rate Spring 2014: 33 %

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Some Trends in Grammar Teaching & Learning

•Student writing as a starting point: What do our students need?


•Necessity to step away from the ‘study skills’ approach (Wingate, 2006):
What do students need to express their ideas in an academic context
(discourse-level grammar)?

•Unclear distinction between Grammar and Vocabulary. For example in


high-frequency clusters or lexical bundles (McCarthy, 2006, p.7).

•Need to teach grammar and vocabulary together: Genre analysis (Swales


and Feak,2001) , corpus linguistics (Coxhead & Byrd, 2007; McCarthy, 2006)
= specific lexicogrammatical features of particular types of text or discourse.

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What do students need ?

Essay Writing Framework (Wingate, 2012,p. 153) :

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Course Content Selection

Sentence structure (clauses),


tenses/prepositions/articles

Academic style: nominalisation,


information flow, cohesive
Student writing feedback shows devices, functional language for
our students need:
definitions, comparisons, taking
a stance, etc.

Awareness of own strengths and


weaknesses, independent learning
skills.
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Course Content Selection

Variety of approaches in published materials :


• A focus on verbs and tenses, and nominalisation (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998)
• Sentence-level grammar (Bailey, 2011 and many others)
• No specific grammar point, inclusion in writing course (Swales and Feak, 2001)
• Bite-size ‘language focus’ sections within an EAP course (Argent and Alexander, 2010)

Two recent publications stand out:


• Paterson, K. (2013) Oxford Grammar for EAP, Oxford: OUP
• Vicary, A. (2014) Grammar for Writing, Reading: Garnet

Benefits: They seem to achieve what research calls for: a discourse-based lexico-
grammatical approach that is clearly based on the needs of the academic writer.

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Designing the Syllabus

Guiding principles:
• Only the most needed content is included
(2 x 4 lessons only)
• Readily usable content / transferrable skills
• Develop learner independence

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Course Content Selection

Activity:
1. Rank the core grammar point and function cards in order of priority
2. Make two piles: independent study vs. classroom activities

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Academic Grammar and Vocabulary Par t A
Course Outline

Functions Grammar points / vocabulary covered


Unit A1  Overview  Nominalization
 Using academic style 1(being  Academic words/phrases
formal, using impersonal language)

Unit A2  Using academic style 2 (using  The passive


impersonal language)  Tense formation and use
 Using the right tense  Tense use in academic writing
 Tense consistency
Unit A3  Structuring your writing at sentence  Simple and complex sentence structure
level

Unit A4  Using a concordancer to improve  Vocabulary in context


accuracy and vocabulary range  Recording vocabulary
 Accuracy in writing  Agreements (subject/verb;
 Improving an essay qualifier/noun…)
 Information flow, sentence structure
 Using articles and prepositions accurately

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Academic Grammar and Vocabulary Par t B
Course Outline

Functions Grammar points / vocabulary covered


Unit B1  Overview  Making a text ‘flow’
 Structuring a piece of writing  Signposting and using connectors (expressing
(cohesion, cause and effect, showing contrast, clarifying,
signposting/connectors) illustrating…)
 Using cohesive devices
Unit B2  Writing definitions  The structure of definitions (e.g. X is a Y
 Using your own voice: which…)
Expressing degrees of certainty  Using modal verbs and adverbs
 Cautious and emphatic language
Unit B3  Referring to published literature  Sentence types used to refer to academic
 Writing about research 1: sources
aims and results  Reporting verbs and their use
 Expressing study aims
 Commenting on quantitative data
Unit B4  Writing about research 2:  Summarising findings
findings and conclusion  Writing a conclusion
 Working independently  Understanding and recording vocabulary
 Improving your essay
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The Approach

Developing noticing • Compare two texts and identify features of academic style.
skills:

• Observe the following text, can you work out any rules
Learning inductively: about where independent markers appear in a sentence or
how they are punctuated?

Working with authentic • Look at a student’s essay extract below. The point that s/he
is trying to make is quite simple, but it does not come out
materials: clearly here. Can you work out why? (lack of signposting).

Using student- • In small groups, brainstorm reporting verbs you know and
generated materials: sort them into your own meaningful categories.

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The Approach

Providing plenty of • gap-fills, grids to complete, annotated essay


practice (and more...): extract to rewrite,...

Taking advantage of • pooling knowledge and skills (brainstorm,


classroom setting: explain,…), negotiating meaning, etc.

Providing self-study • Using a concordancer to check the meaning/use


resources, but also of a word in context
developing independent • Awareness raising activities (Needs Analysis,
learning skills: Influence of native language)

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Evaluating Success

Retention rate increase (non-compulsory students):

Autumn 2013 Spring 2014


Old G course 40 % (51 sts) 33 % (22 sts)

Autumn 2014 Spring 2015


G & V Part A 70 % (67 sts) 69 % (13 sts)
G & V Part B N/A 59 % (34 sts)

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Evaluating Success – Student Feedback

Course responses Comments


Total
Activities
Materials,
explained well
Tutor
acad. Skills
Enhanced
Acad. Grammar 9 1.0 1.11 0.78 + Interactive mode of teaching/discussions
& Voc. Part A, + Grammar, e.g. articles, prepositions and sentence structure
Academic Year + the feedback of the essay after checking
2014-15 - Optional homework exercises will be useful. I feel that I want
to practice what I learn in the class.

Acad. Grammar 15 1.20 1.40 0.80 + Voc (2), + Gram., + Very good material (practical approaches)
& Voc. Part B, and resources provided also for further studies, good teaching
Academic Year atmosphere, + Materials
2014-15 - More examples/practice/exercises would be good (5)
- Better explanations, more vocabulary exercises - in relation
to good scientific resources/papers

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Evaluating Success

Tutors’ comments:
 “This was quite popular and generally well attended. I found it easy to adapt
the materials to suit the needs of the group, and I thought there was a good
balance of input and pairwork/groupwork. Most of what was studied in the
lessons was very practical and easy for students to use in their written work.”
 “Appropriately pitched and good range of topics, but too much in each lesson
so I’ve had to be quite selective.”

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Implications

So...

• More practice? More online materials, including new points


not mentioned in class? Effective? Useful?
• Low score on ‘enhanced academic skills.’ What are we doing
wrong?
• Further address retention rate issue?

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Mission impossible?

The new course is successful to an extent, but there are still some issues to address…

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Bibliography

Bailey, S. (2011) Academic Writing, a Handbook for International Students. 3rd ed. , London: Routledge

Coxheard, A. & Byrd, P. (2007) Preparing writing teachers to teach the vocabulary and grammar of
academic prose, Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, pp. 129-147

Dudley-Evans, T. and St John, M.J. (1998) Developments in ESP: a multidisciplinary approach. Cambridge:
CUP

McCarthy, M. (2006) Explorations in Corpus Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP


Paterson, K. (2013) Oxford Grammar for EAP. Oxford: OUP

Swales, J. and Feak, C. (2001) Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Ann Arbor: U. for Michigan Press
Vicary, A. (2014) Grammar for Writing. Reading: Garnet

Wingate, U. (2012), ‘Argument!’ helping students understand what essay writing is about, Journal of
English for Academic Purposes, 11 (2), pp. 145-154

Wingate, U. (2006), Doing away with ‘study skills,’ Teaching in Higher Education, 11 (4), pp. 457-469

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