Coed English 110 Teaching And Assessment Of Grammar PDF

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mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I. **Introduction:** II. **Learning Objectives:** At the end of this module, the students will be able to: - Discuss the grammar rules and concepts in context; - Identify the error correction and feedback in a certain context; - Share the implication of one's knowledge of key concepts. III. **Content:** **An overview:** -the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics. -is the study of **words**, how they are used in sentences, and how they change in different situations? -The study of sentence structure. Rules and examples show how the language should be used. This is a correct usage **grammar**, as in a textbook or manual/guide. The system which people learn as they grow up. **Grammaring** -Larsen-Freeman says "**grammaring**" can be seen as a "fifth skill." Her **definition** of the word is as follows: "the ability to use grammar structures accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately. **Grammaring** emphasizes grammar as a dynamic process rather than a system of rules. **Practical Activities for "Grammaring"** -The practical activities that are used in "grammaring" fall into three categories as specified by Freeman's definition of the term. Given that language should be used accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately, emphasis is laid upon form, meaning, and use. For example, in teaching phrasal verbs, the form is presented first. What should be explained is that a phrasal verb consists of a verb plus a particle such as "break up." However, explaining form alone is not enough for understanding what the word means. Thus, meaning is a very important dimension to evade any possible confusion that surrenders the phrasal verb "break up," as the latter cannot be guessed from the form only. Again, it is not enough merely to instruct students how to use "break up" in speaking or writing in English unless an explicit teaching has been supplied. Thus form, meaning, and use are equally important for the teaching and learning of grammar. In general, the practical activities that are used in "grammaring" can be categorized into: a. form, b. meaning, and c. use. **A --* Focus on form:*** -A distinction is often made between language use and language form. In other words, there has been a continuous debate over whether to teach students the language or teach them about the language. For Larsen-Freeman, both language form and language use are equally important. **B --* Focus on meaning:*** -Linking form with meaning can be carried out by the use of different activities. In fact, meaning should call for some sort of associative learning (cf. Ellis 1998). This activity gives students the opportunity to associate the form with the meaning of a particular target structure. For example, it is by associating form and meaning that a phrasal verb can be understood. Moreover, meaning can also be made clear by using realia and pictures. By using real-world objects or pictures, the relationship between word and referent can be made more explicit. For example, if someone asks you what a cabbage means, and you have a cabbage, you will tell him this is a cabbage. Mimicry of the appropriate action is another way of making the meaning of linguistic "signs" more clear. **C --* Focus on use:*** -The right form with the right meaning should be selected for the right context to ensure successful communication. A practical way of going about sensitizing students to the effect of context on language is through making use of role playing. The latter can be described, according to Larsen-Freeman (2001). -Role playing can be considered one of the most effective activities for developing the appropriateness of the linguistic behavior of students due to its simulation of real-life contexts. **Error correction vs. Feedback** -Error correction performed by the teacher followed by a feedback is a usual part of most traditional and even non-traditional school approaches. However, if we think about it, our ultimate goal is to teach the students how to become independent learners and be able to check their own work. Lack of awareness about the necessity of doing this has become one of my teaching challenges. Error correction and feedback **The main aspects of the approach and some examples:** 1\. Define what a "mistake" is. A mistake is a misuse of the rule/s that has ALREADY BEEN STUDIED AND EXERCISED. A mistake is NOT a wrong use of rule/s or vocabulary that have not yet been studied in class. 2\. Make sure the assignment contains only the material that has been thoroughly studied and exercised in class. 3\. Change the assignments' instructions to include self-check as its integral part. Example: \"Please compose 10 sentences describing your day. Check your composition using the provided checklist\". **4. Provide a checklist of the typical mistakes. (Especially important for beginners).** Example: - Grammar - Capital letters - Punctuation - The use of time expressions (usually, sometimes, often) - Spelling **5. Provide any visual materials that can improve mistakes correction, such as charts, tables, pictures, lists** **6. Encourage using colorful markers and special editing signs.** **7. Refuse to grade papers that have not been self-checked.** **8. Structure reference materials, such as grammar rules, vocabulary, etc. in a way that students can easily access the necessary "help" page.** I suggest that each student has a folder separated into sections, such as "Grammar", "Reading", "Writing", etc. We file each page into a corresponding section and create a table of contents of each section. **9. Do not highlight mistakes in the material the student has not yet studied as mistakes, but rather as suggestions.** Example: *I can not to read. *-- Mistake. No "to" after "can". *His name was Kristofer. *-- "Christopher". Students often are unaware of the right spelling of foreign names. **10. Always discuss corrections. **Encourage reasoning rather than saying which answer is "right" or "wrong". Example: *Student: "She is read the book" is wrong. Me: Are you sure? Student: No. Me: Let's try to check the sentence structure. Let's use the scheme we have...* *Student: "She is read the book" is wrong. Me: Are you sure? Student: Yes. Me: Please explain. Student: It's because we must use --ing ending if the verb is in the Present Continuous.* **11. In your final error check highlight mistakes, provide suggestions and create a list of repeating mistakes. Give the students more exercises to practice specific points that they have probably misunderstood. **If grading is necessary, suggest some extra points for completing the correction assignment. **Spoken Vs. Written Grammar**  **Grammatical Assessment** -In the language assessment literature, grammatical ability is widely accepted as a key component of second language (L2) ability in general and L2 writing ability in particular. Indicators of grammatical ability have been investigated in L2 writing research, but the indicators L2 writing teachers attend to when determining grammatical ability levels of their students have not been studied. Furthermore, there is no research on what students know about their teachers' assessment criteria and how that knowledge might affect their writing and learning process. This mixed methods triangulation study examines these questions in university L2 academic writing classes through a quantitative text-based analysis of academic essay exams, student questionnaires, and teacher and student interviews. The combined results of all data sources indicate that the teachers in this study focus primarily on accuracy when assessing grammatical ability. This leads to risk avoidance behavior by students and may have a negative impact on their learning as students adapt their writing to meet above all their teachers' expectations for grammatical accuracy. Assessing grammar & vocabulary **Pedagogical Issues** **What do we know?** - Teachers\' role needs to change - Some activities are more successful than others e.g. Sketchy - Teachers can be reluctant due to previous technological problems - Culture has led teachers to be reluctant to innovate - Teachers listen to other teachers - Teachers involved in large scale projects share best practice - Activities involving m-learning engage learners/learning **What more do we need to know?** - How to help teachers plan for learning - Why do some activities succeed more than others? - What characteristics do they share? - How to assess and record learning journeys - Which theories of learning apply - How to future proof **What do we need to do/can do about it?** - A convincing research project which identifies benefits of and issue with new ways of learning - Provide opportunities for teachers to communicate, collaborate and reflect - Listen to the students - Move away from such a narrow definition of academic success - Embed m-learning within university teaching - Professional development for teachers and lecturers  Examples of student/user issues underpinning best practice  ### Assessing grammar & vocabulary -In term of assessment, grammar is central to language description and test taker performance. Today, the knowledge of grammar is evaluated by its correct use in communication through listening, speaking, reading, and writing in second language. ◦ Communicative competence has four components: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence. Grammatical knowledge consists of three elements; a) Grammatical forms or the structures of a language. Form is both morphology or how words are formed, and syntax, how words are strung together, both of them are concerned with the linguistic accuracy of language. b) The grammatical meaning of those forms. Grammatical meaning consists of both the literal and intended message that is conveyed by the form. It concerned with the meaningfulness of the language used. c) Their pragmatic meaning or use in a given context. The pragmatic or implied meaning results from the appropriate language choices a learner makes in a given communicative event. **DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS** SELECTED RESPONSE -Multiple-choice tasks ◦ The most common selected response task presents a blank or underlined words in a sentence and the test taker must choose the correct response from the options that are given. (Grammatical form, Grammatical meaning, Grammatical for and meaning) -Discrimination tasks ◦ The tasks that asks the test-takers to attend to input that can be either language or non-language and to respond in the form of a choice between or among contrasts or opposites, such as true/false. (grammatical form and meaning) θNoticing tasks or consciousness-raising tasks -Test-takers are asked to indicate (underline or circle) that they have identified a specific feature in the language sample. (grammatical meaning) **DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:** **LIMITED PRODUCTION** -Gap-filling tasks ◦ The language is presented in the form of sentence, dialogue, or passage in which a number of words are deleted. The test-taker must choose the appropriate response for the deletion or gap based on the context in which language is presented. (grammatical form, grammatical form and meaning). -Short-answer tasks ◦ The input is presented in the form of a question following reading passage or oral/visual stimulus. The expected test-taker response can vary from single word to a sentence or two. (grammatical form and meaning, testing grammatical form and meaning) -Dialogue-completion tasks ◦ The input is presented in the form of a short conversation or dialogue in which a part of the exchange or the entire exchange is left blank and the expected response meant to be grammatically correct. **DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:** **EXTENDED PRODUCTION** -◦ Five-point scale for assessing syntactic knowledge (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) ◦ 0 none, 1 limited, 2 moderate, 3 extensive, 4 complete. -Information Gap Tasks ◦ Presents the input in terms of incomplete information. That is, one test-taker is given half-or some- of the information and another test taker are given complementary information. Both test-takers then have question each other to get all the information. (grammatical form, meaning, and pragmatic use) -Role-play or Simulation Tasks ◦ The input presents test-takers with a language or non-language prompt that asks them to take on a role or stimulate a situation to solve a problem, make decision, or perform some transaction collaboratively. (grammatical form, meaning, and pragmatic use) **ASSESSING VOCABULARY** -The Nature of Vocabulary ◦ We can identify words as tokens and types. Tokens are all the words in the paragraph. Types, on the other hand, do not count words that are repeated, only words that are different forms. -The difference between function words and content words. Function words -- prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and other "little" words- are seen as belonging more to the grammar of the language than vocabulary. Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. -Some vocabulary tests have might focus larger on lexical items such as phrasal verbs ("put up with", "run into"), compound words (" personal computer"), or idioms ("a pretty penny"), which have meaning only as a whole unit. **Four types of lexical phrases**: ◦ Poly words are short fixed phrases that are perform a variety of functions such as qualifying, marking fluency, disagreement, etc. for example: for the most part, so to speak, and wait a minute. ◦ Institutionalized expression are longer utterance that are fixed in form such as proverb and formulas for social interaction. For example: nice to meet you, how's it going, etc. ◦ Phrasal constraints are medium-length phrases that have basic structure with one or two slots that can be filled by various words or phrases. For example; yours truly/ sincerely, as far as I know/ can tell, etc. ◦ Sentence builders are phrases that provide the framework for a complete sentence with one or two slots where whole ideas can be expressed. For example: on the other hand, X, not only X but also X, etc. IV. Activities: Activity 1: ESSAY On a short bond paper, make a journal about the most interesting ideas you discover or you learn from the lessons provided. This can be submitted written, encoded/printed, or online. 1. A distinction is often made between language use and language form. 2. In spoken grammar, what is the basic unit of construction? 3. It is central to language description and test taker performance. 4. It is a misuse of the rule/s that has already been studied and exercise. 5. Involved in large scale projects share best practice. 6. Performed by the teacher followed by a feedback is a usual part of most traditional and even non-traditional school approaches. 7. It consists of both the literal and intended message that is conveyed by the form. 8. Identifies benefits of and issue with new ways of learning. 9. The input presents test-takers with a language or non-language prompt that asks them to take on a role or stimulate a situation to solve a problem and make decision. 10. The input is presented in the form of a question following reading passage or oral/visual stimulus.