a ea) CHAPTER [5 Grammar Teaching — Practice or Consciousness-Raising? Rod Ellis ; Renesas 3 “Two major questions need to be considered with regard granszar ‘eactng in second 3 Sater (sould peed < 1 ious remy aousveeni 2 ae ee eae eterna car 3 (G5s tise hse foal scone pnmar wi potcotae oe eee ae occa Jy ee eee ee Sa ery rcpanmenee sco a? ‘rs,howeves, including myself, have argued tha grammar teaching does si L.2 acquisition, - although not necessarily in the way teachers often think it does. My principal contention is, sete ea Se eesti del 4 eae era ete aca craaasee ! Se ae a oe sane he tne gg a A then briefly consider the case for pactce|and argue that the available evidence sug: ee ee argent aaeees a ears er a R iat c ley] J fel Fae 7 <38 4 i[ies reas [Defining PRACTICE AND CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING For most teachers, th min idea of grammar teaching sto help earners intemalise the ‘Srctres taught in such a way tat they canbe used in everyday communication. To this end the ears ae provided with opparuiieso practise the ructres, ist under onttolledsondtons, abd then ender mae normal comsmieatve condions. Ur (1988, 7? doseribes the practice stage of grammar Iesson in these terms "The patie 55 ominsof series of cnereses.- whose timieto case the learners to abvor the tacare thoroughly, arto put amber way.to transfer what they ku tom shore 0 long-term memory "tis cominon to ditinguish a number of diferent types of practice activites ~ mechanical practce,contextualied practic, ndcommuniatve practic. Mechanical prac- tice const of various types ofigily controlled actives, such a subsiuton execs. ‘Contextalsed practic i sil console, but involves an atempt to encoarage eames t rele form to meaning by showing bow atoctures ar ued in eal-lifestatios. Com Imunicave practice etais vious Kinds of gap" acts which require the eamerst0 ‘gage in athenccommonicaton wl athe same time "keeping ane, 2 it Were, on the ructre that are beng manipulated in he proces’ (Ur, 1988.9) “iespetve of wheter te practice is controled, contextuaised, or communicative it ave te following characters: > “Theres some tent late a specif grammatical feature for foesedateaton “The leans ae required to produce sentences contiing the targeted feature “The lamers willbe provied with opomunities fo repetition af the targeted feu. “There san expectancy thatthe leamers wil perform the grammatical fete correct In gener therefore, racic aiities ate success creed” (Ur, 1988, PID 5, The leamers recive eedbackan whether their performance ofthe grnmatical strctre is comet ot nt. This feedback may be immediate or delayed 1 2 3 4 “These fv characte provides definition of what most methodlogss mean by proce It shouldbe noice that each charicteristc costes an asimpion about ho frammar islet, BY and lage, though, these assumptions go uachalleaged and have become part ofthe mythalgy of language teaching. ‘Consiosneseasing. a we the term, involves an attempt to equip the learner with an undersanding of specific grammatical feature to develop decaraive rater thn procera knowledge oft, The mai characerscs of conseiousess-rsing seve are the folowing 1. ‘There isan stmptta elas spcif igus etre for focused steno, 2. Thelearees are provied with dita whic iustrat te targeted feature and they may also be supplied with an explicit rde descibing or explaining the fextre. 3, The leamer ar expected to tlie inlecal effort to understand he targeted feat, 4 Misandentinding or incomplete understanding of he grammatical structure by the learor leads elrifeation inthe form of further ta and description oF explanation, 5. Learners may’ be equired (although his is ot obligatory) 0 artalte the le _eserbing the gearmatcal sac,amar Teaching - Paci er Coons Rang? Tao] 1 shouldbe clea from this list that tbe main purpose of consionsnessasing i © develop explicit ned of pram I want to erapasise, however, ha this snot the ‘sme a metalingual neg. 1s perfectly possibleto develop anes undersanding ‘ot hom « grammatical sacture works witott leering mosh inthe way of grammatical ternlogy. Grune an be explains, and, therfore andertod i everyday language. ermay be, bowove, that acess to some retalanguage wil facia the development of cexplicic knowledge. ‘comparison ofthe characteris of conilousessaiing with thse listed for pac sicshowsthat he main difference ith consciousness sing doesnot involve the earner ‘in repented production. This is becuase thea ofthis king of grammar teaching is nt zal the lamer perform a structure cozeetybatsimply to elp ero know about i Hereis how Rutherford and Sharsood-Smith (1985) putt "CRs considered as. pote fucliator for the acquistion of linguistic competence and as noting dec todo with the eof that compotnce for the achievement of specie communicative objectives, of ‘ith the achievement of Buen’ ‘Whereas practice spimarily behavioural, consciousessrakingisesentily concept forming in eietation. "The to types of grammar work ao nt munaly exclusive, boweve. Thus, grammar teschng can involve a combiaation of practice and consciousnes-mising and, indeed, ‘radtiomlly eso. Thus, many methaologiss recommend tat pace work be preceded bya presentation tage, to ensure thatthe learershave scl ide bout what he gee ‘sactre consists of Tis presentation sage may involve an inductive or deductive tetment fof the structure Alo, practice work can be rounded off with forma explanation of tho "uctre, Even srt miolingualins ach a Brooks (1960) reconisel the value of forms txplanations of pte as “amma one the rstce activites ha been comsleed. Indes ti argue than grammar teaching es ak place witht sme conscousness- rising occuring, Breifthe practice workis dteced at heimpicitleaing af teseacure ‘and no formal explanation is provided, lamers (paicully, adults) are likely t ry 19 ‘onsuct some kind of explicit presentation ofthe rule ‘Neterteless, te dsintio area andimporantone, Wheres practice work cannot take ple without some degree of cnsciousnese-asing (even if ks i incidental), the veces not the ease; consciousness aifng ean occur without patie. Thus, tis per- {ec possible ote grammar nthe sense of ping learners unferstand sad explain _zammitical phenomena thot having them engage in ates fa equite repeated ‘roducion ofthe sretiresconcered. Ose Way this oocus is by presenting ears with ‘hls for memorsaton- teaching shout gram. This is what eccured in the gras transstion method. Soc an approach has been discredited on a numberof grounds, and itis ao my ition to advocate is reintoduedon. There are cer Was of rising con- sciousness that are compatible with contemporary educational pinepes, howe Before considering them, I want © consider the extent © which the fh methodoogis have in ractce is justi Does Practice Work? Anumberofempitial sis have invesigated whether practice courbes tL? sequi- ‘ition (CEs, 1988, fora evi). These stds ae of wo Kinds: those that seek to ete ‘he amount of practice achieved by individual learners With general increases in proficiency (eg, Seliger, 197; Day 1984) and those ha have examined whee practising a specific ngise suture ress in its agus (Elis, 1984).