1 of 48

Session 3: Grammar

Joe Fincham

20/11/20

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

2 of 48

Aims of the session

Develop an understanding of some key research evidence relating to L2 grammar teaching and learning�
Develop more concrete ideas for teaching grammar, including how to introduce, consolidate, and extend grammar knowledge�
Explore some of the NCELP resources for grammar learning

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

3 of 48

Content of the session

Key findings from research to inform our thinking
Principles about effective teaching of grammar
Examining some grammar activities in textbooks
Sample NCELP resources

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

4 of 48

Many factors affect which grammar can be learnt, when, and how

(e.g. the grammar feature itself, learner characteristics, task modality – written or oral)

So, what can research tells us …?

Key findings from research to inform our thinking [1]

Some of the research drawn on for this presentation includes: �Bui & Skehan, 2018; DeKeyser, 2005; DeKeyser, 2015; Ellis, 2006; Erlam, 2005; Kasprowicz & Marsden, 2019; Fernández, 2008; Henry, Culman, & VanPatten, 2009; Henry, Jackson & Dimidio, 2017; Lichtman, 2016; Marsden, 2006; Marsden & Chen, 2011; McManus & Marsden, 2019; Mitchell, Myles, & Marsden, 2019; Norris & Ortega, 2001; Schmidt, 1990; Spada & Tomita, 2010; VanPatten, 2004; VanPatten & Price, 2012; White, Spada, Lightbown, & Ranta, 1991)

Plus many more on OASIS (oasis-database.org) and listed in NCELP CPD powerpoints on the NCELP Resource Portal and resources.ncelp.org

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

5 of 48

i) Keep content ‘small’ and clear

Learners can only pay attention to a limited number of features at any one time
The introduction of whole ‘paradigms’ at once is unlikely to be very effective for most learners in schools
Presenting and practising pairs of grammar features with contrasting meanings (or functions) can help accurate understanding and production of the grammar features.
Providing a short, explicit explanation about a pair of features prior to practice speeds up learning and makes it more accessible for all learners
Explicitly teaching grammar tends to be more effective than asking learners to pick up grammatical patterns themselves -

If we ask them to pick out the patterns themselves, this is riskier because

they can misunderstand the rule,
learning varies greatly according to difference in aptitude between individual students
it can take longer, and we don’t have the time in our MFL context

Key findings from research to inform our thinking

Key findings from research to inform our thinking [2]

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Explicit information (i.e., ’rules about language’) in and of itself, no matter when, how or what is taught, is not as effective as the practice itself. So, we often ask questions about whether explicit information should be given as a whole paradigm or not, or whether it should be given before or after practice, or given by teachers or worked out by learners – but these questions are less important than asking ourselves about the nature and the amount of practice. It is making grammar essential for comprehension and production where the most benefits lie (not in the explicit information itself alone). Other important points to bear in mind that tell us that just presenting explicit information alone is not likely to be beneficial without plenty of practice:

Explicit information is prone to decay over time.
Explicit information alone does not result in evidence of learning in different contexts, modes and modalities (evidence from the old grammar translation approaches).
The usefulness of explicit information is very variable for different learners.
There is ample evidence in cognitive psychology and language learning research that presenting whole new sets (of anything) all at once cannot be expected to result in robust or reliable learning in the longer term.
The conceptual and formal complexity of (and, often, lack of familiarity with) morphology is an additional reason not to expect ‘whole paradigms’ per se to really show many learning benefits, compared to other more conceptually-oriented presentations, which focus on the meaning and function of grammar.
Languages are not learnt in whole sets as these are artificially put together by grammarians (that are based on the early teaching of Latin).
There is evidence from cognitive linguistics that it is awareness and understanding of concepts that are often not reliably, overtly expressed in the L1 (such as plurality of subjects; temporal such as ‘complete in the past’; or ‘doubt’; habituality) that can help learning. ‘Paradigms’ (within one of these ‘concepts’, such as ‘past complete’) do not serve the aim of teaching learners about the function of grammar.
In a time-poor classroom, giving (a lot of) explicit information is unlikely to be an efficient use of time
It risks confusing or overloading many learners during the initial presentation stages
It sets unrealistic expectations about what has really been learnt.
Grammar is learnt by frequent re-visiting and practising, and its success depends on a much wider range of factors than ‘whether the inflections happen to fit together in one paradigm’.
By sending the message that whole paradigm teaching is very unlikely to be effective (in terms of robust, reliable learning, in all modes and modalities, in the long term memory), we are helping teachers to set their expectations more realistically.

6 of 48

ii) It helps to understand the meaning (or function) of grammar before producing it

Establishing grammar knowledge is very efficient when done in carefully designed reading and listening activities, prior to production practice
Strip out other cues so that the learner has to pay attention to the grammar and its meaning in the input (reading or listening)
E.g., strip out…

intonation if it gives it away that a question is being asked!
guess work (based on the task instructions, such as ‘Read this letter about the last summer holidays’ = past tense!!)
words like ‘yesterday’, ‘always’, ‘they’, ‘she’, which makes the grammar redundant

Key findings from research to inform our thinking [3]

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

7 of 48

iii) Regular practice, with different vocabulary, in different types of task

If knowledge is practised only in one way or one context, it can become “skill-specific”

the knowledge is less transferable to other purposes, e.g.,
a learner might say ‘il s’appelle’ fast and accurately, but not be able to write it or use its parts;
a learner might say ‘J’ai mangé des frites’ when asked what they did last weekend, but not be able to say ‘I ate’ in another context, or use the past tense with another verb j’ai regardé, or change it to il a mangé

The grammar learners can use when writing is often different from the grammar they can use when speaking, because they need to access it more quickly when speaking

Learners benefit from practice in both modalities (oral & written) and both modes (comprehension & production)

Learners benefit from practising in controlled, structured contexts before freer production

Learners benefit from producing the grammar in writing and speaking activities that make the grammar matter to communicate a specific meaning

Key findings from research to inform our thinking [4]

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

8 of 48

Summary of key recommendations:

1. Provide a very short and simple description of the grammar before practice

2. Focus on pairs (or very small sets) of features; avoid introducing whole paradigms at once, especially in early stages.

3. Establish grammatical knowledge in reading and listening before expecting learners to produce the grammar in writing and speaking

4. Strip out other cues in the language so that the learner has to pay attention to the grammar and its meaning in the input (i.e., in reading and listening activities)

What are effective ways of teaching grammar? [1]

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

9 of 48

Summary of key recommendations:

5. Move from controlled production to freer production

6. Ensure that producing the grammar is necessary to convey a specific meaning (so a listener/reader has to understand the grammar in focus)

7. Re-visit the grammar feature multiple times, each time with different vocabulary

8. Practise the same grammar point in speaking and writing, in reading and listening

9. Don’t be shy about comparing and contrasting the language to English – there is lots of evidence that knowing about ‘how English works’ helps.

What are effective ways of teaching grammar? [2]

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

10 of 48

11 of 48

Analysis of examples from a textbook and worksheet

Let’s consider how grammar is being taught in a few examples from textbooks and some supplementary class worksheets

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

12 of 48

Allez 1 (p. 46)

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

13 of 48

Allez 1 (p. 46)

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

14 of 48

Zoom Deutsch 1 (p. 57)

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

15 of 48

The indefinite article

In Spanish, the words for ‘a’ change according to whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

masculine	un perro	a dog
feminine	una tortuga	a tortoise

1 Tengo _______ gato. (m)	4 ¿Tienes _____ pez? (m)
2 ¿Tienes _____ cobaya? (f)	5 Tengo ____ hermanastro. (m)
3 Tengo _______ hermana. (f)	6 Tiene _____ serpiente. (f)

Copy the sentences and put in the correct word for ‘a’.

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Often grammar is practised in written grammar exercises, and usually students have a model to follow and refer to. Sometimes the practice is oral, led by the class teacher, with moment-by-moment feedback.��Do these sorts of activities meet our criteria / expectations for meaningful practice?

make the grammar meaningful? (i.e., meaning- and form-focused?)

involve an element of struggle? (i.e., ‘desirable difficulty’)

are they multi-modal?

1. Do we need to know the meaning of any of the words to do the task? NO!�2. Do we need to remember that ‘a’ for masculine words = ‘un’ and for feminine words = ‘una’ and think about that link each time? E.g. by using a pattern on the end of the noun or by our existing knowledge of the gender? NO or can we just do this by looking at the f and m and matching patterns at a very surface level? YES!�3. Do we have to listen and understand, read and understand, speak and understand or write and understand the meaning in these 6 sentences? NO!�

What are the chances that that this is the best way, in a time-poor classroom context, to:

practise the knowledge of indefinite articles
develop noun gender sensitivity/awareness
remember that every noun has gender in Spanish
know that the vast majority of nouns ending in ‘o’ are masculine and in ‘a’ are feminine (Consider: if the selection of nouns had only focused on those ending is -o/-a, then the gender information in brackets could have been omitted, making students really connect the form of nouns to their gender, a highly frequent and regular cue in Spanish)

So, it’s quite likely that we might say, ‘ok, yes, I don’t tend to do those sorts of mechanical practice tasks anyway! Instead, I…. do a lot of oral work to embed the grammar and provide worksheets that give more information’��That might look like this…

16 of 48

After about 15 hours of teaching…

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

17 of 48

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

18 of 48

Pupils told:

“This means ‘My best friend is called X. I have known her for Y years’.

Write it down and learn it with the other phrases for the test next week”

After 29 weeks = 43 hours of French instruction

plus a few hours at primary school for some children

Pupils were shown two written sentences, with open slots for “friend’s name” and “number of years”

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

This is an extract from some homework a year 7 child, age 12, after about 43 hours of French teaching, brought home.

Pupils were shown these two written sentences, with open slots for a name and a number of years. Then they were told “Write this down and learn it for your written test”

Now, this is complex! We have gender agreement on possessive pronouns, a reflexive verb, a preverbal feminine object pronoun, an irregular verb ending, and a complex temporal adverb.

Teaching SOME pre-fabricated phrases such as “I would like to” can be useful –… they smooth the way into communication. Analytic learners, with good memories, can break them down and reuse the parts, but this is known to take time, even for analytic learners who like to solve the puzzle of language.

So, breaking down such fixed phrases takes time and is easier for some learners than others.

Without breaking this kind of language down, it is easy to see why a pupil would become demotivated as they just couldn’t ‘crack into’ this system.

19 of 48

Summary of concerns about some currently available resources:

Whole paradigms at once
No active (= forced) practice to link grammar to meaning in input
Jumping straight from explanation (or from mere ‘exposure’) to production
Production practice that is mechanical: doesn’t force learners to actively choose which grammar is needed
Practice with one small, fixed set of vocabulary, rather than revisited with new vocabulary

Summary of textbook / worksheet analysis

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

To summarise 5 key concerns:

WHOLE PARADIGMS BEING PRESENTED ALL AT ONCE with no clear follow up to practise them all in meaningful ways
INPUT BASED ACTIVITIES THAT DIDN’T ACTUALLY ORIENT/FORCE LEARNERS’ ATTENTION ON THE GRAMMAR, AS THEY ALLOW THEM TO ANSWER WITHOUT REALLY HAVING TO ATTEND TO THE FEATURE
SWIFT MOVES FROM GRAMMAR EXPLANATION TO PRODUCTION PRACTICE;
PRODUCTION PRACTICE THAT IS ‘MECHANICAL’ – THE ACTIVITIES DON’T FORCE THE LEARNER TO ACTIVELY CHOOSE BETWEEN DIFFERENT GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (E.G. THEY MIGHT SAY ‘DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DID LAST WEEKEND’ OR ‘DESCRIBE YOUR FRIEND’S APPEARANCE’ OR ‘YOUR IDEAL X’ – BUT THEY DON’T ENSURE DIFFERENT FEATURES NEED TO BE ACTIVELY CHOSEN (INSTEAD, LEARNERS CAN COPY FROM A FRAME, OR MECHANICALLY REPEAT A PATTERN THEY HAVE JUST BEEN TOLD ABOUT, WITHOUT CONNECTING TO A MEANING (OR FUNCTION) EACH TIME THEY USE IT).
PRACTICE IS JUST WITH A SMALL SET OF VOCABULARY WITHIN ONE TOPIC E.G. ‘PAS’ JUST PRACTISED WITH ‘AIMER’, OR PAST TENSE (IN ONE OR TWO ‘PERSONS’ WITH JUST 3 OR 4 VERBS ABOUT HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES AND THEN NOT REVISITED LATER WITH A WIDER RANGE OF VERBS IN A WIDER RANGE OF CONTEXTS

20 of 48

Core Principles of Grammar Teaching

In order to complete the activity correctly, the learner needs to connect the grammar feature to its meaning.

(Task essential)

The grammar feature is made task-essential during practice by removing as many other clues from the sentence as possible.

Grammar is encountered with a varied lexicon to consolidate learners’ knowledge of a grammatical system that works across multiple contexts.

Writing and speaking activities to help learners establish and practise accessing knowledge after the input practice.

A succinct, explicit description of the grammar feature and its meaning.

Initial practice to reinforce knowledge of the grammatical form and its meaning in the ‘input’(i.e. when reading

and listening).

After extensive initial practice of pairs of features, very gradually, activities may incorporate more than two features.

Pairs of meanings juxtaposed in different combinations, ensuring that features are revisited and reinforced.

Developing learners’ awareness of the relationship between English and the L2.

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

21 of 48

Examples of NCELP Resources

Brief, clear explanation about the meaning of a pair of features
Reading – where attention is oriented to the meaning of the grammar
Listening – where attention is oriented to the meaning of the grammar
Writing (controlled) – where learners have to ‘choose’ which grammar to use
Speaking (controlled) – where learners have to ‘choose’ which grammar to use and their partner must understand that grammar

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

22 of 48

An example of possible modifications

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

23 of 48

Example of:� �Brief, clear explanation about the meaning of a pair of grammar features

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

24 of 48

Asking questions – subject-verb inversion

To ask a question, we can swap the subject and the verb around:

Tu comprends.

You understand.

Statement

Comprends-tu ?

Do you understand?

Question

grammaire

Subject-verb inversion

Swapping round the subject and verb is called inversion. We add a hyphen between them.

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

25 of 48

Asking questions – subject-verb inversion

We use inversion to form ‘do/does’ questions and ‘am/are/is’ questions.

Tu comprends.

You understand / are understanding.

Comprends-tu ?

Do you understand?

Tu apprends le français.

You learn / are learning French.

Apprends-tu le français ?

Are you learning French?

There are no question words for ‘do’ and ‘are’ in French! �

Inversion tells us these are questions.

grammaire

Subject-verb inversion

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

26 of 48

Example of:��Reading – where attention is oriented to the meaning of the grammar

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

27 of 48

Les parents et la professeure

Les parents de Léa parlent à la professeure.

C’est une description (D) de Léa, ou une question (Q) pour la professeure ?

		D / Q
1)	Elle dit les réponses
2)	Elle apprend l’anglais
3)	Est elle calme en classe
4)	Prend elle une règle au collège
5)	Elle a des problèmes en maths
6)	Fait elle des erreurs
7)	Comprend elle les solutions
8)	Elle trouve la géographie facile

D

Q

Léa’s parents took notes quickly and missed out the punctuation!

Pay attention to the word order.

Les parents et la professeure

lire

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

28 of 48

Example of: ��Listening – where attention is oriented to the meaning of the grammar

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

29 of 48

Un robot à la maison !

Un robot apprend comment habiter avec une famille humaine.

C’est une description (D) de la famille, ou une question (Q) pour la famille ?

D

Q

D

Q

D

Q

D

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

I haven’t learned to use intonation yet! Pay attention to the word order.

Remember! Forms of être and avoir are verbs, too!

Un robot à la maison !

écouter

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Timing: 5 minutes

Aim: Aural recognition of questions and statements from word order.

Procedure:

This listening activity practises recognition of subject-verb inversion questions with a range of previously learned vocabulary, incorporating the sets revisited this week.
A ‘robot voice’ is used to remove any cues from intonation.
Students write 1-12 and the letter ‘Q’ or ‘D’. The English translation can be elicited when checking answers.

Transcript

Il y a deux frères.
Sont-ils sages ?
Ont-ils une sœur ?
Elle joue contre les fils.
Est-elle jeune ?
Elle parle avec les parents.
Vous êtes stricts.
Dis-tu ça à ta mère ?
Comprends-tu ton père ?
Sommes-nous amis ?
Nous avons une vie heureuse.

12. Je suis content ici.

Frequency rankings (1 is the most frequent word in French):

robot [>5000], humain [286]

Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

30 of 48

Example of:��Speaking – where learners have to ‘choose’ which grammar to use and their partner must understand that grammar�…selecting between the pairs of features they have just been practising in the input

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

31 of 48

Vrai ou faux ?

		oui / non	vrai / faux
1)	__________: tu es content(e) aujourd’hui.
2)	__________: tu as un animal.
3)	__________: tu aimes la couleur rouge.
4)	__________: tu regardes un film le week-end.
5)	__________: tu écoutes la musique rock.
6)	__________: tu chantes bien.
7)	__________: tu manges un fruit chaque jour.
8)	__________: tu marches à l’école.

Vrai ou faux ?

parler

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Timing: 10 minutes

Aim: Oral production and aural comprehension of questions and answers.

Procedure:

In this speaking activity, students have to guess each others’ answers to a set of questions, then ask them the question to find out if their guess was correct.
The questions can be written out before speaking if the group would benefit from the extra support and processing time.
This could be done in several ways:

In groups (ideally of 8): students write 1-8 and the name of a different group member for each statement, and predict their answer by writing ‘oui’ / ‘non’. They then take turns to ask each other the questions, marking ‘vrai’ if their guess was correct and ‘faux’ if not. One point for each correct guess.
In pairs: students simply guess their partner’s answer to each question and ask each other the questions to check.

4. The next slide includes a more challenging version of this task, where the statements are written in the 3^rd person, so students must change the verb form as well as the word order – delete as necessary.

Frequency rankings (1 is the most frequent word in French):

musique [1139], week-end [2475], rock [4081]

Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

32 of 48

Example of:� �Writing – where learners have to ‘choose’ which grammar to use, �selecting between the pairs of features they have just been practising in the input

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

33 of 48

Parle et écris en français !

1.

Partnenaire A Task 1

2.

3.

4.

5.

apprendre – le français

être – jeune

comprendre – la question

aller – au collège

prendre – le déjeuner

Apprends-tu le français ?

Tu es jeune.

Tu vas au collège.

Comprends-tu la question ?

Prends-tu le déjeuner ?

?

Réponses:

A either asks a question or makes a statement.

A: Ask a question: Fais-tu l’activité ?

B: oui / non (you can be truthful here!).

A: Make a statement: Tu fais les devoirs.

B: D’accord (‘Okay’).

Parle et écris en français !

parler / écrire

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

34 of 48

Now a set of Spanish grammar activities

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

35 of 48

Example of:

�Brief, clear explanation about the meaning of a pair of grammar features

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

36 of 48

Describing what there is around you:�Using ‘es’ and ‘son’

To describe someone or something, Spanish often uses ‘es’.

Hay una casa. Es cara.

🡪 There is a house. It is expensive.

To describe two or more people or things, Spanish often uses ‘son’.

Hay unas casas. Son caras.

🡪 There are some houses. They are expensive.

¡Importante! ‘Es’ and ‘son’ both refer to permanent characteristics.

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

37 of 48

Example of:��Reading – where attention is oriented to the meaning of the grammar

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

38 of 48

leer


1

2

3

4

5

Madrid

En Madrid

hay un monumento.

tiene unos parques.

hay una escuela.

hay unos coches.

tiene unas casas.

Amanda está en España.

Describe diez ciudades.

Marca la opción correcta.

León

En León

En Mallorca

Mallorca

En Málaga

Málaga

San Sebastián

En San Sebastián


Es muy antiguo.
Son muy antiguos.
No son muy bonitos.
No es muy bonito.
Son muy pequeñas.
Es muy pequeña.
Es bueno.
Son buenos.
Es cara.
Son caras.

Lee la segunda frase.

Marca la opción correcta.

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Reading activity [1/2]

Timing: 8 minutes

Aim: to consolidate understanding of the difference between ‘hay’ and ‘tiene’; to continue distinguishing between the meanings of ‘es’ and ‘son’.

Procedure:

1. Students first decide which sentence starter is correct, based on whether the ending includes ‘hay’ or ‘tiene’.

2. They then decide if the following sentence uses ‘es’ or ‘son’, based on the noun in the preceding sentence.

3. Once items 1-5 are done, go to next slide for 6-10.

Notes:

1. Check that ‘segunda’ is clear – this was introduced as a phonics practice word earlier in the lesson.

2. Differentiation: higher-achieving groups may be able to complete both parts of the task as they read each item.

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in Spanish): �monumento [3149]; parque [1354]; escuela [424]; coche [1190]; casa [106]; bonito [891]; pequeño [202]; caro [2179]; antiguo [446]; bueno [98]

Source: Davies, M. & Davies, K. (2018). A frequency dictionary of Spanish: Core vocabulary for learners (2nd ed.). Routledge: London

39 of 48

Example of:� �Listening – where attention is oriented to the meaning of the grammar

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

40 of 48

Year 7 Spanish Term 1.2 week 4 - Using ‘es’ and ‘son

escuchar

	Toledo (‘it is’)	Oviedo y León (‘they are’)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Amanda está en España.

Marca la opción correcta.

pretty

Escucha otra vez.

Escribe el adjetivo en inglés.

small, little

expensive

ugly

old, ancient

cheap

famous

good

strange

calm, tranquil

Describe tres ciudades: Toledo, Oviedo y León.

Toledo

Oviedo

León

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

41 of 48

Example of: ��Speaking – where learners have to ‘choose’ which grammar to use and their partner must understand that grammar�…selecting between the pairs of features they have just been practising in the input

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

42 of 48

hablar

En parejas

Persona A: Describe a los profesores.

Persona B: Escucha.

Usa ‘es’ o ‘son’ + adjetivo.

¿Es una persona o son dos personas?

Escribe el adjetivo en la columna correcta (y en inglés).

Importante! Add –s to the adjective when you talk about two teachers.

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Paired listening/speaking

Timing: 10-12 minutes

Aim: to practise using ‘es’ and ‘son’ to refer to singular and plural subjects; to practise using gender and number agreement in the oral modality

Procedure:

1. Teacher elicits meaning of ‘parejas’. It is first introduced as ‘pairs’. Later, they will also learn that it can mean ‘partner’.

2. Teacher uses this slide and the next to explain and model the activity – see next slide for the grid that students will copy into books.

3. Students should also be reminded that on the speaking cards there will be male and female teachers (one set of cards with male, one set with female, to avoid overload).

They need to remember to use the correct adjective, depending on their gender.

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in Spanish): �bonito [891]; famoso [997]; feo [2373]; rico¹ [398]; alto² [231]; raro¹ [1005]; tonto [2379]; tranquilo [1073]; serio [856]; bueno [98]; malo [368]

Source: Davies, M. & Davies, K. (2018). A frequency dictionary of Spanish: Core vocabulary for learners (2nd ed.). Routledge: London

43 of 48

Un ejemplo

Son nerviosos.

Persona A (habla):

nervous

Persona B (escucha y escribe):

Señor Garcia (‘he is’)

Señores Garcia y Rodriguez (‘they are’)

nervous

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

44 of 48

strange

famous

ugly

rich

serious

good

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

45 of 48

Example of:��Writing – where learners have to ‘choose’ which grammar to use, selecting between the pairs of features they have just been practising in the input

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

46 of 48

¿Cómo es España?�

Completa las frases.

beautiful
calm
small

famous
old
expensive
beautiful

famous

calm
strange

old
cheap
strange

1) _______________________________ bonitos.

2) ____________________ barato.

3) __________________________ antiguos.

4) ________________________ pequeño.

5) ______________________________ tranquilos.

Barcelona y San Sebastián son

Bilbao es

Bilbao y Barcelona son

San Sebastián es

Zaragoza y San Sebastián son

escribir

6) ________________________ raros.

Bilbao y Zaragoza son

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

47 of 48

Session 3: Grammar

Q&A

Joe Fincham

20/11/20

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

48 of 48

Selected references

Bui, G., & Skehan, P. (2018). Complexity, fluency and accuracy. In J. Liontas (Ed.), TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching (pp.1-7). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons,

DeKeyser, R. (2005). What makes learning second-language grammar difficult? A review of issues. Language Learning, 55(S1), 1-25.

DeKeyser, R. (2015). Skill acquisition theory. In B. VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction (pp. 94–112). London, UK: Routledge. Mitchell, Myles & Marsden, E. (2018).

Ellis, N. (2006). Selective attention, and transfer phenomena in L2 acquisition: Contingency, cue competition, salience, interference, overshadowing, blocking, and perceptual learning. Applied Linguistics, 27(2), 164-194.

Kasprowicz, R. & Marsden, E. (2018). Towards ecological validity in research into input-based practice: Form spotting can be as beneficial as form-meaning practice. Applied Linguistics, 39(6), 886-911.

Lichtman, K. (2016). Age and learning environment: Are children implicit second language learners? Journal of Child Language, 43, 707-730.

Marsden, E. (2006). Exploring input processing in the classroom: An experimental comparison of processing instruction and enriched input. Language Learning, 56, 507–566.

Mitchell, R., Myles, F. & Marsden, E. (2019) Second Language Learning Theories. New York: Routledge.

Norris, J., & Ortega, L. (2001). Does type of instruction make a difference? Substantive findings from a meta-analytic review. Language Learning, 51(S1), 157-213.

Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129-158.

Spada, N., & Tomita, Y. (2010) Interactions between type of instruction and type of language feature: A meta-analysis. Language Learning, 60(2), 263-308.

VanPatten, B. (2004). Input processing in SLA. In, VanPatten, B. (ed.), Processing instruction: Theory, research, and commentary. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

White, L., Spada, N., Lightbown, P., & Ranta, L. (1991). Input enhancement and L2 question formation. Applied Linguistics, 12(4), 416-432.

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes