As an
EFL learner who has received grammar-based language teaching for many years,
while seeing the title, I did not have any expectations of how this course
might be different from the grammar courses I have taken. However, from the
Introduction of Applied Linguistics, the notion of World English and descriptive
grammar led me to question what I used to think about grammar. Thus, I looked
forward to seeing if this grammar course may help me create a “new grammar
teaching.”
Although
a great portion of this class was on-line, this course did not disappoint me in
terms of its bringing the social functional perspective of grammar into
discussions and blog reflections (please refer to the attachment blog entry 1-5).
For example, the first discussion was analyzing the language of an invitation,
a postcard, and a short conversation. Coincidentally, I did a conversational
analysis project at that time in my discourse analysis class. The two courses worked
as a good combination in helping me analyze from a researcher’s as well as a teacher’s
perspective.
One of the activities we did: post card language analysis
Moreover, more than just analyzing hidden
meanings constructed by different grammatical choices, this course also
provided chances to apply this functional grammar perspective into teaching.
One lesson that impressed me was teaching “modals.” After this lesson, I wrote
an entry about how I would plan a lesson for teaching modals (please see entry
no. 2), and in my ESL 015 class I applied this plan.
Aside
from these specific topics, the final project consisted of both our discussions
about the broader teaching issues (such as English only movement and its impact
on teaching) and the design of a lesson for a specific learner after analyzing
her speaking transcript and essays (please refer to the attached file- final
project). Combining global and local assessments, this analysis helped me come
to a pedagogical decision confidently.
Language teachers definitely should encompass knowledge of language.
However, what perspective teachers emphasize on while teaching grammar depends
of how they define the knowledge of grammar. I defined the knowledge as socioculturally
constructed, and the course did help me to accomplish this type of teaching.
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