APLNG 484 Discourse Functional Grammar

Meeting objectives: 1, 2, 6

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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.”

Textbook for this course

       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.