Hi out there,

I'm not really very much up to date what is hot and trendy in applied linguistics these days (did my PhD in linguistics in 1993) and since then have mainly worked in teaching English to adult students in Germany. This is a thing where job satisfaction is quite good - although sometimes I am quite at a loss with some phenomena. Just take the English -th-, there are some students who will never learn how to do it. Most of them say their teacher never taught them correctly - so I start giving some sort of description but whether it is that they are far too self-conscious of over-doing this "stick your tongue out a bit to touch the back part of your alveolar ridge - sorry back of the teeth" or whether they can't be bothered to practice seriously is not clear to me. It bugs me quite seriously though. 

I'm not sure whether this question really qualifies for Applied linguistics - but since there isn't much discussion going on here anyway, I might as well try.

I would of course be willing to submit my question to another forum, if you would be kind enough to let me know where it is bettter suited.

Regards,

Marylou 

 The question is to teach grammar or not?

 I usually hear  that we should study foreign languages without special lessons on grammar on the basis of grammar  patterns being given  while we are  teaching skills.It is o'key to learn  foreign language without grammar if we have language environment and a learner hear the  accuracy speech  and correct himself or herself, but  if   we have no it , how to learn language?

Usually we first remember grammar structure and only then we fill it with words .

Teaching grammar is necessary to learn a foreign language, but at the same it is enough if we teach Functional English, not mugging up the rules and principles. Go to the concept through the examples

For eg:

I have been living there since 1982

I was living there from my Childhood

through this example one can find it easy to teach the usage of 'from' and 'since'

Hi s_padmasanikannan,

Your approach is a very pragmatical one and I'm sure it will work for a lot of introductory contexts. But I cannot see really what you mean by "functional grammar". Surely your examples to exemplify "from" and "since" are fine, but will they be enough to cover more contexts in which these two words appear? I'm not sure. - But that maybe because the thought of  teaching English   w i t h  o u t  grammar has never crossed my mind. So could you please be a little bit more explicit on your teaching method?

Hi All,

how to teach grammar :

to teach grammar separately from skills 

or not  to teach it separatly and

will  it be presented  in the form of pattens while skills are developed?  

What kind of activities are used for introduction, consolidation?

 Of course in acquiring a second language one must acquire knowledge of it's structure, whether or not this is taught explicitly is dependant on the learning context. As English teachers we must go beyond how to say things, we need to help our students understand what they say  communicates in a cultural context, i think too little attention is paid to helping students understand how to communicate with someone who comes from a culture that speaks the language they are learning. Knowing how to say 'sorry' or 'thank you' is one thing, when to say it is another entirely when it comes to cross cultural communication.

Hi npeachey:

     An issue in applied linguistics of interest to me is:

Is teaching by principles an improvement over the use teaching methods?  If so, why? If not, why not?

Dan Jenkins (Foreign Expert, English Department, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China)