TESL 0110 - Grammar Fundamentals - Unit 1 reflection

Unit 1: The role of grammar instruction in the 
classroom: an ongoing debate

The movie "Uptown Girls" is the story of an uptight little girl named Ray, the daughter of a wealthy 
New York music executive, and her free spirited, fun loving nanny Molly. This unit made me think of a 
scene in which Ray and Molly are walking home from Ray's ballet class. Ray takes her ballet classes 
very seriously and leaves her class early, skipping the freestyle portion of the class.

Molly asks, "Why did you leave class so early? The freestyle at the end looked like so much fun!"

Ray replies, "Freestyle is for moronic little kids and hippie freaks."

"It's fun!" answers Molly.

"Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun." Ray retorts.

Ray is quoting the Latvian-born Russian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor 
Mikhall Baryshnikov. Grammar rules are the building blocks for coherent expression of the 
English language. Like my classmate, Iryna Shuplyotsova said in her discussion forum post
(personal communication, Nov. 7, 2018), the composer must know the music notes in order to create
beautiful symphonic harmony and a computer programmer must know the rules of coding in order to 
create a virtual 3D model of the human heart. Grammar provides a framework for creativity. Learning
grammar takes discipline but it opens doors and brings you into a deeper understanding of language.

 

Our readings this week have been on the two camps of grammar teaching. The direct teaching 
and indirect teaching camps. One says you needs to formally and systematically teach grammar and 
the other says that students will pick it up with practice in real life situations.

I was telling my husband when what we're learning about and he said, "Soooo, which side do you 
fall on?" I explained that I think the ELT should take a balanced approach in the classroom. That 
ELLs need to learn some grammar as a jumping off point and definitely need to understand grammar 
rules if they are to write intelligibly but that all the formal instruction needs to be balanced by practice, 
application and real life use. I want it all!

My husband responded by saying, " So you're in the grammar camp?". To which I replied,
no, I'm in the balanced approached camp. He challenged me by saying that my opinion of needing 
to include formal grammar instruction at all puts me in the grammar camp. He thought that if I was a 
anti-grammar purist I wouldn't teach grammar at all in my classroom. So I thought about that - would
it actually work to never formally teach grammar? Just throw your students into the deep end and hope 
they swim?

My current position still stands that ELTs need to hold a balanced approach to grammar 
instruction. I do believe that students need to be taught the framework of the English grammatical rules
but that they need to take risks and apply their book knowledge in real life speaking and writing. The 
reading for this week included arguments for and against teaching grammar. The argument that stuck 
out to me was “the advance-organizer argument” that said that if you give the grammatical framework 
to your students they will then start to “notice” these rules in real life situations and start to draw 
meaningful connections (Thornbury, pp. 16).

As a native speaker I have very few memories of formally learning the rules of grammar. It's all 
intuitive to me, I go by what "sounds right". I actually have more experience learning grammar from
studying French. I had a humbling experience in class this fall. A student asked me a technical grammar
question and I had no idea how to answer. I called my South Korean born co-worker over to help. 
She had much more experience formally studying English grammar and easily answered the question.
I realized I have a lot to learn even though as the native speaker I was supposed to be the 
apparent "expert". Even though I don't think the ELT needs to be a grammar expert (especially in the
age of Google) I do hope to grow in my formal knowledge of grammar during the course of this module.

 

Here is my needs assessment: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YTUvZ0yw6BMFE80IIrYW_otYHIj8HDVDuh1chC4ro7E/edit?usp=sharing

References:

Stevens, F., Jacobs, A., Penotti. J. (Producers), & Yakin, B. (Director). (2003). Uptown Girls 
[Motion Picture]. United States: MGM.

Thornbury, S. (1999). Chapter 2: Why teach grammar, In Harmer, J. (Ed.), How to teach grammar 
(pp. 14-28). Harlow: Longman.

[Photograph of Ray from Uptown Girls] (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.thelaurelgazette.com/the-appropriately-boring-capitol-hill/

Schiavone, G. (2014). [James Whiteside and Whitney Jensen in Elo’s Brake the Eyes.]. 
Retrieved from
https://www.dancemagazine.com/what_exactly_is_contemporary_ballet-2306944842.html

[Photograph of Mikhail Baryshnikov and quote] (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/388073