Topic

Knowledge
of Language

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1.

Explain the differences between focal knowledge and tacit knowledge;

2.

Describe the structures of English grammar accurately; and

3.

Understand the concept of prescriptive and descriptive grammars.

X INTRODUCTION
In this topic, you will learn the importance of focal knowledge and tacit
knowledge and their importance in language learning: the latter is intuitive, the
former learned. To be an effective ESL teacher, possession of tacit knowledge is
ideal, as you will have the intuition of native speakers, but focal knowledge of
the language is also crucial as you will be teaching the rules of the language.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and
knowledge.

Albert Einstein
Obviously, it is quite impossible to memorise all the rules of a language in order
to teach it. A more practical and useful approach is to learn how linguists
formulate the rules in order to deal with grammatical structures. Hence, in this
module, you will be trained to think about language using the same methods that
linguists use: analysis and verification. Neither of these techniques is particularly
difficult or complicated once you understand how each operates; what is difficult
is breaking away from your traditional methods of rote learning when teaching
grammar.

1.1

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

FOCAL KNOWLEDGE VERSUS TACIT

KNOWLEDGE

Grammar refers to the linguistic system that exists in the mind of a speaker of a
language or when we say that someone knows a language. It can also mean a
description of the language system. Moreover, grammar can refer to an ideal set
of rules or a handbook containing the prescriptive rules. Hence, it is essential to
establish the definition of the word grammar in context before interpreting its
intended meaning.
In addition, to know grammar means to have the understanding of both focal
and tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is closely related to our intuition, gut
feelings, accumulated experiences and skills. Tacit knowledge is difficult to
explain in a non-academic way, and is acquired in a developmental manner, that
is via exposure and repeated learnings. It consists of deeply held feelings and
beliefs, among others. Our knowledge of language is a good example of tacit
knowledge  we did not learn our native language by being taught a set of rules
of grammar, but instead pick it up at a young age almost entirely unaware of the
formal grammar, which may be taught later. Another example is how to ride a
bike, as this could not be learned from a set of rules. You need to get on the bike
first and then acquire the ability to ride the bicycle through experience and
personal experimentation.
Focal knowledge, often described as explicit knowledge, allows us to model or
explain beliefs. The characteristics of explicit knowledge is that it can be
documented, illustrated, captured, stored and retrievable. An example of focal
knowledge is baking a cake. You can actually bake a cake with a set of rules,
called a recipe, or guide someone to bake a cake by describing how it is done.
Knowledge about the object or phenomenon that is in focus  focal
knowledge. Knowledge that is used as a tool to handle or improve what is in
focus  tacit knowledge.
Source: http://www.sveiby.com/Portals/0/articles/Polanyi.html#Tacit%20
and %20Focal%20Knowledge
You can probably explain exactly to someone the procedure to follow when
making a cup of iced tea or giving directions to a designated location in a city.
Your knowledge of these actions is both tacit (you can perform them without
thinking about them) and focal (you can describe to someone how to do them).
Hence, focal knowledge is the ability to list the steps to be followed in order to

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

produce a result. Tacit knowledge is when your information about how to

produce a result is at an intuitive level.

SELF-CHECK 1.1
1.

What is the difference between tacit knowledge and focal

knowledge?

2.

Give an example of tacit knowledge and focal knowledge.

ACTIVITY 1.1
In your opinion, which is more important to you as a language teacher,
tacit knowledge or focal knowledge? State your reasons.

Consider the following sentences:

(a)

They went to dinner.

(b)

They went dinner.

Speakers of the English language will feel that there is something wrong with the
second sentence. The ability to distinguish acceptable English sentences from
those unacceptable is actually performed at the tacit level. Nonetheless, having a
good grasp of focal knowledge enables you to state why the second sentence is
unacceptable, as this nurtures the base for the tacit knowledge, particularly for
second language learners of English who formed their tacit knowledge from
learning the rules, often explicitly in the classroom.

1.2

UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR

Now that you understand the difference between tacit and focal knowledge, let
us look at grammar. Can you tell me why it is important to understand
grammar?

TOPIC 1

KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

Figure 1.1: Understanding grammar is important in knowing a language

As you can see from Figure 1.1, it is important to understand grammar to avoid
misunderstanding in communication as well as to ensure our intended meaning
is delivered.
A basic rule of the English sentence is that the subject usually precedes the
predicate. To see why this is so, read Examples 1 and 2 below.

Figure 1.2: Subject usually precedes the predicate

The first sentence is easier to understand and remember because it is made up of

meaningful groups of words which are specified by English grammar. These
groups of words are called phrases. Example (1) is a sentence, whereas Example
(2) is not. We may find it difficult to keep seven unrelated words in memory
while we are processing new information; putting the seven words into a
standard pattern, such as a phrase, considerably simplifies the operation for us.

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

These standard patterns differ somewhat from language to language, and

linguists speak of them as being determined by the rules that constitute any
given language. When linguists attempt to describe the grammar of a language,
they will explain the rules that govern the groupings of the words of that
language into meaningful patterns. Table 1.1 shows how different phrases
operate in other languages compared to English.
Table 1.1: Different Standard Patterns of Different Languages

Language

Sentence Patterns

Malay

Brother my is playing football.

(Adik saya sedang bermain bola.)

Chinese

I from Ipoh come. (Wo choong fu rong lai.)

You live where? (Ni chu chai na li?)

Tamil

Your mothers name what? (Un ammavin paer enna?)

We school going. (Nanggal pallikku selkirom.)

Iban

I ate fish afternoon just now.

(Aku makai ikan tengahari tadi.)

ACTIVITY 1.2
Read the sentences in Table 1.1 and compare them to the literal
translation in English. What can you say about the sentences and
patterns?
However, the rules presented by grammarians are not necessarily absolute. There
are bound to be some exceptions to the rule. There are also rules that may be
undergoing change. These rules are merely hypotheses, incomplete or imperfect
at best, about how the language system works. For example, grammarians agree
that the rules of English specify not only that the yellow oak tree constitutes a
noun phrase (a string of words that can group together as a single noun or
subject) but also that yellow must precede oak. They also specify how such a
phrase should be pronounced (phonology), where it can occur in a sentence
(syntax), what it means (semantics) and the influence of social context upon the
way it is interpreted (sociolinguistics).

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

SELF-CHECK 1.2
Read the definitions of grammar. Based on these definitions, write what
you understand by the word grammar.
The study of grammar can be viewed from a few perspectives. It can refer to the
abstract system of rules that presumably exists in the mind of a speaker of a
language, the knowledge that we refer to when we say someone knows a
language. Grammar can also mean a language system that describes the ideal set
of rules prescribing the correct and wrong usages of a language.
In this section, we will focus on two kinds of grammatical description:
basic) rules, which describe how
constitutive and regulative rules. Constitutive (b
our grammatical system operates, refer to rules that are the same for all speakers
of English (e.g., subject precedes verb in most sentences). Meanwhile, regulative
rules (such as whether to use who or whom in a given context) govern the
version of English considered appropriate for use by educated speakers. This
version is designated as standard English.
According to prescriptive grammar, language use is either correct or incorrect,
and any educated person should be able to understand at once and follow the
norms of correctness (the regulative rules), which are thought to be preserved in
authoritative reference works such as dictionaries and handbooks. The rules of
grammar, according to this tradition, remind us, for example, that aint is wrong,
but they may leave us wondering about our options if we find the correct
alternative, am I not, precise and elaborative. Prescriptive grammar is the one
employed in the English language classroom, which focuses on the correct ways
of using the language.
Another scholarly tradition of grammar is descriptive grammar, whose roots go
considerably further back in history than the prescriptive tradition. This other
tradition views grammar as a utilitarian means of learning to use a language
correctly as well as philosophical inquiry into the nature of language. It aims at
recording facts, at describing the actual language (constitutive rules) as
comprehensively as possible, and it avoids schoolroom traditional grammars.
Descriptive grammarians attempt to set aside their own linguistics prejudices
and accept and describe what they observe. If a community of native speakers of
a language consistently speak in such and such way, then so be it. They do not
judge it as correct or incorrect but merely describe the language as it is used or
spoken in the respective society. For example, when we describe the semantics or
sounds of the language, this is descriptive grammar. When we say that an

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

English sentence has tense, without going into what is the right way of using
tenses, this is also descriptive grammar. When a phonologist attempts to describe
the sounds of a language, this is also part of descriptive grammar.

ACTIVITY 1.3
1.

Find three expressions that English speakers might regularly use,

which prescriptive grammarians might perceive as incorrect?

2.

Is the English language teacher a prescriptive or descriptive

grammarian?

When young children acquire language, they gain the ability to participate in the
social community around them, first with their immediate family and then,
progressively, with broader sections of the community. As students, you
participate through written and spoken language in a community in which your
linguistic skills are central to your ability as an effective communicator. In using
language, you must constantly make decisions that determine how well you
communicate, and most of the time, you have only yourself to rely on; you do not
have time to consult an expert (a thesaurus or dictionary or friends who know
the rules of Standard English).
As language teachers you may be called upon to assist others in analysing
linguistic alternatives, either informally as a friend or colleague, or more formally
as a peer tutor, classroom teacher, examiner or editor. Whether your goal is to
acquire knowledge about the structure of the English language, to improve your
skills as a speaker and writer, or to master the vocabulary and analytical skills
that are part of the professional competence of classroom teachers, this module is
intended to help you reach that goal.

SELF-CHECK 1.3
1.

What is grammar?

2.

Differentiate between prescriptive and descriptive grammar.

1.3

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

GRAMMAR VERSUS USAGE

Generally, most living languages, including English, is in a constant state of

change. In fact, a language stops changing only when it is no longer used by
speakers of the language in everyday communication. In other words, a language
stops changing when it is dead. As long as people continue to use a language,
they will change and modify it to their needs.
Many varieties of English have been formed to cater the needs of different
groups of English speakers. Each group follows a slightly different subset of the
rules by which the language operates, and each bends the rules a bit to meet
specific needs. Over a period of time, the adaptation or creation of one group of
speakers or another may enter the language and become tolerable to all; at this
point it is on the path to become the standard version of the language.
Klammer et al. (2000) illustrated the process of standardisation of a language
through the use of the word contact. It began as a noun referring to the state in
which two things touch one another. Its meaning eventually extended to refer to
the state of people being in touch (or in contact) with one another. Recently,
people in need of a verb meaning to bring about a contact with another person
converted the noun contact into the verb to contact, meaning to get in touch
with someone. Is contact an acceptable verb in this sense? Some people think so,
and some do not.
According to Klammer et al. (2000) when the American Heritage Dictionary was
published in 1969, sixty-six percent of its usage panel voted that despite its
widespread popular use, a sentence like Ill contact you next week was not
acceptable in writing, and only produced in formal occasions. Notice, first of all,
that the experts did not fully agree that the sentence was unacceptable.
Presumably, the other thirty-four percent of the panel who judged contact to be
acceptable as a verb had observed the form in the speech and writing of a
substantial number of people whom they considered to be members of the elite
group whose language use sets the standard for others. When enough of the elite
adopt the form, it will become a part of Standard English.
We consider people as standard speakers so long as they do not use any strongly
stigmatised forms (like I seen it, for instance) and their speech contains relatively
few minor violations of speech etiquette (like Ill contact you next week). We
seem to have internalised a threshold of tolerance for secondary grammatical
errors. Speakers who remain below that threshold in the production of minor
stigmatised items are heard as being standard speakers, despite irregularities that
occur in their speech. Minor items include pronunciations, such as inserting a

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

/k/ sound in schism or a /t/ in often; grammatical forms, such as saying

different than instead of different from, or even vocabulary choice, like the
substitution of enormity for enormousness.
The dominant social groups more or less voluntarily or involuntarily use
language to mark themselves off from others, allowing only a small amount of
deviation from the norms established for their group, preventing any sort of
relaxations of their standards, and believing that their own version of English is
the purest, the most correct, or the best. They overlook momentary lapses in
fellow members speech and remain generally ignorant that some of the currently
acceptable forms they use were once considered incorrect.

ACTIVITY 1.4
1.

Language stops changing only when it is dead. Do you agree

with the statement? Why?

2.

Get a good dictionary; find and describe three words that have
changed their meaning along the years.

1.4

DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR

The differences in usage occurring in the language used by speakers of English

create problems for linguists who wish to describe the rules of Standard English.
Which of the version should be used as a model? Whose style of speech should
be followed? What types of sentence structures are acceptable? What are
borderline cases and how do grammarians treat them?
Describing how the language system works is even more complex. For example,
Klammer et al. (2000) points out the difficulty of describing the differences
between two words such as snoring and boring, in the snoring professor and the
boring professor? Are both words participles derived from the verbs snore and
bore? Or have they both become adjectives? If they have, then why is it possible
to say the very boring professor but not the very snoring professor? Since all
speakers of Standard English seem to know that the first is permissible and the
second is not, is it really desirable to describe how the system operates without
accounting for such differences?

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Linguists do, in fact, try to describe the differences between these two phrases,
with an argument that runs more or less as follows. It is possible in English to
convert the participle in a sentence like, The professor is snoring(or arguing,
sleeping, fighting) into the snoring/arguing/sleeping/fighting professor. Each of
the words tells something about the professor (that is, each modifies the word
professor). We can say that the words have acquired privileges somewhat like
adjectives (the tall/young/intelligent professor).
However, adjectives can be compared (She is taller/younger/more intelligent
than he is) and qualified (the quite tall/rather young/very intelligent professor);
participles cannot be compared. (She is more snoring than he is, the very arguing
couple). Another set of participles (The professor is charming his students/
boring his students) behave more like adjectives. As noun modifiers, they can be
qualified (the very charming professor), and they can be compared (This

professor is more boring than that one).

The differences that exist within standard English sometimes compel linguists to
provide alternative descriptions to explain competing forms. However, the
repeated discovery that language data (like snoring and boring) do not always
fall neatly into a simple grammatical system has resulted in an approach
involving prototype theory that we believe is important in understanding the
nature of grammatical relationships.

ACTIVITY 1.5
As a competent speaker of English, we should be able to distinguish
acceptable English sentences from the utterances of unacceptable
sentences. Examine the following sentences and explain which is
acceptable and which is not.
(a)

She doesnt have any money to buy the dress.

(b)

The ate this man cake with his finger.

In studying grammatical analysis we learn how forms are categorised so that we

can classify new forms as we encounter them. You already know the names of
most of the categories used in language study such as nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs, and sorting words into the proper groups would be simple if
membership in each category were an either/or proposition, if a word could
belong to only one part of speech, for example, and if it behaved like all other
members of that group.

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11

Unfortunately for students of language, this is not the case. Words can belong to
more than one group: we can down (verb) a cup of tea (drink), look down
(belittle) (adverb), walk down (the stairs) (preposition), and talk about the fourth
down (noun) in American football, for example. We can also feel down (sad)
(adjective) on a bad day. Not all members of a given group behave identically:
Most nouns in English can be made plural (books, cars, pupils), but many cannot
(beauty, competent, wilderness) in ordinary usage.
Contemporary research into the features of cognition and the process by which
very young learners form concepts may help students of language to understand
the nature of grammar and its reasons for the exceptions to grammatical rules.
Concepts are general ideas we have formed about objects and actions in the
world around us based upon our grouping together of similar things under a
single class. The current prototype theory suggests that concepts are not precise
categories to which members belong to, for some members are better examples of
the class than others.
For example, we have a concept of what is referred to by the word house, and if
we are asked to draw an example, most of us would produce a prototype, a
square building with two windows, a door and a flight of stairs. However, not all
houses have stairs, and not all are squares; some are rectangles, and some are
even hexagons. Our decision about whether something is a house is based not
only on its form but also on its function.

Figure 1.3: Different types of houses

When we begin to try to distinguish between houses and bungalows or flats and
apartments, we begin to see that the concept of a house is really quite complex as
shown in Figure 1.3. A prototypical house exists, which most of us associate with
the label, and we encounter thousands of varieties that are very much like the

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prototype. However, we also have, as part of our knowledge of a house, a setting

with a living room, a dining room, bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen, which
differ in some marked degree from the prototype of a house but which we accept
as belonging to the class. It is generally the case that a concept or class will have
not only a clearly defined centre, where members (p
prototypical cases) exhibit all
the characteristics associated with the prototype, but also indistinct borders,
where other members (p
peripheral cases) seem to belong, even though they
exhibit only a few of the characteristics associated with the category.
Generally, the educational process indoctrinates us into the features and limits of
the concepts accepted by our culture. Their ill-defined borders present a few
problems to us. We accept arbitrary labeling of peripheral examples of things like
houses and flats, and in school we memorise the infrequent exceptions to
generalised ideas of what comprises a class or category. Many of us, for example,
have learned the striking facts that a whale is a mammal and that a bat is not a
bird. We can learn exceptions such as these as long as we need to memorise only a
few for each category.
However, if we were specialising in zoology or botany, we would be unable to
memorise all the examples of mammals, or birds, or fruit. We would need to learn
the criteria that determine whether something belongs to one of these classes. Once
we have mastered the criteria, we would be able to examine a new example,
observe its features or habits and decide how to classify it.
Language presents us with a fair set of prototypes of any category along with a
substantial number of peripheral examples: items that are finally seen to belong
to the category partly on the basis of shared characteristics (family resemblance)
and partly because they do not fit as well into any other category. In other
instances, the same linguistic example may belong to more than one category,
depending upon the context in which it occurs.
Language learners must learn the criteria used to classify various linguistic
forms. The criteria, since they are few in number, can be memorised, and since
the prototype of the class exhibits the largest number of the defining criteria for
that class, the most efficient way to learn the criteria is to associate them with a
prototype.
For example, when we come to the classification of parts of speech, you will see
that the word heavy is a prototypical adjective. It exhibits the following
characteristics, which are typical of (though not necessarily always required of)
adjectives (Table 1.2):

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13

Table 1.2: Characteristics of the English Adjective Prototype

Characteristics

Example

It ends in -y, a suffix added to many words to create

adjectives.

funny, happy

It can be made comparative and superlative.

heavier, heaviest

It can be intensified with words.

very, rather or quite

It can be a predicate adjective.

It feels heavy.

When it modifies a noun, its meaning can be

paraphrased by a sentence in which its noun is the
subject and and it is the predicate adjective following
the verb to be.

heavy box: The box is heavy.

It can function as an object complement.

The weight made it heavy.

Specifically, we can define any word that has all of these characteristics as an
adjective, and if all adjectives share all of these features, classification will be
easy. One test would enable us to classify all of the members of the category.
Unfortunately, the English language is much more complicated than that. There
seems to be no single feature that all adjectives share. When speakers want to
modify a noun, they can use adjectives or nouns or verb participles or even
adverbs to do the task. When any of these are used over a long period of time,
they may begin to acquire the characteristics associated with adjectives.
The questions then become: how many of these traits and which ones must a
word exhibit in order for us to classify it as an adjective? If you try to rely on
memorising examples of adjectives, you will lack the strategy for dealing with
exceptions and unusual cases or with words you have never encountered before.
If, on the other hand, you understand the principles of word classification, you
will be prepared to deal with borderline examples.
Another situation that occurs frequently as we try to decide what to call the
different kinds of words we use to make even the simplest of sentences is
illustrated in the following examples given by Klammer et al. (2000):
Example 3: A rock wall is surrounded by the field
Example 4: A rocky path surrounds the field.

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The words rock and rocky describe the nouns that follow them, for example
wall and path. Are both rock and rocky therefore adjectives, like
happy? Many traditional schoolroom grammarians, prescriptive linguists,
would call both words adjectives because they modify nouns. Descriptive
linguists, however, distinguish between a words form (what kind of word it is)
and its function (what it is doing in a particular phrase or sentence). They would
agree that both rock and rocky are functioning as adjectival modifiers; that
is, both are being used the way adjectives frequently are to describe nouns.
However, rocky is an adjective in form, while rock is a noun, even though it
is being used in a typical adjectival function. The descriptive linguist looks at the
actual characteristics of each word to determine its class. Rocky has all of the
most important traits of an adjective; for example, it ends in the common
adjective suffix -y (like happy), it can be made comparative and superlative
(rockier, rockiest), and it can be intensified (very rocky, rather rocky). Rock, on
the other hand, not only has no adjective suffix (which isnt required of
adjectives: red, tall, rich are adjectives without adjective suffixes), but in addition,
it can neither be made comparative and superlative (rocker, rockest) nor can it be
intensified (very rock, rather rock). Furthermore, it easily functions as a noun (a
heavy rock, on the rock), which rocky cannot do (a hard rocky, on the rocky).

ACTIVITY 1.6
Discuss and list down at least three words that have both the form and
function of a noun and an adjective.

The fact that a words form and function often contrast is another reason that
understanding English grammar requires learners to think critically and
analytically about language, rather than simply memorising rules and lists.
The grammar of sentences (syntax) is also a barrier to any approach based on rote
learning. Linguists have described only the most regular of those rules for they
do not understand all the syntactic rules that account for the structure of English
sentences. It is not possible, therefore, simply to memorise all of the rules. A
more practical and useful approach is to learn how linguists formulate the rules
in order to deal with grammatical structures you have already studied.
Most importantly, understanding the prototypes assist in learning to understand
the principles that enable you to do grammatical analysis independently.
Researchers have discovered that prototypical members of any concept are easier
to understand and remember than peripheral members, and that information

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15

about the prototype is more readily generalised compared to peripheral

members. In other words, prototypes can help us identify other prototypes and
exceptions better.

1.5

LEARNING ABOUT GRAMMAR

The traditional methods of dealing with grammar are by memorising and

guessing. According to Klammer et al. (2000), memorisation provides the mind
with some of the tools and information necessary at higher levels of thinking. In
fact, educated guesses, based on intuition, often provide a productive way to
commence work, one that will become more systematic as it proceeds.
Mathematicians, for example, memorise a body of tables, terms, and formulas to
be used in complex reckoning, and quick estimates are an essential part of their
way of working.
Training in medicine requires doctors to depend on memorising innumerable
facts about the human body and the symptoms of diseases, and before
experienced physicians reach a diagnosis or make a prescription, they may
follow intuitive hunches that sometimes turn out to be right or wrong.
Many examples like these substantiate the legitimate roles of memorisation and
guessing in the learning process. Yet in no field of learning do these two
processes constitute the most important means of attaining mastery.
Ignorant people think its the voice which fighting cats make that is so
aggravating, but it aint so; its the sickening grammar they use.

Mark Twain
The fact is you cannot master English grammar by using rote memory alone.
Students who study grammar by memorising a set of rules so as to be able to
differentiate between right and wrong constructions will eventually find
themselves overloaded with information. When students are slowed down, they
complain about all the exceptions to the rules. Consequently, frustrated students
will blame their instructors, their books, or both and wonder why the rules of the
language are not consistent and orderly.
Similar to memorising, guessing plays an important role in scientific (including
linguistic) inquiry; however, the experts guess is quite different from the guess
of the novice. Scientists begin with a guess called a hypothesis, which is a
proposition they expect to test and prove. More important than the guess itself is

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the development of proof. Evidence may prove a guess wrong, but if supporting
evidence is found, the hypothesis develops into a theory of how a given system
operates, and after it has been tested and verified, the theory is stated as a rule or
set of rules. The new learners usually bypass all of the speculative steps the
linguist has taken and instead tries to guess what the rule is.
Generally, students guesses are prone to two types of difficulties. First,
verifications must come from an outside authority. The student has an answer
and awaits verification from the instructor or the book. Unfortunately, inquiry
ends for the student if a guess is confirmed by someone else. The important step
of hypothesis testing is bypassed, and as a result, a second difficulty follows:
Students are often at a loss when no one is available to verify their guesses.
In a testing situation, for example, where verification is delayed, students are
forced to decide for themselves whether a guess is correct. Ironically, their
judgments are likely to be based on intuition rather than reasoning, and the more
unsure the students are, the less they trust their intuitions. As a result, they often
change what would have been a correct answer and provide an incorrect one.
Successful learners depend less on memorisation and guessing than less
successful ones do. In studying and during an examination, successful learners
behave more like experts in their fields, always checking their work by reviewing
the steps followed in arriving at answers. Developing the ability to formulate and
verify a hypothesis is more important than having the ability to guess correctly.
Most of the time students are reluctant to risk forming a hypothesis that may
have to be revised or rejected due to the fact that much emphasis is usually
placed upon correct answers. However, if we are to think positively, there is
often more to be learned from a wrong answer or a hypothesis that needs
revision than from a lucky guess.

ACTIVITY 1.7
1.

What is the difference between learning grammar and learning

about grammar?

2.

How do you approach learning of English Grammar as a teacher

and as a student?

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17

Focal knowledge refers to explicit knowledge of the rules of the language.

Tacit knowledge refers to the intuitive knowledge that we have, which we

acquire from birth and not learned in school.

English language teachers need to enhance their focal knowledge in the

language, in addition to their tacit knowledge, to become effective and
successful language teachers.

Prescriptive grammar or linguistics refers to the explicit rules of the

language, often focusing on the right or wrong of language elements.

Descriptive grammar or linguistics is a description of the language for

knowledge or information purposes, for example the description of the
phonology of a language.

The rules presented by the grammarians are not necessarily laws. There are
some exceptions to the rule. These rules are merely hypotheses, incomplete
or imperfect at best, about how the language systems work.

Descriptive grammar

Prescriptive grammar

Focal knowledge

Tacit knowledge

What is the difference between tacit knowledge and focal knowledge? Give your
own example of a tacit knowledge and focal knowledge? In your own opinion
which of the two is more important to you as an English teacher? State your
reasons.

18 X

TOPIC 1

KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

The term grammar has been clearly defined in the text. Based on these
definitions, write what you understand by the word grammar. Cite examples to
illustrate your answer.

Klammer T. P., Klammer T. P., Schulz M. R. and Della Volpe A. (2000). Analyzing
English Grammar (6th ed.). India: Pearson Education.