GRAMMARING: THE FIFTH SKILL IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

By Mohamed Benhima

Corder (1973), what to teach or learn can be described in linguistic terms as grammar
[] or in psychological terms as language skills (p. 137).
Grammar refers to phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics,
Language skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Grammar is led to the development of different models that attempted to account for
grammar differently.
Method of language teaching and learning within the so-called Grammar-Translation
Approach.
Grammar was viewed as the core of language.
Grammar has changed accordingly with the eruption of modern linguistics, grammar
began to be described as a system of structures in addition to vocabulary and
pronunciation.
Grammar has been redefined as the system of rules that every native speaker of a
language has acquired.
Grammar has moved from being a set of mechanical structures to being psychological,
or rather, cognitive constructs, grammatical competence.
Larsen-Freeman (2001), grammar is to be seen as a skill not as a competence (p. 67).

A Tentative Definition of Grammaring

Larsen-Freeman says grammaring can be seen as a fifth skill. The ability to use
grammar structures accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately (ibid., p. 143).
Used to refer to the process by which language learners use grammar to create
messages through grammaticalizing or adding grammar to a sequence of words to
create finer meaning distinctions.
Larsen-Freeman proposed grammaring as an important process in second language
acquisition. Grammaring emphasizes grammar as a dynamic process rather than a
system of rules (p. 552).
To enable students to use grammatical structures accurately, meaningfully, and
appropriately.
Grammar teaching is not so much knowledge transmission as it is skill development
(p. 255).

A Focus on form:
Teachers who focus students attention on linguistic form during communicative
interactions are more effective than those who never focus on form or who only do so
in de-contextualized grammar lessons (Spada and Lightbown 1993; cited in Larsen-
freeman 2002).
Among the activities that focus on language form are language games, Cuisenaire rods,
sentence completion, and sentence unscrambling tasks, among others. In general,
there are three important activities, namely: games, use of rods, and sentence
unscrambling activities.

B Focus on meaning:
Linking form with meaning can be carried out by the use of different activities. In fact,
meaning should call for some sort of associative learning (cf. Ellis 1998).
Meaning can also be made clear by using realia and pictures.

C Focus on use:
Berenice Meraz
20/02/2017
Gramatica Comparada
Should be selected for the right context to ensure successful communication.
Role plays work well when dealing with use because the teacher can systematically
manipulate social variables (e.g., increase or decrease the social distance between
interlocutors) to have students practice how changes in the social variables affect the
choice of the form (p. 261).
Role playing can be considered one of the most effective activities for developing the
appropriateness of the linguistic behavior of students due to its simulation of real-life
contexts.

Berenice Meraz
20/02/2017
Gramatica Comparada