Effect of X-Word Grammar and Traditional Grammar Instruction on Grammatical Accuracy

Science.gov (United States)

Livingston, Sue; Toce, Andi; Casey, Toce; Montoya, Fernando; Hart, Bonny R.; O'Flaherty, Carmela

2018-01-01

This study first briefly describes an instructional approach to teaching grammar known as X-Word Grammar and then compares its effectiveness in assisting students in achieving grammatical accuracy with traditionally taught grammar. Two groups of L2 pre-college students were taught using curricula and practice procedures in two different grammar…

English Grammar for Students of French.

Science.gov (United States)

Morton, Jacqueline

This grammar is a self-study manual intended to aid native speakers of English who are beginning the study of French. It is designed to supplement the French textbook, not to replace it. The common grammatical terms that are necessary for learning to speak and write French are explained in English and illustrated by examples in both French and…

REA's handbook of English grammar, style, and writing

CERN Document Server

REA, The Editors of

1992-01-01

The ability to write and speak correctly and effectively is a prerequisite for doing well in all subjects, including the physical and social sciences, math and the liberal arts. Writing and speaking skills become even more important when seeking a job and trying to succeed in a chosen career. This easy-to-understand, straightforward English handbook does not use the hard-to-understand technical jargon usually found in English grammar books. Instead, this handbook provides hundreds of examples from which it is possible to easily see what is correct and what is incorrect in all areas of English grammar and writing. Learn quickly and easily: 1. Rules and exceptions in grammar, 2. Spelling and proper punctuation, 3. Common errors in sentence structure, 4. 2,000 examples of correct usage, and 5. Effective writing skills. Complete practice exercises with answers follow each chapter.The handbook covers the following in detail: nouns, verbs, adjectives, paragraphs, composition, punctuation, spelling, and much more. A...

Teaching English Grammar Through Communicative Language Teaching Approach

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王玮

2013-01-01

Grammar is an important part of language learning. In order for students to have a functional knowledge of a language (in other words, that they can spontaneously produce language) they must have at least some knowledge about the grammatical con⁃structs of the language in question. How grammar can be taught? Considering various second language teaching methods, teaching grammar through Communicative Language Teaching Approach is the most talked. Emphasis in this article is put on the applica⁃tion of Communicative Language Teaching Approach in grammar teaching in college English classes.

THE IMPLICATION OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS BELIEF ABOUT GRAMMAR TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE POLICY IN INDONESIA

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Cecilia Titiek Murniati

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Recent studies have suggested that teachers beliefs have a significant influence on actual classroom practice and, consequently, on students achievements. However, little research has been done to investigate the influence of Indonesian language policy and teachers beliefs. The study reported seeks to examine the influence of English language policy on pre-service teacher's beliefs about the teaching of English language grammar in Indonesian schools. The research participants were pre-service teachers who have taken the subjects of Structure, Teaching Methods, and Micro-teaching in three public and private universities in Central Java and Yogyakarta Special District. Due to time and scheduling limitations, the sampling method used in this study was convenient sampling. Documentation, survey schedules, interviews, focus group discussions were used to gather the data. The findings revealed that although the language policy in Indonesia has put English language teaching and learning within the framework of communicative competence since the enactment of the 2006 School-based Curriculum, the pre-service teachers still believed that traditional method of teaching grammar (explicit grammar instruction was imperative to use. The pre-service teachers tended to exclude English language policy enacted by Indonesian government in their discussion about teachers beliefs. Instead, the pre-service teachers constructed their beliefs about English language grammar teaching and learning process on their prior experiences in learning and teaching grammar.

DEVELOPING DIGITAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR MATERIALS FOR THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

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Agnes Santi Widiati

2017-04-01

Full Text Available English has become the tool for communication among the people across countries, and schools are competing to provide English for the students as early as possible. There are plenty ready-to-use digital English modules in the market today; however, they are not relevant with the English syllabus of the primary or secondary schools. The teaching is focused on the four skills directed for communication. As such, grammar is not presented as a part of the English lessons; but only when needed to support the four skills. The absence of systematic design of English grammar lesson makes their grammar mastery weak. To fix this, the writers develop grammar materials for the secondary school, specifically for the tenth graders. Young people love working with computers or other kinds of modern gadgets, so the materials developed in this research are in the digital form, both usable by teachers at school and by students independently via the Internet. Based on the needs assessment executed in high schools in Surabaya, Sidoarjo, and Malang, the researchers have obtained the inputs about the grammar topics needed and the types of exercises preferred by the students. Articulate Storyline 2 software is used to develop the materials supported by animation and voice recording. Each module covers the objectives, description, exercises equipped with feedbacks, and quizzes with scores to measure the achievement of the objectives.

An Exploration of the Relationship between Vietnamese Students' Knowledge of L1 Grammar and Their English Grammar Proficiency

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Tammie M.

2010-01-01

The problem. This research study explores an important issue in the field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and second language acquisition (SLA). Its purpose is to examine the relationship between Vietnamese students' L1 grammar knowledge and their English grammar proficiency. Furthermore, it investigates the extent to…

How Should English Grammar Be Taught in Middle Schools By Wang Shikun

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王仕坤

2014-01-01

This paper mainly deals with the idea that whether grammar teaching should be weakened or not ,the importance of grammar teaching,the present situation of grammar and some suggestions on how to teach grammar ,aiming at the improvement of English teaching and learning.

Webster's word power better English grammar improve your written and spoken English

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Kirkpatrick, Betty

2014-01-01

With questions and answer sections throughout, this book helps you to improve your written and spoken English through understanding the structure of the English language. This is a thorough and useful book with all parts of speech and grammar explained. Used by ELT self-study students.

eLearning Mobile App for Android and Ios "English Grammar Learn & Test"

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Anca-Georgiana FODOR

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This article is aiming to present the architecture and few elements from the developing cycle of "English Grammar Learn & Test" app. This is an e-learning tool for people who want to improve their English Grammar and Vocabulary. The app was approved by Google Play and Apple Store and it is available for free on both platforms as following: Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.labsterzz.english_tests iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/english-grammar-learn-test/id1126468980 The app already reached350.000 users, it is rated at 4.43out of maximum 5.0 in Google Play Store. Since mid-June 2016, we launched the app also in the Apple Store iOS devices.

TEACHING GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT: WHY AND HOW?

OpenAIRE

Noor Maulidiyah

2017-01-01

Grammar is an important component of English. Without grammar, it is not possible to communicate meaning successfully. Therefore, teachers and educators have to pay close attention to teaching grammar effectively. Based on the writer‘s experience in teaching grammar using the traditional way, many students still had difficulty in acquiring the grammar points. The grammar meetings were not effective, and the students did not thoroughly understand the grammar exercises. The students seemed bore...

Pre-Service English Teachers’ Beliefs Towards Grammar And Its Teaching At Two Turkish Universities

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İsmail Zeki DİKİCİ

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This paper examines pre-service English teachers’ beliefs towards grammar studying at two Turkish Universities. A total of 90 pre-service English teachers, 57 of whom were studying at Muğla University and 33 of whom were studying at Onsekiz Mart University in Turkey, were involved in this study. The research participants completed two questionnaires. The aim of this paper is to look into pre-service English teachers’ beliefs towards grammar and its teaching as well as their knowledge on the metalanguage of grammar. The findings reveal that although a great majority of the participants favour the use of metalanguage in teaching grammar, and support the deductive grammar teaching practises, they themselves still have serious problems even with the most basic grammatical terminology.

CALL English

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barlach, Else

This multimedia program of English grammar caters specifically for Danish students at Bachelor level. The handbook introduces students to well-established grammatical terminology within the traditional areas of English grammar, and the CD-ROM, which contains about 120 exercises, offers students...

The Effectiveness of Grammar Learning in Impro ving Reading Comprehension of English Majors

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

田晓

2015-01-01

The importance of grammar knowledge has al-ways been neglected in reading comprehension. To help English teachers and learners see the value of grammar analysis, this pa-per, therefore, explores the correlation between grammar and reading comprehension. Forty-four freshmen of English majors were involved in the experiment, completing two tests of grammar and reading comprehension respectively, and it was followed by a personal interview for some exceptional cases after a week. The result of data analysis shows that grammar analysis accompanying with vocabulary, emotion, as well as other factors produce an ef-fect on learners’reading comprehension to a certain degree. It is suggested that language teachers as well as learners therefore should attach importance to learning grammatical knowledge.

A Comparative Study of the Use of Persian vs. English in Teaching English Grammar to Iranian Students in Junior High School

Science.gov (United States)

Mehrseresht, Kowsar; Gowhary, Habib; Azizifar, Akbar

2015-01-01

This study compared the relationship between the use of Persian vs. English in teaching English grammar to Iranian students and their achievement in learning English grammar. The participants of this study include 50 female students from a junior high school in Mehran. The researcher randomly selected 2 groups, one group was taught through the…

Teaching the English active and passive voice with the help of cognitive grammar: An empirical study

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Jakub Bielak

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Functionally-oriented linguistic theories, such as cognitive grammar (CG, offer nuanced descriptions of the meanings and uses of grammatical features. A simplified characterization of the semantics of the English active and passive voice grounded in CG terms and based on the reference point model is presented, as it is the basis of the instructional treatment offered to one of the groups in the quasiexperimental study reported in the paper. The study compares the effects of feature- focused grammatical instruction covering the form and meaning/use of the English voices based on CG with those of teaching based on standard pedagogical grammar rules. The results point to relatively high effectiveness of both instructional options in fostering the use of the target structures in both more controlled and more spontaneous performance, with traditional instruction being more successful than that based on CG with respect to the latter. A possible explanation of this superiority is that the subset of the participants (n = 27 exposed to the traditional explanations found them simple and easy to apply, contrary to the situation in the other group.

The Typical Different Features of Grammar of the British English (BrE and American English (AmE

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I Wayan Dirgeyasa

2016-08-01

Full Text Available There are a number of varieties of English all over the world such as American, British, Australian, Indian, Singaporean, Philippine English, etc. However, there are only two varieties of English which are most widely and dominantly taught, learned, and used both spoken and printed around the world namely British English (BrE and American English (AmE. In real sense, the two are often confusing for the non-native learners because they have some differences and uniqueness in some aspects such as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Therefore, it is really important for students, teachers and speakers as well to be aware of the major differences between the two. This paper is trying to review some striking unique and different features of grammar of British English (BrE and American English (AmE.

Designing a Competence-Based Syllabus for Turkish Speaking Learners of English in Terms of Accessibility to Universal Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Seker, Emrullah

2016-01-01

This study focuses on designing an English grammar syllabus for Turkish speaking English learners, which is based on the assumption that learning English grammar will be simpler and easier for Turkish speaking learners if it is introduced in a way by which they can achieve accessibility to Universal Grammar. In this study, I analyze almost all…

The Application of Communicative Approach toEnglish Grammar Teaching%交际法在英语语法教学中的应用

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

李梅

2008-01-01

How to teach English grammar effectively is an important subject of the comprehensive course for English majors.The Communicative approach must be applied to the English grammar teaching.This paper illustrates the features of communicative grammar teaching and necessity of applying communicative approach to English Grammar Teaching and how to apply communicative approach to English Grammar Teaching.In classroom teaching,a variety of communicative situations should be created without dull teaching;a colorful of classroom activities should be designed;real situation communicative practices should be intensified to make English grammar teaching active and efficient.

Learning English Tenses through Spanish Grammar : When Using the L1 Benefits ESL Learning

OpenAIRE

López Garrido, Ramon

2016-01-01

The current teaching trend of ESL is focused on maximizing the use of the L2 so that the student learns the language through linguistic immersion. This approach leaves the L1 out of the game, even though research has shown it can also be beneficial for the learner. My research intends to demonstrate that translation of English grammar tenses into Spanish can be a helpful way of assimilating English grammar more easily and faster, especially for those students with a poor command of English. ...

Studies in the history of the English language V: variation and change in English grammar and lexicon: contemporary approaches

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cloutier, R.A.; Hamilton-Brehm, A.M.; Kretzschmar, W.A.

2010-01-01

This collection of essays focuses on current approaches to variation and change in historical English grammar and lexicon. Of the twelve papers in the collection, half are based on grammar and syntax, half on lexical developments. The volume highlights the contributions that strong empirical

THE USE OF GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD IN TEACHING ENGLISH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catharina Elmayantie

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This study aims to describe the patterns of Grammar Translation Method (GTM and to know the reasons why the teachers used the method. Descriptive qualitative method was applied. The subjects were two English teachers at the seventh grade of SMP Negeri 1 Palangka Raya. It was used observation and questionnaires to collect the data. The data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing were applied for data analysis. The findings show nine major patterns of GTM applied: (1 The classes were taught mainly in mother tongue; (2 the vocabulary was taught in the form of lists of isolated words; (3 the grammar provided the rules for putting words together; (4 it focused on the form and inflection of words; (5 the reading difficult classical texts were begun early; (6 it was little attention to the content of the texts; (7 the drills were exercises in translating; (8 it was little attention to pronunciation; and (9 it focused on accuracy. Meanwhile, the reasons of the teachers used the method are: (1 It is suitable for the students; (2 it helps the students comprehend the text; (3 it  improves the vacabulary; and (4 by using this method teaching-learning activities work well. Keywords: English subject, grammar translation method, teaching-learning activities

Grammar and Grammaring: Toward Modes for English Grammar Teaching in China

Science.gov (United States)

Nan, Chengyu

2015-01-01

The value of grammar instruction in foreign language learning and teaching has been a focus of debate for quite some time, which has resulted in different views on grammar and grammar teaching as well as different teaching approaches based on different perspectives or in different language learning contexts. To explore some modes for grammar…

Strategies Study On Communicative Awareness-raising Approachof Grammar Teaching for English Majors

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

吴俊芳; 童心

2013-01-01

The traditional grammar teaching method can’t make learners communicate in real contexts accurately and luently.The author will probe the effects of communicative approach applied in grammar teaching in this essay.

English Language Teaching Methods: State of the Art in Grammar Instruction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rusdiana Junaid

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The teaching of grammar has fluctuated and shifted over years. This paper addresses issues such as different ways of teaching grammar, changes in ideas, and practices at the present stage of its development as well as the current state of the art in grammar instruction. Several grammar textbooks which were published in different years also are looked at in order to discover the extent of change in terms of the materials used to teach grammar from time to time. A considerable array of English language teaching methods is available for teacher to utilize since 1980s. Before deciding to employ a particular method, however, educational practitioners need to take several things into consideration such as the objectives of the instruction, the needs, the interests, the expectation, the age, and the level of the learners, and the available supporting facilities. Equally important, the possible constraints such as the environment where the students are learning, the time, and the expectation of the institution are also needed to be considered.

Non-Native English Teachers' Beliefs on Grammar Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Önalan, Okan

2018-01-01

Research on teacher cognition, which mainly focuses on identifying what teachers think, know and believe, is essential to understanding teachers' cognitive framework as it relates to the instructional choices they make. The aim of this study is to find out the beliefs of non-native speaker teachers of English on grammar instruction and to explain…

A Comparative Study on Beliefs of Grammar Teaching between High School English Teachers and Students in China

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Fangfang; Lin, Yuewu

2016-01-01

Grammar is "a system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence" (Brown 1994) which can facilitate the acquisition of a foreign language and is conducive for cultivating comprehensive language competence. Most teachers regard grammar as a frame of English learning. The grammar teaching beliefs…

May I quote you on that? a guide to grammar and usage

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Spector, Stephen

2015-01-01

We all use language in different ways, depending on the situations we find ourselves in. In formal contexts we are usually expected to use a formal level of Standard English-the English codified in grammars, usage guides, and dictionaries. In May I Quote You on That? Stephen Spector offers a new approach to learning Standard English grammar and usage. The product of Spector's forty years of teaching courses on the English language, this book makes the conventions of formal writing and speech easier and more enjoyable to learn than traditional approaches usually do. Each lesson begins with humo

The English Definite Article: What ESL/EFL Grammars Say and What Corpus Findings Show

Science.gov (United States)

WonHo Yoo, Isaiah

2009-01-01

To ascertain whether what ESL/EFL grammars say is informed by what scholars discuss in the literature and supported by what corpus findings actually show, this paper first presents a brief overview of the literature on the English definite article and then compares popular ESL/EFL grammars' coverage of "the" and corpus findings on definite article…

Teaching English tense and aspect with the help of cognitive grammar: An empirical study

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Jakub Bielak

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Form-focused instruction is usually based on traditional practical/pedagogical grammar descriptions of grammatical features. The comparison of such traditional accounts with cognitive grammar (CG descriptions seems to favor CG as a basis of pedagogical rules. This is due to the insistence of CG on the meaningfulness of grammar and its detailed analyses of the meanings of particular grammatical features. The differences between traditional and CG rules/descriptions are exemplified by juxtaposing the two kinds of principles concerning the use of the present simple and present progressive to refer to situations happening or existing at speech time. The descriptions provided the bases for the instructional treatment in a quasi-experimental study exploring the effectiveness of using CG descriptions of the two tenses, and of their interplay with stative (imperfective and dynamic (perfective verbs, and comparing this effectiveness with the value of grammar teaching relying on traditional accounts found in standard pedagogical grammars. The study involved 50 participants divided into three groups, with one of them constituting the control group and the other two being experimental ones. One of the latter received treatment based on CG descriptions and the other on traditional accounts. CG-based instruction was found to be at least moderately effective in terms of fostering mostly explicit grammatical knowledge and its effectiveness turned out be comparable to that of teaching based on traditional descriptions.

How to Learn English Grammar?

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

肖琳燃

2017-01-01

Grammar is an aspect of language about which learners have different opinions. Some learners are very interested in ifnding out or learning grammar rules and doing lots of grammar exercises. Others hate grammar and think it is the most boring part of learning a new language. Whatever opinion you have, however, you cannot escape from grammar; it is in every sentence you read or write, speak or hear. Grammar is simply the word for the rules that people follow when they use a language. We need those rules in the same way as we need the rules in a game. If there are no rules, or if everybody follows their own rules, the game would soon break down. It's the same with language; without rules we would not be able to communicate with other people. So you cannot escape from grammar, but the key question here is: what is the best way to learn grammar? You can learn the rules of a game by simply playing the game. You will certainly make mistakes; you may even get hurt. Eventually, however, you will know how to play. Of course, the rules of a language are very much more complicated than the rules of any game, but in fact this is exactly how you learned your own language. Nobody taught you the rules of your mother tongue as you were growing up but now you never make a grammar mistake.

Essential French grammar

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Thacker, Mike

2014-01-01

Essential French Grammar is an innovative reference grammar and workbook for intermediate and advanced undergraduate students of French (CEFR levels B2 to C1). Its clear explanations of grammar are supported by contemporary examples and lively cartoon drawings.  Each chapter contains: * real-life language examples in French, with English translations * a 'key points' box and tables that summarise grammar concepts * a variety of exercises to reinforce learning * a contemporary primary source or literary extract to illustrate grammar in context. To aid your understanding, this book also contains a glossary of grammatical terms in French and English, useful verb tables and a key to the exercises. Together, these features all help you to grasp complex points of grammar and develop your French language skills.

Grammar-translation and CLT in L2 Grammar Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

缪杉莎

2013-01-01

This paper puts forward to compare teaching method between grammar-translation and CLT in grammar teaching. Gram⁃mar leaning is a basic concept in English learning as grammar is an important element in a communicative approach to language. This paper discussed CLT method can help and encourage student to study, however, grammar-translation method is able to under⁃stand.

Importance of Grammar in English Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

赵天毓

2011-01-01

Grammar teaching is one of the most difficult and important points in the middle school. However, there exist some problems with present grammar teaching, such as students＇ poor knowledge of grammar, improper teaching methods and the ignorance of grammar

Teachers’ Attitudes towards Teaching English Grammar: A Scale Development Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Murat Polat

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In most ELT classes, the importance of grammar, how it should be taught or how much it should be integrated into language teaching are still matters of discussion. Considering this fact, learning teachers’ attitudes towards teaching grammar is significantly valuable for researchers. This study thus aimed to design a scale that identifies teachers’ attitudes towards the role of grammar in the process of teaching English, to pilot it, and to find out the psychometric qualities like reliability and validity of the scale designed. The scale was developed in two phases; it was first aimed to explore the factor structure of the scale, then to confirm the structure gained from the exploration of the items. The study was carried out in 2015 and 247 volunteer language teachers from 3 state universities in Eskişehir and Kütahya were included. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the scale developed in this study was a considerably valid and reliable data collection tool including three factors. Finally, the analyses indicated that gender and graduate faculties did not create significant differences whereas age and the degrees obtained by the teachers created a considerable difference on language teachers’ attitudes towards grammar teaching (p<.05

SERIOUS GRAMMAR CAN BE FUN

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

1996-01-01

IntroductionToday many Chinese students think of English grammar as an unpopular and difficult part of theirEnglish lessons Even more worryingly,that attitude is one they have usually picked up from theirteachers.Namely,grammar seems to be hard work for EFL teachers and students.So should grammarteaching be abolishedWhy do many teachers and students take a negative attitude toward grammarInthis paper,first,I will attempt to discuss the place of grammar in EFL teaching.Next,I will outline thetraditional methods of grammar teaching and the results of this kind of grammar teaching.Finally,I willput forward some suggestions on how to make grammar teaching more interesting in Chinese classrooms.

Researches on Problems in College Students'Grammar Learning and Countermeasures%Researches on Problems in College Students' Grammar Learning and Countermeasures

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

廖芳

2016-01-01

Grammar is the guiding rules of language, and a good mastery of grammar is the basis of English learning. This paper starts from the problems in college students' current grammar learning and put forwards some strategies to improve their English grammar.

GRAMMAR IN TEFL: A CRITIQUE OF INDONESIAN HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS

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Peter Collins

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The aim of this paper is to critically assess the presentation of English grammar in textbooks used in secondary schools in Indonesia. The influence of the Communicative Approach is in evidence in the books examined, and yet the importance of explicit grammar instruction is not ignored, reflecting the view of many today that grammatical forms cannot be successfully learnt merely on the basis of comprehensible input. Despite recognition of its central role, the grammar instruction presented in the textbooks invites questions as to its linguistic adequacy and accuracy. Writers often seem unwilling to take on board the insights recorded in the influential and authoritative descriptive grammars of recent years, continuing to accept tacitly the principles exposed in Traditional Grammar.

Grammar Coding in the "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English."

Science.gov (United States)

Wekker, Herman

1992-01-01

Focuses on the revised system of grammar coding for verbs in the fourth edition of the "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English" (OALD4), comparing it with two other similar dictionaries. It is shown that the OALD4 is found to be more favorable on many criteria than the other comparable dictionaries. (16 references) (VWL)

The Practice of "Grammar Naziness" on Facebook in Relation to Generating Grammar Learning: A Motivation or Demotivation in Updating Statuses in English on Facebook

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Noraziah Mohd; Abdul Rahman, Noor Azam; Sharipudin, Mohamad-Noor; Abu Bakar, Mohd Saifulnizam

2016-01-01

It is common for learners of English to make grammatical errors in their English Facebook posts that can be noticeable on their walls, which this perhaps as a result, influences the other Facebook users who know about the language to perform the unofficial duty as grammar Nazis and correct the errors. Thus, this research aims to examine if Malay…

Essential grammar for today's writers, students, and teachers

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Sullivan, Nancy

2014-01-01

This innovative grammar text is an ideal resource for writers, language students, and current and future classroom teachers who need an accessible "refresher" in a step-by-step guide to essential grammar. Rather than becoming mired in overly detailed linguistic definitions, Nancy Sullivan helps writers and students understand and apply grammatical concepts and develop the skills they need to enhance their own writing. Along with engaging discussions of both contemporary and traditional terminology, Sullivan's text provides clear explanations of the basics of English grammar and a highly practical, hands-on approach to mastering the use of language. Complementing the focus on constructing excellent sentences, every example and exercise set is contextually grounded in language themes. Teachers, students, and writers will appreciate the streamlined, easy-to-understand coverage of essential grammar, as well as the affordable price. This is an ideal textbook for future teachers enrolled in an upper-level grammar c...

A Survey of Grammar Instruction from Scholastic Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Yanghua

2017-01-01

The study of grammar has been paid much attention and the grammar instruction becomes an emphasis and key problem in English language teaching and learning. How to instruct students grammar appropriately becomes controversial for some English teachers increasingly. Some linguistics, theorists and teachers hold that the grammar instruction should…

Does Teaching Grammar Really Hinder Students＇ Speaking Abilities？

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Kazumi Araki

2015-01-01

In the history of formal English education in Japan, grammar used to be the mainstream. In the secondary education system, teachers used to spend many hours teaching grammar to the students. However, it has been replaced by the aural/oral method of teaching a foreign language. There was even a remark that teaching grammar hinders students from communicating fluently. Literally, there was a time when grammar was set aside in formal English education. However, the author noticed that in grammar classes, the students speak English more loudly and confidently without much hesitation than in other types of English classes. One of the reasons is that they are not worried about the contents of the speeches. They are simply concentrating on the forms. They are not afraid of making major mistakes, and the errors they make are minor so they do not feel embarrassed in public. The atmosphere of the grammar classes is very positive and the students enjoy speaking English. In this paper, the author shows how grammar classes can contribute to the acquisition of the students＇ speaking abilities and manners. ＂Learning grammar was a precious experience＂, one student reported after the course.

Reframing the English Grammar Schools Debate

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Rebecca; Perry, Thomas

2017-01-01

In October 2015 the Department for Education (DfE) permitted a grammar school in Tonbridge, Kent, to open up an annexe in Sevenoaks, 10 miles away. Amidst claims that the annexe was essentially a new grammar school, the decision reignited an old debate about the value of academically-selective "grammar" schools in England. The intensity…

Establishing a Comprehensive English Teaching Pattern Combining the Communicative Teaching Method and the Grammar-Translation Method

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Na

2011-01-01

Based on the current contradiction between the grammar-translation method and the communicative teaching method in English teaching, this paper, starting with clarifying the task of comprehensive English as well as the definition of the two teaching methods, objectively analyzes their advantages and disadvantages and proposes establishing a new…

Natural language computing an English generative grammar in Prolog

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Dougherty, Ray C

2013-01-01

This book's main goal is to show readers how to use the linguistic theory of Noam Chomsky, called Universal Grammar, to represent English, French, and German on a computer using the Prolog computer language. In so doing, it presents a follow-the-dots approach to natural language processing, linguistic theory, artificial intelligence, and expert systems. The basic idea is to introduce meaningful answers to significant problems involved in representing human language data on a computer. The book offers a hands-on approach to anyone who wishes to gain a perspective on natural language

English grammar in use a self-study reference and practice book for intermediate learners of English : with answers and CD-ROM

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Murphy, Raymond

2012-01-01

English Grammar in Use Fourth edition is an updated version of the world's best-selling grammar title. It has a fresh, appealing new design and clear layout, with revised and updated examples, but retains all the key features of clarity and accessibility that have made the book popular with millions of learners and teachers around the world. The CD-ROM contains lots of additional practice exercises to consolidate learning, ideal for self-study but also suitable for reinforcement work in the classroom. An online version and book without answers are available separately.

Teaching grammar, structure and meaning exploring theory and practice for post-16 English language teachers

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Giovanelli, Marcello

2014-01-01

Teaching Grammar, Structure and Meaning introduces teachers to some basic ideas from the increasingly popular field of cognitive linguistics as a way of explaining and teaching key grammatical concepts. Particularly suitable for those teaching post-16 English Language, this book offers a methodology for teaching key aspects of linguistic form and an extensive set of learning activities. Written by an experienced linguist and teacher, this book contains:· an evaluation of current approaches to the teaching of grammar and linguistic form· a revised pedagogy based on principles from cognitive sci

The Effectiveness of Using Brainstorming Strategy in the Development of Academic Achievement of Sixth Grade Students in English Grammar at Public Schools in Jordan

Science.gov (United States)

Malkawi, Nibal Abdelkarim Mousa; Smadi, Mona

2018-01-01

The study aims to identify the effect of using brainstorming method in the teaching of English grammar; to improve the level of sixth grade students in English grammar at public schools in Jordan. The study population consisted of all sixth grade students of both sexes. The sample of the study was chosen in the random stratified manner,…

The Importance of English Grammar Teaching at College

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孙丽伟

2012-01-01

This paper attempts to elaborate the importance of grammar teaching at college through the four linguistic skills: listening, speaking, reading,and writing.The nature of grammar determines the significance of grammar teaching. This paper shows the importance of grammar teaching from its relationship with listening,speaking,reading and writing.

An Investigation of Pre-Service English Language Teacher Attitudes towards Varieties of English in Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Litzenberg, Jason

2013-01-01

English has become the default language of global communication, and users around the world are adapting the traditional standards of grammar and interaction. It is imperative that teachers of English keep pace with these changing conceptualizations of the language as well as the changing expectations of its users so that they can best prepare…

Pre-Service English as a Foreign Language Teachers' Belief Development about Grammar Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Çapan, Seyit Ahmet

2014-01-01

This study aims to investigate pre-service English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' beliefs about grammar instruction in a foreign language (FL) context through their initial teaching practices. Analyses of semi-structured interviews and classroom observations apart from pre-and post-test results of participants' responses to a belief…

Modern vs. Traditional.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhenhui, Rao

1999-01-01

This article discusses traditional methods, such as the grammar-translation, and modern methods, the communicative approach, for teaching English-as-a-foreign-language in China. The relationship between linguistic accuracy and communicative competence, student-centered orientation, and the role of the teacher are highlighted. (Author/VWL)

A Brief Survey of Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈福生

1984-01-01

@@ There are two kinds of grammar, prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar. The prescriptive grammar gives orders how a language ought to be used rather than simply describing how it is used.This type of grammar lays down a lot of rules for the student to follow but the gifted philologist Edward Sapir points out that all grammatical rules leak. This type of grammar also warns the student against what are called ‘Shall-nots', but these ‘Shall-nots' are more likely to cause the student muchconcern rather than helping him to exprese his ideas in English. On the contrary, the descriptive grammar just describes how a language is used.

Snowball Throwing in Teaching Grammar

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Yanuarti Apsari

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The aims of this study are to describe the implementation of snowball throwing in teaching grammar and to investigate the benefits of applying snowball throwing. The research was conducted at STKIP Siliwangi Bandung. This study applied qualitative research involving one class consisting of second semester students in English Department who were taking the subject of foundation of English Grammar. The data were obtained from classroom observation and students’ interview. The findings showed that there are seven stages in implementing snowball throwing in teaching grammar. The stages consist of preparing teaching material, forming group, re-explaining the material to the member of the group, formulating question, tossing the ball, answering questions and evaluating teaching and learning process. In addition, the findings also revealed that there are some benefits from applying snowball throwing in teaching grammar such as improving students’ comprehension in learning grammar, creating enjoyable learning atmosphere, increasing students’ vocabulary, developing students’ speaking skill, developing students’ cooperation skill and increasing students’ participation in the class.

The development of English grammar and reading comprehension by majority and minority language children in a bilingual primary school

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Anja K. Steinlen

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Both for the first language (L1 and for all additional languages (L2 or L3, grammatical knowledge plays a vital role in understanding texts (e.g., Grabe, 2005. However, little is known about the development and interaction of grammar and reading comprehension in beginning foreign language learning, especially with respect to children with a minority language background. This longitudinal study, therefore, examined minority and majority language children’s English grammar and reading comprehension skills. The children attended a German-English partial immersion primary school and were tested at the end of Grades 3 and 4. As expected, we found grammar to affect reading comprehension but also reverse effects. Most importantly, the results did not reveal any differences between the two language groups, irrespective of the test. Therefore, immersion primary school programs seem to be suitable for minority language children, and these children do not automatically represent an at-risk group for foreign language learning.

TEACHING GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT: WHY AND HOW?

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Noor Maulidiyah

2017-04-01

Then the paper explains the concept of context in teaching grammar and describes the reasons for teaching grammar in context. The last part of the paper demonstrates how grammar is taught in context. These sample lessons are taken from different sources based on experts when teaching grammar in context.Teaching grammar in context is more useful and can help the students to master English better.

Enhancing Competency in English: The Covert Approach a Complementary to the Overt Approach in Teaching Grammar

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Hussein Islam Abdullah

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Over the years, there has been a decline in the competency of the English Language in Malaysian schools. Many parties among them the Ministry of Education, relevant NGOs, academicians and people have expressed concern over the matter. The Education Ministry through its transformational policy has taken several measures to overcome the matter. It is employing appropriate strategies to solve the problems. The focus is on learning and teaching strategies as well as the content of the language. There is no doubt that grammar is a very important component in acquiring the language in primary and secondary schools. The English teachers mostly use the communicative approach in teaching grammar. This is in line with the KBSR syllabus in mid 1980s which emphasized on the communicative method. Teachers’ training and materials such as textbooks cater for the covert method. However, some tend to ignore the structural approach which is equally effective and meaningful to increase the level of the students’ proficiency which was popular in the 1960s. The paper discusses on the two different approaches used – the covert and overt approaches – their strengths as well as weaknesses. Application of both approaches is also taken into consideration giving a better view of how grammar should be taught in schools.

Teaching Children Foreign-Language Grammar: Are Authentic Materials Appropriate?

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Olga Malova

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The paper discusses authentic materials as a resource for teaching grammar to young learners. Difficulties in foreign-language grammar learning for Russian pupils are presented, and typical challenges are described. The paper provides a pre-/post-intervention study of the development of children’s grammar skills. The research question is, “How does one use authentic materials for teaching grammar in an English as a foreign language (EFL classroom?” A qualitative method is used to assess the learning outcomes of using authentic materials in teaching grammar to eight–nine-year-old pupils (the second year of studying English.

A brief analysis of the necessity of grammar teaching in CLT

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胡晓; 王榛

2017-01-01

Grammar teaching is the important component of communicative language teaching, and also the teaching content of communicative approach. This study is going to analyze the status of English grammar learning, the theoretical basis of CLT, and some difficulties with regard to grammar education in China, while discussing teachers might try to adjust the current grammar approach in communicative English teaching.

Grammar in Context using Comprehended Input

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Mariam Mohamed Nor

2014-03-01

Full Text Available There have been so many ongoing disputes on different approaches to teaching grammar. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching grammar using Gass comprehended Input technique (GCI (1997 (implicit and to explore the undergraduates’ perception on the GCI technique. The respondents consisted of 30 undergraduates’ who are currently pursuing their Bachelor of English. Using the qualitative method, the research instrument was a set of 23- item interview and content analysis of the students’ written work. Results showed that the teaching of grammar using explicit instructions was more preferred than implicit instruction for complex components in grammatical rules. However, implicit instruction is equally effective regardless of the proficiency levels to enable pedagogy to be executed. It is also noted that there is lots of room for improvement, since the undergraduates have a weak grasp of the basic tense aspect of English grammar. Therefore, the Malaysian Ministry of Education should consider having grammar formally taught in isolation as what was practised previously.

A Communicative Approach to College English Grammar Teaching and Learning

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LI Yong-xian

2016-01-01

In response to the misconception that Communicative Language Teaching means no teaching of grammar, it is argued that grammar is as important as traffic rules for safe and smooth traffic on the road. To achieve appropriate and effective commu-nication, a communicative approach to college grammar teaching and learning is proposed. Both teachers and learners should change their attitudes toward and conceptions about grammar teaching and learning;additionally, teaching grammar in the com-pany of reading and writing helps learners learn and acquire grammar in meaningful contexts.

French grammar for dummies

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Mazet, Veronique

2013-01-01

The easy way to master French grammar French Grammar For Dummies is a logical extension and complement to the successful language learning book, French For Dummies. In plain English, it teaches you the grammatical rules of the French language, including parts of speech, sentence construction, pronouns, adjectives, punctuation, stress and verb tenses, and moods. Throughout the book, you get plenty of practice opportunities to help you on your goal of mastering basic French grammar and usage. Grasp the grammatical rules of French including parts of speech, sentenc

Probe into Methods of Teaching English Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

刘春华

2011-01-01

@@ 1 Definition of grammar People sometlmes descibe grammaras the "rules" of a language, to be accurate,grammar is the science dealing with thesystematic rules of a language,its forms,inflections,syntax,and the rules of usingthem correctly.It is summarized from lan-guage use and practice,and reflects thelogic of thinking in people's speech orwriting.

Some Key Principles for Developing Grammar Skills

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张威

2008-01-01

Grammar is sometimes defined aft"the way words are put together to make correct sentences"(Ur,2004,P.75).The aim of teaching grammar is to raise the rates of the correctness of language use and help the students transfer the isolated language points to apply language.In this essay，the author introduces two kinds of Conlnlon methods in English grammar class. And there are some key principles in grammar teaching.

Phonology without universal grammar.

Science.gov (United States)

Archangeli, Diana; Pulleyblank, Douglas

2015-01-01

The question of identifying the properties of language that are specific human linguistic abilities, i.e., Universal Grammar, lies at the center of linguistic research. This paper argues for a largely Emergent Grammar in phonology, taking as the starting point that memory, categorization, attention to frequency, and the creation of symbolic systems are all nonlinguistic characteristics of the human mind. The articulation patterns of American English rhotics illustrate categorization and systems; the distribution of vowels in Bantu vowel harmony uses frequencies of particular sequences to argue against Universal Grammar and in favor of Emergent Grammar; prefix allomorphy in Esimbi illustrates the Emergent symbolic system integrating phonological and morphological generalizations. The Esimbi case has been treated as an example of phonological opacity in a Universal Grammar account; the Emergent analysis resolves the pattern without opacity concerns.

RAISING YOUNG LEARNERS‟ AWARENESS OF GRAMMAR THROUGH CREATIVE LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES

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C. Murni Wahyanti

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Current developments in foreign language teaching have shown the need to reconsider the role of grammar. It is argued that grammar understanding can promote more precise use of the foreign language. This belief has led to an increased interest in grammar teaching, including grammar teaching for young learners. In teaching English to young learners, activities that can promote grammar awareness are needed. The activities should be presented in context to make sure that the meaning is clear. The activities should also be creatively designed in order to challenge students‘ motivation and involvement. Grammar activities presented creatively in meaningful contexts are useful for noticing the language patterns. This paper focuses on the changing status of grammar, the importance of grammar in the young learner classroom, and how to raise grammar awareness through creative language activities. It also reports the result of a small-scale study on implementing grammarawareness activities for teaching English to Elementary School students.

Triumph through Texting: Restoring Learners' Interest in Grammar

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Hedjazi Moghari, Mona; Marandi, S. Susan

2017-01-01

It is usually the case that learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) are exposed to language materials in class only, and of course in such a short space of time, they do not always find enough chance to practice English grammar features and become aware of their grammar mistakes. As a potential solution to this problem, the current study…

HIGHER ORDER THINKING IN TEACHING GRAMMAR

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Citra Dewi

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper discussed about how to enhance students’ higher order thinking that should be done by teacher in teaching grammar. Usually teaching grammar was boring and has the same way to learn like change the pattern of sentence into positive, negative and introgative while the students’ need more various way to develop their thinking. The outcome of students’ competence in grammar sometimes not sufficient enough when the students’ occured some test international standart like Test of English Foreign Language, International English Language Testing. Whereas in TOEFL test it needed higher order thinking answer, so teacher should develop students’ higher order thingking in daily teaching grammar in order to make the students’ enhance their thinking are higher. The method was used in this paper by using field study based on the experience of teaching grammar. It can be shown by students’ toefl score was less in stucture and written expression. The result of this paper was after teacher gave some treatments to enhance students’ higher order thinking in teaching grammar, the students’ toefl scores are sufficient enough as a part of stucture and written expression. It can concluded that it needed some strategies to enhancce students higher order thinking by teaching grammar it can make students’ higher toefl score. Teachers should be creative and inovative to teach the students’ started from giving the students’ question or test in teaching grammar.

Using a Linguistic Theory of Humour in Teaching English Grammar

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Abdulmajeed, Rufaidah Kamal; Hameed, Sarab Khalil

2017-01-01

Teachers who teach a new language grammar do not usually have the time and the proper situation to introduce humour when starting a new topic in grammar. There are many different opinions about teaching grammar. Many teachers seem to believe in the importance of grammar lessons devoted to a study of language rules and practical exercises. Other…

Teachers' Perceptions about Grammar Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Thu, Tran Hoang

2009-01-01

This study investigates English as a second language (ESL) teachers' beliefs in grammar teaching. A 32-item questionnaire was administered to 11 ESL teachers in a language school in California. The results show that the participants generally believe that the formal study of grammar is essential to the eventual mastery of a foreign or second…

Grammar Teaching in Chinese Tertiary Education

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LAN Hui-hui

2016-01-01

Grammar teaching, as one essential aspect of English language teaching (ELT), has been and continues to be an area of some controversy and debates, which entails the emergency of diverse classroom practices for language teachers:Focus on Form or Focus on FormS. Connected with the specific context of grammar teaching in Chinese higher education, this paper tends to re-consider the place of grammar teaching in the classroom, and come up with some feasible approaches to instructing grammar so as to make appropriate connections between grammatical forms and the meanings.

Learn Grammar in Games

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孟静

2007-01-01

Grammar learning has often been regarded as a structure based activity .Grammar games which are worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom can help learner to learn and recall a grammar material in a pleasant, entertaining way and motivate learners,promote the communicative competence and generate the fluency. In this essay, the author compares the use of games in learning grammar with some traditional techniques for grammar presentation and revision, in order to find the advantages of using games. Also the author discusses how to choose appropriate games and when to use games.

Missionary Pragmalinguistics: Father Diego Luis de Sanvitores’ grammar within the tradition of Philippine grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Winkler, A.P.

2016-01-01

The grammar written in Latin, in 1668, by the Jesuit missionary Father Diego Luis de Sanvitores (1627-1672) is the oldest description we have of Chamorro, a language spoken on the Mariana islands. The grammar received a number of bad reviews and as a consequence has become neglected and almost

Grammar and vocabulary for First and First for schools with answers

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Thomas, Barbara; Matthews, Laura

2015-01-01

Grammar and Vocabulary reference and practice for the revised Cambridge English: First (FCE) and Cambridge English: First (FCE) for Schools from 2015 Cambridge Grammar and Vocabulary for First and First for Schools provides complete coverage of the grammar and vocabulary needed for the Cambridge First exams, and develops listening skills at the same time. It includes the full range of First and First for Schools exam tasks from the Reading and Use of English, Writing and Listening papers, and contains helpful grammar explanations. This edition is updated for the new exam to be introduced from 2015. It is informed by the Cambridge Learner Corpus to ensure that the language tackles real learner errors. The accompanying listening material is available online for download.

Motivating and Supporting English Language Learners with the Poems of William Carlos Williams

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Bruce

2010-01-01

Poems offer a compact and highly expressive alternative to traditional prose and lengthy written texts typically used in middle grades classrooms. The author describes how ESL teachers can use poetry to introduce English vocabulary and grammar to English language learners and help their students develop writing skills.

Teachers'Perceptions of Teaching Grammar in Young Learners'Classroom%Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching Grammar in Young Learners' Classroom

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余媛

2016-01-01

The present essay studies the role of grammar in young learners' classroom, perceived by the English teachers in China. The study gives a detailed description of what the role of grammar is like in young learners' classroom, by interviewing primary school teachers both from a city in a developed coastal city and a less developed city in central China. It highlights the differences in the perceptions of teachers on the prominence of grammar in their classes. These differences may indicate regional disparity and potential factors for teachers' teaching approaches to grammar instruction.

Functional and cognitive grammars

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Anna Siewierska

2011-01-01

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the functional approach and cognitive approach to the nature of language and its relation to other aspects of human cognition. The paper starts with a brief discussion of the origins and the core tenets of the two approaches in Section 1. Section 2 discusses the similarities and differences between the three full-fledged structural functional grammars subsumed in the functional approach： Halliday＇s Systemic Functional Grammar （SFG）, Dik＇s Functional Grammar （FG）, and Van Valin＇s Role and Reference Grammar （RRG）. Section 3 deals with the major features of the three cognitive frameworks： Langacker＇s Cognitive Grammar （CG）, Goldberg＇s Cognitive Construction Grammar （CCG）, and Croft＇s Radical Construction Grammar （RCG）. Section 4 compares the two approaches and attempts to provide a unified functional-cognitive grammar. In the last section, the author concludes the paper with remarks on the unidirectional shift from functional grammar to cognitive grammar that may indicate a reinterpretation of the traditional relationship between functional and cognitive models of grammar.

Designing an Intelligent Mobile Learning Tool for Grammar Learning (i-MoL

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Munir Shuib

2015-01-01

Full Text Available English is the most important second language in most non-English speaking countries, including Malaysia. A good English proficiency comes from good grasp of grammar. To conquer the problems of low English proficiency among Malaysians, it is important to identify the key motivators that could facilitate the process of grammar learning. In this digital age, technology can play a very important role and mobile technology could be one of it. Thus, this study aims at designing a mobile learning tool, namely the Intelligent Mobile Learning Tool for Grammar Learning (i-MoL to act as the “on-the-go” grammar learning support via mobile phones. i-MoL helps reinforce grammar learning through mobile phone with game-like applications, inquiry-based activities and flashcard-like information. The intelligent part of i-MoL lies in its ability to map the mobile-based grammar learning content to individual’s preferred learning styles based on Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM. The instructional system design through the ADDIE model was used in this study as a systematic approach in designing a novel and comprehensive mobile learning tool for grammar learning. In terms of implications, this study provides insights on how mobile technologies can be utilized to meet the mobility demand among language learners today.

Studying Grammar in the Technological Age

Science.gov (United States)

Ediger, Marlow

2012-01-01

When being a student in grade school as well as in high school (1934-1946), grammar was heavily emphasized in English/language arts classes, particularly in grades four through the senior year in high school. Evidently, teachers and school administrators then saw a theoretical way to assist pupils in writing achievement. Grammar and writing were…

DEVELOPING A SOUND POLICY FOR THE TREATMENT OF GRAMMAR

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2001-01-01

Should grammar be taught at all?Is it a hindrance or anaid?Communicative language teaching approach seems to havecast doubts on the value of grammar teaching.The present paperargues that the positive effect of grammar in College Englishteaching and learning should not be overlooked.Grammar servesas a means to the final achievement of language proficiency.Itis time for language teachers to reconsider the role of grammarand to come up with a more appropriate and thus,moreeffective treatment of grammar in College English teaching.

Spoken Grammar and Its Role in the English Language Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Hilliard, Amanda

2014-01-01

This article addresses key issues and considerations for teachers wanting to incorporate spoken grammar activities into their own teaching and also focuses on six common features of spoken grammar, with practical activities and suggestions for teaching them in the language classroom. The hope is that this discussion of spoken grammar and its place…

The History of Modern Chinese Grammar Studies

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Peverelli, P.J.

2015-01-01

This book discusses the way Chinese scholars developed a national grammar. Chinese didnt develop grammar until Chinas contact with Western grammar books in the 19th Century. The first indigenous grammar was published in 1889. It included some traditional notions, but mainly imitated European

English Grammar Problems Seen in the Original Articles Submitted for Publication in Annals of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Karachi Medical and Dental College.

Science.gov (United States)

Aziz, Sina; Kashif, Mehwash; Aijaz, Maaziya

2016-08-01

To find out the frequency and type of English Grammar problems in original articles, submitted for publication in Annals of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi. Across-sectional study. Department of Annals of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Karachi Medical and Dental College in January 2015. The study evaluated 28 original research articles, published in Annals of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Karachi Medical and Dental College during January 2013 to December 2014, for the English language mistakes in the manuscripts. The researchers evaluated English grammar problems in the manuscripts and recorded the details on a predesigned proforma. The data was analysed on SPSS version 19.0. The categorical variables were computed as percentage. It has been observed that all the manuscripts evaluated for English grammar mistakes, demonstrated language mistakes. The mean of mistakes in June 2014 was 14.6 ±2.26, while for December 2014 is 20.5 ±4.76. The mean for the year 2013 issues was 1 ±6.18 for June issue and 13.3 ±3.0 for December issue, respectively. The number of mistakes identified in the manuscripts in descending order included punctuation marks, use of inappropriate tense and voice, use of articles (a, an, the), use of prepositions, wordiness (excessive words), long sentences, spelling mistakes, flow of thought process, incomplete sentences, and frequent use of abbreviations. Alarge number of manuscripts revealed inappropriate use of punctuation marks followed by tenses, active and passive voices.

Reading and Grammar Learning through Mobile Phones

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shudong; Smith, Simon

2013-01-01

This paper describes an ongoing language-learning project, three years into its development. We examine both the feasibility and the limitations of developing English reading and grammar skills through the interface of mobile phones. Throughout the project, reading and grammar materials were regularly sent to students' mobile phones. Students read…

Language Practice with Multimedia Supported Web-Based Grammar Revision Material

Science.gov (United States)

Baturay, Meltem Huri; Daloglu, Aysegul; Yildirim, Soner

2010-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of elementary-level English language learners towards web-based, multimedia-annotated grammar learning. WEBGRAM, a system designed to provide supplementary web-based grammar revision material, uses audio-visual aids to enrich the contextual presentation of grammar and allows learners to…

Bits of Experience in the Oral Practice of Teaching Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王敏

2002-01-01

English learners may have such experience that most of them can't be able to speak English apropriately and fluently even if they have gained a lot of grammar knowledge. The approach of teaching grammar discussed in this paper focuses on training students' communicative ability. And it is benefical to stimulating the activeness and interest of students and fostering the ability to solve the problems independently.

REEP Grammar Favorites.

Science.gov (United States)

Arlington County Public Schools, VA. REEP, Arlington Education and Employment Program.

This document provides the Arlington Education and Employment Program's (REEP) favorite techniques for teaching English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) grammar. The focus, levels, and materials needed are presented for each of the techniques as well as the steps to follow. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (Author/VWL)

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TO EXPLICIT GRAMMAR TEACHING AND ITS RELATIONAHIP TO COMMUNICATION

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2000-01-01

Grammar teaching is greatly emphasised in English language teaching in China, but does it really attain the goal the students desire? An investigation was made with overseas students about their attitudes to explicit grammar teaching. The investigation reveals that grammar teaching should focus on developing the learners’ communicative ability more than presenting and explaining grammatical rules.

Teachers’ Beliefs versus Learners’ Beliefs in Grammar Teaching: Harmonizing Teaching and Learning for Adult Learners’ Improved Proficiency in English

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Iftikhar Ahmad

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The study tends to explore the possible reforms to raise the proficiency level of the adult English as Foreign Language (EFL learners. With this end in view, it investigates non-native EFL teachers’ beliefs in relation to adult learners’ beliefs in teaching grammar to university students in the Saudi Arabian EFL context. It finds out the harmony and disharmony between the teachers at the giving end and the taught at the receiving end to create a culture of awareness and to build a better teaching-learning environment. The study tries to fill the existing research gap as no previous research has tried to find out the solution to the problem from this angle. The main data collection tools are two five-point Likert-scale questionnaires, administered to 70 non-native EFL teachers and their 80 adult students. Teachers and learners have been selected based on stratified random sampling. Quantitative data have been analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS. The major findings of the study are that there is discrepancy in the grammar teaching beliefs of the EFL teachers and the taught and there is a communication gap between them which result into low English proficiency level of the EFL adult learners.  Eventually, pedagogical implications of the lack of harmony between the teachers’ teaching creeds and the learners’ learning demands/expectations are provided for effective grammar teaching and better EFL classroom environment. The study recommends a better communicative harmony in both the stakeholders to bring reforms in adult education in EFL context.

John Ash and the Rise of the Children's Grammar

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Navest, Karlijn Marianne

2011-01-01

From the second half of the eighteenth century onwards a knowledge of grammar served as an important marker of class in England. In order to enable their children to rise in society, middle-class parents expected their sons and daughters to learn English grammar. Since England did not have an

Missionary Pragmalinguistics: Father Diego Luis de Sanvitores’ grammar (1668) within the tradition of Philippine grammars

OpenAIRE

Winkler, A.P.

2016-01-01

The grammar written in Latin, in 1668, by the Jesuit missionary Father Diego Luis de Sanvitores (1627-1672) is the oldest description we have of Chamorro, a language spoken on the Mariana islands. The grammar received a number of bad reviews and as a consequence has become neglected and almost forgotten. The main point of criticism has been that Sanvitores used the Latin grammatical framework to explain a language that in many ways does not fit this framework. In this thesis it is argued inst...

The Differences between Spoken and Written Grammar in English, in Comparison with Vietnamese (Las Diferencias entre la Gramática Oral y Escrita del Idioma Inglés en Comparación con el Idioma Vietnamita)

Science.gov (United States)

Thanh, Nguyen Cao

2015-01-01

The fundamental point of this paper is to describe and evaluate some differences between spoken and written grammar in English, and compare some of the points with Vietnamese. This paper illustrates that spoken grammar is less rigid than written grammar. Moreover, it highlights the distinction between speaking and writing in terms of subordination…

Teaching Grammar and Testing Grammar in the English Primary School: The Impact on Teachers and Their Teaching of the Grammar Element of the Statutory Test in Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG)

Science.gov (United States)

Safford, Kimberly

2016-01-01

The research examined the impact on teachers of the grammar element of a new statutory test in Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) in primary schools in England. The research aimed to evaluate the nature and the extent of changes to the teaching of grammar and to wider literacy teaching since the introduction of the test in 2013. The research…

Impact of Consciousness-Raising Activities on Young English Language Learners' Grammar Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Fatemipour, Hamidreza; Hemmati, Shiva

2015-01-01

Grammar Consciousness-Raising (GCR) is an approach to teaching of grammar which learners instead of being taught the given rules, experience language data. The data challenge them to rethink, restructure their existing mental grammar and construct an explicit rule to describe the grammatical feature which the data illustrate (Ellis, 2002). And…

Spoken Grammar: An Urgent Necessity in the EFL Context

Science.gov (United States)

Al-wossabi, Sami A.

2014-01-01

Recent studies in corpus linguistics have revealed apparent inconsistencies between the prescriptive grammar presented in EFL textbooks and the type of grammar used in the speech of native speakers. Such variations and learning gaps deprive EFL learners of the actual use of English and delay their oral/aural developmental processes. The focus of…

Education Beyond Borders: Lived-Experiences in Teaching Basic English Grammar among ALS Teachers in Bacolod City, Philippines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Gerald Arbias Pilar

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This study primarily conducted to investigate the lived-experiences among the alternative learning students (ALS in Bacolod City, Philippines. Moreover, this study was able to conceptualize that education can be flexible according to the needs of the learners thus, education can take beyond borders. The qualitative-phenomenological approach was used through thematizing the responses of the informants. The findings thematized in the following: (1 the role of multimedia as a teaching learning tool among ALS teachers is very essential in delivering the lessons; (2 the use of Hiligaynon is vital in learning Basic English Grammar. It was concluded that ALS teachers were more flexible, open-minded, and perseverance in dealing with ALS students since the latter are heterogeneous in terms of age, gender, year level, civil status, and economic background. Moreover, ALS teachers were searching for better teaching strategies for them to improve their skills in teaching Basic English Grammar to ALS students particularly the one who were in jail and in the care of DSWD (for minor age, 16 - 17 year old. It is recommended that the ALS students’ performance and development should be monitored so that they will be ready to take the ALS accreditation and equivalency test. Therefore, these ALS students need to be provided with quality education beyond classroom.

Functional Grammar and Its Implications for English Teaching and Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Zhiwen

2013-01-01

Functional grammar has received more and more attention from domestic scholars in the world of linguistics since 1970s, but it is still new to most EFL teachers. In spite of controversies about its applications into classroom teaching, this new grammar model has its own advantages and can facilitate EFL students to achieve academic success. This…

The blue book of grammar and punctuation an easy-to-use guide with clear rules, real-world examples, and reproducible quizzes

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Straus, Jane; Stern, Tom

2014-01-01

A revised and updated new edition of the bestselling workbook and grammar guide The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is a concise, entertaining workbook and guide to English grammar, punctuation, and usage. This user-friendly resource includes simple explanations of grammar, punctuation, and usage; scores of helpful examples; dozens of reproducible worksheets; and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar to students of all ages. Appropriate for virtually any age range, this authoritative guide makes learning English grammar and usage simple and fun. This updated Eleventh Edition reflects

The structure of modern standard French a student grammar

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Hansen, Maj-Britt Mosegaard

2016-01-01

This book is an advanced student's grammar of French that integrates traditional grammar with knowledge and insights from modern linguistics. It assumes some prior knowledge of French grammar but is designed to be accessible to those with no background in linguistics.

Multiple Grammars and the Logic of Learnability in Second Language Acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Roeper, Tom W

2016-01-01

The core notion of modern Universal Grammar is that language ability requires abstract representation in terms of hierarchy, movement operations, abstract features on words, and fixed mapping to meaning. These mental structures are a step toward integrating representational knowledge of all kinds into a larger model of cognitive psychology. Examining first and second language at once provides clues as to how abstractly we should represent this knowledge. The abstract nature of grammar allows both the formulation of many grammars and the possibility that a rule of one grammar could apply to another grammar. We argue that every language contains Multiple Grammars which may reflect different language families. We develop numerous examples of how the same abstract rules can apply in various languages and develop a theory of how language modules (case-marking, topicalization, and quantification) interact to predict L2 acquisition paths. In particular we show in depth how Germanic Verb-second operations, based on Verb-final structure, can apply in English. The argument is built around how and where V2 from German can apply in English, seeking to explain the crucial contrast: "nothing" yelled out Bill/(*)"nothing" yelled Bill out in terms of the necessary abstractness of the V2 rule.

Explicit grammar teaching in EAL classrooms: Suggestions from ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The development of the subject English Additional Language (EAL) to serve as a strong support subject in explicitly teaching learners the grammar of English is suggested as an interim solution to the effects of the non-implementation of the 1997 South African Language in Education Policy. To identify specific grammatical ...

Using Games in Primary Schools for Effective Grammar Teaching: a Case Study from Sebha

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Mustafa Mubarak Pathan

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Teaching and learning a foreign language like English is not easy task. The situation become more difficult when the learners are primary school children and teaching and learning focus is grammar, an activity often regarded as ‘boring, ‘uninteresting’ and ‘’tedious’. However, one’s mastery over a language is determined by the appropriate use of language by that individual following grammatical rules and failing to follow the rules of grammar marks one’s use of language as erroneous. Therefore, systematic attempt is done to teach grammatical rules and structures to the language learners from the beginning of language teaching and learning process. However, the success or failure of learning, mastering and using the grammatical rules and structures is largely determined by the technique and approach used by the grammar teacher to teach. The leaner-cantered, interesting, motivating technique of grammar teaching is believed to generate positive results whereas traditional, teacher-centered, uninteresting, uninvolving method is believed to be a cause of failure for learners to learn and master grammar rules and structures. Therefore, the grammar teaching technique, which involves language learners, to maximum, in learning in amusing and creative way, motivating, challenging and stimulating his/her mental processes, and reducing classroom anxiety and fear, is desired and recommended for fruitful language teaching and learning process. In this respect, the present paper discusses the effectiveness of using games for teaching grammar to primary school students as a technique which could easily be utilised and exploited for maximum benefits for learners. The study is based on the practical experiment done on the students of two primary schools in Sebha city of Libya using grammar games. The results, which proved to be fruitful and positive, are discussed as a basis for the argument in support of using games for teaching grammar to school

Associative Cognitive CREED for Successful Grammar Learning

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Andrias Tri Susanto

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This research article reports a qualitative study which was conducted to investigate ways successful EFL learners learned English grammar. The subjects of this research were eight successful EFL learners from six different countries in Asia: China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. The data was collected by interviewing each subject in person individually at an agreed time and place. The result showed that all the grammar learning processes described by the subjects were closely linked to the framework of Associative Cognitive CREED. There were also some contributing factors that could be integrally combined salient to the overall grammar learning process. However, interestingly, each subject emphasized different aspects of learning.

Abductive Logic Grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Henning; Dahl, Veronica

2009-01-01

By extending logic grammars with constraint logic, we give them the ability to create knowledge bases that represent the meaning of an input string. Semantic information is thus defined through extra-grammatical means, and a sentence's meaning logically follows as a by-product of string rewriting....... We formalize these ideas, and exemplify them both within and outside first-order logic, and for both fixed and dynamic knowledge bases. Within the latter variety, we consider the usual left-to-right derivations that are traditional in logic grammars, but also -- in a significant departure from...

Assessing Primary Literacy through Grammar Tests

Science.gov (United States)

Hodgson, John

2017-01-01

Originally an editorial for "English in Education," this short article summarises key issues in the imposition of a separate test for grammar, punctuation and spelling. It illustrates the poor foundations, lack of clarity and distortion of curriculum which invalidate the test.

The Role of Grammar in the Writing Curriculum: A Review of the Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Myhill, Debra; Watson, Annabel

2014-01-01

For most Anglophone countries, the history of grammar teaching over the past 50 years is one of contestation, debate and dissent: and 50 years on we are no closer to reaching a consensus about the role of grammar in the English/Language Arts curriculum. The debate has been described through the metaphor of battle and grammar wars (Kamler, 1995;…

The elements of grammar in 90 minutes

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Hollander, Robert

2011-01-01

An eminent scholar explains the essentials of English grammar to those who never studied the basics as well as those who need a refresher course. Inspired by Strunk & White's classic The Elements of Style, this user-friendly guide focuses exclusively on grammar, explaining the individual parts of speech and their proper arrangement in sentence form. A modest investment of 90 minutes can provide readers of all ages with simple but important tools that will improve their communication skills. Dover (2011) original publication.

The Effect of MALL-Based Tasks on EFL Learners' Grammar Learning

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Khodabandeh, Farzaneh; Alian, Jalal ed-din; Soleimani, Hassan

2017-01-01

Many studies have confirmed the importance of tasks on language learning. Nowadays, many teachers apply different kinds of tasks in their classrooms. The current study investigated the effect of mobile assisted language learning tasks (MALL) on participants' English grammar learning. The researcher administered a pre-validated grammar test to 90…

A video for teaching english tenses

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Frida Unsiah

2017-04-01

Students of English Language Education Program in Faculty of Cultural Studies Universitas Brawijaya ideally master Grammar before taking the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan. However, the fact shows that they are still weak in Grammar especially tenses. Therefore, the researchers initiate to develop a video as a media to teach tenses. Objectively, by using video, students get better understanding on tenses so that they can communicate using English accurately and contextually. To develop the video, the researchers used ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. First, the researchers analyzed the students’ learning need to determine the product that would be developed, in this case was a movie about English tenses. Then, the researchers developed a video as the product. The product then was validated by media expert who validated attractiveness, typography, audio, image, and usefulness and content expert and validated by a content expert who validated the language aspects and tenses of English used by the actors in the video dealing with the grammar content, pronunciation, and fluency performed by the actors. The result of validation shows that the video developed was considered good. Theoretically, it is appropriate to be used English Grammar classes. However, the media expert suggests that it still needs some improvement for the next development especially dealing with the synchronization between lips movement and sound on the scenes while the content expert suggests that the Grammar content of the video should focus on one tense only to provide more detailed concept of the tense.

Teachers' Attitudes towards Teaching English Grammar: A Scale Development Study

Science.gov (United States)

Polat, Murat

2017-01-01

In most ELT classes, the importance of grammar, how it should be taught or how much it should be integrated into language teaching are still matters of discussion. Considering this fact, learning teachers' attitudes towards teaching grammar is significantly valuable for researchers. This study thus aimed to design a scale that identifies teachers'…

Narratives in Two Languages: Storytelling of Bilingual Cantonese-English Preschoolers.

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Rezzonico, Stefano; Goldberg, Ahuva; Mak, Katy Ka-Yan; Yap, Stephanie; Milburn, Trelani; Belletti, Adriana; Girolametto, Luigi

2016-06-01

The aim of this study was to compare narratives generated by 4-year-old and 5-year-old children who were bilingual in English and Cantonese. The sample included 47 children (23 who were 4 years old and 24 who were 5 years old) living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who spoke both Cantonese and English. The participants spoke and heard predominantly Cantonese in the home. Participants generated a story in English and Cantonese by using a wordless picture book; language order was counterbalanced. Data were transcribed and coded for story grammar, morphosyntactic quality, mean length of utterance in words, and the number of different words. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed higher story grammar scores in English than in Cantonese, but no other significant main effects of language were observed. Analyses also revealed that older children had higher story grammar, mean length of utterance in words, and morphosyntactic quality scores than younger children in both languages. Hierarchical regressions indicated that Cantonese story grammar predicted English story grammar and Cantonese microstructure predicted English microstructure. However, no correlation was observed between Cantonese and English morphosyntactic quality. The results of this study have implications for speech-language pathologists who collect narratives in Cantonese and English from bilingual preschoolers. The results suggest that there is a possible transfer in narrative abilities between the two languages.

Aligning English grammar testing with European language standards

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Bodrič Radmila

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, foreign language testing has gained in significance with the advent of The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001 (CEFR, a European language document which set comparable standards for learning, teaching and assessing foreign languages. The CEFR was used to set the research aim of this paper - testing grammar at level B2. The main aim of the research was to determine grammatical competence at level B2 and additional aims included: (a determining which particular areas of grammar need to be learned by students at level B2, (b formulating grammatical descriptors for each individual area of grammar, (c determining the test’s threshold level which would fulfil the criteria for grammatical competence at level B2, and (d determining the extent to which students have mastered the given areas. The pre-testing was followed by the main testing on the sample of 164 students in two secondary schools. The results indicated that the quantity and quality of grammatical competence was lower than expected: 47% of the population failed to fulfil the basic level of grammatical competence. The causes may be attributed to the factors of a subjective and objective nature. Level B2 is demanding qualitatively as well as quantitatively, regarding both the formal and the functional complexity and scope of language use, which requires intensive language production, high levels of motivation and sound working habits in order to master the given grammatical structures.

Comparing Two Modes of Instruction in English Passive Structures (Processing and Meaning-Based Output Instruction

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Asma Dabiri

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This research compared the effects of two types of instruction: Processing Instruction (PI and Meaning-based Output Instruction (MOI on the interpretation and production of English passive structures.  Ninety EFL intermediate tertiary level female students (PI group= 30, MOI group= 30 and control group = 30 participated in this study. The instruments were a proficiency test, a test to assess English passive structures and two instructional materials (PI and MOI. The data were analyzed by running one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA and mixed between-within ANOVA. The study indicated the effectiveness of PI and MOI on English passive structures. PI had considerable enhancement on interpretation tasks all the time. It supported the use of PI rather than the use of traditional instructions in which mechanical components were emphasized. Also, the PI and MOI had long term effects on the interpretation and production of English passive sentences.  This study supported the use of PI and MOI rather than the use of traditional instruction (TI in EFL settings. The implication for particularly classroom teaching is that successful grammar instruction has to related to ultimate learning outcomes. Also, creating communicative tasks to offer opportunities for teaching grammar can lead to long-lasting learning effects.

Readings in Applied Transformational Grammar.

Science.gov (United States)

Lester, Mark, Ed.

This volume contains nineteen essays, dealing with various aspects of transformational grammar, by scholars such as Noam Chomsky, Eric H. Lenneberg, and Leon Jakobovits. These essays have been reprinted from sources such as "College English" and "Language Learning" and are intended for the most part for a nontechnical audience. The anthology is…

Grammar Learning Strategies and Language Attainment: Seeking a Relationship

OpenAIRE

Pawlak Mirosław

2009-01-01

Despite major advances in research on language learning strategies, there are still areas that have received only scant attention, and one of them is undoubtedly learning grammar. The paper contributes to the paucity of empirical investigations in this domain by presenting the findings of a study which sought to investigate the relationship between the use of grammar learning strategies (GLS) reported by 142 English Department students and target language attainment, operationalized as their ...

Using Webquest in Learning Grammar: Students' Perceptions in Higher Education

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Ira Irzawati

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Webquest is an internet based learning tool that can be used by students in learning English. This study investigates students’ perceptions about the use of Webquest to support learning grammar in Higher Education. Seventy-two of second semester students were involved as participants in this study. Questionnaire and interview were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The result of this study revealed that students had positive perceptions toward the use of Webquest in learning grammar. They believed that Webquest can be used as one of effective internet based learning tools in studying grammar.

Teachers’ Beliefs versus Learners’ Beliefs in Grammar Teaching: Harmonizing Teaching and Learning for Adult Learners’ Improved Proficiency in English

OpenAIRE

Iftikhar Ahmad; Muhammad Sabboor Hussain; Noor Raha Mohd Radzuan

2017-01-01

The study tends to explore the possible reforms to raise the proficiency level of the adult English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners. With this end in view, it investigates non-native EFL teachers’ beliefs in relation to adult learners’ beliefs in teaching grammar to university students in the Saudi Arabian EFL context. It finds out the harmony and disharmony between the teachers at the giving end and the taught at the receiving end to create a culture of awareness and to build a better tea...

Errors and Learning/Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language: an Exercise in Grammaticology

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Andrea Nava

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Despite ‘pendulum swings’ and ‘revolutions’ throughout the history of language teaching, the association of errors and grammar (of one’s native language or of a second/foreign language has been a constant concern of language professionals as well as the subject of academic interest in linguistics, second language acquisition and grammaticology. Grammar books are ideally suited to the investigation of how perceptions about errors, along with associated notions such as those of grammaticality, acceptability and correctness, have changed throughout the centuries. While much academic interest has been devoted to the analysis of English pedagogical grammar books (and usage manuals aimed at native speakers (‘prescriptive’ grammar books and usage manuals, cf. Peters 2006, very little is known about English pedagogical grammar books for non-native speakers, particularly those published in the 20th and 21st centuries. A recent development within the realm of pedagogical grammaticography has been the genre of pedagogical grammar books specifically aimed at teachers of English as a second or foreign language (Nava 2008. Grammar books such as Celce Murcia and Larsen Freeman (1999 have the express purpose of presenting English grammar drawing on research in linguistics and second language acquisition that is thought to be relevant to the practical business of teaching grammar to second/foreign language learners. In this contribution, after identifying a few key issues in the way the notion of ‘error’ has been conceived of in linguistics, second language acquisition and grammar writing, I will present a study of how a selection of pedagogical grammar books for English language teachers view and operationalize errors.

Sentential Negation in English

Science.gov (United States)

Mowarin, Macaulay

2009-01-01

This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of sentential negation in the English language with Chomsky's Government-Binding theory of Transformational Grammar as theoretical model. It distinguishes between constituent and sentential negation in English. The essay identifies the exact position of Negation phrase in an English clause structure. It…

The Problem of Grammar Teaching: A Case Study of the Relationship between a Teacher's Beliefs and Pedagogical Practice

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Watson, Annabel

2015-01-01

Through a case study of a first-language English teacher's approach to teaching writing, the significance of conceptual and affective beliefs about grammar for pedagogical practice is explored. The study explores a perceived dichotomy between grammar and creativity, examining a belief that attention to grammar is separate and secondary to the…

Grammar and Grammar Teaching——A Reflective Journal of Grammar and Communication

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

周佳

2010-01-01

@@ 1 Introduction When we talk about grammar, we will usually refer to the detailed instruction rules of grammar. In China, grammar is usually taught explicitly in formal instructions, which is different from that in some western countries. So there are some controversial questions coming out: Should there be formal instruction of grammar?

AN INTERLANGUAGE STUDY: A CASE STUDY OF AN INDONESIAN LEARNER OF ENGLISH

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Widya Ratna Kusumaningrum

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The aims of this study are to investigate whether Indonesian grammar affects error oral production and leads to the creation of interlanguage (IL grammar, also whether this grammar causes fossilization. The proposed Null Hypotheses (H0 are Indonesian grammar does not affect error production in English and it does not systemize IL grammar, also this IL grammar does not triggers fossilization. The subjects are a NNES (an Indonesian who has unique exposure in which after two years being exposed to English and being in temporary pause state for two years, he has been living in the US for a year and a NES. The instrument used is a wordless image book. In this project, both subjects narrate the sequential pictures into a good story for 25 minutes, and their oral productions are recorded and analyzed by employing qualitative evaluation design. From the data calculation, the Null Hypotheses (H0 are rejected. On the basis of NES’ oral production, NNES speaks inaccuracies such as in possessive pronouns, verb tenses, and articles. To sum up, he uses Indonesian grammar to create his IL grammar by transferring and overgeneralizing it when he produced English grammar. However, it has no sufficient evidence to claim that his IL has fossilized or become signals for achieving native-likeness. Thus, in doing so it is suggested to do longitudinal verification.

Hindsight of an English Language Learner.

Science.gov (United States)

Dam, Phap

This keynote address by a native Vietnamese speaker who did not learn English until he was college-age, through the now obsolete "grammar-translation" method, recounts his difficulties in learning to converse orally in English. He stresses the need to teach conversational English to English Language Learners (ELLs) in addition to…

The Passive in Singapore English.

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Zhiming; Wee, Lionel

1999-01-01

Presents an analysis of the two passive (or passive-like) constructions in Singapore English which exhibit substrate influence from Malay and Chinese. The paper shows that while substrate languages contribute to the grammar of Singapore English, the continued prestige of standard English exerts normative pressure and mitigates the effect of…

CHR grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Henning

2005-01-01

A grammar formalism based upon CHR is proposed analogously to the way Definite Clause Grammars are defined and implemented on top of Prolog. These grammars execute as robust bottom-up parsers with an inherent treatment of ambiguity and a high flexibility to model various linguistic phenomena....... The formalism extends previous logic programming based grammars with a form of context-sensitive rules and the possibility to include extra-grammatical hypotheses in both head and body of grammar rules. Among the applications are straightforward implementations of Assumption Grammars and abduction under...... integrity constraints for language analysis. CHR grammars appear as a powerful tool for specification and implementation of language processors and may be proposed as a new standard for bottom-up grammars in logic programming....

CHR Grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Henning

A grammar formalism based upon CHR is proposed analogously to the way Definite Clause Grammars are defined and implemented on top of Prolog. These grammars execute as robust bottom-up parsers with an inherent treatment of ambiguity and a high flexibility to model various linguistic phenomena....... The formalism extends previous logic programming based grammars with a form of context-sensitive rules and the possibility to include extra-grammatical hypotheses in both head and body of grammar rules. Among the applications are straightforward implementations of Assumption Grammars and abduction under...... integrity constraints for language analysis. CHR grammars appear as a powerful tool for specification and implementation of language processors and may be proposed as a new standard for bottom-up grammars in logic programming....

Dwie (antyfilozoficzne „gramatyki” Wittgensteina [Two (anti philosophical grammars of Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Adam Nowaczyk

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Wittgenstein is the author of two conceptions of “grammar”, that were meant to be tools of reaching the same goal: discrediting of the traditional, i.e. “metaphysical” questions of philosophy. His early conception concerns logical grammar being the language of logic notation, which is devoid of logical constants. This idea was supported by the ontological thesis that there are no logical objects. In fact, it was not indispensable for achieving the intended purpose, since the elimination of philosophical problems was provided by the semantic argument that the only sensible statements are those of the natural sciences. The second concept of grammar, presented in the writings of the later Wittgenstein, seems more ambiguous. Grammar is a set of rules of the language game, having a status of grammatical statements. Examples of such statements are diverse, and desirable, according to the authors, reformulation of them all into concrete orders or prohibitions seems problematic. In the Investigations Wittgenstein distinguishes between deep and surface grammar, which serves to determine the proper task of philosophy as description of the deep grammar (especially the grammar of philosophically relevant words. In this sense New Philosophy is a kind of philosophical grammar. Wittgensteinian grammar is also anti-philosophical, as it aims at the elimination of erroneous (pseudometaphysical claims derived from misleading forms of surface grammar. Despite the differences in the concepts of language and grammar in the early and late Wittgenstein, he has not changed his critical approach to the traditional philosophical questions.

Delta's Key to the Next Generation TOEFL[R] Test: Essential Grammar for the iBT

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, Nancy

2012-01-01

Although the TOEFL iBT does not have a discrete grammar section, knowledge of English sentence structure is important throughout the test. Essential Grammar for the iBT reviews the skills that are fundamental to success on tests. Content includes noun and verb forms, clauses, agreement, parallel structure, punctuation, and much more. The book may…

Route description in Iwaidja: grammar and conceptualisation of motion

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Cris Edmonds-Wathen

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This study focussed on the effect of grammar of Iwaidja, an indigenous Australian language, on mathematical conceptualisation. It investigated route description in Iwaidja. Spatial concepts such as direction, height and movement in relation to another object are briefly described using examples. Differences between English and Iwaidja are used to illustrate the some of the impact of grammar on mathematical conceptualisation. The implications are discussed in terms of how understanding these grammatical features can help teachers, especially when children are not fluent in the language of instruction, as well as providing keys to cross-linguistic investigations of mathematical cognition.

On Anaphora and the Binding Principles in Categorial Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Morrill, Glyn; Valentín, Oriol

In type logical categorial grammar the analysis of an expression is a resource-conscious proof. Anaphora represents a particular challenge to this approach in that the antecedent resource is multiplied in the semantics. This duplication, which corresponds logically to the structural rule of contraction, may be treated lexically or syntactically. Furthermore, anaphora is subject to constraints, which Chomsky (1981) formulated as Binding Principles A, B, and C. In this paper we consider English anaphora in categorial grammar including reference to the binding principles. We invoke displacement calculus, modal categorial calculus, categorial calculus with limited contraction, and entertain addition of negation as failure.

Grammar and Context in Functional Discourse Grammar

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hengeveld, K.; Mackenzie, J.L.

2014-01-01

This article presents a proposal for the organization of the Contextual Component in Functional Discourse Grammar. A guiding principle in this proposal is that, given the fact that Functional Discourse Grammar is a theory of grammar, the Contextual Component should provide the information that is

Effect of Instruction in Story Grammar on the Narrative Writing of EFL Students.

Science.gov (United States)

El-Koumy, Abdel Salam A.

A study investigated the effects of explicit versus implicit instruction in story grammar on the narrative writing skills of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students at the university level. Subjects were 83 freshmen enrolled in English at the Faculty of Education at Suez Canal University (Egypt). The subjects were randomly assigned to…

Teaching Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, William J.

2013-01-01

Grammar is a component in all language skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Teachers need to know rules of grammar (teacher knowledge) as well as techniques that help students use grammar effectively and effortlessly (teaching knowledge). Using reflective practice to help teachers become comfortable with teaching grammar, this…

LL-regular grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

1980-01-01

Culik II and Cogen introduced the class of LR-regular grammars, an extension of the LR(k) grammars. In this paper we consider an analogous extension of the LL(k) grammars called the LL-regular grammars. The relation of this class of grammars to other classes of grammars will be shown. Any LL-regular

A Pilot Study Comparing Total Physical Response Storytelling[TM] with the Grammar-Translation Teaching Strategy to Determine Their Effectiveness in Vocabulary Acquisition among English as a Second Language Adult Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Castro, Ruben

2010-01-01

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS[TM]) compared to the Grammar-Translation approach for acquiring and retaining new vocabulary in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. The subjects were adult Hispanic learners with limited literacy. An experimental design approach was used to gather…

Complex Text in ESL Grammar Textbooks: Barriers or Gateways?

Science.gov (United States)

Lesikin, Joan

2000-01-01

Suggests that English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers assess prospective textbooks by comparing real-life user's actual knowledge of the author's assumed student knowledge. Through examination of charts and page excerpts of two ESL grammar textbooks, demonstrates that access to the pedagogical knowledge demands sophisticated formal knowledge,…

The "Contextual Contact" in Grammar Microteachings in Teaching English as a Foreign Language: A Teacher Training Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Sarigöz, Iskender Hakki

2015-01-01

The grammar microteachings carried out by trainees in teacher education is a critical issue due to the fact that the teaching of grammar has always been a controversial issue throughout the foreign language teaching (FLT) acculturation. There is always some negative reaction to isolated teaching of grammar in communicative language teaching…

NEGATION AFFIXES IN ENGLISH

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Dedy Subandowo -

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract: This research entitled "Negation Affixes in English". This study is aimed to describe the various negation affixes in English, morphological process, morphophonemic and meaning. The research data were taken from various sources of English grammar book, morphology, research journal and the book which relatees to the research. English grammar books used in this study are written by Otto Jesperson, Marcella Frank, Greenbaum and Geoffrey Leech.  The method used in this research is the descriptive-qualitative method. While the data collection techniques are performed by using jot-down method. And the results of analysis are presented in tabular form and descriptive method. The result of the research shows that English has six types of negative affixes which are categorized by the intensity of its appearance, such as dis-, in-, non-, un-, anti- and -less. Based on the function, negation affixes are divided into several categories such as adjectives, nouns, verbs, and adverbs. The morphophonemic affix in- has four allomorphs, they are in-, im-, il- and ir- . While the analysis revealed that negation affixes have some basic meanings, such as ‘not’, ‘without’, and ‘anti’.

English for au pairs the au pair's guide to learning English

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Curtis, Lucy

2014-01-01

English for Au Pairs has interlinked stories about a group of au pairs new to England. Marta, an 18-year-old from Poland arrives in the UK to work as an au pair. Throughout her year-long stay she has many different experiences - some bad, some good - but with the support of her host family she finds new friends and improves her English. English for Au Pairs offers insight into the joys and difficulties of being an au pair while at the same time reinforcing English language learning through grammar explanations and exercises.

Standard English and Language Attitudes

OpenAIRE

ソランキ, ネイディン

2005-01-01

This paper investigates the attitudes and opinions surrounding Standard English (SE) within the United Kingdom. The definition of SE, for the purposes of this study, is standard grammar and standard pronunciation of southern English, commonly referred to as 'BBC English'. The subject of SE and attitudes towards different accents and dialects of British English is emotive and attracts strong opinions. The main issues discussed here are the place of language in society, the social implications ...

Forest Grammar(Ⅰ)

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张松懋

1994-01-01

Forest grammar,a new type of high-dimensional grammar,is proposed in this paper,of which both the left and the right parts of every production are concatenations of tree structures.A classification of forest grammar is studied,especially,a subclass of the forest grammar,i.e.the context-sensitive forest grammar,and one of its subclasses is defined,called the weak precedence forest grammar.

Grammar Consciousness-Raising Activities and Iranian EFL Learners' Attitudes toward English Language

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Farrokhlagha Heidari

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The first purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of consciousness-raising (C-R activities on learning grammatical structures by Iranian EFL learners. The second one was to investigate the effect of gender through C-R activities and tasks. Finally, this study wanted to investigate the Iranian students’ attitudes toward learning English prior to and after applying the C-R activities. An attitude questionnaire was use to investigate the participants' attitudes toward learning English before and after applying C-R activities. Data analysis indicated that using C-R activities in is significantly more effective than the traditional approaches. Regarding gender, male outperformed females. Therefore, it is recommended that other teachers consider C-R activities as useful options in teaching other aspects of language.  Based on the statistics and findings, Iranian students’ attitudes toward learning English language were not much different prior to and after applying C-R activities.

English made easy, v.1 a new ESL approach learning English through pictures

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Crichton, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This is a fun and userfriendly way to learn EnglishEnglish Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learningimaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives beginner English learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Selfguided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combina

Creation Myths of Generative Grammar and the Mathematics of Syntactic Structures

Science.gov (United States)

Pullum, Geoffrey K.

Syntactic Structures (Chomsky [6]) is widely believed to have laid the foundations of a cognitive revolution in linguistic science, and to have presented (i) the first use in linguistics of powerful new ideas regarding grammars as generative systems, (ii) a proof that English was not a regular language, (iii) decisive syntactic arguments against context-free phrase structure grammar description, and (iv) a demonstration of how transformational rules could provide a formal solution to those problems. None of these things are true. This paper offers a retrospective analysis and evaluation.

Strategies for Better Learning of English Grammar: Chinese vs. Thais

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Supakorn, Patnarin; Feng, Min; Limmun, Wanida

2018-01-01

The success of language learning significantly depends on multiple sets of complex factors; among these are language-learning strategies of which learners in different countries may show different preferences. Needed areas of language learning strategy research include, among others, the strategy of grammar learning and the context-based approach…

Pedagogical Gestures as Interactional Resources for Teaching and Learning Tense and Aspect in the ESL Grammar Classroom

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Matsumoto, Yumi; Dobs, Abby Mueller

2017-01-01

This study investigated the functions of gesture in teaching and learning grammar in the context of second language (L2) classroom interactions. The data consisted of video-recorded interactions from a beginner- and an advanced-level grammar classroom in an intensive English program at a U.S. university. The sequences of talk-in-interaction…

Grammar Errors Made by ESL Tertiary Students in Writing

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Singh, Charanjit Kaur Swaran; Singh, Amreet Kaur Jageer; Razak, Nur Qistina Abd; Ravinthar, Thilaga

2017-01-01

The educational context in Malaysia demands students to be equipped with sound grammar so that they can produce good essays in the examination. However, despite having learnt English in primary and secondary schools, students in the higher learning institutions tend to make some grammatical errors in their writing. This study presents the…

A Blog-Integrated Grammar Instruction Approach: Structure-Andragogy-Blog (SAB

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Yonca ÖZKAN

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Although history of grammar instruction dates back far in time, it is only since the sixties that we see various methods through which this subject is taught. What was done took place as an in-class activity with almost no tasks performed out of class except for assignments. Thus, this descriptive case study aims to add one new dimension to the already existing methodology introducing a blog-integrated approach emphasizing individual-generated learning. Unlike its predecessors, the approach requires individuals to select texts, analyze targeted structural points in authentic texts, and produce similar structures through modelling, all performed on weblogs, with full participation and collaboration of learners embracing the notion of “self-directed” learning. Although the designed approach aims to teach and reinforce English grammar to English learners, it does not limit itself to this field. All subjects, requiring activation of latent knowledge can certainly benefit from it, notably the L2 domain

Semantic coherence in English accusative-with-bare-infinitive constructions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

2013-01-01

Drawing on usage-based cognitively oriented construction grammar, this paper investigates the patterns of coattraction of items that appear in the two VP positions (the VP in the matrix clause, and the VP in the infinitive subordinate clause) in the English accusative-with-bare-infinitive constru......Drawing on usage-based cognitively oriented construction grammar, this paper investigates the patterns of coattraction of items that appear in the two VP positions (the VP in the matrix clause, and the VP in the infinitive subordinate clause) in the English accusative...... relations of English accusatives-with-bare-infinitives through the relations of semantic coherence between the two VPs....

Grammar and Communication

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刘辉

2007-01-01

Instead of being a boring subject, grammar is in fact one of the most exciting, creative, relevant subjects. It is sometimes described as the skeleton of a language, but it is much more than bones. It is the language's heartbeat, for without grammar; there can be no meaningful or effective communication. And grammar has different definitions and categories according to different contexts. By first reviewing the past linguists, especially those grammarians and their research, the paper makes some comparisons between some categories of grammar and puts forward that there is no 'good' or 'bad' grammar but knowing grammar or knowing about grammar really has a close relationship with effective communication.

Linear grammar as a possible stepping-stone in the evolution of language.

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Jackendoff, Ray; Wittenberg, Eva

2017-02-01

We suggest that one way to approach the evolution of language is through reverse engineering: asking what components of the language faculty could have been useful in the absence of the full complement of components. We explore the possibilities offered by linear grammar, a form of language that lacks syntax and morphology altogether, and that structures its utterances through a direct mapping between semantics and phonology. A language with a linear grammar would have no syntactic categories or syntactic phrases, and therefore no syntactic recursion. It would also have no functional categories such as tense, agreement, and case inflection, and no derivational morphology. Such a language would still be capable of conveying certain semantic relations through word order-for instance by stipulating that agents should precede patients. However, many other semantic relations would have to be based on pragmatics and discourse context. We find evidence of linear grammar in a wide range of linguistic phenomena: pidgins, stages of late second language acquisition, home signs, village sign languages, language comprehension (even in fully syntactic languages), aphasia, and specific language impairment. We also find a full-blown language, Riau Indonesian, whose grammar is arguably close to a pure linear grammar. In addition, when subjects are asked to convey information through nonlinguistic gesture, their gestures make use of semantically based principles of linear ordering. Finally, some pockets of English grammar, notably compounds, can be characterized in terms of linear grammar. We conclude that linear grammar is a plausible evolutionary precursor of modern fully syntactic grammar, one that is still active in the human mind.

Impacts of the Test of English Listening Comprehension on Students' English Learning Expectations in Taiwan

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Chou, Mu-Hsuan

2015-01-01

In Taiwan, English language learning in senior high school has predominantly focused on reading, with a heavy emphasis on memorising vocabulary and grammar rules. English listening has been marginalised and is not officially taught until the first year of university. In 2012, the Joint Board of College Recruitment Commission in Taiwan passed…

A Python-based Interface for Wide Coverage Lexicalized Tree-adjoining Grammars

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Wang Ziqi

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the design and implementation of a Python-based interface for wide coverage Lexicalized Tree-adjoining Grammars. The grammars are part of the XTAG Grammar project at the University of Pennsylvania, which were hand-written and semi-automatically curated to parse real-world corpora. We provide an interface to the wide coverage English and Korean XTAG grammars. Each XTAG grammar is lexicalized, which means at least one word selects a tree fragment (called an elementary tree or etree. Derivations for sentences are built by combining etrees using substitution (replacement of a tree node with an etree at the frontier of another etree and adjunction (replacement of an internal tree node in an etree by another etree. Each etree is associated with a feature structure representing constraints on substitution and adjunction. Feature structures are combined using unification during the combination of etrees. We plan to integrate our toolkit for XTAG grammars into the Python-based Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK: nltk.org. We have provided an API capable of searching the lexicalized etrees for a given word or multiple words, searching for a etree by name or function, display the lexicalized etrees to the user using a graphical view, display the feature structure associated with each tree node in an etree, hide or highlight features based on a regular expression, and browsing the entire tree database for each XTAG grammar.

Grammar Review: Your Tool for Success. Teacher Materials.

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Pittsburgh Univ., Johnstown, PA. Education Div.

Teacher materials are provided for a computer-assisted English grammar curriculum for adult basic education students (1-8 grade level). They accompany a software program (diskette) that the student is able to use by himself/herself with the Apple IIc or Apple IIe computer with single or double drive and a monitor or a television with an R.F.…

E-Learning Turkish Language and Grammar: Analyzing Learners' Behavior

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Georgalas, Panagiotis

2012-01-01

This study analyses the behavior and the preferences of the Greek learners of Turkish language, who use a particular e-learning website in parallel with their studies, namely: http://turkish.pgeorgalas.gr. The website offers free online material in Greek and English language for learning the Turkish language and grammar. The traffic of several…

TRAINING TREE ADJOINING GRAMMARS WITH HUGE TEXT CORPUS USING SPARK MAP REDUCE

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Vijay Krishna Menon

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Tree adjoining grammars (TAGs are mildly context sensitive formalisms used mainly in modelling natural languages. Usage and research on these psycho linguistic formalisms have been erratic in the past decade, due to its demanding construction and difficulty to parse. However, they represent promising future for formalism based NLP in multilingual scenarios. In this paper we demonstrate basic synchronous Tree adjoining grammar for English-Tamil language pair that can be used readily for machine translation. We have also developed a multithreaded chart parser that gives ambiguous deep structures and a par dependency structure known as TAG derivation. Furthermore we then focus on a model for training this TAG for each language using a large corpus of text through a map reduce frequency count model in spark and estimation of various probabilistic parameters for the grammar trees thereafter; these parameters can be used to perform statistical parsing on the trained grammar.

Inductive vs. Deductive Grammar Instruction and the Grammatical Performance of EFL Learners

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Fatemeh Behjat

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Learning a foreign language offers a great challenge to students since it involves learning different skills and subskills. Quite a few number of researches have been done so far on the relationship between gender and learning a foreign language. On the other hand, two major approaches in teaching grammar have been offered by language experts, inductive and deductive. The present study examines which method of teaching grammar is more fruitful for Iranian male and female students. For this purpose, 150 freshman students, 110 females and 40 males, majoring in English were selected from all available students at Abadeh and Shiraz Azad universities. All the subjects took the NTC's grammar test prior to the instruction as pre-test. Then, they were divided into two groups and were taught grammar inductively and deductively in each group for one semester. At the end of the instruction, the same test was taken as post-test. The comparison between the students' pre and post-test indicated that there was a significant improvement in their knowledge of grammar. By the way, through a two-way ANOVA, it was found out that males learned grammar better when they were taught inductively and females showed a better performance when they were taught deductively.

English made easy volume one a new ESL approach learning English through pictures

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Crichton, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This is a fun and user–friendly way to learn English English Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learning—imaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives beginner English learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Self–guided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combination of pictures and text

Dynamic Systems Theory and Universal Grammar: Holding up a Turbulent Mirror to Development in Grammars

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Plaza-Pust, Carolina

2008-01-01

Research over the last decades has shown that language development in its multiple forms is characterized by a succession of stable and unstable states. However, the variation observed is neither expected nor can it be accounted for on the basis of traditional learning concepts conceived of within the Universal Grammar (UG) paradigm. In this…

Grammar-Based Specification and Parsing of Binary File Formats

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William Underwood

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The capability to validate and view or play binary file formats, as well as to convert binary file formats to standard or current file formats, is critically important to the preservation of digital data and records. This paper describes the extension of context-free grammars from strings to binary files. Binary files are arrays of data types, such as long and short integers, floating-point numbers and pointers, as well as characters. The concept of an attribute grammar is extended to these context-free array grammars. This attribute grammar has been used to define a number of chunk-based and directory-based binary file formats. A parser generator has been used with some of these grammars to generate syntax checkers (recognizers for validating binary file formats. Among the potential benefits of an attribute grammar-based approach to specification and parsing of binary file formats is that attribute grammars not only support format validation, but support generation of error messages during validation of format, validation of semantic constraints, attribute value extraction (characterization, generation of viewers or players for file formats, and conversion to current or standard file formats. The significance of these results is that with these extensions to core computer science concepts, traditional parser/compiler technologies can potentially be used as a part of a general, cost effective curation strategy for binary file formats.

GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES IN RELATION TO ENGLISH COMPETENCY TEST

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I Gusti Ayu Gde Sosiowati

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The research aims at finding out the freshmen’s ability on English grammar. This is very important activity so that the English department knows their level of ability so that the teaching materials can be determined. The test is about structure, taken from TOEFL. The theory used is the theory English Language Teaching, especially Testing by Harmer (2001, in which the test is used as diagnostic test. The result of the test will provide the information about three crucial points on grammar that must be developed. This will help the related teacher to decide what items should be taught so that by the end of the semester, at least most of the students can reach the level of Intermediate, that is the level in which the students are capable of doing conversations on routines, u nderstanding lectures, understanding English TV programs (http://www.embassyenglish.com/student-life/yourlevel-of-english cited on 19 January 2015.

Handbook for Language Detectives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bryanne, Ulla; Bruntt, Karen Scheel Lassen

Handbook for Language Detectives gives a thorough presentation of English grammar and discusses how to teach grammar. The book unveils to the readers, who will be working as grammar detectives, the fascinating world of language. It does not only deal with "traditional grammar" but also discusses...... what different grammatical structures mean (semantics) and how they influence the level of style (pragmatics). Grammar should not be taught as a separate discipline; it can and should be integrated in communicative language teaching. The book gives you innovative and valuable ideas of how this can...... be done. The book serves a double purpose: - English grammar and language usage at bachelor level from a functional linguistic point of view. - How to teach English grammar within a communicative approach. The book is mainly intended for Danish student teachers of English, but anyone else interested...

The Attitudes and Perceptions of Non-Native English Speaking ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

native English speaking adults toward explicit grammar instruction (EGI). The factors influencing those attitudes and perceptions are also explored. The data collected in this study indicate that adult English as a second language (ESL) students ...

Using Webquest in Learning Grammar: Students' Perceptions in Higher Education

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Irzawati, Ira

2013-01-01

Webquest is an internet based learning tool that can be used by students in learning English. This study investigates students' perceptions about the use of Webquest to support learning grammar in Higher Education. Seventy-two of second semester students were involved as participants in this study. Questionnaire and interview were used to collect…

What explains the correlation between growth in vocabulary and grammar? New evidence from latent change score analyses of simultaneous bilingual development.

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Hoff, Erika; Quinn, Jamie M; Giguere, David

2018-03-01

A close relationship between children's vocabulary size and the grammatical complexity of their speech is well attested but not well understood. The present study used latent change score modeling to examine the dynamic relationships between vocabulary and grammar growth within and across languages in longitudinal data from 90 simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual children who were assessed at 6-month intervals between 30 and 48 months. Slopes of vocabulary and grammar growth were strongly correlated within each language and showed moderate or nonsignificant relationships across languages. There was no evidence that vocabulary level predicted subsequent grammar growth or that the level of grammatical development predicted subsequent vocabulary growth. We propose that a common influence of properties of input on vocabulary and grammatical development is the source of their correlated but uncoupled growth. An unanticipated across-language finding was a negative relationship between level of English skill and subsequent Spanish growth. We propose that the cultural context of Spanish-English bilingualism in the US is the reason that strong English skills jeopardize Spanish language growth, while Spanish skills do not affect English growth. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/qEHSQ0yRre0. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Extricating the description of the grammar of isiXhosa from a ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A Eurocentric approach was the only possible point of departure for those originally attempting to set out the grammatical structure of isiXhosa. Not being mother-tongue speakers, their commendable efforts were inevitably done from the perspective of the grammar of European languages such as Latin and English.

Grammatical and lexical variance in English

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Quirk, Randolph

2014-01-01

Written by one of Britain's most distinguished linguists, this book is concerned with the phenomenon of variance in English grammar and vocabulary across regional, social, stylistic and temporal space.

Textual, Genre and Social Features of Spoken Grammar: A Corpus-Based Approach

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Carmen Pérez-Llantada

2009-02-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a corpus-based approach to teaching and learning spoken grammar for English for Academic Purposes with reference to Bhatia’s (2002 multi-perspective model for discourse analysis: a textual perspective, a genre perspective and a social perspective. From a textual perspective, corpus-informed instruction helps students identify grammar items through statistical frequencies, collocational patterns, context-sensitive meanings and discoursal uses of words. From a genre perspective, corpus observation provides students with exposure to recurrent lexico-grammatical patterns across different academic text types (genres. From a social perspective, corpus models can be used to raise learners’ awareness of how speakers’ different discourse roles, discourse privileges and power statuses are enacted in their grammar choices. The paper describes corpus-based instructional procedures, gives samples of learners’ linguistic output, and provides comments on the students’ response to this method of instruction. Data resulting from the assessment process and student production suggest that corpus-informed instruction grounded in Bhatia’s multi-perspective model can constitute a pedagogical approach in order to i obtain positive student responses from input and authentic samples of grammar use, ii help students identify and understand the textual, genre and social aspects of grammar in real contexts of use, and therefore iii help develop students’ ability to use grammar accurately and appropriately.

Literature: A Natural Source for Teaching English in ESL/ EFL Classrooms

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Muhammed Ali Chalikendy

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the ways in which literature function as a source and as a meaningful context for teaching and learning English as a second language or foreign language. It claims that literature is an authentic, stimulating and appealing material to the learners. Therefore, it encourages interaction, promotes language development and motivates learners in the process of learning. Traditionally it is taught as an academic subject without considering its potential in ESL/EFL classrooms. The paper argues that literature can be used as an effective source for teaching English language and the target culture; furthermore, it is used as a natural context for integrating language skills and systems. This paper demonstrates how a poem is used as a natural source or a material for developing English language and integrating the four language skills, grammar and vocabulary through communicative tasks and activities.

English, Language Shift and Values Shift in Japan and Singapore

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Morita, Liang

2015-01-01

This is a comparative study of English language education in Japan and Singapore and the role English plays in both countries. English language education in Japan has not been very effective. Although the communicative approach to teaching English was introduced in the 1980s, schools still use the grammar-translation method and most Japanese do…

Direct versus Indirect Explicit Methods of Enhancing EFL Students' English Grammatical Competence: A Concept Checking-Based Consciousness-Raising Tasks Model

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Dang, Trang Thi Doan; Nguyen, Huong Thu

2013-01-01

Two approaches to grammar instruction are often discussed in the ESL literature: direct explicit grammar instruction (DEGI) (deduction) and indirect explicit grammar instruction (IEGI) (induction). This study aims to explore the effects of indirect explicit grammar instruction on EFL learners' mastery of English tenses. Ninety-four…

Interactive Russian Grammar: The Case System

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Rimma Gam

2009-01-01

Full Text Available My paper addresses a problem many of us in North American college language programs confront regularly, the solution to which regularly and frustratingly remains just out of our reach. I refer to the teaching of the most basic and most crucial element of Russian grammar, namely, its case system, and teaching it to our students whose native language, English, does not have such a system. As I teach the Russian cases, I see vividly the disconnect between grammar presented for students (simplified, episodic, based on the "pick it up along the way" principle and the learned papers on Russian grammar by linguists, which are barely comprehensible to a non-linguist. Materials in the middle are lacking-materials to help a literature professor acting as a "de facto" language instructor understand and address the needs of students as they learn this crucial segment of basic Russian grammar. This core element of Russian grammar is presented to students in the first year of college language study, is revisited in the second year, and very often by the third year students either manage to completely block it out from their memory (as if it were some traumatic experience that happened "a long time ago"-that is, before .summer break-but most importantly due to the lack of practice or demonstrate a partial or even complete lack of understanding or misunderstanding of this system forcing us to deal with it again in the third year. Not only is it frustrating for both the students and the language instructor; but from the point of view of their overall proficiency, the lack of control of the case system holds our students back. There can be no talk of advanced language proficiency without a complete and automatic mastery of this basic system. Unfortunately, regardless of the specific textbooks used, the students very often manage not to have a general idea and mastery of this system even by the third year of study.

Vector grammars and PN machines

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

蒋昌俊

1996-01-01

The concept of vector grammars under the string semantic is introduced.The dass of vector grammars is given,which is similar to the dass of Chomsky grammars.The regular vector grammar is divided further.The strong and weak relation between the vector grammar and scalar grammar is discussed,so the spectrum system graph of scalar and vector grammars is made.The equivalent relation between the regular vector grammar and Petri nets (also called PN machine) is pointed.The hybrid PN machine is introduced,and its language is proved equivalent to the language of the context-free vector grammar.So the perfect relation structure between vector grammars and PN machines is formed.

Effectiveness of Using Games in Teaching Grammar to Young Learners

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Yolageldili, Gulin; Arikan, Arda

2011-01-01

The primary aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of using games in teaching grammar to young learners from the view points of Turkish EFL teachers working in primary schools. English language teacher' (n = 15) opinions were collected through a questionnaire and the results of this study demonstrated that Turkish EFL teachers have a…

Vega-Lite: A Grammar of Interactive Graphics.

Science.gov (United States)

Satyanarayan, Arvind; Moritz, Dominik; Wongsuphasawat, Kanit; Heer, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

We present Vega-Lite, a high-level grammar that enables rapid specification of interactive data visualizations. Vega-Lite combines a traditional grammar of graphics, providing visual encoding rules and a composition algebra for layered and multi-view displays, with a novel grammar of interaction. Users specify interactive semantics by composing selections. In Vega-Lite, a selection is an abstraction that defines input event processing, points of interest, and a predicate function for inclusion testing. Selections parameterize visual encodings by serving as input data, defining scale extents, or by driving conditional logic. The Vega-Lite compiler automatically synthesizes requisite data flow and event handling logic, which users can override for further customization. In contrast to existing reactive specifications, Vega-Lite selections decompose an interaction design into concise, enumerable semantic units. We evaluate Vega-Lite through a range of examples, demonstrating succinct specification of both customized interaction methods and common techniques such as panning, zooming, and linked selection.

The Nature of Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王楠

2012-01-01

This paper describes the nature of grammar as "universalness". The universal grammar indicates that all the languages in the world have identical grammar. This is discussed from three aspects, which gives insight into grammar acquisition.

A grammar checker based on web searching

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Joaquim Moré

2006-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an English grammar and style checker for non-native English speakers. The main characteristic of this checker is the use of an Internet search engine. As the number of web pages written in English is immense, the system hypothesises that a piece of text not found on the Web is probably badly written. The system also hypothesises that the Web will provide examples of how the content of the text segment can be expressed in a grammatically correct and idiomatic way. Thus, when the checker warns the user about the odd nature of a text segment, the Internet engine searches for contexts that can help the user decide whether he/she should correct the segment or not. By means of a search engine, the checker also suggests use of other expressions that appear on the Web more often than the expression he/she actually wrote.

Generative Graph Grammar of Neo-Vaiśeṣika Formal Ontology (NVFO)

Science.gov (United States)

Tavva, Rajesh; Singh, Navjyoti

NLP applications for Sanskrit so far work within computational paradigm of string grammars. However, to compute 'meanings', as in traditional śā bdabodha prakriyā-s, there is a need to develop suitable graph grammars. Ontological structures are fundamentally graphs. We work within the formal framework of Neo-Vaiśeṣika Formal Ontology (NVFO) to propose a generative graph grammar. The proposed formal grammar only produces well-formed graphs that can be readily interpreted in accordance with Vaiśeṣ ika Ontology. We show that graphs not permitted by Vaiśeṣ ika ontology are not generated by the proposed grammar. Further, we write Interpreter of these graphical structures. This creates computational environment which can be deployed for writing computational applications of Vaiśeṣ ika ontology. We illustrate how this environment can be used to create applications like computing śā bdabodha of sentences.

Error analysis of the freshmen Criminology students’ grammar in the written English

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Maico Demi Banate Aperocho

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study identifies the various syntactical errors of the fifty (50 freshmen B.S. Criminology students of the University of Mindanao in Davao City. Specifically, this study aims to answer the following: (1 What are the common errors present in the argumentative essays of the respondents? (2 What are the reasons of the existence of these errors? This study is descriptive-qualitative. It also uses error analysis to point out the syntactical errors present in the compositions of the participants. The fifty essays are subjected to error analysis. Errors are classified based on Chanquoy’s Classification of Writing Errors. Furthermore, Hourani’s Common Reasons of Grammatical Errors Checklist was also used to determine the common reasons of the identified syntactical errors. To create a meaningful interpretation of data and to solicit further ideas from the participants, a focus group discussion is also done. Findings show that students’ most common errors are on the grammatical aspect. In the grammatical aspect, students have more frequently committed errors in the verb aspect (tense, subject agreement, and auxiliary and linker choice compared to spelling and punctuation aspects. Moreover, there are three topmost reasons of committing errors in the paragraph: mother tongue interference, incomprehensibility of the grammar rules, and the incomprehensibility of the writing mechanics. Despite the difficulty in learning English as a second language, students are still very motivated to master the concepts and applications of the language.

Presenting New Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

WU Cai-ling; WANG Xi

2015-01-01

More and more researchers have now agreed upon the necessity of teaching grammar, but it still remains controversial as how to teach the forms, with the central consideration of not to harm the meaning-focused communicative teaching method. In this essay, one of the issues in grammar teaching will be discussed as how to present new grammar to learners, through evaluating and modifying a particular presentation activity in a grammar-teaching textbook.

Grammar! A Conference Report.

Science.gov (United States)

King, Lid, Ed.; Boaks, Peter, Ed.

Papers from a conference on the teaching of grammar, particularly in second language instruction, include: "Grammar: Acquisition and Use" (Richard Johnstone); "Grammar and Communication" (Brian Page); "Linguistic Progression and Increasing Independence" (Bernardette Holmes); "La grammaire? C'est du bricolage!" ("Grammar? That's Hardware!") (Barry…

A Design Study of a Multimedia Instructional Grammar Program with Embedded Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Koehler, Natalya A.; Thompson, Ann D.; Phye, Gary D.

2011-01-01

This is a design study meant to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating three rather different theoretical perspectives for future efforts in multimedia instructional design. A multimedia instructional grammar program contextualized within the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) was developed and evaluated. The program design was…

Understanding the Models of Grammar

OpenAIRE

Mahaputri, Ratna Andhika

2013-01-01

This article provides comprehensive explanation about several models of grammar. The first model of grammar which is explained is considered from the functional grammar and associated with the American linguist Noam Chomsky that is Transformational Grammar. This model of grammar is consisted of three components they are phrase structure rule, the lexicon, and transformation. The second model of grammar which is explained in this article is Minimalist Grammar. This article also compares her...

Effects of traditional grammar teaching on standard six learners’ performance in understanding and using simple present tense, simple past tense, pronouns, and articles

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Thulasimani Munohsamy

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This study sought to investigate whether there is any effect of the traditional grammar teaching on Standard Six learners’ performance in understanding and using simple present tense, simple past tense, pronouns and articles in writing. The sample for the study consisted of 40 Standard Six students of SK Tansau, Putatan, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah who was divided equally into two groups which were the treatment group and the control groups. Tests of understanding and of using the simple present tense, simple past tense, pronouns and articles were used as the instruments of the study. The data was collected through the administration of the pre-test and post-test. To analyze the collected data, the SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Sciences version 11.5 was used. T-test was used to see if there was a significant difference in the mean of gain score. The Pearson Correlation was used on both tests between treatment group and control group to establish the relationship between scores on understanding and scores on using the grammatical features investigated. The study found that there was no significant difference in the mean of gain score in simple present tense, simple past tense and pronouns of the understanding test as well as writing test between the treatment and control groups. The results also indicated that there was no correlation between scores on test of understanding and test of using simple present tense, simple past tense, pronouns and articles on writing in the treatment group. There have been research studies in the past that lend clear cut support to the teaching of grammar as a mean of improving writing, however the results of this research clearly show that the implementation of Traditional Grammar Teaching has no effects on the students’ writing.

Freshman Students‟ Attitudes and Behavior towards Advanced Grammar and Composition Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romel M. Aceron

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Teaching English advanced grammar and composition to college students is important as it provides them with high level of understanding and competence in the language. It guides them in putting words together into sentences and makes them orally produce sounds clearly and effectively. This paper aims to determine the attitudes and behavior towards advanced grammar and composition teaching among freshman college students of Batangas State University. Descriptive method of research has been used to analyze and interpret data. The following instruments such as self-made questionnaire, focus group discussion, data analysis, interview guide, have been utilized to gather data. To analyze and interpret data, mean scores have been used. Pearson’s (r Product Moment Correlation Method has been utilized to treat the null hypothesis with regard to the attitudes and behavior of the students towards advanced grammar and composition teaching. Based on the findings of the study, the students sometimes understand and feel the subject matters, i.e., morphology, phonology, grammar and usage, and mechanics and composition writing. They are also sometimes ready in particular lesson and activity which are given to them in class. The study also reveals that there is no significant relationship between the students’ attitudes and behavior towards AGCT. In this regard, college students taking advanced grammar and composition course must be well-motivated to understand, and must have the readiness to perform the activities entail in the subject areas of morphology, phonology, grammar and usage, and mechanics and composition writing through teacher’s varied approaches, strategies, researches, and integration.

Functional Grammar and Teaching of Reading--A Pedagogy Based on Graded Teaching of College English in China

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Tuo; Zhang, Beili

2015-01-01

This article discusses the importance of functional grammar and demonstrates its application to the teaching of reading among graded college students. Functional grammar holds that a discourse is composed of two levels: the interior level and the exterior level. Therefore, reading activities involve both linguistic elements and contexts.…

Methods of English language teaching

OpenAIRE

Козелецька, І.С.

2013-01-01

The grammar translation method instructs students in grammar, and provides vocabulary with direct translations to memorize. It was the predominant method in Europe in the 19th century. Most instructors now acknowledge that this method is ineffective by itself. It is now most commonly used in the traditional instruction of the classical languages.

The Effects of Multiple-Step and Single-Step Directions on Fourth and Fifth Grade Students' Grammar Assessment Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Mazerik, Matthew B.

2006-01-01

The mean scores of English Language Learners (ELL) and English Only (EO) students in 4th and 5th grade (N = 110), across the teacher-administered Grammar Skills Test, were examined for differences in participants' scores on assessments containing single-step directions and assessments containing multiple-step directions. The results indicated no…

Compiler generation based on grammar inheritance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aksit, Mehmet; Mostert, Rene; Haverkort, Boudewijn R.H.M.

1990-01-01

The concept of grammar inheritance is introduced. Grammar inheritance is a structural organization of grammar rules by which a grammar inherits rules from ancestor grammars or may have its own rules inherited by descendant grammars. Grammar inheritance supports reusability and extensibility of

Improve your English the essential guide to English grammar, punctuation and spelling

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Astle, JE Metcalfe & C

2013-01-01

It's important in our daily lives for us to write clear English which is easily understood. If we get the basics wrong, our words may be misinterpreted and cause confusion. To make sure our written words convey our exact meanings, we need to understand the fundamentals of the English language, such as the parts of speech, how sentences and paragraphs are constructed, and the correct use of punctuation. We also need to spell the words correctly!This indispensable reference guide to the rules and conventions governing written English will help all those who are unsure about whether to use ""i

Linguistic grammar learning and DRD2-TAQ-IA polymorphism.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Patrick C M; Ettlinger, Marc; Zheng, Jing

2013-01-01

As research into the neurobiology of language has focused primarily on the systems level, fewer studies have examined the link between molecular genetics and normal variations in language functions. Because the ability to learn a language varies in adults and our genetic codes also vary, research linking the two provides a unique window into the molecular neurobiology of language. We consider a candidate association between the dopamine receptor D2 gene (DRD2) and linguistic grammar learning. DRD2-TAQ-IA polymorphism (rs1800497) is associated with dopamine receptor D2 distribution and dopamine impact in the human striatum, such that A1 allele carriers show reduction in D2 receptor binding relative to carriers who are homozygous for the A2 allele. The individual differences in grammatical rule learning that are particularly prevalent in adulthood are also associated with striatal function and its role in domain-general procedural memory. Therefore, we reasoned that procedurally-based grammar learning could be associated with DRD2-TAQ-IA polymorphism. Here, English-speaking adults learned artificial concatenative and analogical grammars, which have been respectively associated with procedural and declarative memory. Language learning capabilities were tested while learners' neural hemodynamic responses were simultaneously measured by fMRI. Behavioral learning and brain activation data were subsequently compared with the learners' DRD2 (rs1800497) genotype. Learners who were homozygous for the A2 allele were better at concatenative (but not analogical) grammar learning and had higher striatal responses relative to those who have at least one A1 allele. These results provide preliminary evidence for the neurogenetic basis of normal variations in linguistic grammar learning and its link to domain-general functions.

Scaffolding in Business English Correspondence Classes at College Level

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Sulindra Widjojokoesoemo

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Language teaching and education have been so long influenced by developmental psychology, namely constructivism. This idea enlightens the world of language teaching. Constructivism has received both praises and critics. Communicative approach followers claim that the principles in constructivism support their thoughts while the followers of a more traditional approach, namely, Grammar Translation Method, claim that the constructivism is just another experiment in language teaching, just like other methods. This article is based on a classroom action research investigation of how scaffolding instruction, the operational ‘terms’ of constructivism, based on its ‘ZPD’ (Zone of Proximal Development, play roles in language teaching, specifically in Business English Writing. The investigation has perceived several important aspects in scaffolding instruction for teaching Business English Correspondence, such as the importance of modeling or giving examples, as well as corrective and immediate feedback, together with positive reinforcement, to improve the learners’ performance. It showed that modeling or giving examples, peer reviewing, together with immediate feedback, brought significant influence on the learners’ perspective, about their learning performance. Keywords: constructivism, Scaffolding, ZPD, Business English Writing

ULTRA: Universal Grammar as a Universal Parser.

Science.gov (United States)

Medeiros, David P

2018-01-01

A central concern of generative grammar is the relationship between hierarchy and word order, traditionally understood as two dimensions of a single syntactic representation. A related concern is directionality in the grammar. Traditional approaches posit process-neutral grammars, embodying knowledge of language, put to use with infinite facility both for production and comprehension. This has crystallized in the view of Merge as the central property of syntax, perhaps its only novel feature. A growing number of approaches explore grammars with different directionalities, often with more direct connections to performance mechanisms. This paper describes a novel model of universal grammar as a one-directional, universal parser. Mismatch between word order and interpretation order is pervasive in comprehension; in the present model, word order is language-particular and interpretation order (i.e., hierarchy) is universal. These orders are not two dimensions of a unified abstract object (e.g., precedence and dominance in a single tree); rather, both are temporal sequences, and UG is an invariant real-time procedure (based on Knuth's stack-sorting algorithm) transforming word order into hierarchical order. This shift in perspective has several desirable consequences. It collapses linearization, displacement, and composition into a single performance process. The architecture provides a novel source of brackets (labeled unambiguously and without search), which are understood not as part-whole constituency relations, but as storage and retrieval routines in parsing. It also explains why neutral word order within single syntactic cycles avoids 213-like permutations. The model identifies cycles as extended projections of lexical heads, grounding the notion of phase. This is achieved with a universal processor, dispensing with parameters. The empirical focus is word order in noun phrases. This domain provides some of the clearest evidence for 213-avoidance as a cross

Group Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Karen

2015-01-01

In this article Karen Adams demonstrates how to incorporate group grammar techniques into a classroom activity. In the activity, students practice using the target grammar to do something they naturally enjoy: learning about each other.

Closure properties of Watson-Crick grammars

Science.gov (United States)

Zulkufli, Nurul Liyana binti Mohamad; Turaev, Sherzod; Tamrin, Mohd Izzuddin Mohd; Azeddine, Messikh

2015-12-01

In this paper, we define Watson-Crick context-free grammars, as an extension of Watson-Crick regular grammars and Watson-Crick linear grammars with context-free grammar rules. We show the relation of Watson-Crick (regular and linear) grammars to the sticker systems, and study some of the important closure properties of the Watson-Crick grammars. We establish that the Watson-Crick regular grammars are closed under almost all of the main closure operations, while the differences between other Watson-Crick grammars with their corresponding Chomsky grammars depend on the computational power of the Watson-Crick grammars which still need to be studied.

An Analysis of Errors Committed by Saudi Non-English Major Students in the English Paragraph Writing: A Study of Comparisons

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Mohammed Nuruzzaman

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The present study investigates the writing errors of ninety Saudi non-English major undergraduate students of different proficiency levels from three faculties, who studied English as a foundation course at the English Language Center in the College of Languages &Translation at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2016-17. The findings reveal that the common errors the Saudi EFL students make in writing English paragraphs fall under four categories namely grammar, lexis, semantics and mechanics. Then it compares the categories, types and frequency of errors committed by these three groups of students. Among these categories, grammar has been observed as the most error-prone area where students commit errors the most. The study also posits that among the three groups, the students of the College of Medicine make the minimum errors in all the types and the highest number of errors is committed by the students of Engineering College. The College of Computer Science is in the second position in making errors. The frequency of error types is also found different among these three groups.

USING POETRY AS A MODEL FOR CREATING ENGLISH POEMS

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Yasemin Kırkgöz

2008-10-01

Full Text Available This article describes how poems can effectively be used in English language classesto reinforce students’ knowledge of the English language - vocabulary and grammar- andfoster their creative writing. A careful selection of poems appropriate to students’ languagerequirements was incorporated into the curriculum of English Language Teaching. Employingthe Writing-using models technique, a three-step guided writing was developed to consolidatestudents’ language knowledge and creative writing skills. Feedback obtained from thestudents through student journals and interviews demonstrated that the use of poetry hascontributed to students’ practicing effectively and meaningfully their knowledge of grammar;it offered them opportunities for vocabulary enrichment; it broadened their imagination, andfreed them from the routine procedures in the classroom. Sample writings of poems producedby learners are included in the article to demonstrate how the efficient exploitation of thisliterary genre can maximize learner involvement and creativity.

Subverting the grammar

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Bárbara Amaral da Silva

2015-03-01

Full Text Available From the notion of parody, credibility and legitimacy, coming mainly from studies in discourse analysis, and ideas from the sociolinguistic we intend to develop a brief comparison between the Expositive Grammar – Advanced Course (46st ed.:1926 of Eduardo Carlos Pereira, who initially presents itself as a merely descriptive grammar, and the Portuguese Grammar by the Confused Method, written by Mendes Fradique (4st ed.: 1985. We observed that the first one claims to be “expositive” when it is cle­arly prescriptive. The work of Mendes Fradique uses humor and irony to parody pres­criptive grammars, criticizing the “good use”. In order to prove the above statement, we selected some of the concepts presented by those works, checking the position taken by each one. Among them is the very concept of grammar, language etc.

Teaching Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Michael Swan

2008-01-01

@@ The trouble with teaching grammar is that we are never quite sure whether it works or not:its effects are uncertain and hard to assess.Michael Swan looks at grammar teaching and the carry-over to spontaneous production by students.

Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

JeanetteDeCarrico; DianeLarsen-Freeman

2004-01-01

When it comes to definitions of grammar,confusion abounds.One problem is that the word grammar means different things to different people.For many,the term sugges tsa list of do's and don't's,rules that tell us we should say It is I,not It is me,that we should not say ain't,or that weshould avoid ending a sentence with a preposition.For oth

Distinct Grammars and their Role in Interlanguage Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aparecida de Araújo Oliveira

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The expression of temporality encompasses the concepts of tense and aspect, typically conveyed by lexical and inflectional morphemes that usually vary from language to language. This kind of cross-linguistic distinctions often affects L2 learning. In this paper I discuss the role of the Portuguese grammar in the acquisition of the English present perfect tense by eighteen Brazilian EFL learners. I compared patterns found in interlanguage data to L2 patterns, and, as expected, L1 phonology affected learners’ production of regular past tenses, especially in early interlanguage. As for form-function mappings, besides L2 patterns, learners created two major meaning categories of current relevance, based on persisting / non-persisting situations, which were systematically conveyed by forms that resembled their L1 grammar. Durative events and states (imperfective situations persisting into the present were expressed by present tenses, while all aspectual categories of concluded (perfective situations were encoded by past tenses. Specific adverbials were used in each category

Linguistic grammar learning and DRD2-TAQ-IA polymorphism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick C M Wong

Full Text Available As research into the neurobiology of language has focused primarily on the systems level, fewer studies have examined the link between molecular genetics and normal variations in language functions. Because the ability to learn a language varies in adults and our genetic codes also vary, research linking the two provides a unique window into the molecular neurobiology of language. We consider a candidate association between the dopamine receptor D2 gene (DRD2 and linguistic grammar learning. DRD2-TAQ-IA polymorphism (rs1800497 is associated with dopamine receptor D2 distribution and dopamine impact in the human striatum, such that A1 allele carriers show reduction in D2 receptor binding relative to carriers who are homozygous for the A2 allele. The individual differences in grammatical rule learning that are particularly prevalent in adulthood are also associated with striatal function and its role in domain-general procedural memory. Therefore, we reasoned that procedurally-based grammar learning could be associated with DRD2-TAQ-IA polymorphism. Here, English-speaking adults learned artificial concatenative and analogical grammars, which have been respectively associated with procedural and declarative memory. Language learning capabilities were tested while learners' neural hemodynamic responses were simultaneously measured by fMRI. Behavioral learning and brain activation data were subsequently compared with the learners' DRD2 (rs1800497 genotype. Learners who were homozygous for the A2 allele were better at concatenative (but not analogical grammar learning and had higher striatal responses relative to those who have at least one A1 allele. These results provide preliminary evidence for the neurogenetic basis of normal variations in linguistic grammar learning and its link to domain-general functions.

English in the Garment Shops.

Science.gov (United States)

Verplaetse, Lorrie

This text for limited-English-speaking workers in the garment industry consits of illustrated vocabulary words, grammar lessons, narratives or brief readings, and exercises on employment-related topics. The first section focuses on shop talk, including job-specific vocabulary, simple expressions and explanations, social language, seeking and…

An introduction to English grammar

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Nelson, Gerald C

2013-01-01

English Language and its usage has become extremely emotive issues in recent years. Recurring discussions in the media have highlighted a growing demand for a return to the study of language after decades of neglect. This book is an introductory descriptive survey, intended for students, teachers and general readers which offers coverage of grammatical topics with sections on spelling, punctuation and exercises.Clear and concise, this much needed third edition of Gerald Nelson and the late Sidney Greenbaum's introduction will be of immense value to students who have little or no experience of

In Search of Optimal Cognitive Diagnostic Model(s) for ESL Grammar Test Data

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Yeon-Sook

2017-01-01

This study compares five cognitive diagnostic models in search of optimal one(s) for English as a Second Language grammar test data. Using a unified modeling framework that can represent specific models with proper constraints, the article first fit the full model (the log-linear cognitive diagnostic model, LCDM) and investigated which model…

A Computer String-Grammar of English.

Science.gov (United States)

Sager, Naomi

This volume is the fourth in a series of detailed reports on a working computer program for the syntactic analysis of English sentences into their component strings. The report (1) records the considerations involved in various decisions among alternative grammatical formulations and presents the word-subclasses, the linguistic strings, etc., for…

A Concise Contrastive Grammar of English

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjulmand, Lise-Lotte

the opportunity to identify and correct mistakes which are typical for Danes who speak or write English. There is plenty of material in the workbook, so the users are free to choose the material which they find most suitable. Teachers can furthermore use some material when covering a particular grammatical topic...

Challenges Associated with Teaching and Learning of English ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Challenges Associated with Teaching and Learning of English Grammar in Nigerian Secondary Schools. ... Abstract. This paper discussed the challenges which are associated with the teaching and ... AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO ...

English for journalists twentieth anniversary edition

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Hicks, Wynford

2013-01-01

English for Journalists has established itself as an invaluable guide to the basics of English in newsrooms the world over, focusing on the essential aspects of writing, from reporting speech to the house styles and jargon central to the language of journalism.Written in a highly accessible and engaging style, English for Journalists covers the fundamentals of grammar, spelling, punctuation and journalistic writing, with all points illustrated through a series of concise and illuminating examples. The book features practical, easy to follow rules, the correct and incorrect ways to report stori

Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

JeanetteDecarrico; DianeLarsen-Freeman

2004-01-01

Previous sections have reviewed issues in describing grammar, issues that were mainly concerned with what to describe, how to describe it and how to account for differing approaches and their implications in terms of theory and pedagogy in applied linguistics. But however precise and thorough researchers may attempt to be in addressing these issues, there are certain limitations to descriptions of grammar given in isolation from all other parts of the language system

Spoken Grammar for Chinese Learners

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

徐晓敏

2013-01-01

Currently, the concept of spoken grammar has been mentioned among Chinese teachers. However, teach-ers in China still have a vague idea of spoken grammar. Therefore this dissertation examines what spoken grammar is and argues that native speakers’ model of spoken grammar needs to be highlighted in the classroom teaching.

Social Networking Sites (SNSs- Shifting Paradigm of English Language Usage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hetal K. Kachhia

2014-06-01

Full Text Available English is the globally accepted language in various nations and professions in different varieties, but the English that has acquired a wider spectrum than all these Englishes is the English used in Social Networking Sites which has changed the scenario of English language usage due to the ease in its accessibility and the kind of flexibility of language usage. The English used in Social Networking Sites like Facebook and Twitter has changed the linguistic behaviour of the people by producing a number of acronyms like BFF, FB etc, creating new verb forms like ‘to tweet’ or nouns like ‘tweeple’ or producing many compound nouns such as ‘netiquette’, changing the meaning of traditional verbs and nouns by introducing new meanings to them, e.g. the word ‘friend’ is used to refer “someone to an online list of acquaintances”, and by making use of prefixes like ‘un’ for the purpose of conveying the meaning of negation as in ‘unlike a comment/update’ by ignoring its original prefix ‘dis’ for referring the antonym of ‘like’. By emphasizing on the aim of communication, grammar and vocabulary are put on the peripheral value in Social Networking Sites. Therefore, the focal point of this paper is to study the changes in the linguistic behaviour of the people caused by the SNSs.

The Routledge Dictionary of English Language Studies

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Pearce, Michael

2012-01-01

Filled with real examples of the way people use English in different contexts, The Routledge Dictionary of English Language Studies is an indispensable guide to the richness and variety of the English language for both students and the general reader.From abbreviation to zero-article, via fricative and slang, the Dictionary contains over 600 wide ranging and informative entries covering:the core areas of language description and analysis: phonetics and phonology, grammar, lexis, semantics, pragmatics and discoursesociolinguistics, including entries on social and regional variation, stylistic v

Learning English: Experiences and Needs of Saudi Engineering Students

Science.gov (United States)

Unruh, Susan; Obeidat, Fayiz

2015-01-01

In this qualitative study, Saudi engineering students talk openly of their experiences learning English in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and as university students in the United States (US). These students reported that they learned only the basics of vocabulary and grammar in KSA. Consequently, they came to the US with few English skills. In…

Tense and Aspect in English

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Davidsen-Nielsen, Niels

2013-01-01

In the 1990's the author cooperated with Carl Bache on a grammar of English. It turned out that the views they had previously arrived at individually on tense and aspect could be combined by operating with a fused system involving four ordered choices resulting in sixteen tense-aspect forms...

Specific Language Impairment - Evidence for the division of labor and the interaction between grammar and pragmatics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schaeffer, J.

2012-01-01

This study analyzes grammatical and pragmatic data of English and Dutch acquiring children with SLI, and compares them to the language of typically developing children, in order to gain more insight in the organization of language, in particular, the dissociation and interaction of grammar and

k-visit Attribute Grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielson, Hanne Riis; Skyum, S.

1981-01-01

It is shown that any well-defined attribute grammar is k-visit for some k. Furthermore, it is shown that given a well-defined grammar G and an integer k, it is decidable whether G is k-visit. Finally it is shown that the k-visit grammars specify a proper hierarchy with respect to translations...

Explicit teaching of grammar and improvement in the grammar of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Explicit teaching of grammar and improvement in the grammar of student writing. J Parkinson. Abstract. No Abstract. Full Text: EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. Article Metrics. Metrics Loading ... Metrics powered by PLOS ALM

Strictness Analysis for Attribute Grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rosendahl, Mads

1992-01-01

interpretation of attribute grammars. The framework is used to construct a strictness analysis for attribute grammars. Results of the analysis enable us to transform an attribute grammar such that attributes are evaluated during parsing, if possible. The analysis is proved correct by relating it to a fixpoint...... semantics for attribute grammars. An implementation of the analysis is discussed and some extensions to the analysis are mentioned....

French grammar in context

CERN Document Server

Jubb, Margaret

2013-01-01

Instructors' edition without answer keysDiscount of 20% offered when 10 ebooks are sold- e.g. they will be sold for 263.60/ £151.90 instead of 329.50/£189.90French Grammar in Context presents a unique and exciting approach to learning grammar. Authentic texts from a rich variety of sources, literary and journalistic, are used as the starting point for the illustration and explanation of key areas of French grammar. Each point is consolidated with a wide range of written and spoken exercises. Grammar is presented not as an end in itself, but as a

Forest Grammar (Ⅱ)

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张松懋

1994-01-01

The syntactic parsing algorithm of weak precedence forest grammar has been introduced and the correctness and unambiguity of this algorithm have been proved. An example is given to the syntactic parsing procedure of weak precedence forest grammar.

A Descriptive Enquiry into Subject-Verb Concord in English Existential Constructions

Science.gov (United States)

Tsuchida, Takehiro

2011-01-01

Subject-verb concord in English existential constructions is often viewed as problematic from both prescriptive and descriptive approaches to grammar and causes considerable confusion among teachers and learners of English as a second language (ESL). This paper aims to disentangle debates over the curious usage of the "there" + plural noun phrase…

Analyzing Ambiguity of Context-Free Grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brabrand, Claus; Giegerich, Robert; Møller, Anders

2007-01-01

It has been known since 1962 that the ambiguity problem for context-free grammars is undecidable. Ambiguity in context-free grammars is a recurring problem in language design and parser generation, as well as in applications where grammars are used as models of real-world physical structures. We...... observe that there is a simple linguistic characterization of the grammar ambiguity problem, and we show how to exploit this to conservatively approximate the problem based on local regular approximations and grammar unfoldings. As an application, we consider grammars that occur in RNA analysis...

English made easy

CERN Document Server

Crichton, Jonathan

2013-01-01

This is a fun and user–friendly way to learn English English Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learning—imaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Self–guided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combination of pictures and text to discover for themselves how English works. The pictorial method used in this book is based on a thorough understanding of language structure and how language is successfully learned.English Made Easy, Volume 1 consists of a total of 20 units arranged in groups of five. The first four units presents language and provide learners the opportunities to practice as they learn. The first page of each unit has a list of all the word...

English made easy

CERN Document Server

Crichton, Jonathan

2013-01-01

This is a fun and user–friendly way to learn EnglishEnglish Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learning—imaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Self–guided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combination of pictures and text to discover for themselves how English works. The pictorial method used in this book is based on a thorough understanding of language structure and how language is successfully learned.English Made Easy, Volume 2 consists of a total of 20 units arranged in groups of five. The first four units presents language and provide learners the opportunities to practice as they learn. The first page of each unit has a list of all the words...

Generic Graph Grammar: A Simple Grammar for Generic Procedural Modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Asger Nyman; Bærentzen, Jakob Andreas

2012-01-01

in a directed cyclic graph. Furthermore, the basic productions are chosen such that Generic Graph Grammar seamlessly combines the capabilities of L-systems to imitate biological growth (to model trees, animals, etc.) and those of split grammars to design structured objects (chairs, houses, etc.). This results...

A System for Understanding and Selecting English-Language Articles for Advanced ESL Writers

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Heather M.

2010-01-01

The use of definite and indefinite articles in English is well known to be a major point of difficulty for many nonnative English speakers. These difficulties prevail even when the speakers are fluent in most other aspects of English grammar and style. This article investigates the pedagogical and linguistic reasons why article use is such a…

On Construction Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

XIAO Kunxue

2005-01-01

Constructionist approach with its brand-new perspective has begun to demonstrate its dynamic power. This paper attempts to review the basic ideas, achievements and comparison with generative grammar of Construction Grammar and generalize some problems and future research prospects.

A Case for Explicit Grammar Instruction in English as Second/Foreign Language Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Kent

2013-01-01

This paper will provide a review of research--regarding explicit grammar instruction--that groups recent studies into three main categories and then sub-categorizes these studies under key terms in second language acquisition (SLA) research. The overall purpose of this paper is to argue that in light of these issues, recent studies have shown that…

A Task-driven Grammar Refactoring Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Halupka

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents our proposal and the implementation of an algorithm for automated refactoring of context-free grammars. Rather than operating under some domain-specific task, in our approach refactoring is perfomed on the basis of a refactoring task defined by its user. The algorithm and the corresponding refactoring system are called mARTINICA. mARTINICA is able to refactor grammars of arbitrary size and structural complexity. However, the computation time needed to perform a refactoring task with the desired outcome is highly dependent on the size of the grammar. Until now, we have successfully performed refactoring tasks on small and medium-size grammars of Pascal-like languages and parts of the Algol-60 programming language grammar. This paper also briefly introduces the reader to processes occurring in grammar refactoring, a method for describing desired properties that a refactored grammar should fulfill, and there is a discussion of the overall significance of grammar refactoring.

Grammar Games: A Case for Instructionist Game Models to Enhance Grammar Awareness and Accuracy

Science.gov (United States)

Raftery, Brian; Santos, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Based on our own experiences teaching grammar in developmental writing classes and classes not dedicated to writing instruction, along with a history of scholarship that indicates a need for grammar pedagogies (e.g., Dougherty, 2012), instructor-designed grammar games can likely help facilitate learning about these mechanics of writing while…

Attribute And-Or Grammar for Joint Parsing of Human Pose, Parts and Attributes.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Seyoung; Nie, Xiaohan; Zhu, Song-Chun

2017-07-25

This paper presents an attribute and-or grammar (A-AOG) model for jointly inferring human body pose and human attributes in a parse graph with attributes augmented to nodes in the hierarchical representation. In contrast to other popular methods in the current literature that train separate classifiers for poses and individual attributes, our method explicitly represents the decomposition and articulation of body parts, and account for the correlations between poses and attributes. The A-AOG model is an amalgamation of three traditional grammar formulations: (i)Phrase structure grammar representing the hierarchical decomposition of the human body from whole to parts; (ii)Dependency grammar modeling the geometric articulation by a kinematic graph of the body pose; and (iii)Attribute grammar accounting for the compatibility relations between different parts in the hierarchy so that their appearances follow a consistent style. The parse graph outputs human detection, pose estimation, and attribute prediction simultaneously, which are intuitive and interpretable. We conduct experiments on two tasks on two datasets, and experimental results demonstrate the advantage of joint modeling in comparison with computing poses and attributes independently. Furthermore, our model obtains better performance over existing methods for both pose estimation and attribute prediction tasks.

"Wh"-Questions in the English Language

Science.gov (United States)

Mowarin, Macaulay

2011-01-01

This paper analyzes "wh"-questions in the English Language based mainly on Chomsky's Minimalist Programme of transformational grammar as the theoretical model. The four main objectives of this paper are as follows: first, it undertakes a cross linguistic typological analysis of "wh"-questions and it then discusses the derivation of…

Profiling Mobile English Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Byrne, Jason; Diem, Robert

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to use an app-embedded survey to profile language learner demographics. A total of 3,759 EFL language learners from primarily eight L1 backgrounds (French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Thai) responded to the survey embedded within a popular English grammar app. This app has over 500,000…

Classroom Grammar Teaching for Adult Learners

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

石怡

2014-01-01

As Wight (1999, p.33) pointed out to“know a language was to know the grammar of it”, hence grammar teaching is usually the main approach in second or foreign language teaching. This paper presents an analysis from three aspects to il-lustrate why classroom grammar teaching benefits adult learners. However, if grammar is overstated, some negative results will occur. Therefore a balance between grammar teaching and communicative skill teaching is need, as is a balance between accuracy and fluency.

Türkçe, İngilizce Ve Fransızca Açısından Luciene Tesniere’in Bağımsal Dilbilgisi Dependency Grammar Of Luciene Tesniere In The Perspective Of Turkish, English And French

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

İlker AYDIN

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Luciène Tesnière’s Dependency Grammar whose roots may go back to Pânini’s grammar of Sanskrit several centuries before the Common Era forms the basis of the modern theoretical tradition of the Dependency Grammar. Dependency Grammar coming out against predication fact of the traditional grammar degrades the subject at the same level of the other elements of the sentence by taking predicate in the center. According to Tesnière’s Dependency Grammar, subject and object are actants and circumstances are complements.Tesnière’s model is based on the distinction between linear order and structural order of the sentence. The linear order that is one-dimensional is realized in speech and observable while structural order is multidimensional and hidden. For the representation of the structural order, Tesnière uses a graphical representation named as ‘stemma’. Stemma serves to visualize the vertical and horizontal relations within syntactic constructions. In this representation the predicate is the highest element of the hierarchical level. It governs the complements including the subject. The core constituents imposed by the predicate form the valency of this verbal predicate. In general the predicate can take a maximum of three arguments and thus this predicate is trivalent. But sometimes the valency of the predicate can be four. Some verbs such as ‘bet’ (Eng., ‘bahse girmek’ (Tr., ‘parier’ (Fr. are considered to be a tetravalent verb.In addition, in the method of Tesnière the basic syntactic relations are connection, junction and transference. This method describes the hierarchical structure between the elements of the sentence. Dependency Grammar is suitable to represent the syntactic structure of the natural languages. In this study, while the principles demonstrated by Dependency Grammar are explained, two languages English end French, are tried to compare in a narrow frame in front of Turkish. As a result, this

Procedure Of Teaching Grammar Using Memory Enhancement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Herri Susanto

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Teaching grammar has been regarded as a process of understanding from the context. It means a teacher teaches the pupils contextually more than just the rules. However, I have my own experience that teaching grammar methods must depend on the purposes of learning grammar. Some people learn grammar as a means to fulfill the syllabus needs for schools but other people learn grammar for special purposes out of school syllabus, such as for entrance test. For these reasons, the methods of teaching grammar should be different. The students who learn grammar based on the school syllabus probably needs longer procedure of learning that usually uses contextual teaching through listening, speaking, writing, and reading. Nevertheless, students who learn grammar for test need shorter procedure of learning such as memorizing. Therefore, I propose giving a workshop of teaching grammar using memory enhancement as another alternative teaching grammar method. This workshop would show the class that grammar can be learnt through memory enhancement process, i.e.; mind map, music, memory technique and drill to boost up students understanding for test preparation.

Regular extensions of some classes of grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

Culik and Cohen introduced the class of LR-regular grammars, an extension of the LR(k) grammars. In this report we consider the analogous extension of the LL(k) grammers, called the LL-regular grammars. The relations of this class of grammars to other classes of grammars are shown. Every LL-regular

Study of Applying Cognitive Linguistic Theory into Japanese Grammar Teaching——Taking Causative Sentence as an Example

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhang Yu[1

2016-01-01

The traditional Japanese grammar teaching often only pays attention to the interpretation of syntax and the integrity of grammar structure. This violates the cultivation of communicative competence, and is not in conformity with the society’s requirements of applied foreign language talents. Cognitive linguistics theory, which links language form with semantic concept, reveals the internal relation of man’s thinking and language. If we can subtly apply cognitive linguistic theory into Japanese grammar teaching to explore the cognitive process in the speakers’ brain while expressing, we can get a good understanding of diffi cult points and “special case”. This paper explores the introductory methods and efficacy of the cognitive linguistics theory applied in Japanese grammar teaching method, by lecturing causative sentences an example.

Spelling and Phonetic Inconsistencies in English: A Problem for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Administrator

every letter would be a phonetic symbol representing one sound and one ... There are variants of the plural and past tense morpheme: .... Our duty as language teachers is to teach the language and ..... (1994) English Grammar,. Composition ...

The Necessity of Grammar Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Fengjuan

2010-01-01

Mastering grammar is the foundation in the proficiency of a language. Grammar teaching is also an essential part of language teaching. However, with the communicative approach was introduced into China, many foreign language teachers gradually make little of grammar teaching. In terms of the theory of linguistics, this paper specifically explores…

Structural priming, action planning, and grammar.

Science.gov (United States)

MacDonald, Maryellen C; Weiss, Daniel J

2017-01-01

Structural priming is poorly understood and cannot inform accounts of grammar for two reasons. First, those who view performance as grammar + processing will always be able to attribute psycholinguistic data to processing rather than grammar. Second, structural priming may be simply an example of hysteresis effects in general action planning. If so, then priming offers no special insight into grammar.

METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH IN BUKOVYNA EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS (1933 – 1939

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olha Homeniuk

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The article investigates the peculiarities of the implementation of the mixed method of teaching English in Bukovyna in the 1930-s highlighting the prerequisites of its application. The analysis of such aspects of the language as phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and types of speaking activity (speaking, reading and writing is carried out based on curricula and textbooks. The paper presents the comparative characteristic of teaching methods of foreign languages in Bukovyna and Halychyna. The approaches and principles of teaching English have been singled out. The basic principles of implementing the mixed method of teaching English in the region have been proved. There have been discovered the interconnected teaching of speech abilities and skills along with, the use of the native language and the importance of teaching grammar and applying intuition and understanding in combination. Theprospects of further research on methods of teaching foreign languages in the territory of Bukovyna have been outlined.

An Application of Second Language Acquisition Research to ESL Grammar Teaching: What To Do with Novel Passives.

Science.gov (United States)

Balcom, Patricia A.

2001-01-01

Demonstrates how second language acquisition research can inform textbook writers and language teachers. Presents an analysis of 40 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) grammar textbooks, which shows that few mention unaccusative verbs or inappropriate passives in their presentation of active and passive voice. Offers suggestions for dealing with…

Analogy as a Tool for the Acquisition of English Verb Tenses among Low Proficiency L2 Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Yoke, Soo Kum; Hasan, Nor Haniza

2014-01-01

The teaching of English grammar to second language learners is usually a tedious, stressful and time consuming activity and even after all the effort, students have generally found these lessons boring and confusing. As such, innovative language instructors have been trying different approaches to the teaching of grammar in their classrooms. Using…

LexGram - a practical categorial grammar formalism -

OpenAIRE

Koenig, Esther

1995-01-01

We present the LexGram system, an amalgam of (Lambek) categorial grammar and Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), and show that the grammar formalism it implements is a well-structured and useful tool for actual grammar development.

ENGLISH-QUECHUA DICTIONARY--CUZCO, AYACUCHO, COCHABAMBA.

Science.gov (United States)

PARKER, GARY; AND OTHERS

WRITTEN TO SUPPLEMENT THE AUTHORS' SPOKEN QUECHUA MATERIALS, THIS TRIDIALECTAL DICTIONARY PROVIDES THE SPEAKER OF ENGLISH WHO HAS HAD SOME TRAINING IN QUECHUA GRAMMAR WITH A MEANS OF ACCESS TO ADDITIONAL VOCABULARY IN THE CUZCO, AYACUCHO, AND COCHABAMBA DIALECTS. ALL THE QUECHUA WORDS AND PHRASES INCLUDED ARE IN ACTUAL USE AND WERE GATHERED FROM…

Information packaging in Functional Discourse Grammar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niels Smit

2007-07-01

Full Text Available

The paper addresses the modelling of information packaging in Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG, in particular the treatment of Topic, Comment and Focus. Current FDG has inherited the traditional Functional Grammar (FG representation of these categories as functions, which attach to Subacts of evocation. However, arguments of a formal, notional and descriptive nature can be advanced against pragmatic function assignment and in favour of an alternative analysis in which informational and evocational structures are dissociated so as to command their own primitives. In the context of a model of discourse knowledge organisation in which communicated contents are associated with packaging instructions that tell the Addressee how to treat the evoked knowledge, it is argued that focality can be modelled by means of a Focus operator that can attach to various constituents at the Interpersonal Level. Topicality, on the other hand, concerns binomial and monomial modes of presenting communicated contents. This can be rendered by means of the dedicated informational units Topic (Top and Comment (Cm, that interact in frames.

Style representation in design grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ahmad, Sumbul; Chase, Scott Curland

2012-01-01

The concept of style is relevant for both the analysis and synthesis of designs. New styles are often formed by the adaptation of previous ones based on changes in design criteria and context. A formal characterization of style is given by shape grammars, which describe the compositional rules...... underlying a set of designs. Stylistic change can be modelled by grammar transformations, which allow the transformation of the structure and vocabulary of a grammar that is used to describe a particular style. In order for grammars to be useful beyond a single application, they should have the capability...... to be transformed according to changing design style needs. Issues of formalizing stylistic change necessitate a lucid and formal definition of style in the design language generated by a grammar. Furthermore, a significant aspect of the definition of style is the representation of aesthetic qualities attributed...

Nuclear English: Language skills for a globalizing industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorlin, S.

2005-01-01

Nuclear English is a new course designed for English language learners working in the nuclear industry and in other fields of nuclear science and technology. The textbook is composed of 12 units, each covering a different aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle or a relevant topic such as non-proliferation, safety and the use of radioisotopes in medicine. Nuclear English offers a flexible approach, allowing learners to: Study the units in any order according to professional need or interest; Focus on listening, grammar and pronunciation tasks, which are clearly signposted; Work independently or with other students in a classroom. The other main features of the course are: A audio CD containing authentic interviews with industry specialists. The course covers various accents, including British, American, Australian, South African and Indian; Transcripts of the listening materials; A language orientation test, which learners can take at the start of the course to identify their grammar weaknesses; Teacher-led exercises for working in pairs or groups; A glossary of key terms; An answer key; a downloadable teacher's guide to help teachers maximize the learning potential of the materials (available at: www.world-nuclear-university.org)

Nuclear English: Language skills for a globalizing industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gorlin, S

2005-07-01

Nuclear English is a new course designed for English language learners working in the nuclear industry and in other fields of nuclear science and technology. The textbook is composed of 12 units, each covering a different aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle or a relevant topic such as non-proliferation, safety and the use of radioisotopes in medicine. Nuclear English offers a flexible approach, allowing learners to: Study the units in any order according to professional need or interest; Focus on listening, grammar and pronunciation tasks, which are clearly signposted; Work independently or with other students in a classroom. The other main features of the course are: A audio CD containing authentic interviews with industry specialists. The course covers various accents, including British, American, Australian, South African and Indian; Transcripts of the listening materials; A language orientation test, which learners can take at the start of the course to identify their grammar weaknesses; Teacher-led exercises for working in pairs or groups; A glossary of key terms; An answer key; a downloadable teacher's guide to help teachers maximize the learning potential of the materials (available at: www.world-nuclear-university.org)

A Learning Algorithm for Multimodal Grammar Inference.

Science.gov (United States)

D'Ulizia, A; Ferri, F; Grifoni, P

2011-12-01

The high costs of development and maintenance of multimodal grammars in integrating and understanding input in multimodal interfaces lead to the investigation of novel algorithmic solutions in automating grammar generation and in updating processes. Many algorithms for context-free grammar inference have been developed in the natural language processing literature. An extension of these algorithms toward the inference of multimodal grammars is necessary for multimodal input processing. In this paper, we propose a novel grammar inference mechanism that allows us to learn a multimodal grammar from its positive samples of multimodal sentences. The algorithm first generates the multimodal grammar that is able to parse the positive samples of sentences and, afterward, makes use of two learning operators and the minimum description length metrics in improving the grammar description and in avoiding the over-generalization problem. The experimental results highlight the acceptable performances of the algorithm proposed in this paper since it has a very high probability of parsing valid sentences.

Ambiguity Detection Methods for Context-Free Grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

H.J.S. Basten (Bas)

2007-01-01

textabstractThe Meta-Environment enables the creation of grammars using the SDF formalism. From these grammars an SGLR parser can be generated. One of the advantages of these parsers is that they can handle the entire class of context-free grammars (CFGs). The grammar developer does not have to

Text-based Learning (Tbl) to Activate Adult Efl Learners in Learning English: a Narrative Inquiry

OpenAIRE

Iftanti, Erna

2017-01-01

In response to the fact that college students complain on their unsuccessful story of their EFL learning experience such as the limited number of vocabulary, English Grammar confusion, low competence of English language skills, this article explores an alternative effective way of helping them to improve their English through Text-Based Learning (TBL) model. This article is then intended to narrate the implementation of TBL to teach English for college students of non English Department of Po...

A Construction Grammar for the Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Holme, Randal

2010-01-01

Construction grammars (Lakoff, Women, fire and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the Mind, University of Chicago Press, 1987; Langacker, Foundations of cognitive grammar: Theoretical pre-requisites, Stanford University Press, 1987; Croft, Radical construction grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective, Oxford University…

Machine Translation Using Constraint-Based Synchronous Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

WONG Fai; DONG Mingchui; HU Dongcheng

2006-01-01

A synchronous grammar based on the formalism of context-free grammar was developed by generalizing the first component of production that models the source text. Unlike other synchronous grammars,the grammar allows multiple target productions to be associated to a single production rule which can be used to guide a parser to infer different possible translational equivalences for a recognized input string according to the feature constraints of symbols in the pattern. An extended generalized LR algorithm was adapted to the parsing of the proposed formalism to analyze the syntactic structure of a language. The grammar was used as the basis for building a machine translation system for Portuguese to Chinese translation. The empirical results show that the grammar is more expressive when modeling the translational equivalences of parallel texts for machine translation and grammar rewriting applications.

“Grammar-translation” method, a linguistic historic err or of perspective: origins, dynamics and inconsistencies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Camilo Andrés Bonilla Carvajal

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The Grammar-Translation method is frequently referred to as the traditional ineffective approach par excellence. Such view is often justified by the claim that before the Audiolingual method oral performance in foreign language was not reached, and language classes were reduced to memorizing grammar rules and lists of vocabulary. Nevertheless, this opinion is derived from unproved claims, mainly made by misinformed authors for they offer no compelling empirical evidence to validate their restrictive descriptions where translation is shown as an invalid metacognitive strategy. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that Grammar-Translation is merely an arbitrary historic label, developed by methodologists and theoreticians to encompass the history of language teaching from 1790 through 1950. References to Grammar-Translation are critically reviewed to make evident they are biased inferences based on partial evidence to account for the existence of any such methodology. The assumption that Grammar-Translation did exist, and that it is the negative model of teaching practices that should be better avoided at all costs, might reflect an unconstructive and unfounded ideological interest of mainstream theoreticians and unsuspecting teachers.

Monitoring the standard of a Grade 12 English First Additional ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Monitoring the standard of a Grade 12 English First Additional Language Reading, Comprehension, Summary and Grammar Paper. ... In this article these monitoring mechanisms, especially item analysis, are investigated. It is our ... recommendations regarding strategies that may remedy these problems in future.

How to Do Things with Grammar: Rhetorical Function of Some Grammatical Categories in English

Science.gov (United States)

Pizziconi, Sergio

2012-01-01

The debate on the role of grammar training in the language curriculum has shown that, at least in the last five decades, a part of the disagreement between the supporters of the opposite camps is based on conflicting assumptions about the meaning and sense of some of the terms of the discussion. Three of them will be considered in this…

Effects of traditional teaching vs a multisensory instructional package on the science achievement and attitudes of English language learners middle-school students and English-speaking middle-school students

Science.gov (United States)

Crosley, Haver

This research was designed to determine the relative effectiveness of a Multi-sensory Instructional Package (MIP) (Dunn & Dunn, 1992) versus Traditional Teaching (TT) on the science achievement- and attitude-test scores of middle-school English Language Learner (ELL) and English-speaking sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade middle-school students. The dependent variables were students' science- and attitude-test scores. The independent variables were the two instructional strategies, ELL and English-speaking (Non-ELL) status, and three grade levels. The sample consisted of 282 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade ELL and Non-ELL middle-school students. Learning Styles: The Clue to You! (LS: CY) (Burke & Dunn, 1998) was administered to determine learning-style preferences. The control groups were taught sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade science lessons traditionally and the experimental groups were instructed on the same units using MIPs. The Semantic Differential Scale (SDS) (Pizzo, 1981) was administered to reveal attitudinal differences. All three groups experienced both traditional and multi-sensory instruction in all three sub-units. The data subjected to statistical analyses supported the use of an MIP rather than a traditional approach for teaching science content to both ELLs and English-speaking middle-school students. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a positive and significant impact on achievement scores. Furthermore, the students indicated significantly more positive attitudes when instructed with an MIP approach.

Neural Correlates of Lexicon and Grammar: Evidence from the Production, Reading, and Judgment of Inflection in Aphasia

Science.gov (United States)

Ullman, M.T.; Pancheva, R.; Love, T.; Yee, E.; Swinney, D.; Hickok, G.

2005-01-01

Are the linguistic forms that are memorized in the mental lexicon and those that are specified by the rules of grammar subserved by distinct neurocognitive systems or by a single computational system with relatively broad anatomic distribution? On a dual-system view, the productive -ed-suffixation of English regular past tense forms (e.g.,…

Acquisition of the Constraints on "Wanna" Contraction by Advanced Second Language Learners: Universal Grammar and Imperfect Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Kweon, Soo-Ok; Bley-Vroman, Robert

2011-01-01

Contraction of "want to" to "wanna" is subject to constraints that have been related to the operation of Universal Grammar. Contraction appears to be blocked when the trace of an extracted "wh"-word intervenes. Evidence for knowledge of these constraints by young English-speaking children has been taken to show the operation of Universal Grammar…

Syntax-driven semantic frame composition in Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Kallmeyer

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The grammar framework presented in this paper combines Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar (LTAG with a (decompositional frame semantics. We introduce elementary constructions as pairs of elementary LTAG trees and decompositional frames. The linking between syntax and semantics can largely be captured by such constructions since in LTAG, elementary trees represent full argument projections. Substitution and adjunction in the syntax then trigger the unification of the associated semantic frames, which are formally defined as base-labelled feature structures. Moreover, the system of elementary constructions is specified in a metagrammar by means of tree and frame descriptions. This metagrammatical factorization gives rise to a fine-grained decomposition of the semantic contributions of syntactic building blocks, and it allows us to separate lexical from constructional contributions and to carve out generalizations across constructions. In the second half of the paper, we apply the framework to the analysis of directed motion expressions and of the dative alternation in English, two well-known examples of the interaction between lexical and constructional meaning.

Grammar and Teaching ESL

Science.gov (United States)

Morrissey, Glenda; Young, Barbara N.

2005-01-01

The variety of theories relating to teaching ESL learners leads to contradictory ideas about teaching a second language. This paper focuses on the continuing importance of grammar in teaching and the current resurgence in interest in returning to grammar as an important component in the classroom.

REFLECTIONS ON GRAMMAR TEACHING

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2000-01-01

This article aims to answer three questions:(1)Why there exists a discrepancy between the learner’sgrammar knowledge and their communicative skills?(2)What problems are there with grammar tests andteaching?(3)How should grammar be taught as"away of talking"rather than"a description of rules"?

GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Jiang Nongxin

2003-01-01

@@ 1 Definition of grammar Grammar is the science dealing with the systematic rules of a language, its forms, inflections, syntax, and the art of using them correctly. It is summarized from language use and practice, and reflects the logic of thinking in people's speech or writing.

Knowing Chinese character grammar.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, James

2016-02-01

Chinese character structure has often been described as representing a kind of grammar, but the notion of character grammar has hardly been explored. Patterns in character element reduplication are particularly grammar-like, displaying discrete combinatoriality, binarity, phonology-like final prominence, and potentially the need for symbolic rules (X→XX). To test knowledge of these patterns, Chinese readers were asked to judge the acceptability of fake characters varying both in grammaticality (obeying or violating reduplication constraints) and in lexicality (of the reduplicative configurations). While lexical knowledge was important (lexicality improved acceptability and grammatical configurations were accepted more quickly when also lexical), grammatical knowledge was important as well, with grammaticality improving acceptability equally for lexical and nonlexical configurations. Acceptability was also higher for more frequent reduplicative elements, suggesting that the reduplicative configurations were decomposed. Chinese characters present an as-yet untapped resource for exploring fundamental questions about the nature of the human capacity for grammar. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Visual artificial grammar learning by rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): exploring the role of grammar complexity and sequence length.

Science.gov (United States)

Heimbauer, Lisa A; Conway, Christopher M; Christiansen, Morten H; Beran, Michael J; Owren, Michael J

2018-03-01

Humans and nonhuman primates can learn about the organization of stimuli in the environment using implicit sequential pattern learning capabilities. However, most previous artificial grammar learning studies with nonhuman primates have involved relatively simple grammars and short input sequences. The goal in the current experiments was to assess the learning capabilities of monkeys on an artificial grammar-learning task that was more complex than most others previously used with nonhumans. Three experiments were conducted using a joystick-based, symmetrical-response serial reaction time task in which two monkeys were exposed to grammar-generated sequences at sequence lengths of four in Experiment 1, six in Experiment 2, and eight in Experiment 3. Over time, the monkeys came to respond faster to the sequences generated from the artificial grammar compared to random versions. In a subsequent generalization phase, subjects generalized their knowledge to novel sequences, responding significantly faster to novel instances of sequences produced using the familiar grammar compared to those constructed using an unfamiliar grammar. These results reveal that rhesus monkeys can learn and generalize the statistical structure inherent in an artificial grammar that is as complex as some used with humans, for sequences up to eight items long. These findings are discussed in relation to whether or not rhesus macaques and other primate species possess implicit sequence learning abilities that are similar to those that humans draw upon to learn natural language grammar.

Analyzing Ambiguity of Context-Free Grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brabrand, Claus; Giegerich, Robert; Møller, Anders

2010-01-01

It has been known since 1962 that the ambiguity problem for context-free grammars is undecidable. Ambiguity in context-free grammars is a recurring problem in language design and parser generation, as well as in applications where grammars are used as models of real-world physical structures. We...... observe that there is a simple linguistic characterization of the grammar ambiguity problem, and we show how to exploit this by presenting an ambiguity analysis framework based on conservative language approximations. As a concrete example, we propose a technique based on local regular approximations...

Vygotskian methods of teaching and learning in the English ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper describes an alternative approachto the teaching of concepts related to theEnglish curriculum, namely literature, writing summaries and grammar. It combines ashift in the theory of school learning development by a combination with a psychologicaltheory of development. The research was conducted over the ...

E-LEARNING TURKISH LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR: Analyzing Learners' Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Panagiotis GEORGALAS

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This study analyses the behavior and the preferences of the Greek learners of Turkish language, who use a particular e-learning website in parallel with their studies, namely: http://turkish.pgeorgalas.gr. The website offers free online material in Greek and English language for learning the Turkish language and grammar. The traffic of several modules of the website has been measured, examined and analyzed. The research was carried out between the years 2010- 2011 and included the analysis of several million clicks. The results show particular attitudes, habits and preferences throughout the e-learning process. There is a preference of users to exercises against theory. Fast cross-link exercises are preferred to slower “fill in” ones. During the weekends, visitors tend to use less e-learning facilities and select more light activities than the rest days of the week. Society trends and fashions like TV serials have a serious impact to the number of people who decide to learn a new foreign language, in particular Turkish. There is a strong preference of the audience to use online TV against online radio facilities for language practice. The subjects that Greek learners of Turkish language spend more time are verbs conjugation and vocabulary learning. They focus on elementary grammar subjects like the Alphabet, the numbers and the formation of plural. Finally, they try to learn the syntax of Turkish language through sentence structure puzzles and give priority to special grammar issues like noun compounds that are not present in Greek language.

THE QUALITY OF ENGLISH TRANSLATION VERSION OF BILINGUAL BOOKS FOR PHYSICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Djatmika .

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the quality of English translation of the course books of Physics, Economics, and History for Junior High School students in Indonesia. The research which becomes the base for the article is qualitative, conducted on five English version texts of bilingual books for Junior High School students in Indonesia. It selected one chapter of each book and analyzed the quality of its text structure as well as its text texture. The data were in the forms of discourse units and analyzed on the quality of the text structure and aspects of grammar quality such as the grammatical construction of the clauses and the lexical choices of the texts. In addition, it obtained data related to the readability of the texts from twenty students who were selected randomly. The results show that all of the English texts have good quality in their text structure. However, the grammar and choice of words show a number of weaknesses in each text. Text improvement should consider English grammatical rules and systems and Indonesian language interference for English grammatical constructions, word choice and technical terms.

Embedded "wh"-Questions in L2 English in India: Inversion as a Main Clause Phenomenon

Science.gov (United States)

Stringer, David

2015-01-01

This corpus study brings a second language (L2) research perspective, insights from generative grammar, and new empirical evidence to bear on a long-accepted claim in the World Englishes literature--namely, that inversion with "wh"-movement in colloquial Indian English is obligatory in embedded clauses and impossible in main clauses. It…

English Course of Study for Buncombe County Public Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Buncombe County Board of Education, Asheville, NC.

Developed for 58 courses in the English program at the secondary level, this curriculum guide provides a description, an outline, and lists of the objectives, resources, and activities for courses on such subjects as functional language, basic study skills, basic composition, intermediate composition, creative writing, reading, modern grammar, art…

Implicit Learning of Recursive Context-Free Grammars

Science.gov (United States)

Rohrmeier, Martin; Fu, Qiufang; Dienes, Zoltan

2012-01-01

Context-free grammars are fundamental for the description of linguistic syntax. However, most artificial grammar learning experiments have explored learning of simpler finite-state grammars, while studies exploring context-free grammars have not assessed awareness and implicitness. This paper explores the implicit learning of context-free grammars employing features of hierarchical organization, recursive embedding and long-distance dependencies. The grammars also featured the distinction between left- and right-branching structures, as well as between centre- and tail-embedding, both distinctions found in natural languages. People acquired unconscious knowledge of relations between grammatical classes even for dependencies over long distances, in ways that went beyond learning simpler relations (e.g. n-grams) between individual words. The structural distinctions drawn from linguistics also proved important as performance was greater for tail-embedding than centre-embedding structures. The results suggest the plausibility of implicit learning of complex context-free structures, which model some features of natural languages. They support the relevance of artificial grammar learning for probing mechanisms of language learning and challenge existing theories and computational models of implicit learning. PMID:23094021

Implicit learning of recursive context-free grammars.

Science.gov (United States)

Rohrmeier, Martin; Fu, Qiufang; Dienes, Zoltan

2012-01-01

Context-free grammars are fundamental for the description of linguistic syntax. However, most artificial grammar learning experiments have explored learning of simpler finite-state grammars, while studies exploring context-free grammars have not assessed awareness and implicitness. This paper explores the implicit learning of context-free grammars employing features of hierarchical organization, recursive embedding and long-distance dependencies. The grammars also featured the distinction between left- and right-branching structures, as well as between centre- and tail-embedding, both distinctions found in natural languages. People acquired unconscious knowledge of relations between grammatical classes even for dependencies over long distances, in ways that went beyond learning simpler relations (e.g. n-grams) between individual words. The structural distinctions drawn from linguistics also proved important as performance was greater for tail-embedding than centre-embedding structures. The results suggest the plausibility of implicit learning of complex context-free structures, which model some features of natural languages. They support the relevance of artificial grammar learning for probing mechanisms of language learning and challenge existing theories and computational models of implicit learning.

Implicit learning of recursive context-free grammars.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Rohrmeier

Full Text Available Context-free grammars are fundamental for the description of linguistic syntax. However, most artificial grammar learning experiments have explored learning of simpler finite-state grammars, while studies exploring context-free grammars have not assessed awareness and implicitness. This paper explores the implicit learning of context-free grammars employing features of hierarchical organization, recursive embedding and long-distance dependencies. The grammars also featured the distinction between left- and right-branching structures, as well as between centre- and tail-embedding, both distinctions found in natural languages. People acquired unconscious knowledge of relations between grammatical classes even for dependencies over long distances, in ways that went beyond learning simpler relations (e.g. n-grams between individual words. The structural distinctions drawn from linguistics also proved important as performance was greater for tail-embedding than centre-embedding structures. The results suggest the plausibility of implicit learning of complex context-free structures, which model some features of natural languages. They support the relevance of artificial grammar learning for probing mechanisms of language learning and challenge existing theories and computational models of implicit learning.

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROCESS OF BUSINESS ENGLISH SKILLS FORMATION IN FUTURE DOCTORS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Людмила Русалкіна

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the structure and organization of medical students’ business English teaching process. The main attention is spared to the problem of creation of the experimental model of future doctors’ business English skills formation. The suggested model is aimed at productive mastering of lexical and grammar communicative skills, at formation of business English communicative abilities of students-medics; it has communicative direction and is professionally oriented. The exercises correspond to English language knowledge of the future doctors and are set in sequence of increasing complexity.

English Language Needs Analysis of Qur'anic Sciences and Tradition Students in Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Salehi, Hadi; Davari, Ameneh; Yunus, Melor Md

2015-01-01

Needs analysis is fundamental to determine what students need to achieve through the medium of English accurately analysis. In this regard, the present study seeks to evaluate the ESP course book entitled "The ESP Course of Qur'anic Sciences and Tradition" taught at some universities in Iran. More specifically, the study aims to identify…

Functional discourse grammar: pragmatic aspects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hannay, M.; Hengeveld, K.; Brisard, F.; Östman, J.O.; Verschueren, J.

2009-01-01

This chapter introduces Functional Discourse Grammar, focusing on the way in which this model is capable of accounting for the grammatical encoding of pragmatic distinctions and for the typological variation found in this area of grammar.

An Evaluation of the Grammar Teaching Material

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张可科

2013-01-01

　　Of the many issues surrounding grammar, perhaps the hottest debate is whether to teach it or not. We review briefly argu⁃ments against and in support of grammar teaching before examining current grammar approaches in second language teaching.

Ch(k) grammars: A characterization of LL(k) languages

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Becvar, J.; Nijholt, Antinus; Soisalon-Soininen, E.

In this paper we introduce the class of so called Ch(k) grammars [pronounced "chain k grammars"]. This class of grammars is properly contained in the class of LR(k) grammars and it properly contains the LL(k) grammars. However, the family of Ch[k) languages coincides with the family of LL(k)

Chargaff's "Grammar of Biology": New Fractal-like Rules

OpenAIRE

Yamagishi, Michel Eduardo Beleza; Herai, Roberto H.

2011-01-01

Chargaff once said that "I saw before me in dark contours the beginning of a grammar of Biology". In linguistics, "grammar" is the set of natural language rules, but we do not know for sure what Chargaff meant by "grammar" of Biology. Nevertheless, assuming the metaphor, Chargaff himself started a "grammar of Biology" discovering the so called Chargaff's rules. In this work, we further develop his grammar. Using new concepts, we were able to discovery new genomic rules that seem to be invaria...

Practising French grammar a workbook

CERN Document Server

Dr Roger Hawkins; Towell, Richard

2015-01-01

This new edition of Practising French Grammar offers a set of varied and accessible exercises for developing a practical awareness of French as it is spoken and written today. The lively examples and authentic texts and cartoons have been updated to reflect current usage. A new companion website provides a wealth of additional interactive exercises to help consolidate challenging grammar points. Practising French Grammar provides concise summaries of key grammatical points at the beginning of each exercise, as well as model answers to the exercises and translations of difficult words, making i

CLIMB grammars: three projects using metagrammar engineering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fokkens, A.S.; Avgustinova, T.; Zhang, Yi

2012-01-01

This paper introduces the CLIMB (Comparative Libraries of Implementations with Matrix Basis) methodology and grammars. The basic idea behind CLIMB is to use code generation as a general methodology for grammar development in order to create a more systematic approach to grammar development. The

LR-parsing of Extended Context-free Grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Ole Lehrmann; Kristensen, Bent Bruun

1976-01-01

To improve the readability of a grammar it is common to use extended context free grammars (ECFGs) which are context free grammars (CFGs) extended with the repetition operator (*), the alternation operator (¦) and parentheses to express the right hand sides of the productions. The topic treated h...

RESPONDING AND ANALYSING: STAGES OF TEACHING FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR IN INDONESIAN CONTEXT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lala Bumela

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract: This paper offers an alternative to the teaching of a functional grammar course in Indonesian TEFL tertiary level context. An issue raised here is whether the course should directly require students to undertake textual analysis or provide them first with subjective reading experiences.  This issue is inspired by Jones and Lock¹s approach to teaching grammar in context (2011. This paper reports on a study that focused on two related phases of dealing with texts: responding and analyzing.  In the first phase, students were encouraged to take a personalised approach in responding to written English texts.  They had the freedom to decide whether the texts were meaningful for them in certain ways. Mckee (2003 and Lehtonen (2000 posit that as the sole decision maker in meaning negotiation, readers perceive the meaningfulness of texts in very diverse ways. In the second phase of the study, the students undertook an individual analysis of different text types.  This study reveals that a successful textual analysis is determined by how students make sense of the texts. The analysis of context of situation, for example, becomes meaningful to students after they demonstrate a proper position as a reader.  This, in turn, helps them in gaining insights into the structure and grammar of those texts.   Keywords: systemic functional linguistics, genre-based approach, textual analysis

The Grammar Movie Project

Science.gov (United States)

Kreutner, Edith

2015-01-01

In this case study, I will show how directing a movie on grammar can help students improve their oral skills as well as their language competency, team working and planning skills, and also teach them about learning itself. I will present an innovative teaching project that uses the medium of film to get students engaged with grammar and that aims…

Webster's word power essential students' companion general knowledge of the English language

CERN Document Server

Kirkpatrick, Betty

2014-01-01

Helps the student with facts and resource on English grammar, specialist subjects from art to physics, with sections on world facts, Latin and Greek words; Chemical elements; Greek alphabet; the scientific classification of animal; help on essay writing and composition.

Effectiveness of Inductive and Deductive Methods in Teaching Grammar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Akram Alzu’bi

2015-04-01

• What is the effect of inductive method on grammar achievement compared with deductive method at elementary stage? To answer the questions of the study, the researcher prepares two programs based on inductive and deductive methods for each level based on its syllabus. The sample consists 180 students; eighty at the 1st year level in English departments at university level and one hundred at the elementary stage. The participants of the study consisted of four assigned sections. Firstly, at the university level, two colleges are randomly selected out of the eighteen faculties of Albalqa' Applied University; two sections are randomly selected; one group is randomly assigned as the 1st experimental group (by using inductive method and the second experimental group (by using deductive method. Similar process is adopted in the case of school students at the elementary stage.  The relevant pre-tests are administered to the students of both groups at each stage (university and school to make sure that the groups are equivalent at the time of starting the experiment. The researcher designs two grammar achievement tests as the instruments of this study (one for the elementary stage and one for university level. The instrument of each stage consists of two achievement tests (pre- test and post-test. At the end of the treatment period, relevant post-tests are administered to the students of both the groups. The results of the study revealed that there were significant statistical differences at (α≤0.09 among the grammar performance means of both groups at both levels due to inductive method. Keywords: Inductive method, Deductive method, Elementary stage, University level, Academic achievement

Responsible Grammar Rebels: Using the Hunger Games Trilogy to Teach the Intentional Sentence Fragment

Science.gov (United States)

Simmons, Amber M.

2016-01-01

Building off of students' interest in popular apocalyptic/dystopian literature, this article explores how passages from Suzanne Collins's "The Hunger Games" trilogy aided in teaching students how to successfully rebel against traditional grammar rules, looking at fragments as intentional stylistic choices. Employing the values of…

CLIL in physics lessons at grammar school

Science.gov (United States)

Štefančínová, Iveta; Valovičová, Ľubomíra

2017-01-01

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is one of the most outstanding approaches in foreign language teaching. This teaching method has promising prospects for the future of modern education as teaching subject and foreign languages are combined to offer a better preparation for life in Europe, especially when the mobility is becoming a highly significant factor of everyday life. We realized a project called Foreign languages in popularizing science at grammar school. Within the project five teachers with approbation subjects of English, French, German and Physics attended the methodological courses abroad. The teachers applied the gained experience in teaching and linking science teaching with the teaching of foreign languages. Outputs of the project (e.g. English-German-French-Slovak glossary of natural science terminology, student activity sheets, videos with natural science orientation in a foreign language, physical experiments in foreign languages, multimedia fairy tales with natural contents, posters of some scientists) are prepared for the CLIL-oriented lessons. We collected data of the questionnaire for students concerning attitude towards CLIL. The questionnaire for teachers showed data about the attitude, experience, and needs of teachers employing CLIL in their lessons.

Drama Grammar: Towards a Performative Postmethod Pedagogy

Science.gov (United States)

Even, Susanne

2011-01-01

This article presents the original concept of drama grammar, the synthesis of grammar instruction and drama pedagogy, which integrates both structural and communicative paradigms through a dialectic combination of acting and linguistic analysis. Based on the principles of drama pedagogy, drama grammar makes use of techniques from the performing…

Research on the Application of "Tree Analysis Diagram" to the Teaching of English Argumentative Writing of the Chinese EFL Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaokai

2018-01-01

Writing as one of essential skills in English learning is attached more and more importance. English writing involves not only the application of lexicon and grammar, but also the construction of the text and the expression of the thought. For Chinese EFL learners, the common problem in English writing is that they tend to apply the Chinese…

Grammar and Its Teaching: Challenging the Myths

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Diane Larsen-Freeman

2008-01-01

@@ Grammar is often misunderstood in the language teaching field.The misconception lies in the view that grammar is a collection of arbitrary rules about static structures in the language.Further questionable claims are that the structures do not have to be taught,learners will acquire them on their own,or if the structures are taught,the lessons that ensue will he boring.Consequently,communicative and proficiency-based teaching approaches sometimes unduly limit grammar instruction.Of the many claims about grammar that deserve to be called myths,this digest will challenge ten.

LeadMine: a grammar and dictionary driven approach to entity recognition

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Background Chemical entity recognition has traditionally been performed by machine learning approaches. Here we describe an approach using grammars and dictionaries. This approach has the advantage that the entities found can be directly related to a given grammar or dictionary, which allows the type of an entity to be known and, if an entity is misannotated, indicates which resource should be corrected. As recognition is driven by what is expected, if spelling errors occur, they can be corrected. Correcting such errors is highly useful when attempting to lookup an entity in a database or, in the case of chemical names, converting them to structures. Results Our system uses a mixture of expertly curated grammars and dictionaries, as well as dictionaries automatically derived from public resources. We show that the heuristics developed to filter our dictionary of trivial chemical names (from PubChem) yields a better performing dictionary than the previously published Jochem dictionary. Our final system performs post-processing steps to modify the boundaries of entities and to detect abbreviations. These steps are shown to significantly improve performance (2.6% and 4.0% F1-score respectively). Our complete system, with incremental post-BioCreative workshop improvements, achieves 89.9% precision and 85.4% recall (87.6% F1-score) on the CHEMDNER test set. Conclusions Grammar and dictionary approaches can produce results at least as good as the current state of the art in machine learning approaches. While machine learning approaches are commonly thought of as "black box" systems, our approach directly links the output entities to the input dictionaries and grammars. Our approach also allows correction of errors in detected entities, which can assist with entity resolution. PMID:25810776

The P600 in Implicit Artificial Grammar Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Susana; Folia, Vasiliki; Hagoort, Peter; Petersson, Karl Magnus

2017-01-01

The suitability of the artificial grammar learning (AGL) paradigm to capture relevant aspects of the acquisition of linguistic structures has been empirically tested in a number of EEG studies. Some have shown a syntax-related P600 component, but it has not been ruled out that the AGL P600 effect is a response to surface features (e.g., subsequence familiarity) rather than the underlying syntax structure. Therefore, in this study, we controlled for the surface characteristics of the test sequences (associative chunk strength) and recorded the EEG before (baseline preference classification) and after (preference and grammaticality classification) exposure to a grammar. After exposure, a typical, centroparietal P600 effect was elicited by grammatical violations and not by unfamiliar subsequences, suggesting that the AGL P600 effect signals a response to structural irregularities. Moreover, preference and grammaticality classification showed a qualitatively similar ERP profile, strengthening the idea that the implicit structural mere-exposure paradigm in combination with preference classification is a suitable alternative to the traditional grammaticality classification test. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

An integrated approach to enhancing prospective English language teachers' writing skills

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Recep Sahin Arslan

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This study reports on the experience of a group of pre-service teachers of English in a compulsory writing coursein the preparatory program of an English language teaching department in the Turkish context. This studyspecifically attempts to investigate to what extent the writing course contributes to the acquisition of basicconventions of written discourse in English when prospective teachers of English are involved in an extensivewriting practice which is based upon integration of product, process and genre based approaches to writing. Thestudy lasted for a period of 28 weeks with fifty-nine pre-service teachers of English who participated in thestudy. The participants studied the basic genre types which included expository writing such as classification,process, argumentation, opinion, cause and effect, compare and contrast, and narrative paragraphs and essays.The participants specifically received instruction as to the basic constituents of paragraph and essays writing;namely, organization, process, unity, coherence, word choice, language use, grammar, and mechanics whichwere further put into 49 observable competencies. Data were collected through an analytic assessment rubricapplied to participants’ pre-study and post-study essays. In addition, participants were distributed a pre-study anda post-study self-perception questionnaire in order to evaluate any possible improvements in their writingcompetence. The results of the study suggest that exposing pre-service teachers of English to various genres byinvolving them in an extensive writing practice adds to their writing competency positively in learning theprocess of writing practice, organizing the text, including relevant content in the text, using languageappropriately, producing correct grammar, coming up with relevant vocabulary, and following correctmechanical conventions.

Mother Tongue Interference in English Language Writing at Derge ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Most of the grammatical errors committed by the students were L1 interference in acquiring grammatical elements of L2 (English). Based on findings, it was recommended that teachers should be aware of the effect of negative transfer of grammar to MT and know how to reduce this problem and implement more effective ...

The Development of Bilingual Narrative Retelling Among Spanish-English Dual Language Learners Over Two Years.

Science.gov (United States)

Lucero, Audrey

2018-05-25

This exploratory study investigates the development of oral narrative retell proficiency among Spanish-English emergent bilingual children longitudinally from kindergarten to second grade in Spanish and English as they learned literacy in the 2 languages concurrently. Oral narrative retell assessments were conducted with children who spoke Spanish at home and were enrolled in a dual language immersion program (N = 12) in the spring of kindergarten and second grade. Retells were transcribed and coded for vocabulary and grammar at the microlevel (Miller, 2012) and story structure at the macrolevel (Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, & Dunaway, 2010). In microstructure paired-sample t tests, children showed significant improvements in vocabulary in both languages (Spanish total number of words η2 = .43, Spanish number of different words η2 = .44, English total number of words η2 = .61, English number of different words η2 = .62) but not grammar by second grade. At the macrostructure level, children showed significantly higher performance in English only (English narrative scoring scheme η2 = .47). The finding that children significantly improved in vocabulary in both languages but in overall story structure only in English suggests that discourse skills were being facilitated in English whereas Spanish discourse development may have stagnated even within a dual language immersion program. Results contribute to what is currently known about bilingual oral narrative development among young Spanish speakers enrolled in such programs and can inform assessment and instructional decisions.

The equivalence problem for LL- and LR-regular grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

1982-01-01

The equivalence problem for context-free grammars is "given two arbitrary grammars, do they generate the same language?" Since this is undecidable in general, attention has been restricted to decidable subclasses of the context-free grammars. For example, the classes of LL(k) grammars and real-time

Gender stereotyping in EFL grammar textbooks. A diachronic approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcin Lewandowski

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Gender stereotyping in educational materials (especially in EFL textbooks has been a common theme in linguistic research (cf., e. g., Hellinger 1980; Porreca 1984; Freebody/Baker 1987; Sunderland 1994; Lee/Collins 2010. However, very little attention has been paid to the representation of men and women in EFL/ESL grammar textbooks; i. e. the way both genders are portrayed in constructed examples of usage and practice sentences. The present contribution is intended to fill this gap. The paper investigates the scope of gender stereotyping from a diachronic perspective: it seeks to demonstrate whether and how the images of men and women have changed following the dissemination of guidelines for non-sexist language and equal treatment of the two genders in English language educational materials. To this aim, two corpora have been compiled. The first one includes sentences derived from three EFL textbooks published in the 1970s and 1980s, while the other one contains analogous data from three 21st century titles. The contrastive analysis of the sentences in the two corpora across 11 semantic domains has found that the recently published grammar textbooks portray the two genders in a much less stereotyped way than the 20th century course books.

Comprehension of Written Grammar Test: Reliability and Known-Groups Validity Study with Hearing and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

Science.gov (United States)

Cannon, Joanna E.; Hubley, Anita M.; Millhoff, Courtney; Mazlouman, Shahla

2016-01-01

The aim of the current study was to gather validation evidence for the "Comprehension of Written Grammar" (CWG; Easterbrooks, 2010) receptive test of 26 grammatical structures of English print for use with children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). Reliability and validity data were collected for 98 participants (49 DHH and 49…

The Role of Incidental Unfocused Prompts and Recasts in Improving English as a Foreign Language Learners' Accuracy

Science.gov (United States)

Rahimi, Muhammad; Zhang, Lawrence Jun

2016-01-01

This study was designed to investigate the effects of incidental unfocused prompts and recasts on improving English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' grammatical accuracy as measured in students' oral interviews and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) grammar test. The design of the study was quasi-experimental with pre-tests,…

Recovering grammar relationships for the Java language specification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

R. Lämmel (Ralf); V. Zaytsev (Vadim)

2011-01-01

textabstractGrammar convergence is a method that helps in discovering relationships between different grammars of the same language or different language versions. The key element of the method is the operational, transformation-based representation of those relationships. Given input grammars for

Performance Grammars

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Robinson, Jane J

1974-01-01

.... The theory of systematic variation affords better direction for gathering data on rule-governed language use and a means for representing the results in formal grammars that predict speech behavior...

Grammar Errors in the Writing of Iraqi English Language Learners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yasir Bdaiwi Jasim Al-Shujairi

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Several studies have been conducted to investigate the grammatical errors of Iraqi postgraduates and undergraduates in their academic writing. However, few studies have focused on the writing challenges that Iraqi pre-university students face. This research aims at examining the written discourse of Iraqi high school students and the common grammatical errors they make in their writing. The study had a mixed methods design. Through convenience sampling method, 112 compositions were collected from Iraqi pre-university students. For purpose of triangulation, an interview was conducted. The data was analyzed using Corder’s (1967 error analysis model and James’ (1998 framework of grammatical errors. Furthermore, Brown’s (2000 taxonomy was adopted to classify the types of errors. The result showed that Iraqi high school students have serious problems with the usage of verb tenses, articles, and prepositions. Moreover, the most frequent types of errors were Omission and Addition. Furthermore, it was found that intralanguage was the dominant source of errors. These findings may enlighten Iraqi students on the importance of correct grammar use for writing efficacy.

Fluency First: Reversing the Traditional ESL Sequence.

Science.gov (United States)

MacGowan-Gilhooly, Adele

1991-01-01

Describes an ESL department's whole language approach to writing and reading, replacing its traditional grammar-based ESL instructional sequence. Reports the positive quantitative and qualitative results of the first three years of using the new approach. (KEH)

Would There Be One Standard English as the Global Language?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ienneke Indra Dewi

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Article intends to investigate whether there is the possibility of having English as a global language used all over the world with one variety only. One variety of English will reduce the miscommunication among people speaking English. The research was conducted by library research by looking at the requirements of a global language, its spread in the world, and the related problems. The results show that English has fulfilled the requirements of a global language looking from its history and the spread of its speakers. However, it has a lot of varieties in either English speaking countries or in the developing countries where English functions as a second and foreign language. The varieties are found not only in the pronunciation, but in the vocabulary and grammar as well. Usually the native languages play an important role in these varieties. All these facts indicate that English might become a global language. However, having one variety of English still needs a long time to go.

Chomsky's Universal Grammar and Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics: An Appraisal and a Compromise

Science.gov (United States)

Bavali, Mohammad; Sadighi, Firooz

2008-01-01

Recent developments in theories of language (grammars) seem to share a number of tenets which mark a drastic shift from traditional disentangled descriptions of language: emphasis on a big number of discrete grammatical rules or a corpus of structure patterns has given way to a more unitary, explanatory powerful description of language informed by…

EXPLAIN AND EXPLORE——THE INDUCTIVE APPROACH TO EFL GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

YuGuoxing

2004-01-01

The new role of grammar instruction now is based on the increasing understandings that grammar per se is a comprehensive conglomerate. The paper examines the inductive approach to EFL grammar instruction. It starts with some theoretical considerations on inductive approach to formal grammar instruction, followed by its methodological considerations such as how to deal with grammar generalizations and exceptions, learner variables, and grammar complexity, and proposes a sensitive and dynamic balance of explorations and explanations in EFL grammar instruction.

Grammars with two-sided contexts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikhail Barash

2014-05-01

Full Text Available In a recent paper (M. Barash, A. Okhotin, "Defining contexts in context-free grammars", LATA 2012, the authors introduced an extension of the context-free grammars equipped with an operator for referring to the left context of the substring being defined. This paper proposes a more general model, in which context specifications may be two-sided, that is, both the left and the right contexts can be specified by the corresponding operators. The paper gives the definitions and establishes the basic theory of such grammars, leading to a normal form and a parsing algorithm working in time O(n^4, where n is the length of the input string.

Linearly Ordered Attribute Grammar Scheduling Using SAT-Solving

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bransen, Jeroen; van Binsbergen, L.Thomas; Claessen, Koen; Dijkstra, Atze

2015-01-01

Many computations over trees can be specified using attribute grammars. Compilers for attribute grammars need to find an evaluation order (or schedule) in order to generate efficient code. For the class of linearly ordered attribute grammars such a schedule can be found statically, but this problem

Using Processing Instruction for the Acquisition of English Present Perfect of Filipinos

Science.gov (United States)

Erfe, Jonathan P.; Lintao, Rachelle B.

2012-01-01

This is an experimental study on the relative effects of Van Patten's Processing Instruction (PI) (1996, 2002), a "psycholinguistically-motivated" intervention in teaching second-language (L2) grammar, on young-adult Filipino learners of English. A growing body of research on this methodological alternative, which establishes…

Object grammars and random generation

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I. Dutour

1998-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a new systematic approach for the uniform random generation of combinatorial objects. The method is based on the notion of object grammars which give recursive descriptions of objects and generalize context-freegrammars. The application of particular valuations to these grammars leads to enumeration and random generation of objects according to non algebraic parameters.

XPath Node Selection over Grammar-Compressed Trees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastian Maneth

2013-11-01

Full Text Available XML document markup is highly repetitive and therefore well compressible using grammar-based compression. Downward, navigational XPath can be executed over grammar-compressed trees in PTIME: the query is translated into an automaton which is executed in one pass over the grammar. This result is well-known and has been mentioned before. Here we present precise bounds on the time complexity of this problem, in terms of big-O notation. For a given grammar and XPath query, we consider three different tasks: (1 to count the number of nodes selected by the query, (2 to materialize the pre-order numbers of the selected nodes, and (3 to serialize the subtrees at the selected nodes.

Constraints and Logic Programming in Grammars and Language Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Henning

2014-01-01

Constraints are an important notion in grammars and language analysis, and constraint programming techniques have been developed concurrently for solving a variety of complex problems. In this chapter we consider the synthesis of these branches into practical and effective methods for language...... methods that combine constraints with logic grammars such as Definite Clause Grammars and CHR Grammars, and show also a direct relationship to abductive reasoning....

A Contrastive Study of Two Approaches to Teach Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Cai; Lin

2007-01-01

There are many kinds of methods of teaching grammar, no matter what they are, these approaches can generally be classified into two approaches-deductive and inductive. What an appropriate grammar teaching approach is by examining the inductive and deductive approaches to grammar teaching and learning. It starts with the definitions of inductive and deductive approaches to grammar teaching, followed by a contrastive study of these two approaches in terms of both the bases and the application. Finally, it explores the inductive approach and outlines the benefits of this approach and suggests an alternative view of grammar teaching.

Theory–practice dichotomy: Prospective teachers' evaluations about teaching English to young learners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Süleyman Nihat ŞAD

2010-10-01

Full Text Available This study aims at examining the prospective teachers. evaluations about the implementation of the primary ELT curriculum. Also it is aimed to inquire the possible problems and difficulties in teaching English to children. The study is based on qualitative case study design. Qualitative data were collected using participant journaling method from 31 preservice teachers who kept reflective journals throughout their observations of five mentor teachers. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis method by coding and creating categories/themes. Results showed that actual practices do not adequately meet the curricular and theoretical requirements in terms of objectives, content, learning-teaching experiences and evaluation. This theory-practice dichotomy about teaching English to children mainly includes the problems such as non-communicative objectives, failure to appeal students emotionally, overdominance of coursebooks and grammar content over communicative content, use of restricted methodology, ineffective use of technology and materials, insecure (coercive, aggressive, and discriminative classroom atmosphere, lack of or inproper use of game activities, lack of group or pair work, failure to consider individual differences, lack or inappropriate integration of language skills, improper process evaluation, inadequate feedback, and traditional evaluation practices.

One day in the life of the English language a microcosmic usage handbook

CERN Document Server

Cioffi, Frank L

2015-01-01

Generations of student writers have been subjected to usage handbooks that proclaim, "This is the correct form. Learn it"-books that lay out a grammar, but don't inspire students to use it. By contrast, this antihandbook handbook, presenting some three hundred sentences drawn from the printed works of a single, typical day in the life of the language-December 29, 2008-tries to persuade readers that good grammar and usage matter. Using real-world sentences rather than invented ones, One Day in the Life of the English Language gives students the motivation to apply grammatical principles corre

Cultural Differences in Spatial Composition and Visual Directionality: A Comparative study of English and Chinese Newspaper Advertisements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanli MENG

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to demonstrate the notion that visual communication is not an unbiased, universally perceived means of communication. Instead, it is even more culturally loaded than verbal language in that it operates very often at the unconscious level of mind and thus often escapes from critical analysis. This paper draws on Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996 framework of visual grammar, especially the two descriptive categories under visual composition -- spatial arrangement and visual directionality, to analyze several subscription advertisements of several Chinese and English newspapers. It is found that these advertisements display very different features in visual communication which can only be satisfactorily explained with consideration of a complex array of underlying factors including traditions of visual culture, writing system, philosophy, etc.

Unsupervised grammar induction of clinical report sublanguage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kate Rohit J

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Clinical reports are written using a subset of natural language while employing many domain-specific terms; such a language is also known as a sublanguage for a scientific or a technical domain. Different genres of clinical reports use different sublaguages, and in addition, different medical facilities use different medical language conventions. This makes supervised training of a parser for clinical sentences very difficult as it would require expensive annotation effort to adapt to every type of clinical text. Methods In this paper, we present an unsupervised method which automatically induces a grammar and a parser for the sublanguage of a given genre of clinical reports from a corpus with no annotations. In order to capture sentence structures specific to clinical domains, the grammar is induced in terms of semantic classes of clinical terms in addition to part-of-speech tags. Our method induces grammar by minimizing the combined encoding cost of the grammar and the corresponding sentence derivations. The probabilities for the productions of the induced grammar are then learned from the unannotated corpus using an instance of the expectation-maximization algorithm. Results Our experiments show that the induced grammar is able to parse novel sentences. Using a dataset of discharge summary sentences with no annotations, our method obtains 60.5% F-measure for parse-bracketing on sentences of maximum length 10. By varying a parameter, the method can induce a range of grammars, from very specific to very general, and obtains the best performance in between the two extremes.

Unsupervised grammar induction of clinical report sublanguage.

Science.gov (United States)

Kate, Rohit J

2012-10-05

Clinical reports are written using a subset of natural language while employing many domain-specific terms; such a language is also known as a sublanguage for a scientific or a technical domain. Different genres of clinical reports use different sublaguages, and in addition, different medical facilities use different medical language conventions. This makes supervised training of a parser for clinical sentences very difficult as it would require expensive annotation effort to adapt to every type of clinical text. In this paper, we present an unsupervised method which automatically induces a grammar and a parser for the sublanguage of a given genre of clinical reports from a corpus with no annotations. In order to capture sentence structures specific to clinical domains, the grammar is induced in terms of semantic classes of clinical terms in addition to part-of-speech tags. Our method induces grammar by minimizing the combined encoding cost of the grammar and the corresponding sentence derivations. The probabilities for the productions of the induced grammar are then learned from the unannotated corpus using an instance of the expectation-maximization algorithm. Our experiments show that the induced grammar is able to parse novel sentences. Using a dataset of discharge summary sentences with no annotations, our method obtains 60.5% F-measure for parse-bracketing on sentences of maximum length 10. By varying a parameter, the method can induce a range of grammars, from very specific to very general, and obtains the best performance in between the two extremes.

ncRNA consensus secondary structure derivation using grammar strings.

Science.gov (United States)

Achawanantakun, Rujira; Sun, Yanni; Takyar, Seyedeh Shohreh

2011-04-01

Many noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) function through both their sequences and secondary structures. Thus, secondary structure derivation is an important issue in today's RNA research. The state-of-the-art structure annotation tools are based on comparative analysis, which derives consensus structure of homologous ncRNAs. Despite promising results from existing ncRNA aligning and consensus structure derivation tools, there is a need for more efficient and accurate ncRNA secondary structure modeling and alignment methods. In this work, we introduce a consensus structure derivation approach based on grammar string, a novel ncRNA secondary structure representation that encodes an ncRNA's sequence and secondary structure in the parameter space of a context-free grammar (CFG) and a full RNA grammar including pseudoknots. Being a string defined on a special alphabet constructed from a grammar, grammar string converts ncRNA alignment into sequence alignment. We derive consensus secondary structures from hundreds of ncRNA families from BraliBase 2.1 and 25 families containing pseudoknots using grammar string alignment. Our experiments have shown that grammar string-based structure derivation competes favorably in consensus structure quality with Murlet and RNASampler. Source code and experimental data are available at http://www.cse.msu.edu/~yannisun/grammar-string.

Fast Parsing using Pruning and Grammar Specialization

OpenAIRE

Rayner, Manny; Carter, David

1996-01-01

We show how a general grammar may be automatically adapted for fast parsing of utterances from a specific domain by means of constituent pruning and grammar specialization based on explanation-based learning. These methods together give an order of magnitude increase in speed, and the coverage loss entailed by grammar specialization is reduced to approximately half that reported in previous work. Experiments described here suggest that the loss of coverage has been reduced to the point where ...

A comprehensive French grammar

CERN Document Server

Price, Glanville

2013-01-01

Characterized by clear and accessible explanations, numerous examples and sample sentences, a new section on register and tone, and useful appendices covering topics including age and time, A Comprehensive French Grammar, Sixth Edition is an indispensable tool for advanced students of French language and literature.A revised edition of this established, bestselling French grammarIncludes a new section on register and medium and offers expanded treatment of French punctuationFeatures numerous examples and sample sentences, and useful appendices covering topics including age, time, and dimension

A Review of the Development of Systemic-Functional Grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张晶

2014-01-01

50 years has seen Systemic-Functional Grammar(SFG)growing into its prosperity. With the efforts of Halliday and many other linguists, SFG has developed from Scale and Category Grammar to Systemic Grammar and then to Functional Gram-mar. The development of this general linguistic theory’s features and framework is the main focus of this study. SFG views lan-guage as a social semiotic resource people use to express meanings in context.

Reading Right: Korean Translation Manual. English for Special Purposes Series: Nursing Aide.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Yong-Ok

This Korean translation manual for nursing aides is designed to improve reading skills of U.S. immigrants. After short readings in Korean and English translations of vocabulary/phrases, comprehension, grammar, and language usage exercises are presented. Topical areas include: food, the hospital staff, body language, cleanliness in the hospital,…

Exploring the outcomes of a novel computer-assisted treatment program targeting expressive-grammar deficits in preschoolers with SLI.

Science.gov (United States)

Washington, Karla N; Warr-Leeper, Genese; Thomas-Stonell, Nancy

2011-01-01

The impact of a newly designed computer-assisted treatment (C-AT) program, My Sentence Builder, for the remediation of expressive-grammar deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI) was explored. This program was specifically designed with features to directly address expressive-grammar difficulties, thought to be associated with hypothesized deficits in verbal working memory (VWM). Thirty-four preschoolers with deficits in expressive-grammar morphology participated. Using the randomization procedure of consecutive sampling, participants were recruited. Twenty-two participants were consecutively assigned to one of two treatment groups, C-AT or non C-AT (nC-AT). The nC-AT utilized conventional language stimulation procedures containing features which have been traditionally used to address expressive-grammar deficits. A group of equivalent children awaiting treatment and chosen from the same sample of children as the treatment participants served as a control group. Blind assessments of outcomes were completed pre-, post-, and 3-months post-treatment in a formal and informal context. C-AT and nC-AT participants significantly outperformed controls pre-to-post to 3-months post-treatment in both assessment contexts. No significant differences in treatment gains were found between C-AT and nC-AT. Results suggested that treatments designed to directly address expressive-grammar deficits were better than no treatment for preschool SLI. Further, use of a C-AT program may be another feasible treatment method for this disorder population. As a result of this activity, the reader will recognize that: (1) expressive-grammar treatment is better than no treatment for immediate and continued language growth, (2) use of a C-AT program containing specific features designed to directly address expressive-grammar deficits is another viable, but not necessarily a better treatment option for the remediation of expressive-grammar deficits in preschool children with SLI

French grammar and usage

CERN Document Server

Hawkins, Roger

2015-01-01

Long trusted as the most comprehensive, up-to-date and user-friendly grammar available, French Grammar and Usage is a complete guide to French as it is written and spoken today. It includes clear descriptions of all the main grammatical phenomena of French, and their use, illustrated by numerous examples taken from contemporary French, and distinguishes the most common forms of usage, both formal and informal.Key features include:Comprehensive content, covering all the major structures of contemporary French User-friendly organisation offering easy-to-find sections with cross-referencing and i

Grammar as a Programming Language. Artificial Intelligence Memo 391.

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Neil

Student projects that involve writing generative grammars in the computer language, "LOGO," are described in this paper, which presents a grammar-running control structure that allows students to modify and improve the grammar interpreter itself while learning how a simple kind of computer parser works. Included are procedures for…

The equivalence problem for LL- and LR-regular grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus; Gecsec, F.

It will be shown that the equivalence problem for LL-regular grammars is decidable. Apart from extending the known result for LL(k) grammar equivalence to LLregular grammar equivalence, we obtain an alternative proof of the decidability of LL(k) equivalence. The equivalence prob]em for LL-regular

(Re)defining component structures in morphological constructions: a cognitive grammar perspective

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Van Huyssteen, GB

2010-01-01

Full Text Available )defining Component Structures in Morphological Constructions: A Cognitive Grammar Perspective Gerhard B van Huyssteen 1. Introduction The study of words, parts of words, and word-formation is one of the fields of enquiry that has kept language philosophers... and linguists busy for centuries. Despite this long tradition, the literature on word morphology sometimes remains rather imprecise, ambiguous and/or vague; for example, Tuggy (1992: 287) illustrates that ?(d)efinitions, when given, are frequently circular...

Creativity in the English Class: Activities to Promote EFL Learning

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Hernán A. Avila

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This article introduces a pedagogical intervention that includes a set of creative activities designed to improve the oral and written production of students in the English classroom, especially those who have shown a lack of interest or attention. It was observed that participants initially seemed careless about studying the language. Eventually they responded to the proposed methods positively and were more willing and motivated to participate in chain games, creative writing, and screenwriting exercises. The activities helped develop the students’ fluency in both oral and written production and improved their understanding of English grammar and structure.

Shape Grammars for Innovative Hybrid Typological Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Al-kazzaz, Dhuha; Bridges, Alan; Chase, Scott Curland

2010-01-01

This paper describes a new methodology of deriving innovative hybrid designs using shape grammars of heterogeneous designs. The method is detailed within three phases of shape grammars: analysis, synthesis and evaluation. In the analysis phase, the research suggests that original rules of each...... design component are grouped in subclass rule sets to facilitate rule choices. Additionally, adding new hybrid rules to original rules expands the options available to the grammar user. In the synthesis phase, the research adopts state labels and markers to drive the design generation. The former...... is implemented with a user guide grammar to ensure hybridity in the generated design, while the latter aims to ensure feasible designs. Lastly evaluation criteria are added to measure the degree of innovation of the hybrid designs. This paper describes the derivation of hybrid minaret designs from a corpus...

Left-forbidding cooperating distributed grammar systems

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Goldefus, F.; Masopust, Tomáš; Meduna, A.

2010-01-01

Roč. 411, 40-42 (2010), s. 3661-3667 ISSN 0304-3975 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : cooperating distributed grammar system * cooperating derivation mode * left-forbidding grammar * generative power * descriptional complexity Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.838, year: 2010 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304397510003440

Propelling Students into Active Grammar Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Jurhill, Dennis A.

2011-01-01

"O! this learning, what a thing it is." -W. Shakespeare, "The Taming of the Shrew." The aim of this action research was to find out if active grammar involvement amongst students might lead to better results. My approach was to activate my students during grammar instruction by using cooperative learning: that is a form of…

A gramática estadunidense como alteridade para a gramatização brasileira do português no século XIX : análise da composição da gramática Holmes Brazileiro ou Grammatica da Puericia de Júlio Ribeiro (1886 a partir do modelo do compêndio A Grammar of the English Language de George Frederick Holmes (1878

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José Edicarlos de Aquino

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Resumo: Este artigo analisa os procedimentos de Júlio Ribeiro para compor a sua gramática Holmes Brazileiro Grammatica da Puericia, em 1886, com base no modelo do compêndio A Grammar of the English Language, lançada por George Frederick Holmes em 1878. Ilustrando em detalhes o mecanismo de transferência de tecnologia entre línguas segundo o conceito de gramatização de Auroux (1992, essa análise nos permite trazer à luz um elemento pouco observado na história das ideias linguísticas no Brasil, isto é, a alteridade que a gramática estadunidense representa para a gramatização brasileira do português no século XIX. Dessa forma, detalhamos as várias modificações que Júlio Ribeiro opera no texto de Holmes ao traduzi-lo e adaptá-lo para a escrita de uma gramática do português, mostrando como elas se realizam por exigência das especificidades da ordem da própria língua, mas também como significam um gesto de autoria do gramático brasileiro sobre o conhecimento linguístico, inserindo, inclusive, referências ao Brasil no discurso gramatical. Palavras-chave: gramatização brasileira; século XIX; Júlio Ribeiro; George Frederick Holmes; gramática brasileira, gramática estadunidense; gramática latina extensa. Abstract: This article analyzes the procedures of Júlio Ribeiro to compose his grammar Holmes Brazileiro Grammatica da Puericia, in 1886, from the model of the compendium A Grammar of the English Language, released by George Frederick Holmes in 1878. Illustrating in detail the technology transfer mechanism between languages according to Auroux’s concept of grammatization (1992, this analysis allows us to bring to light an unobserved element observed in the history of linguistic ideas in Brazil, that is, the alterity that the American grammar represents for the Brazilian grammatization of Portuguese in the nineteenth century. In this way, we detail the various modifications that Júlio Ribeiro operates in Holmes�

New labels for old problems: Grammar in communicative language teaching

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Poole Alexander

2003-08-01

Full Text Available Communicative language teaching has long been controversial due to its lack of explicit grammar instruction. Focus on form instruction (Long, 1991, however, puts communication as the centerpiece of instruction, but addresses form on a need-toknow- basis; thus, focus on form instruction claims to balance communication and grammar. Moreover, the concept of uptake (Lyster and Ranta, 1997; Ellis, Basturkmen, and Loewen, 2001, or the process by which learners respond to correction initiated by teachers and/or other learners, has been used to demonstrate that focus on form instruction, and thus by extension, CLT, gives sufficient attention to grammar. However, in this article, I will show that the concept of uptake is problematic, and demonstrate that focus on form instruction does not offer a feasible way of addressing grammar in EFL classrooms. Yet, before showing the technique’s inadequacy, I will highlight selected aspects of focus on form instruction and uptake research. Key Words: English-Grammar-Teaching-Evaluation, Second Language Acquisition- Teaching, Grammar Instruction. La enseñanza comunicativa del lenguaje ha sido muy controversial debido no sólo a la carencia explícita de la enseñanza de la gramática, sino también a la carencia tangible para evaluar si los estudiantes han adquirido o no ciertas formas gramaticales. El enfoque de la forma (Long, l991, sin embargo, ubica la comunicación como pieza principal de enseñanza, pero a la vez enfatiza en la enseñanza de la forma como parte importante que todo estudiante necesita saber. Algunos autores han señalado la importancia de tener un balance entre la comunicación y la enseñanza explícita de la gramática. Esto se debe en gran parte, al concepto de ‘uptake’ que ha sido usado para demostrar que el enfoque en la enseñanza de la forma y, por extensión el enfoque en la enseñanza comunicativa del lenguaje, facilitan la atención a la gramática. Sin embargo, el

Cognitive grammar and aphasic discourse.

Science.gov (United States)

Manning, Molly; Franklin, Sue

2016-01-01

In cognitive grammar (CG), there is no clear division between language and other cognitive processes; all linguistic form is conceptually meaningful. In this pilot study, a CG approach was applied to investigate whether people with aphasia (PWA) have cognitive linguistic difficulty not predicted from traditional, componential models of aphasia. Narrative samples from 22 PWA (6 fluent, 16 non-fluent) were compared with samples from 10 participants without aphasia. Between-group differences were tested statistically. PWA had significant difficulty with temporal sequencing, suggesting problems that are not uniquely linguistic. For some, these problems were doubly dissociated with naming, used as a general measure of severity, which indicates that cognitive linguistic difficulties are not linked with more widespread brain damage. Further investigation may lead to a richer account of aphasia in line with contemporary linguistics and cognitive science approaches.

The Sociolinguistic Status of Islamic English: A Register Approach

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Zaidan Ali Jassem

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the special use of English by Muslim scholars in different fields of en¬quiry, which has been termed Islamic English by some. The data consists of several pieces of evidence from (i different kinds of publications in the UK, KSA, Malaysia, and South Africa, (ii international participant feedback in response to an earlier presentation in a Greek Symposium about the same topic to which this paper is a followup in essence, and (iii participant observations of Muslims' conversations worldwide. The results indicate that Islamic English is not only real as much as Biblical English is, but it is also a continuum with several varieties ranging from the light to the heavy. It has certain universal features, including lexis, grammar, topic, style, audience, codeswitching, and Arabicity, thus, marking it as a register, variety, or dialect of English which expresses their social and cultural identity. In the conclusion, the paper recommends teaching students Islamic English from the perspective of social and cultural identity.

English language knowledge for secondary teachers

CERN Document Server

Ross, Alison

2013-01-01

If teachers are to successfully develop their students' English language skills it is vital that they overcome any existing lack of confidence and training in grammar and language concepts. Language Knowledge for Secondary Teachers is an accessible book aiming to equip secondary teachers with the knowledge they need to teach language effectively. It clearly explains the essential concepts for language study, introduces the terminology needed for 'talking about language' and shows how this knowledge can be applied to the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. This

High-level methodologies for grammar engineering, introduction to the special issue

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Denys Duchier

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Grammar Engineering is the task of designing and implementing linguistically motivated electronic descriptions of natural language (so-called grammars. These grammars are expressed within well-defined theoretical frameworks, and offer a fine-grained description of natural language. While grammars were first used to describe syntax, that is to say, the relations between constituents in a sentence, they often go beyond syntax and include semantic information. Grammar engineering provides precise descriptions which can be used for natural language understanding and generation, making these valuable resources for various natural language applications, including textual entailment, dialogue systems, or machine translation. The first attempts at designing large-scale resource grammars were costly because of the complexity of the task (Erbach et al. 1990 and of the number of persons that were needed (see e.g. Doran et al. 1997. Advances in the field have led to the development of environments for semi-automatic grammar engineering, borrowing ideas from compilation (grammar engineering is compared with software development and machine learning. This special issue reports on new trends in the field, where grammar engineering benefits from elaborate high-level methodologies and techniques, dealing with various issues (both theoretical and practical.

The contribution of phonological short-term memory to artificial grammar learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Jackie; Baddeley, Alan

2011-05-01

Three experiments investigated the contribution of phonological short-term memory (STM) to grammar learning by manipulating rehearsal during study of an auditory artificial grammar made up from a vocabulary of spoken Mandarin syllables. Experiment 1 showed that concurrent, irrelevant articulation impaired grammar learning compared with a nonverbal control task. Experiment 2 replicated and extended this finding, showing that repeating the grammatical strings at study improved grammar learning compared with suppressing rehearsal or remaining silent during learning. Experiment 3 found no effects of rehearsal on grammar learning once participants had learned the component syllables. The findings suggest that phonological STM aids artificial grammar learning via effects on vocabulary learning.

Advanced grammar in use a self-study reference and practice book for advanced students of English : with answers and CD-ROM

CERN Document Server

Hewings, Martin

2013-01-01

An updated version of the highly successful Advanced Grammar in Use. This third edition, with answers and CD-ROM, is ideal for self-study. The book contains 100 units of grammar reference and practice materials, with illustrations in full colour and a user-friendly layout. It is ideal for learners preparing for the Cambridge Advanced, Proficiency or IELTS examinations, and is informed by the Cambridge International Corpus, which ensures the language is authentic and up-to-date. The CD-ROM includes 200 interactive exercises to reinforce the language learned in the book, plus customised tests and audio recordings to accompany the main exercises. Versions without answers and without the CD-ROM are available to purchase separately.

English in Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

English in Africa was founded in 1974 to provide a forum for the study of African literature and English as a language of Africa. The Editor invites contributions, including unsolicited reviews, on all aspects of English writing and the English language in Africa, including oral traditions. English in Africa is listed in the Journal of ...

Evolving stochastic context-free grammars for RNA secondary structure prediction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anderson, James WJ; Tataru, Paula Cristina; Stains, Joe

2012-01-01

Background Stochastic Context-Free Grammars (SCFGs) were applied successfully to RNA secondary structure prediction in the early 90s, and used in combination with comparative methods in the late 90s. The set of SCFGs potentially useful for RNA secondary structure prediction is very large, but a few...... to structure prediction as has been previously suggested. Results These search techniques were applied to predict RNA secondary structure on a maximal data set and revealed new and interesting grammars, though none are dramatically better than classic grammars. In general, results showed that many grammars...... with quite different structure could have very similar predictive ability. Many ambiguous grammars were found which were at least as effective as the best current unambiguous grammars. Conclusions Overall the method of evolving SCFGs for RNA secondary structure prediction proved effective in finding many...

EVALUATING THE ROLE OF L1 IN TEACHING RECEPTIVE SKILLS AND GRAMMAR IN EFL CLASSES

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Istiqlaliah Nurul Hidayati

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The debate over the use of Bahasa Indonesia and English has been an unsolved issue. Some teachers still lack confidence in using Bahasa Indonesia in their teaching to promote classroom interaction. Classroom interaction is important since the more engaged the students are, the more successful the material delivery will be. Hence this study was aimed at finding out whether or not teacher’s use of Bahasa Indonesia in teaching receptive skills of language and grammar contributes to classroom interaction and investigating the benefits of the use of Bahasa Indonesia in EFL classes as perceived by the teachers and the students. Six classes of different majors and six English lecturers from a polytechnic in Bandung participated in the study. The data were collected through questionnaires, interview, and classroom observation. The findings support the idea that teachers’ use of Bahasa Indonesia judiciously promotes classroom interaction. Both students and teachers found the benefits of the use of Bahasa Indonesia in the classroom only when it was needed. However, some teachers still overused Bahasa Indonesia in the EFL classrooms. Keywords: teachers and students’ perceptions, classroom interaction, English (L2, Bahasa Indonesia (L1, English as a Foreign Language Teaching

Understanding the Complex Processes in Developing Student Teachers' Knowledge about Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Svalberg, Agneta M.-L.

2015-01-01

This article takes the view that grammar is driven by user choices and is therefore complex and dynamic. This has implications for the teaching of grammar in language teacher education and how teachers' cognitions about grammar, and hence their own grammar teaching, might change. In this small, interpretative study, the participants--students on…

Towards a Pedagogy of Grammar Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Jack C.; Reppen, Randi

2014-01-01

Grammar can be viewed both as knowledge and as ability. When viewed as knowledge, the focus is on rules for sentence formation. When viewed as ability, the focus is on how grammar is used as a resource in the creation of spoken and written texts. Twelve principles are proposed as the basis for a pedagogy that focusses on acquiring learning to use…

Grammar and Usage: History and Myth

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Ken

2010-01-01

The paper first traces the history of thinking about language from the Greek writers of the fifth century BC to the development of the first Greek grammar in about 100 BC. Since the glories of Ancient Greek literature predate the development of grammar, there is every reason to doubt the received wisdom that one must have an explicit knowledge of…

Individual differences in very young children’s English acquisition in China : Internal and external factors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sun, He; Steinkrauss, Rasmus; Tendeiro, Jorge; de Bot, Kees

This study assesses the impact of internal and external factors on very young EFL learners in an instructional setting. 71 child English learners in China (onset age: 2;0 - 5;6) were involved: their receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary and receptive grammar were taken as outcome variables,

An Overview of the Nigel Text Generation Grammar.

Science.gov (United States)

1983-04-01

34 76b, Hudson 76, Halliday 81, de Joia 80, Fawcett 80].3 1.2. Design Goals for the Grammar Three kinds of goals have guided the work of creating Nigel...Davey 79] Davey, A., Discourse Production, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1979. [ de Joia 80] de Joia , A., and A. Stenton, Terms in Systemic...1 1.1. The Text Generation Task as a Stimulus for Grammar Design .........................1I -1.2. Design Goals for the Grammar

Differences of English and Spanish Grammars, and Their Bearing on American and Mexican Cultures

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz, Arturo Zárate

2017-01-01

In this article, I notice that English now is a dominant language and I highlight some features which actually make English language great. I also consider that these facts may lead a Spanish language user wrongly believe that applying English peculiar grammatical strengths to Spanish would make Spanish a better means of communication: he would…

A constraint-based bottom-up counterpart to definite clause grammars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Henning

2004-01-01

A new grammar formalism, CHR Grammars (CHRG), is proposed that provides a constraint-solving approach to language analysis, built on top of the programming language of Constraint Handling Rules in the same way as Definite Clause Grammars (DCG) on Prolog. CHRG works bottom-up and adds the following......, integrity constraints, operators a la assumption grammars, and to incorporate other constraint solvers. (iv)~Context-sensitive rules that apply for disambiguation, coordination in natural language and tagger-like rules....

Measuring strategic control in artificial grammar learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Elisabeth; Price, Mark C; Jones, Emma

2011-12-01

In response to concerns with existing procedures for measuring strategic control over implicit knowledge in artificial grammar learning (AGL), we introduce a more stringent measurement procedure. After two separate training blocks which each consisted of letter strings derived from a different grammar, participants either judged the grammaticality of novel letter strings with respect to only one of these two grammars (pure-block condition), or had the target grammar varying randomly from trial to trial (novel mixed-block condition) which required a higher degree of conscious flexible control. Random variation in the colour and font of letters was introduced to disguise the nature of the rule and reduce explicit learning. Strategic control was observed both in the pure-block and mixed-block conditions, and even among participants who did not realise the rule was based on letter identity. This indicated detailed strategic control in the absence of explicit learning. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

COGNITIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES OF NON-ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS ON NOUN STRUCTURE

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Shierly Novalita Yappy

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Learning English for non-English department students is not as easy as it seems. Besides, as much as it is necessary to know how successful learners learn, not less important is to know how less successful learners learn. Using think aloud method, this study aims at finding out the cognitive strategies used by the engineering department students in answering incorrectly problems on TOEFL noun structure-the grammar point in which students made the most errors. Findings uncover the students' strategies and reasoning upon which pedagogical implications can be put forth so that more effective and fruitful instruction can be tailored.

Research into Practice: Grammar Learning and Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Larsen-Freeman, Diane

2015-01-01

This selective review of the second language acquisition and applied linguistics research literature on grammar learning and teaching falls into three categories: where research has had little impact (the non-interface position), modest impact (form-focused instruction), and where it potentially can have a large impact (reconceiving grammar).…

GENRE ANALYSIS IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Klaudia Valdmanová

2014-03-01

Full Text Available During their studies of general English at secondary school students obtain knowledge of the forms and meaning of words used in everyday situations, knowledge of grammatical components and frequently occurring language functions. Then they enroll in university to study a profession. English for Professional Communication is usually a part of their curriculum. Within it, they need to acquire communicative competence enabling them to enter a discourse community of experts. In addition to learning the terminology used in a profession they have to acquire sociolingual and discourse competences as well including generic one. It is a challenge that English teachers face when they decide to enclose authentic genres into their teaching materials. This paper presents suggestions how written genres can be used in teaching English for nurses. Most of the discourse and genre analyses relate to face-to-face doctor-patient encounters and nurses´ computer-mediated communications. To my knowledge, less attention has been given to written genres of the nursing discourse. Therefore the paper presents the most important concepts of genre, explains the roles of genre in organizational communication and gives a brief description of the discourse community of nurses and ways it uses task-oriented and patient-oriented genres as mechanisms of interaction.It also explains the purpose of individual genres. In the process of creating materials for learning professional English one of the most important tasks is the selection of suitable texts as they should meet learners´ needs and represent texts used in practice. I consider a Nursing Care Plan for a key text. Therefore, I present a detailed analysis of its parts focused on their communicative functions, description of standardized lexis, grammar structures and broken grammar rules. I suggest a method how to teach the Nursing Care Plan genre in English lessons and present tasks leading to the acquisition of receptive

Flexible Processing and the Design of Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Sag, Ivan A.; Wasow, Thomas

2015-01-01

We explore the consequences of letting the incremental and integrative nature of language processing inform the design of competence grammar. What emerges is a view of grammar as a system of local monotonic constraints that provide a direct characterization of the signs (the form-meaning correspondences) of a given language. This…

Maximising Asian ESL Learners’ Communicative Oral English via Drama

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Chamkaur Gill

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes that activities based on a variety of drama-based techniques could be valuable in giving Asian ESL learners opportunities to use communicative spoken English confidently and without restraint during their time in English-language-speaking countries. These learners often get anxious when in situations where they are required to speak in English. Fears about making errors related to grammar, fluency and clarity that might cause them to be embarrassed stand in the way of unencumbered speech output. In addition, cultural issues linked to voice-projection and body language can hinder oral interaction in English and hamper their motivation to speak. They are, therefore, deprived of much-needed speaking practice. I find that drama lets my students speak communicatively, free of the dread of constant correction, in a relaxed and enjoyable learner-centred environment that appears to help diminish their anxiety and inhibitions. As a result, their motivation to speak increases, leading to extended speech production. Keywords: ESL, Asian students’ traits, communicative oral English, drama variations

The Role of Simple Semantics in the Process of Artificial Grammar Learning.

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Öttl, Birgit; Jäger, Gerhard; Kaup, Barbara

2017-10-01

This study investigated the effect of semantic information on artificial grammar learning (AGL). Recursive grammars of different complexity levels (regular language, mirror language, copy language) were investigated in a series of AGL experiments. In the with-semantics condition, participants acquired semantic information prior to the AGL experiment; in the without-semantics control condition, participants did not receive semantic information. It was hypothesized that semantics would generally facilitate grammar acquisition and that the learning benefit in the with-semantics conditions would increase with increasing grammar complexity. Experiment 1 showed learning effects for all grammars but no performance difference between conditions. Experiment 2 replicated the absence of a semantic benefit for all grammars even though semantic information was more prominent during grammar acquisition as compared to Experiment 1. Thus, we did not find evidence for the idea that semantics facilitates grammar acquisition, which seems to support the view of an independent syntactic processing component.

An Exploration of English Language Teaching Pedagogy in Secondary Yemeni Education: A Case Study

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Yehia Ahmed Y. Al-Sohbani

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The teaching of English at the Yemeni public schools has been criticized as ineffective due to the poor level of the language competency of most school leavers though they spend six years studying English whose curriculum, according to Bose (2002, is largely based on the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT. In this respect, this paper mainly attempted to: 1 investigate Yemeni English teachers’ classroom teaching practices in secondary schools, (2 Explore the Yemeni teachers’ awareness of CLT, and 3 explore the constraints teachers face while implementing the CLT. The results of the study indicate that the Grammar Translation Method (GTM is the predominant pedagogy practiced by the EFL teachers participated in this study. The use of the mother-tongue, both by teachers and students were noticed to be the prevailing. The meanings of words are given in Arabic and the teachers do not focus on developing students’ fluency rather they focus on grammar. The results also show that the participants do not have a clear cut idea regarding the principles and concepts of CLT and are not clear about what they do in the classroom. The constraints faced by the participants while implementing CLT are also investigated and presented in the paper.

Prueba de Aptitud para el Aprendizaje de Lenguas Extranjeras (PAPALE) Language Aptitude Test (LAT) (First and Second Versions). English for Special Purposes. Emergency Care Attendant.

Science.gov (United States)

Muro, Gertrude

This book contains two versions of the Language Aptitude Test. It is part of a package of materials developed for use in an English for Special Purposes project, which offers classes in reading, grammar, and emergency care attendant training for limited English proficient students. Introductory material describes the parts of two versions and…

A few thoughts about teaching listening and grammar

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

吴西

2014-01-01

Listening and grammar are the most difficult subjects for both teacher and students. This passage discussed how to visual aid and brain storming in the listening class;and the importance of confidence in the grammar teaching and learning.

The new Cambridge English course student 1

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Swan, Michael

1991-01-01

The New Cambridge English Course is a course teachers and students can rely on to cover the complete range and depth of language and skills needed from beginner to upper-intermediate level. Each level is designed to provide at least 72 hours of class work using the Student's Book, with additional self-study material provided in the Practice Book. The course has a proven multi-syllabus approach which integrates work on all the vital aspects of language study: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, skills, notions and functions.

On the Balance of Grammar and Communication Teaching for Chinese Students

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秦耀咏

2002-01-01

To the problem of neglecting grammar teaching when the Communicative approach is encouraged,this paper tries to analyze the position of teaching grammar and put forward some suggestions on how to balance grammar and communication teaching.

The iPad as a Research Tool for the Understanding of English Plurals by English, Chinese, and Other L1 Speaking 3- and 4-Year-Olds.

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Xu Rattanasone, Nan; Davies, Benjamin; Schembri, Tamara; Andronos, Fabia; Demuth, Katherine

2016-01-01

Learning about what young children with limited spoken language know about the grammar of their language is extremely challenging. Researchers have traditionally used looking behavior as a measure of language processing and to infer what overt choices children might make. However, these methods are expensive to setup, require specialized training, are time intensive for data analysis and can have considerable dropout rates. For these reasons, we have developed a forced choice task delivered on an iPad based on our eye-tracking studies with English monolinguals (Davies et al., 2016, under review). Using the iPad we investigated 3- and 4-year-olds' understanding of the English plural in preschool centers. The primary aim of the study was to provide evidence for the usefulness of the iPad as a language research tool. We evaluated the usefulness of the iPad with second language (L2) learning children who have limited L2 language skills. Studies with school aged Chinese-speaking children show below native performance on English inflectional morphology despite 5-6 years of immersion (Jia, 2003; Jia and Fuse, 2007; Paradis et al., 2016). However, it is unclear whether this is specific only to children who speak Chinese as their first language (L1) or if younger preschoolers will also show similar challenges. We tested three groups of preschoolers with different L1s (English, Chinese, and other languages). L1 Chinese children's performance was below both English monolinguals and children speaking Other L1 languages, providing evidence that English inflections are specifically challenging for Chinese-speaking children. The results provide further evidence to support previous eye-tracking findings with monolinguals and studies with older bilinguals. The study provides evidence for the usefulness of iPads as research tool for studying language acquisition. Implications for future application of the iPad as a teaching and intervention tool, and limitations for the method, are

Neural correlates of lexicon and grammar: evidence from the production, reading, and judgment of inflection in aphasia.

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Ullman, Michael T; Pancheva, Roumyana; Love, Tracy; Yee, Eiling; Swinney, David; Hickok, Gregory

2005-05-01

Are the linguistic forms that are memorized in the mental lexicon and those that are specified by the rules of grammar subserved by distinct neurocognitive systems or by a single computational system with relatively broad anatomic distribution? On a dual-system view, the productive -ed-suffixation of English regular past tense forms (e.g., look-looked) depends upon the mental grammar, whereas irregular forms (e.g., dig-dug) are retrieved from lexical memory. On a single-mechanism view, the computation of both past tense types depends on associative memory. Neurological double dissociations between regulars and irregulars strengthen the dual-system view. The computation of real and novel, regular and irregular past tense forms was investigated in 20 aphasic subjects. Aphasics with non-fluent agrammatic speech and left frontal lesions were consistently more impaired at the production, reading, and judgment of regular than irregular past tenses. Aphasics with fluent speech and word-finding difficulties, and with left temporal/temporo-parietal lesions, showed the opposite pattern. These patterns held even when measures of frequency, phonological complexity, articulatory difficulty, and other factors were held constant. The data support the view that the memorized words of the mental lexicon are subserved by a brain system involving left temporal/temporo-parietal structures, whereas aspects of the mental grammar, in particular the computation of regular morphological forms, are subserved by a distinct system involving left frontal structures.

Business Rules Definition for Decision Support System Using Matrix Grammar

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Eva Zámečníková

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with formalization of business rules by formal grammars. In our work we focus on methods for high frequency data processing. We process data by using complex event platforms (CEP which allow to process high volume of data in nearly real time. Decision making process is contained by one level of processing of CEP. Business rules are used for decision making process description. For the business rules formalization we chose matrix grammar. The use of formal grammars is quite natural as the structure of rules and its rewriting is very similar both for the business rules and for formal grammar. In addition the matrix grammar allows to simulate dependencies and correlations between the rules. The result of this work is a model for data processing of knowledge-based decision support system described by the rules of formal grammar. This system will support the decision making in CEP. This solution may contribute to the speedup of decision making process in complex event processing and also to the formal verification of these systems.

Difficulties in Teaching and Learning Grammar in an EFL Context

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Mekhlafi, Abdu Mohammed; Nagaratnam, Ramani Perur

2011-01-01

The role of grammar instruction in an ESL/EFL context has been for decades a major issue for students and teachers alike. Researchers have debated whether grammar should be taught in the classroom and students, for their part, have generally looked upon grammar instruction as a necessary evil at best, and an avoidable burden at worst. The paper…

Communicating Grammatically: Evaluating a Learner Strategy Website for Spanish Grammar

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Cohen, Andrew D.; Pinilla-Herrera, Angela; Thompson, Jonathan R.; Witzig, Lance E.

2011-01-01

After a brief introduction to language learner strategies and grammar strategies as a subcategory, it is pointed out that research on the use of grammar strategies by learners of a second language (L2) has been limited. The article then describes the construction of a website with strategies for learning and performing Spanish grammar, with a…

Enhancing Empirical Research for Linguistically Motivated Precision Grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fokkens, A.S.

2014-01-01

Grammars of natural language are highly complex objects. This complexity is reflected in formal analyses found in both syntactic theory and computational grammars. In particular, there are two factors that make it notoriously difficult to make strong assertions about analyses for natural language

TG Grammar's Implications for the Foreign Language Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

殷彩

2009-01-01

Chomsky's Transformational-Generative (TG) grammar is another revolution to linguistics after Saussure's strueturalism, and it plays an important role in the modem linguistics. Introducing the research perspective and method of TG grammar, this paper analyses its implications for the foreign language teaching.

On the Equivalence of Formal Grammars and Machines.

Science.gov (United States)

Lund, Bruce

1991-01-01

Explores concepts of formal language and automata theory underlying computational linguistics. A computational formalism is described known as a "logic grammar," with which computational systems process linguistic data, with examples in declarative and procedural semantics and definite clause grammars. (13 references) (CB)

Metagrammar Engineering: Towards systematic exploration of implemented grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fokkens, A.S.

2011-01-01

When designing grammars of natural language, typically, more than one formal analysis can account for a given phenomenon. Moreover, because analyses interact, the choices made by the engineer influence the possibilities available in further grammar development. The order in which phenomena are

A Pure Object-Oriented Embedding of Attribute Grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sloane, A.M.; Kats, L.C.L.; Visser, E.

2010-01-01

Attribute grammars are a powerful specification paradigm for many language processing tasks, particularly semantic analysis of programming languages. Recent attribute grammar systems use dynamic scheduling algorithms to evaluate attributes by need. In this paper, we show how to remove the need for a

Negotiated Grammar Transformation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

V. Zaytsev (Vadim)

2012-01-01

htmlabstractIn this paper, we study controlled adaptability of metamodel transformations. We consider one of the most rigid metamodel transformation formalisms — automated grammar transformation with operator suites, where a transformation script is built in such a way that it is essentially meant

Helping struggling learners of English as an additional language succeed with interactive multisensory structured strategies

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Schneider, Elke

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Based on cross-linguistic and interdisciplinary research of several decades that bridges learning an additional language with the field of learning differences/disabilities, this article shares research-evidenced practices to effectively address the needs of struggling foreign and second language learners of English in Brazil. These multisensory structured strategies enhance pronunciation, listening, reading and writing skills and strengthen grammar and vocabulary competencies of struggling learners. The selected multisensory structured metacognitive strategies can easily be infused into existing English as a foreign/second language curricula

Measuring the Impact of Language-Learning Software on Test Performance of Chinese Learners of English

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Nicholes, Justin

2016-01-01

This classroom quasi-experiment aimed to learn if and to what degree supplementing classroom instruction with Rosetta Stone (RS), Tell Me More (TMM), Memrise (MEM), or ESL WOW (WOW) impacted high-stakes English test performance in areas of university-level writing, reading, speaking, listening, and grammar. Seventy-eight (N = 78) Chinese learners…

Second Language Acquisition of Syntactic Movement in English by Turkish Adult Learners

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Reyhan Agcam

2015-12-01

Full Text Available There has been much discussion on the involvement of Universal Grammar (UG in Second Language Acquisition (SLA process. Despite growing research in the field, few precise answers to the problem have been suggested so far. Hence, recent L2 studies within the generative framework have shifted from investigating this issue to determining whether or not interlanguage grammars exhibit natural language characteristics (Can, Kilimci & Altunkol, 2007. The present study aimed to investigate L2 acquisition of syntactic movement in English noun clauses by Turkish adult learners. Accordingly, L1 involvement in SLA was sought through examining the upper intermediate Turkish learners’ knowledge about the movement in question. The study addressed the questions of whether or not Turkish adult ESL learners have problems, stemming from L1 interference, with the construction of the syntactic movement in English noun clauses, and whether or not there is any order of acquisition between the noun clauses in subject position and object position along with various wh-words. The study reported related findings, and concluded with a few pedagogical implications for practice, and a couple of suggestions for further directions.

TEXT-BASED LEARNING (TBL TO ACTIVATE ADULT EFL LEARNERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY

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Erna Iftanti

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In response to the fact that college students complain on their unsuccessful story of their EFL learning experience such as the limited number of vocabulary, English Grammar confusion, low competence of English language skills, this article explores an alternative effective way of helping them to improve their English through Text-Based Learning (TBL model. This article is then intended to narrate the implementation of TBL to teach English for college students of non English Department of Post Graduate Program of State Islamic Institute of Tulungagung, Indonesia. The result of implementing this teaching model proves to be able to not only stimulate joyful learning atmosphere but to attract the students’ active participation during the EFL instructional process as well. This further brings about their better practical understanding on English language skills as their expectation. Therefore, for English lecturers, this model is pedagogically good to be implemented in their English instructional practices.

Indirect Positive Evidence in the Acquisition of a Subset Grammar

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Schwartz, Misha; Goad, Heather

2017-01-01

This article proposes that second language learners can use indirect positive evidence (IPE) to acquire a phonological grammar that is a subset of their L1 grammar. IPE is evidence from errors in the learner's L1 made by native speakers of the learner's L2. It has been assumed that subset grammars may be acquired using direct or indirect negative…

Teaching language arts to English language learners

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Vásquez, Anete; Smith, Philip C

2013-01-01

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Teaching Language Arts to English Language Learners provides readers with the comprehensive understanding of both the challenges that face ELLs and ways in which educators might address them in the language arts classroom. The authors offer proven techniques that teachers can readily use to teach reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary as well as speaking, listening, and viewing skills. A complete section is also devoted to ways teachers can integrate all five strands of the language arts curriculum into a comprehensive unit of study w

The Development of English Grammar and Reading Comprehension by Majority and Minority Language Children in a Bilingual Primary School

Science.gov (United States)

Steinlen, Anja K.

2017-01-01

Both for the first language (L1) and for all additional languages (L2 or L3), grammatical knowledge plays a vital role in understanding texts (e.g., Grabe, 2005). However, little is known about the development and interaction of grammar and reading comprehension in beginning foreign language learning, especially with respect to children with a…

TCM grammar systems: an approach to aid the interpretation of the molecular interactions in Chinese herbal medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Jing; Wang, Yun; Luo, Si-Jun; Qiao, Yan-Jiang

2011-09-01

Interpreting the molecular interactions in Chinese herbal medicine will help to understand the molecular mechanisms of Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) and predict the new pharmacological effects of TCM. Yet, we still lack a method which could integrate the concerned pieces of parsed knowledge about TCM. To solve the problem, a new method named TCM grammar systems was proposed in the present article. The possibility to study the interactions of TCM at the molecular level using TCM grammar systems was explored using Herba Ephedrae Decoction (HED) as an example. A platform was established based on the formalism of TCM grammar systems. The related molecular network of Herba Ephedrae Decoction (HED) can be extracted automatically. The molecular network indicates that Beta2 adrenergic receptor, Glucocorticoid receptor and Interleukin12 are the relatively important targets for the anti-anaphylaxis asthma function of HED. Moreover, the anti-anaphylaxis asthma function of HED is also related with suppressing inflammation process. The results show the feasibility using TCM grammar systems to interpret the molecular mechanism of TCM. Although the results obtained depend on the database absolutely, recombination of existing knowledge in this method provides new insight for interpreting the molecular mechanism of TCM. TCM grammar systems could aid the interpretation of the molecular interactions in TCM to some extent. Moreover, it might be useful to predict the new pharmacological effects of TCM. The method is an in silico technology. In association with the experimental techniques, this method will play an important role in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of TCM. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Handbook of graph grammars and computing by graph transformation

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Engels, G; Kreowski, H J; Rozenberg, G

1999-01-01

Graph grammars originated in the late 60s, motivated by considerations about pattern recognition and compiler construction. Since then, the list of areas which have interacted with the development of graph grammars has grown quite impressively. Besides the aforementioned areas, it includes software specification and development, VLSI layout schemes, database design, modeling of concurrent systems, massively parallel computer architectures, logic programming, computer animation, developmental biology, music composition, visual languages, and many others.The area of graph grammars and graph tran

Kiss my asterisk a feisty guide to punctuation and grammar

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Baranick, Jenny

2014-01-01

Grammar has finally let its hair down! Unlike uptight grammar books that overwhelm us with every single grammar rule, Kiss My Asterisk is like a bikini: it's fun, flirty, and covers only the most important bits. Its lessons, which are 100 percent free of complicated grammar jargon, have been carefully selected to include today's most common, noticeable errors—the ones that confuse our readers or make them wonder if we are, in fact, smarter than a fifth grader. What is the proper use of an apostrophe? When should an ellipsis be used instead of an em dash? Why do we capitalize President Obama bu

Nigel: A Systemic Grammar for Text Generation.

Science.gov (United States)

1983-02-01

presumed. Basic references on the systemic framework include [Berry 75, Berry 77, Halliday 76a, Halliday 76b, Hudson 76, Halliday 81, de Joia 80...Edinburgh, 1979. [do Joia 80] de Joia , A., and A. Stanton, Terms in Systemic Linguistics, Batsford Academic and Educational, Ltd., London, 1980. -’C...1 A Grammar for Text Generation- -The Challenge ................................. 1 *1.2 A Grammar for Text Generation--The Design

FORMING THE PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE OF THE FUTURE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL USING ICT

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Liudmyla H. Havrilova

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The paper is devoted to the results of experimental implementing ICT into forming the professional competence of future English teachers of primary school. Among the ways of using the electronic educational means offered by the authors there are: developing and using the educational and methodological simulator «Introduction to Interactive Communication» as a local electronic resource on English; implementing the distance learning courses «Practical English Grammar», «Linguistic Country Study» in future specialists’ professional training; work in the electronic services, mastering the programs of infographics during studying the discipline «Methodology of Teaching English». The analysis of the study results showed developing of students’ acmeological linguomethodological aspirations, increasing the motivation for learning, in particular the use of ICT tools in English classes, and proved the effectiveness of the chosen ways of forming the professional competence of future English teachers of primary school.

The Role of Grammar Instruction in Language Teaching

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无

2001-01-01

@@ The role of grammar instruction in foreign or second language acquisition is one of the most con troversial issues in foreign/second language teach ing and learning research. The advocators of gram mar instruction argue that grammar should be the core of language instruction and formal instruction enhances formal accuracy. On the other hand, crit ics naintain that the grammar knowledge has lim ited uses and may hinder the students from acquir ing the communicative competence and efficiency. Undoubtedly these two extreme theories often put teachers into a dilemma. What theory should they believe then? Do they accept the one and ignore the other?

A Corpus of Writing, Pronunciation, Reading, and Listening by Learners of English as a Foreign Language

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Kotani, Katsunori; Yoshimi, Takehiko; Nanjo, Hiroaki; Isahara, Hitoshi

2016-01-01

In order to develop effective teaching methods and computer-assisted language teaching systems for learners of English as a foreign language who need to study the basic linguistic competences for writing, pronunciation, reading, and listening, it is necessary to first investigate which vocabulary and grammar they have or have not yet learned.…

An empirical study on perceptive teaching in junior middle school English in China

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Lifen He

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Although the middle school English teaching has gotten a lot of achievements in China, some problems still exist, such as too much emphasis on words, grammars and structures. Perceptive teaching can be helpful for English teaching from a new perspective. There are three teaching procedures in the perceptive teaching: eliciting to acquire text meaning, creating situation to experience and comprehending to get the internal values in individuals. This thesis did the experimental research on English perspective teaching in middle school in China. The results show that in perceptive teaching, learners’ cognitive abilities can be improved; learners can show great interests in learning and shape positive attitudes; their learning methods can greatly be promoted. For different level learners, it shows that middle level learners can gain more benefit than the high level or low level learners in English perceptive teaching.

The minimalist grammar of action

Science.gov (United States)

Pastra, Katerina; Aloimonos, Yiannis

2012-01-01

Language and action have been found to share a common neural basis and in particular a common ‘syntax’, an analogous hierarchical and compositional organization. While language structure analysis has led to the formulation of different grammatical formalisms and associated discriminative or generative computational models, the structure of action is still elusive and so are the related computational models. However, structuring action has important implications on action learning and generalization, in both human cognition research and computation. In this study, we present a biologically inspired generative grammar of action, which employs the structure-building operations and principles of Chomsky's Minimalist Programme as a reference model. In this grammar, action terminals combine hierarchically into temporal sequences of actions of increasing complexity; the actions are bound with the involved tools and affected objects and are governed by certain goals. We show, how the tool role and the affected-object role of an entity within an action drives the derivation of the action syntax in this grammar and controls recursion, merge and move, the latter being mechanisms that manifest themselves not only in human language, but in human action too. PMID:22106430

On the interaction of Linguistic Typology and Functional Grammar

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rijkhoff, J.

2002-01-01

of adjectives as a distinct word class. Conversely it will be shown that facts from many different languages have played an important role in the development of a layered model of the noun phrase in Functional Grammar and how currently these facts are used to test hypotheses concerning parallels between NPs...... empirical research in a wide variety of languages as practiced in the context of linguistic typology and one particular theory, Simon Dik's theory of Functional Grammar. In my view, the relationship between Functional Grammar and linguistic typology is an excellent example of the fruitful combination...... of theory driven data collection and data driven hypothesis formation. Furthermore, typological facts do not only serve to confirm the theory of Functional Grammar, but they also serve as a heuristics for an extension of the theory.Research conducted within the wider theoretical framework of Dik...

Grammar for College Writing: A Sentence-Composing Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Killgallon, Don; Killgallon, Jenny

2010-01-01

Across America, in thousands of classrooms, from elementary school to high school, the time-tested sentence-composing approach has given students tools to become better writers. Now the authors present a much anticipated sentence-composing grammar worktext for college writing. This book presents a new and easier way to understand grammar: (1) Noun…

Current Developments in Research on the Teaching of Grammar

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Hossein Nassaji; Sandra Fotos

2006-01-01

@@ With the rise of communicative methodology in the late 1970s, the role of grammar instruction in second language learning was downplayed, and it was even suggested that teaching grammar was not only unhelpful but might actually be detrimental.

EFL Secondary Students’ Perceptions on Native and Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers

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Angelia Tjokrokanoko

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This study examined the secondary students’ perceptions towards NESTs and NNESTs in an English course in Surabaya regarding the teachers’ teaching competence, cultural knowledge of English language teaching, teaching style, and classroom management. Most secondary students perceived both teacher groups were good at most categories. Using questionnaires distributed to 96 secondary school students of an English course who participated in this study, the researchers found that 38 students took part in doing a focus group interview. The interview was done to capture deeper perceptions that could be gained. The study reported that cultural knowledge of the English language teachers, especially the NESTs, exceeded that of the NNESTs. This research finding also proved that students perceived NESTs to be as good as NNESTs in such areas as teaching grammar, listening, reading, and writing. Furthermore, both NESTs and NNESTs were perceived to be not able to understand the students’ special needs since teachers at the the English course under study handled one level for about twelve meetings only.

Grammar Maturity Model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zaytsev, V.; Pierantonio, A.; Schätz, B.; Tamzalit, D.

2014-01-01

The evolution of a software language (whether modelled by a grammar or a schema or a metamodel) is not limited to development of new versions and dialects. An important dimension of a software language evolution is maturing in the sense of improving the quality of its definition. In this paper, we

Grammar-Supported 3d Indoor Reconstruction from Point Clouds for As-Built Bim

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Becker, S.; Peter, M.; Fritsch, D.

2015-03-01

The paper presents a grammar-based approach for the robust automatic reconstruction of 3D interiors from raw point clouds. The core of the approach is a 3D indoor grammar which is an extension of our previously published grammar concept for the modeling of 2D floor plans. The grammar allows for the modeling of buildings whose horizontal, continuous floors are traversed by hallways providing access to the rooms as it is the case for most office buildings or public buildings like schools, hospitals or hotels. The grammar is designed in such way that it can be embedded in an iterative automatic learning process providing a seamless transition from LOD3 to LOD4 building models. Starting from an initial low-level grammar, automatically derived from the window representations of an available LOD3 building model, hypotheses about indoor geometries can be generated. The hypothesized indoor geometries are checked against observation data - here 3D point clouds - collected in the interior of the building. The verified and accepted geometries form the basis for an automatic update of the initial grammar. By this, the knowledge content of the initial grammar is enriched, leading to a grammar with increased quality. This higher-level grammar can then be applied to predict realistic geometries to building parts where only sparse observation data are available. Thus, our approach allows for the robust generation of complete 3D indoor models whose quality can be improved continuously as soon as new observation data are fed into the grammar-based reconstruction process. The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated based on a real-world example.

Explicit Grammar Instruction in L2 Learners’Writing Development:Effective or Ineffective?

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田秀峰

2012-01-01

　　It has long been in dispute about whether explicit grammar teaching is more effective in second language learning or implicit grammar teaching is. However, there are more than one factor to take into consideration while discussing which way is better for L2 learners. This short essay aims at depicting three respects concerning grammar teaching, namely learning context, language learners’beliefs and needs, and grammar instruction. When educators and practitioners try to adopt grammar instruction either implicitly or explicitly in L2 learners’writing development, they probably need to consider the above three factors and to find out the best way to produce more effective teaching results among their students

The autonomy of grammar and semantic internalism

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Dobler Tamara

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In his post-Tractatus work on natural language use, Wittgenstein defended the notion of what he dubbed the autonomy of grammar. According to this thought, grammar - or semantics, in a more recent idiom - is essentially autonomous from metaphysical considerations, and is not answerable to the nature of things. The argument has several related incarnations in Wittgenstein’s post-Tractatus writings, and has given rise to a number of important insights, both critical and constructive. In this paper I will argue for a potential connection between Wittgenstein’s autonomy argument and some more recent internalist arguments for the autonomy of semantics. My main motivation for establishing this connection comes from the fact that the later Wittgenstein’s comments on grammar and meaning stand in opposition to some of the core assumptions of semantic externalism.

Effect of Instructional Media in the Learning of English Grammar on the Achievement of Teacher Training Students at Namakkal District

Science.gov (United States)

Arulselvi, Evangelin

2011-01-01

The present study is aimed at finding the effect of Instructional software program in the learning of grammar on the achievement of teacher training students of Namakkal District. Parallel group experimental method was adopted in this study. A sample of 80 students studying in the teacher training college were selected on the basis of their…

GRAMMAR RULE BASED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL MODEL FOR BIG DATA

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T. Nadana Ravishankar

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Though Information Retrieval (IR in big data has been an active field of research for past few years; the popularity of the native languages presents a unique challenge in big data information retrieval systems. There is a need to retrieve information which is present in English and display it in the native language for users. This aim of cross language information retrieval is complicated by unique features of the native languages such as: morphology, compound word formations, word spelling variations, ambiguity, word synonym, other language influence and etc. To overcome some of these issues, the native language is modeled using a grammar rule based approach in this work. The advantage of this approach is that the native language is modeled and its unique features are encoded using a set of inference rules. This rule base coupled with the customized ontological system shows considerable potential and is found to show better precision and recall.

Some Effects of Explicit Grammar Instruction and Syntactic Priming on Students’ Written Language Production

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Rahman Muhammad Asfah

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Structural or syntactic priming is a phenomenon in which prior exposure to specific language structures either facilitates or interferes with a learner’s subsequent language production [1]. Exposure to English structures through explicit instruction is reported to have inconclusive results. [2] reported that explicit and implicit grammar instruction ends up with automatization. This study reexamines the effect of syntactic priming and explicit grammar instruction on students’ writing. Specific grammatical features frequently appeared on TOEFL (Written Expression Section test were intensively practiced and then the students took a test whose items were specifically collected from TOEFL practice tests. Finally, the students were assigned to write a short essay. Sentences with similar structures which the students had been exposed to were extracted from the students’ essays. Out of 40 test items, only 59.86% in average could be answered correctly, and all of the grammatical features to which the students were previously exposed were contained in their essays. However, in average only eight out of 18 sentences were grammatically constructed. It can be concluded that although priming method with explicit instruction leads the students to use similar syntactic features in their writing, it seems to have little impact on students’ grammatical knowledge for immediate use in written language production.

From LL-regular to LL(1) grammars: Transformations, covers and parsing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

1982-01-01

In this paper it is shown that it is possible to transform any LL-regular grammar G into an LL(1) grammar G' in such a way that parsing G' is as good as parsing G. That is, a parse of a sentence of grammar G can be obtained with a simple string homomorphism from the parse of a corresponding sentence

Linearly Ordered Attribute Grammars : With Automatic Augmenting Dependency Selection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Binsbergen, L. Thomas; Bransen, Jeroen; Dijkstra, Atze

2015-01-01

Attribute Grammars (AGs) extend Context-Free Grammars with attributes: information gathered on the syntax tree that adds semantics to the syntax. AGs are very well suited for describing static analyses, code-generation and other phases incorporated in a compiler. AGs are divided into classes based

Email English with new social media section and phrase bank of useful expressions

CERN Document Server

Emmerson, Paul

2013-01-01

Email English will help students of English to write effective and convincing communications, whether for work or study, whether by email or via social media. Based on hundreds of real examples, Email English deals systematically with key language for constructing effective and convincing emails in English as well as developing an appropriate voice through social media. Basics, including opening and closing emails, giving information, making requests, arranging meetings and checking understanding. Specific situations, such as negotiating, asking for payment and dealing with a supplier or customer. Skills such as describing business trends, relating cause and effect and reporting. General grammar problems, for instance, sentence structure, verb forms, comparison and punctuation. Communication styles: formal and informal, direct and indirect, ways of seeming friendlier. A NEW social media section presents strategies, tips and key language and expressions for writing blogs and on social media platforms such as F...

Theoretical Basics of the Transpositional Grammar of Russian Language

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Victor Vasilievich Shigurov

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The article presents the theoretical basics of the transpositional grammar of the Russian language (as the special areas of the functional grammar, which serves as a mechanism for describing the subject of the transposition of the linguistic units from one class (or interclass semantic-syntactic category to another (or others. The relation to the transposition of the grammar and vocabulary (word-formation was displayed; a typology of the transpositional processes in grammatical structure of the Russian language was submitted, and above all, in the parts of the speech and inter part-of-speech classes, grammatical categories and lexical-grammatical classes; general and specific objectives of the study types of transposition of the linguistic units were defined; the fragments of the description of the transition and syncretism of the language units were offered using the technique of opposition analysis and indexation. The results can be used in the development of the theory of the transpositional grammar of the Russian language.

Access, Rank, and Select in Grammar-compressed Strings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Belazzougui, Djamal; Cording, Patrick Hagge; Puglisi, Simon J.

2015-01-01

Given a string S of length N on a fixed alphabet of σ symbols, a grammar compressor produces a context-free grammar G of size n that generates S and only S. In this paper we describe data structures to support the following operations on a grammar-compressed string: access(S,i,j) (return substring...... consecutive symbols from S. Alternatively, we can achieve \\O(logτN+m/logσN) query time using \\O(nτlogτ(N/n)logN) bits of space, matching a lower bound stated by Verbin and Yu for strings where N is polynomially related to n when τ = log ε N. For rank and select we describe data structures of size \\O...

Performance and competence in usage-based construction grammar

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

2014-01-01

While formalist approaches in the Chomskian tradition to language distinguish sharply between performance and competence in their modeling of language competence, performance and competence are considered to be in a mutually influential relation in usage-based models of language. Language...... competence, in the latter approach, is, much like in Dell Hymes’ notion of communicative competence, held to be experientially based in the sense that speakers establish their competence through inductive social-cognitive processes of schematization and conventionalization. Making a case for the usage......-based definition of the language system, his paper explores the interplay between performance and competence in a construction grammar perspective in which grammatical constructions are considered meaningful symbolic units on par with lexemes, in relation to the [V until ADJ]-construction, based on a study...

DEVELOPING MATERIAL FOR COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT TO TEACH ENGLISH FOR ECONOMICS STUDENTS

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Aulia Hanifah Qomar

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The objectives of this research are to develop materials for CLT as an interesting media to learn English grammar, to know how material in CLT works as a media to learn and evaluate English grammar facilitates students to learn more grammar and to know the responses from the students to the materials in CLT. This research is Research and Development (R&D which use ADDIE design for the procedure. ADDIE design is stand for the procedure itself, these are Analyzing, Designing, Developing, Implementing and Evaluating. This research is designed by book material. The subject of this research is university students of Economic Faculty of Muhammadiyah University of Metro in the second semester. The instrument of this research is questionnaire. The questionnaire in this research is used to collect data which is divided into one aspects, is readability. The data is analyzed using Percentage Analysis Data. The data shows that the product is developed well. For the readability aspect, the result of expert is valid, one-to-one is valid, then in small group is increased to valid, and in the field test it is valid. Therefore, the product is developed well after each phase of the research. Based on the result of the research, the researcher concluds that the materials in CLT book can be learned attractively and interestingly. The students can understand the materials well. The learning process can be fun and comfortable for the students. The materials of CLT book media can be used in the class as a breakthrough of attractive and interactive learning which is very interesting for the students of earlier grade.

What do animals learn in artificial grammar studies?

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Beckers, Gabriël J L; Berwick, Robert C; Okanoya, Kazuo; Bolhuis, Johan J

2017-10-01

Artificial grammar learning is a popular paradigm to study syntactic ability in nonhuman animals. Subjects are first trained to recognize strings of tokens that are sequenced according to grammatical rules. Next, to test if recognition depends on grammaticality, subjects are presented with grammar-consistent and grammar-violating test strings, which they should discriminate between. However, simpler cues may underlie discrimination if they are available. Here, we review stimulus design in a sample of studies that use particular sounds as tokens, and that claim or suggest their results demonstrate a form of sequence rule learning. To assess the extent of acoustic similarity between training and test strings, we use four simple measures corresponding to cues that are likely salient. All stimulus sets contain biases in similarity measures such that grammatical test stimuli resemble training stimuli acoustically more than do non-grammatical test stimuli. These biases may contribute to response behaviour, reducing the strength of grammatical explanations. We conclude that acoustic confounds are a blind spot in artificial grammar learning studies in nonhuman animals. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Backward Yakudoku: An Attempt to Implement CLT at a Japanese High School

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Gene; Yanagita, Mayuno

2017-01-01

How can Japanese teachers of English go about introducing more communicative activities suitable for their contexts? This article discusses an attempt by a high school teacher to implement communicative language teaching (CLT) in her classes while responding to institutional pressure to use "yakudoku" (a traditional grammar translation…

The neurophysiology of language processing shapes the evolution of grammar: evidence from case marking.

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Bickel, Balthasar; Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena; Choudhary, Kamal K; Schlesewsky, Matthias; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina

2015-01-01

Do principles of language processing in the brain affect the way grammar evolves over time or is language change just a matter of socio-historical contingency? While the balance of evidence has been ambiguous and controversial, we identify here a neurophysiological constraint on the processing of language that has a systematic effect on the evolution of how noun phrases are marked by case (i.e. by such contrasts as between the English base form she and the object form her). In neurophysiological experiments across diverse languages we found that during processing, participants initially interpret the first base-form noun phrase they hear (e.g. she…) as an agent (which would fit a continuation like … greeted him), even when the sentence later requires the interpretation of a patient role (as in … was greeted). We show that this processing principle is also operative in Hindi, a language where initial base-form noun phrases most commonly denote patients because many agents receive a special case marker ("ergative") and are often left out in discourse. This finding suggests that the principle is species-wide and independent of the structural affordances of specific languages. As such, the principle favors the development and maintenance of case-marking systems that equate base-form cases with agents rather than with patients. We confirm this evolutionary bias by statistical analyses of phylogenetic signals in over 600 languages worldwide, controlling for confounding effects from language contact. Our findings suggest that at least one core property of grammar systematically adapts in its evolution to the neurophysiological conditions of the brain, independently of socio-historical factors. This opens up new avenues for understanding how specific properties of grammar have developed in tight interaction with the biological evolution of our species.

A Theoretical Glimpse at Issues of Grammar Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

朱海涛

2012-01-01

When it comes to the description of the status of grammar in the field of second language teaching now,recent literature bears witness a good deal of discussion about a ’grammar revival’. More recently,theoretical perspectives on language teaching and learning have changed. The possibilities and feasibility of integrating form - focus instruction and meaningful communicative activities in the communicative language classroom have been explored.

The Role of Teaching Grammar in First Language Education

Science.gov (United States)

Demir, Sezgin; Erdogan, Ayse

2018-01-01

Grammar; while originating from the natural structure of the language also is the system which makes it possible for different language functions meet within the body of common rules especially communication. Having command of the language used, speaking and writing it correctly require strong grammar knowledge actually. However only knowing the…

Multiword Constructions in the Grammar.

Science.gov (United States)

Culicover, Peter W; Jackendoff, Ray; Audring, Jenny

2017-07-01

There is ample evidence that speakers' linguistic knowledge extends well beyond what can be described in terms of rules of compositional interpretation stated over combinations of single words. We explore a range of multiword constructions (MWCs) to get a handle both on the extent of the phenomenon and on the grammatical constraints that may govern it. We consider idioms of various sorts, collocations, compounds, light verbs, syntactic nuts, and assorted other constructions, as well as morphology. Our conclusion is that MWCs highlight the central role that grammar plays in licensing MWCs in the lexicon and the creation of novel MWCs, and they help to clarify how the lexicon articulates with the rest of the grammar. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Construction Morphology and the Parallel Architecture of Grammar

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Booij, Geert; Audring, Jenny

2017-01-01

This article presents a systematic exposition of how the basic ideas of Construction Grammar (CxG) (Goldberg, 2006) and the Parallel Architecture (PA) of grammar (Jackendoff, 2002]) provide the framework for a proper account of morphological phenomena, in particular word formation. This framework is referred to as Construction Morphology (CxM). As…

Whys & therefores a rational look at the English language

CERN Document Server

Rutherford, William

2011-01-01

Whys & Therefores aids the reader to arrive at generalizations for the shape of the English language: words, grammar, meaning, sound and spelling. The format adopted throughout is that of a light-hearted ongoing Socratic dialogue between a mentor and a pupil. The intended effects of such activity are: awareness of what it means to 'know' a language; reliance upon native-language intuition; discovery of what one didn't know that one already 'knows' about the language; use of ungrammaticality as an investigative tool; healthy questioning of received facts about language from so-called experts; a

Improving Students’ Mastery on Simple Present Tense Through Climbing Grammar Mountain Game

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Fadilla Taslim

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This study aims to determine whether the use of Climbing Grammar Mountain Game gave significant improvement on students in learning simple present tense. Classroom action research was used in this study where the data were analyzed by using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The population of the study was the students of grade eleventh at SMPN 1 Luak 50 Kota. There were 21 students in this class. Six kinds of instruments were used to collect data, namely teaching ,scenario, observation sheet, questionnaire, test, interview, and teacher’s journal. This study ran for two cycles. In the second cycle, it was shown that there was gradual improvement from the previous cycle which changed from 64 (insufficient to 79 (sufficient of the mean score. it was more than criteria of the students’ mean score which were determined in this study and it was significant because it proved that the students enthusiasm to study simple present tense, it mean that the students liked and were not bored again so this was a motivation for them to more concentrate to study simple present tense and they could use it in daily life for communication. They understand that simple present tense is important in learning English because it is used in daily life, either in writing and spoken language. It could be concluded that Climbing Grammar Mountain Game could improve the ability of the students in class VII B of SMPN 1 Luak 50 Kota in using Simple Present Tense.

Modeling the Nature of Grammar and Vocabulary Trajectories From Prekindergarten to Third Grade.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Hui; Logan, Jessica A; Jia, Rongfang

2018-04-17

This study investigated the longitudinal development of 2 important contributors to reading comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary skills. The primary interest was to examine the trajectories of the 2 skill areas from preschool to 3rd grade. The study involved a longitudinal sample of 420 children from 4 sites. Language skills, including grammar and vocabulary, were assessed annually with multiple measures. Multivariate latent growth curve modeling was used to examine the developmental trajectories of grammar and vocabulary, to test the correlation between the 2 domains, and to investigate the effects of demographic predictors on language growth. Results showed that both grammar and vocabulary exhibited decelerating growth from preschool to Grade 2. In Grade 3, grammar growth further flattened, whereas vocabulary continued to grow stably. Growth of vocabulary and grammar were positively correlated. Demographic characteristics, such as child gender and family socioeconomic status, were found to predict the intercept but not the slope of the growth trajectories. Children's growth in grammar skills is differentiated in a number of important ways from their growth in vocabulary skills. Results of this study suggest the need to differentiate these dimensions of language when seeking to closely examine growth from preschool to primary grades.

Where Is She? Gender Occurrences in Online Grammar Guides

Science.gov (United States)

Amare, Nicole

2007-01-01

This article examines seven online grammar guides for instances of linguistic sexism. The grammar sentences from .edu Websites were analyzed based on NCTE's "Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language" (2002) using the criteria of generic he and man; titles, labels, and names; gender stereotypes; order of mention (firstness); and ratio of male to…

Grammar Engineering Support for Precedence Rule Recovery and Compatibility Checking

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouwers, E.; Bravenboer, M.; Visser, E.

2007-01-01

A wide range of parser generators are used to generate parsers for programming languages. The grammar formalisms that come with parser generators provide different approaches for defining operator precedence. Some generators (e.g. YACC) support precedence declarations, others require the grammar to

DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING GRAMMAR IN AN EFL CONTEXT

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Abdu Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The role of grammar instruction in an ESL/EFL context has been for decades a major issue for students and teachers alike. Researchers have debated whether grammar should be taught in the classroom and students, for their part, have generally looked upon grammar instruction as a necessary evil at best, and an avoidable burden at worst. The paper reports a study undertaken to investigate the difficulties teachers face in teaching grammar to EFL students as well as those faced by students in learning it, in the teachers' perception. The study aimed to find out whether there are significant differences in teachers' perceptions of difficulties in relation to their gender, qualification, teaching experience, and the level they teach in school, thus providing insights into their own and their students' difficulties. Mean scores and t-test were used to interpret the data. The main findings are reported with implications.

The Effects of Using Online Concordancers on Teaching Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Türkmen, Yasemin; Aydin, Selami

2016-01-01

Studies conducted so far have mainly focused on the effects of online concordancers on teaching vocabulary, while there is a lack of research focusing on the effects of online concordancers on teaching and learning grammar. Thus, this study aims to review the studies on the effects of online concordancers on teaching and learning grammar and how…

Effect of Direct Grammar Instruction on Student Writing Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Lisa; Feng, Jay

2016-01-01

Grammar Instruction has an important role to play in helping students to speak and write more effectively. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of direct grammar instruction on the quality of student's writing skills. The participants in this study included 18 fifth grade students and two fifth grade teachers. Based on the results…

Concept-Based Grammar Teaching: An Academic Responds to Azar

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Kent

2007-01-01

This response to Azar (this volume) intends to discuss from an academic's perspective the main points raised in her paper (i.e., grammar-based instruction and its relation to focus on form and error correction) and, to encourage a more concept-based approach to grammar instruction (CBT). A CBT approach to language development argues that the…

Does complexity matter? Meta-analysis of learner performance in artificial grammar tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Schiff, Rachel; Katan, Pesia

2014-01-01

Complexity has been shown to affect performance on artificial grammar learning (AGL) tasks (categorization of test items as grammatical/ungrammatical according to the implicitly trained grammar rules). However, previously published AGL experiments did not utilize consistent measures to investigate the comprehensive effect of grammar complexity on task performance. The present study focused on computerizing Bollt and Jones's (2000) technique of calculating topological entropy (TE), a quantitative measure of AGL charts' complexity, with the aim of examining associations between grammar systems' TE and learners' AGL task performance. We surveyed the literature and identified 56 previous AGL experiments based on 10 different grammars that met the sampling criteria. Using the automated matrix-lift-action method, we assigned a TE value for each of these 10 previously used AGL systems and examined its correlation with learners' task performance. The meta-regression analysis showed a significant correlation, demonstrating that the complexity effect transcended the different settings and conditions in which the categorization task was performed. The results reinforced the importance of using this new automated tool to uniformly measure grammar systems' complexity when experimenting with and evaluating the findings of AGL studies.

Automating 3D reconstruction using a probabilistic grammar

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Xiong, Hanwei; Xu, Jun; Xu, Chenxi; Pan, Ming

2015-10-01

3D reconstruction of objects from point clouds with a laser scanner is still a laborious task in many applications. Automating 3D process is an ongoing research topic and suffers from the complex structure of the data. The main difficulty is due to lack of knowledge of real world objects structure. In this paper, we accumulate such structure knowledge by a probabilistic grammar learned from examples in the same category. The rules of the grammar capture compositional structures at different levels, and a feature dependent probability function is attached for every rule. The learned grammar can be used to parse new 3D point clouds, organize segment patches in a hierarchal way, and assign them meaningful labels. The parsed semantics can be used to guide the reconstruction algorithms automatically. Some examples are given to explain the method.

The place of exclamatives and miratives in grammar: a functional discourse grammar view

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Olbertz, H.

2012-01-01

The concept of mirativity has come to interfere in the recently developed framework of Functional Discourse Grammar with what would be considered to be exclamative elsewhere. In addition, the concept of exclamative itself turns out to be ill-defined in various studies within the functional paradigm.

The Effects of Communicative Grammar Teaching on Students' Achievement of Grammatical Knowledge and Oral Production

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Ho, Pham Vu Phi; The Binh, Nguyen

2014-01-01

So far the students of Le Hong Phong Junior High School have been taught grammar with GTM (Grammar-Translation Method), which just prepares learners for conventional grammar-paper tests. Despite their considerable knowledge of grammar, the students fail to use the language they have learnt to communicate in real-life situations. The purpose of…

Automated Understanding of Financial Statements Using Neural Networks and Semantic Grammars

OpenAIRE

Markovitch, J. S.

1995-01-01

This article discusses how neural networks and semantic grammars may be used to locate and understand financial statements embedded in news stories received from on-line news wires. A neural net is used to identify where in the news story a financial statement appears to begin. A grammar then is applied to this text in an effort to extract specific facts from the financial statement. Applying grammars to financial statements presents unique parsing problems since the dollar amounts of financi...

English Language Teaching at Secondary School Level in Bangladesh: An Overview of the Implementation of Communicative Language Teaching Method

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Sofe

2012-01-01

The concept of globalization has brought dynamism in each aspect of the world. The changes have also touched the field of English language teaching (ELT) throughout the world. Bangladesh is no more far from that transformation. It has already attempted to the innovation of ELT. The country has moved from long term-practiced Grammar Translation…

Tracking Down the Origins of Ambiguity in Context-Free Grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

H.J.S. Basten (Bas)

2010-01-01

htmlabstractContext-free grammars are widely used but still hindered by ambiguity. This stresses the need for detailed detection methods that point out the sources of ambiguity in a grammar. In this paper we show how the approximative Noncanonical Unambiguity Test by Schmitz can be extended to

Sensing the Sentence: An Embodied Simulation Approach to Rhetorical Grammar

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Rule, Hannah J.

2017-01-01

This article applies the neuroscientific concept of embodied simulation--the process of understanding language through visual, motor, and spatial modalities of the body--to rhetorical grammar and sentence-style pedagogies. Embodied simulation invigorates rhetorical grammar instruction by attuning writers to the felt effects of written language,…

Information theory and artificial grammar learning: inferring grammaticality from redundancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Jamieson, Randall K; Nevzorova, Uliana; Lee, Graham; Mewhort, D J K

2016-03-01

In artificial grammar learning experiments, participants study strings of letters constructed using a grammar and then sort novel grammatical test exemplars from novel ungrammatical ones. The ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical strings is often taken as evidence that the participants have induced the rules of the grammar. We show that judgements of grammaticality are predicted by the local redundancy of the test strings, not by grammaticality itself. The prediction holds in a transfer test in which test strings involve different letters than the training strings. Local redundancy is usually confounded with grammaticality in stimuli widely used in the literature. The confounding explains why the ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical strings has popularized the idea that participants have induced the rules of the grammar, when they have not. We discuss the judgement of grammaticality task in terms of attribute substitution and pattern goodness. When asked to judge grammaticality (an inaccessible attribute), participants answer an easier question about pattern goodness (an accessible attribute).

Compiling a corpus-based dictionary grammar: an example for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this article it is shown how a corpus-based dictionary grammar may be compiled — that is, a mini-grammar fully based on corpus data and specifically written for use in and inte-grated with a dictionary. Such an effort is, to the best of our knowledge, a world's first. We exem-plify our approach for a Northern Sotho ...

A Grammar of Bih

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Tam Thi Minh

2013-01-01

Bih is a Chamic (Austronesian) language spoken by approximately 500 people in the Southern highlands of Vietnam. This dissertation is the first descriptive grammar of the language, based on extensive fieldwork and community-based language documentation in Vietnam and written from a functional/typological perspective. The analysis in this work is…

A grammar of Lepcha

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Plaisier, Heleen

2006-01-01

This book is a descriptive grammar of Lepcha, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Sikkim, Darjeeling district in West Bengal in India, in Ilam district in Nepal, and in a few villages of Samtsi district in south-western Bhutan. The data for this study were collected during several sojourns amongst

Graph Grammar-Based Multi-Frontal Parallel Direct Solver for Two-Dimensional Isogeometric Analysis

KAUST Repository

Kuźnik, Krzysztof

2012-06-02

This paper introduces the graph grammar based model for developing multi-thread multi-frontal parallel direct solver for two dimensional isogeometric finite element method. Execution of the solver algorithm has been expressed as the sequence of graph grammar productions. At the beginning productions construct the elimination tree with leaves corresponding to finite elements. Following sequence of graph grammar productions generates element frontal matri-ces at leaf nodes, merges matrices at parent nodes and eliminates rows corresponding to fully assembled degrees of freedom. Finally, there are graph grammar productions responsible for root problem solution and recursive backward substitutions. Expressing the solver algorithm by graph grammar productions allows us to explore the concurrency of the algorithm. The graph grammar productions are grouped into sets of independent tasks that can be executed concurrently. The resulting concurrent multi-frontal solver algorithm is implemented and tested on NVIDIA GPU, providing O(NlogN) execution time complexity where N is the number of degrees of freedom. We have confirmed this complexity by solving up to 1 million of degrees of freedom with 448 cores GPU.

a Conceptual Framework for Indoor Mapping by Using Grammars

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, X.; Fan, H.; Zipf, A.; Shang, J.; Gu, F.

2017-09-01

Maps are the foundation of indoor location-based services. Many automatic indoor mapping approaches have been proposed, but they rely highly on sensor data, such as point clouds and users' location traces. To address this issue, this paper presents a conceptual framework to represent the layout principle of research buildings by using grammars. This framework can benefit the indoor mapping process by improving the accuracy of generated maps and by dramatically reducing the volume of the sensor data required by traditional reconstruction approaches. In addition, we try to present more details of partial core modules of the framework. An example using the proposed framework is given to show the generation process of a semantic map. This framework is part of an ongoing research for the development of an approach for reconstructing semantic maps.

Grammar Is a System That Characterizes Talk in Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginzburg, Jonathan; Poesio, Massimo

2016-01-01

Much of contemporary mainstream formal grammar theory is unable to provide analyses for language as it occurs in actual spoken interaction. Its analyses are developed for a cleaned up version of language which omits the disfluencies, non-sentential utterances, gestures, and many other phenomena that are ubiquitous in spoken language. Using evidence from linguistics, conversation analysis, multimodal communication, psychology, language acquisition, and neuroscience, we show these aspects of language use are rule governed in much the same way as phenomena captured by conventional grammars. Furthermore, we argue that over the past few years some of the tools required to provide a precise characterizations of such phenomena have begun to emerge in theoretical and computational linguistics; hence, there is no reason for treating them as "second class citizens" other than pre-theoretical assumptions about what should fall under the purview of grammar. Finally, we suggest that grammar formalisms covering such phenomena would provide a better foundation not just for linguistic analysis of face-to-face interaction, but also for sister disciplines, such as research on spoken dialogue systems and/or psychological work on language acquisition.

Grammar-Lexicon Distinction in a Neurocognitive Context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ishkhanyan, Byurakn

hypotheses and testing them through using various methods. The grammar-lexicon distinction and working memory are thus central topics of this thesis. The results suggest a potential for a successful integration of the two theories. The findings further provide evidence for Boye & Harder’s (2012......) understanding of the grammar-lexicon distinction, and for the involvement of working memory in language production, as the REF-model would predict. As a starting point for integrating the two theories, the present thesis gives directions for future research on the neurocognitive underpinning of language and its...... relation to working memory....

The Living Indian Critical Tradition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vivek Kumar Dwivedi

2010-11-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to establish the identity of something that is often considered to be missing – a living Indian critical tradition. I refer to the tradition that arises out of the work of those Indians who write in English. The chief architects of this tradition are Sri Aurobindo, C.D. Narasimhaiah, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Homi K. Bhabha. It is possible to believe that Indian literary theories derive almost solely from ancient Sanskrit poetics. Or, alternatively, one can be concerned about the sad state of affairs regarding Indian literary theories or criticism in English. There have been scholars who have raised the question of the pathetic state of Indian scholarship in English and have even come up with some positive suggestions. But these scholars are those who are ignorant about the living Indian critical tradition. The significance of the Indian critical tradition lies in the fact that it provides the real focus to the Indian critical scene. Without an awareness of this tradition Indian literary scholarship (which is quite a different thing from Indian literary criticism and theory as it does not have the same impact as the latter two do can easily fail to see who the real Indian literary critics and theorists are.

The Impact of Conferencing Assessment on EFL Students' Grammar Learning (Impacto de la evaluación mediante conferencias en el aprendizaje de la gramática en estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera)

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Baleghizadeh, Sasan; Zarghami, Zahra

2012-01-01

This article reports on a study that was carried out in order to examine the impact of conferencing assessment on students' learning of English grammar. Forty-two Iranian intermediate university students were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. The participants in the experimental group took part in four individual and four…

Transfer and access to universal grammar in adult second language acquisition

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Sauter, Kim

2002-01-01

Summary This dissertation focuses on the roles of first language transfer and Universal Grammar in adult second (or foreign) language acquisition. It contributes to the ongoing debate whether second language acquisition is constrained by Universal Grammar. According to generative linguists,

Comparison of Context-free Grammars Based on Parsing Generated Test Data

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B. Fischer (Bernd); R. Lämmel (Ralf); V. Zaytsev (Vadim); U. Aßmann; J. Saraiva; A.M. Sloane

2011-01-01

textabstractThere exist a number of software engineering scenarios that essentially involve equivalence or correspondence assertions for some of the context-free grammars in the scenarios. For instance, when applying grammar transformations during parser development---be it for the sake of

A stochastic context free grammar based framework for analysis of protein sequences

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Nebel Jean-Christophe

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In the last decade, there have been many applications of formal language theory in bioinformatics such as RNA structure prediction and detection of patterns in DNA. However, in the field of proteomics, the size of the protein alphabet and the complexity of relationship between amino acids have mainly limited the application of formal language theory to the production of grammars whose expressive power is not higher than stochastic regular grammars. However, these grammars, like other state of the art methods, cannot cover any higher-order dependencies such as nested and crossing relationships that are common in proteins. In order to overcome some of these limitations, we propose a Stochastic Context Free Grammar based framework for the analysis of protein sequences where grammars are induced using a genetic algorithm. Results This framework was implemented in a system aiming at the production of binding site descriptors. These descriptors not only allow detection of protein regions that are involved in these sites, but also provide insight in their structure. Grammars were induced using quantitative properties of amino acids to deal with the size of the protein alphabet. Moreover, we imposed some structural constraints on grammars to reduce the extent of the rule search space. Finally, grammars based on different properties were combined to convey as much information as possible. Evaluation was performed on sites of various sizes and complexity described either by PROSITE patterns, domain profiles or a set of patterns. Results show the produced binding site descriptors are human-readable and, hence, highlight biologically meaningful features. Moreover, they achieve good accuracy in both annotation and detection. In addition, findings suggest that, unlike current state-of-the-art methods, our system may be particularly suited to deal with patterns shared by non-homologous proteins. Conclusion A new Stochastic Context Free

Functional Orientation and Practice of Inductive and Deductive Approaches to Grammar Teaching in EFL

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邵阳

2011-01-01

To solve the ambiguous understanding of Grammar Teaching position,based on explicit grammatical knowledge,this paper discusses the grammar position in EFL,compares both its pros and cons between deductive and inductive approaches,and indicates that grammar teaching by either approach alone has disadvantages,should adopt a combination technique.

The Use Of Authentic Materials In Improving Learners’ Understanding In Using Grammar: A Case Study At Pamulang University And Binus University

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Djasminar Anwar

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This study discusses the use of authentic materials for non-English Department Students at Pamulang University, Tangerang, and BINUS University, Jakarta. Both universities have classes of English III which uses published materials and TOEFL course books. Authentic materials are provided to support the materials in the compulsory textbook. It is done to encourage students to more understand the grammar. The approach used in this study involves a pre-test, quizzes, and a post test. All these tools are used to measure whether there is a progress of the students’ performance. The students’ progress is summarized and shown in tables. Additionally, at the end of the semester, after the post test is given, a questionnaire is distributed to the students to know the students’ opinion about the provided authentic materials.

Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA Perspective

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Ellis, Rod

2006-01-01

The study of how learners acquire a second language (SLA) has helped to shape thinking about how to teach the grammar of a second language. There remain, however, a number of controversial issues. This paper considers eight key questions relating to grammar pedagogy in the light of findings from SLA. As such, this article complements…

Noticing Grammar in L2 Writing and Problem-Solving Strategies

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Geist, Monika

2017-01-01

Noticing plays an important role for second language acquisition. Since the formulation of the output hypothesis (Swain, 1985), it has been proven that producing output can lead to noticing. Studies on noticing have revealed little focus on grammar, and an in-depth investigation of grammar noticing has not been conducted so far. Studies into…

French, English or Kanak Languages? Can Traditional Languages and Cultures Be Sustained in New Caledonia?

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Anu Bissoonauth

2017-10-01

Preliminary results from the study show a difference in the language habits between older and younger generations on New Caledonians of Melanesian descent. Although French is perceived as the lingua franca by all, English is more valued than ancestral Melanesian languages by the younger generations. In terms of cultural representations and links with family history, there seems to be a discrepancy between the younger and the older generations. Whilst the older generations perceive the Centre Culturel Tjibaou as a traditional space for Melanesian art and culture their younger counterparts on the contrary view it as a place associated with contemporary art and music performances.

Teaching a Large Multi-Level Class Using Different Strategies and Activities to Motivate English Language Learning

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Julia Sevy

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Many challenges face English language teachers today, but two common problems in Ecuador specifically in universities are large class sizes and multi-level students. These problems can create boredom, anxiety, and over all lack of interest in English language learning. It is shown in this article how to combat these particular problems through various strategies utilized to teach to the students’ needs, help them work together and intrinsically motivate them to learn different English language skills, specifically grammar and sentence structure. These strategies include group work, task-based learning, the inverted or flipped classroom, role-play and intrinsic learning. The author explains how these strategies work in a specific group of university pupils in Ecuador to overcome these specific problems in a classroom, but without student participation they can be flawed.

Learning of pitch and time structures in an artificial grammar setting.

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Prince, Jon B; Stevens, Catherine J; Jones, Mari Riess; Tillmann, Barbara

2018-04-12

Despite the empirical evidence for the power of the cognitive capacity of implicit learning of structures and regularities in several modalities and materials, it remains controversial whether implicit learning extends to the learning of temporal structures and regularities. We investigated whether (a) an artificial grammar can be learned equally well when expressed in duration sequences as when expressed in pitch sequences, (b) learning of the artificial grammar in either duration or pitch (as the primary dimension) sequences can be influenced by the properties of the secondary dimension (invariant vs. randomized), and (c) learning can be boosted when the artificial grammar is expressed in both pitch and duration. After an exposure phase with grammatical sequences, learning in a subsequent test phase was assessed in a grammaticality judgment task. Participants in both the pitch and duration conditions showed incidental (not fully implicit) learning of the artificial grammar when the secondary dimension was invariant, but randomizing the pitch sequence prevented learning of the artificial grammar in duration sequences. Expressing the artificial grammar in both pitch and duration resulted in disproportionately better performance, suggesting an interaction between the learning of pitch and temporal structure. The findings are relevant to research investigating the learning of temporal structures and the learning of structures presented simultaneously in 2 dimensions (e.g., space and time, space and objects). By investigating learning, the findings provide further insight into the potential specificity of pitch and time processing, and their integrated versus independent processing, as previously debated in music cognition research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Existential Grammar for Composition.

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Merchant, Frank

The teaching of grammar has been in sad decline since medieval times, when it included the whole skill of creating in language. Our textbook community has moved through a series of ineffective fashions, from those of Fries to post-Chomsky. All have presumed to replace prescriptive rules with realistic explanations. But all have fallen, like the…

Towards a Rationale for Research into Grammar Teaching in Schools

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Fontich, Xavier; Camps, Anna

2014-01-01

This article hopes to bring new insights to the debate about the effect of grammar knowledge on language use, especially writing. It raises the question of the need to look more closely at the following three questions: (1) What is the aim of grammar teaching?; (2) How capable are students of conceptualising about language and how is their…

The Influence of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children.

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van Dijk, Chantal N; van Witteloostuijn, Merel; Vasić, Nada; Avrutin, Sergey; Blom, Elma

2016-01-01

When sending text messages on their mobile phone to friends, children often use a special type of register, which is called textese. This register allows the omission of words and the use of textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever (forever). Previous studies have shown that textese has a positive effect on children's literacy abilities. In addition, it is possible that children's grammar system is affected by textese as well, as grammar rules are often transgressed in this register. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of textese influences children's grammar performance, and whether this effect is specific to grammar or language in general. Additionally, studies have not yet investigated the influence of textese on children's cognitive abilities. Consequently, the secondary aim of this study was to find out whether textese affects children's executive functions. To investigate this, 55 children between 10 and 13 years old were tested on a receptive vocabulary and grammar performance (sentence repetition) task and various tasks measuring executive functioning. In addition, text messages were elicited and the number of omissions and textisms in children's messages were calculated. Regression analyses showed that omissions were a significant predictor of children's grammar performance after various other variables were controlled for: the more words children omitted in their text messages, the better their performance on the grammar task. Although textisms correlated (marginally) significantly with vocabulary, grammar and selective attention scores and omissions marginally significantly with vocabulary scores, no other significant effects were obtained for measures of textese in the regression analyses: neither for the language outcomes, nor for the executive function tasks. Hence, our results show that textese is positively related to children's grammar performance. On the other hand, use of textese does