Date Posted:19:40:35 10/03/09 Sat Author: Danielle, Luciana S., Ma.Valéria, Raquel S., Wiviany L. Subject: Comments on DA and Grammar
DA and Grammar
Grammatical knowledge is more relevant for discourse production (writing and speaking) than it is for discourse reception ( listening and reading).
While using the language, the great majority of grammatical choices that a speaker / writer makes, depend on meaning, situational contexts, and a discourse context.
Teaching / learning grammar should go beyond traditional sentence-level based approaches.
Grammar should be presented in a contextualized way, using discourse- based and context-based activities and formats. Learners will learn it inductively. They will be given the opportunity to deduce the rule while developing the activities.
Using discourse-based teaching techniques is certainly a challenging task, when it comes to beginners, since their knowledge is limited. The teacher will probably need to provide them with some vocabulary and structures beforehand, for sure.
For intermediate and advanced students, more elaborate activities can be used, though, as for instance, stories, poems, etc, as an introduction to present and practice grammar in discourse.
We believe that there must be a balance. There will be moments in which grammar points will have to be presented deductively; according to the text, mechanical grammatical rules that the learners need to practice.
