Language teaching methodology

5. Communicative Expression occurs through speaking and listening, sometimes followed up with writing and reading. Such activities require little printed material and few aural cues, although participants may want to refer to grammar points (including those that are not the focus of the targeted grammar) and/or collect the words and phrases they need. In this example (Activity *D.), they ask one another real questions, for which they need only the structures and phrasing offered in the Chapter Part. Then they convert those real answers into statements that include the targeted grammar, practicing it naturally. They can even adapt the same patterns to different topics, ones they truly want to know about—until the activity rises to the level of real conversation containing other structures and vocabulary that they acquire in genuine situations. Communicative interaction of this type can continue for a while, until participants have expressed all they want to say and learned all they can take in about others. Because their experience has been authentic and successful, they are likely to repeat it in different situations with other people and other information. Their freshly acquired language skills will last a long time, rising to new levels of interactive effectiveness. 

Of course, the same five (5) steps can be adapted to deliver most grammatical topics into learners’ repertoires. They can also be designed to “teach” or practice other language skills and topics: listening skills, speaking (including pronunciation), reading comprehension, writing, vocabulary. Their stages can vary considerably from those used to grasp and embed grammar, of course. 
 Work/Life English Grammar
Presented and practiced in useful, practical contexts, instruction on each grammar topic (Imperative, it vs. there, Possessives, Simple Present, Modal Verbs, Question Forms, Pronouns, Kinds of Nouns, and other phrase/ sentence patterns for effective functioning in English) begins with a situation/scenario.
Then it moves to explanation and exercises. Finally it progresses to expressive and communicative oral and written activities. Each pattern or rule is reviewed or reinforced in the chapters and/or books that follow.


No space, time, or energy is wasted on unproductive tedium. While learning from
examples and practicing appropriate, effective grammar, learners acquire useful information, help one another, express their own needs and ideas, and generally improve their language and everyday life abilities.
At Level 1, grammar is presented in the Skills Book and reinforced in the Workbook.
At Levels 2-5, the level and chapter themes, sentence structures, and vocabulary of the five Grammar books are correlated with Listening/Speaking and Reading/Writing texts that may be used in conjunction with each Grammar.

Activity 2 Designing activities

Objective: to raise participants’ awareness of the relationship between form and meaning
Materials: handout 1, flipchart/board
►Procedure:
Say that a simple grammar activity can be based on a short text and thinking or concept questions asking students to explain the use of a certain grammar form in context. Ask participants to remain in the same four groups of five.
Ask each group of participants to design a task that would include a mini-story with a short dialogue which could put each of the above sentences in an appropriate context and a couple of thinking questions (Group A: I am reading a book, Group B: I was reading a book, Group C: I have read a book and Group D: I had read a book). Write these sentences on a board.
Explain that these stories/dialogues should establish who the participants in the dialogue are; their relationship; and make clear in which situation such dialogue might occur.
Tell participants that they may extend the sentences by adding words or clauses, but they cannot change their wording. Give your own example of a task on present simple. Distribute handout 1.
Ask participants to explain the use of present simple in this context. Ask why other tense forms cannot fit the context.
h Ask participants the following question:
~ What is the role of thinking questions?
Suggested answer:
Such questions provoke learners’ search for the answers that
enable them to understand a certain language point. A
succession of questions directs learners from identification of
the language point towards underlying rules and principles
behind the point.
Discuss the difference between this activity and Activity 1.
Give groups 5 minutes to create their stories. Remind them of possible instructions for students, e.g. Explain the use of … tense in the given context. Why is … tense used in this context?
Discuss each story/task, inviting each group to present their ministry/context in turn. Comment on the context and its authenticity. Give feedback where necessary.
Activity 3 Jigsaw reading

Objective: to raise participants’ awareness of some principles of a language awareness approach.
Materials: 4 copies of handout 2, 20 copies of handout 3
►Procedure:
Participants remain in the same groups. Distribute to participants handout 2 (one set per group).
Tell them to put these sentences in the correct order and notice the language elements which enabled them to do that. Ask them to report their results to the whole group.
Key: 1b, 2a, 3c.
Possible answers: the use of articles (‘An American’, ‘the drug’), the use of tenses (‘has been jailed’, ‘had faced’, ‘admitted’, ‘was in a taxi’ ‘was stopped’) and referencing (‘An American’, ‘Jason Taylor’, ‘Taylor’).
Ask participants to focus on the use of tenses and put all the verbs and verb forms in the text into chronological order. Give each participant handout 3 with the whole text.
Suggested answers:
1. living in Singapore (started before the event)
2. was in a taxi (got in a taxi before he was stopped)
3. was stopped by the police
4. being caught with 0.71 g of cocaine
5. admitted cocaine possession
6. had faced a jail term
7. has been jailed
Ask participants to comment on how particular tense forms helped them to reconstruct the chronological order of the events. Ask them why a particular tense form was used in each case and what precise meaning it conveyed. Draw their attention to the use of past perfect and present perfect. Ask the following question:
~ Why is ‘has been jailed’ (present perfect) used in the first sentence?
~ Why is ‘had faced’ (past perfect) used in the text after 5 other verb forms?
~ What important event has been missed out in the text? How do you
know?
Suggested answers:
1. Sometimes in the news a fact is reported in present perfect
and later put into context in past simple.
2-3. After Taylor had faced a jail term and before he has been
jailed, he was also tried in court and sentenced to 11 months.
These two important events in the Past Simple were missing in
the text. (Optional: The use of past perfect not only implies the
missing verbs, but also emphasizes the difference between
Taylor’s possible sentence and the actual sentence that was
much milder than he might have received.)

Discuss the responses about each use of verbs (1-7) with the whole group.

Ask participants to reflect on the activity and to consider the following questions:
~ What was the focus of this activity?
~ How were language elements (the use of verbs and perfect tenses in