Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

Focusing questions
Box 2.1 Grammar for beginners
Here are the elements of English grammar common to lessons 1–5 of three
modern beginners’ books for adults, with examples:
1 present of to be: It’s in Japan. I’m Mark. He’s Jack Kennedy’s nephew.
2 articles a/an: I’m a student. She is an old woman. It’s an exciting place.
3 subject pronouns: She’s Italian. I’ve got two brothers and a sister. Do you
have black or white coffee?
4 in/from with places: You ask a woman in the street the time. I’m from India.
She lives in London.
5 noun plurals: boys / parents / sandwiches.
2.2 Structure words, morphemes and 
sequences of acquisition

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An important distinction for language teaching has been that between ‘content’
words and ‘structure’ words, also known as ‘function’ words. Here is a quotation
from a Theodore Sturgeon story that combines made-up content words with real
structure words:
So on Lirht, while the decisions on the fate of the miserable Hvov were
being formulated, gwik still fardled, funted and fupped.
Learning and teaching different types of grammar
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Box 2.2 Types of grammar
Grammar can be:
1 a way of telling people what they ought to say, rather than reporting what
they do say (prescriptive grammar);
2 a system for describing sentence structure used in English schools for cen-
turies, based on grammars of classical languages such as Latin (traditional
grammar);
3 a system for describing sentences based on the idea of smaller structures
built up into larger structures (structural grammar);
4 the knowledge of the structural regularities of language in the minds of
speakers (linguistic/grammatical competence);
5 EFL grammar combining elements of (2) and (3).
content words such as ‘table’ or ‘truth’ have meanings that can be found in dic-
tionaries and consist of nouns, verbs, adjectives and (possibly) prepositions