Tema 12

Tema 12.

- Elementos esenciales de morfosintaxis de la lengua inglesa.

- Estructuras comunicativas elementales.

- Uso progresivo de las categoras gramaticales en las producciones orales y escritas para mejorar la comunicacin.

In order to master a language, we need to understand its native speakers and also to make ourselves understood. This involves being able to encode and decode both oral and written messages. To do so, it is necessary to understand the communicative process, which, according to Chomsky, includes four linguistic levels: phonological, semantic, morphological and syntactic. In this topic we are going to focus on the morphological and syntactic levels, which are part of grammar.

Since the 1970s, the belief that language is a means of communication has inspired a new approach in English teaching: the Communicative Approach. Due to its influence, nowadays language is taught and learnt in a very practical way in the classroom. Therefore, grammar will be taught from a communicative point of view in the sense that learners will be encouraged to communicate their ideas, feelings and attitudes rather than learning by heart a set of structures.

Based on this view, the present essay aims to study the concept of morphosyntax. For this purpose, this topic will be divided into three main sections.

In the first part, we will study the essential elements of morphosyntax, which are the morpheme, the word and the sentence. In the second part, we will analyse the elementary communicative structures. Finally, in the third part, we will concentrate on the progressive use of grammar categories to improve both the oral and written communicative competence and we will suggest some activities to teach grammar.

We deal with an essential topic since, as LOMCE 8/2013, December 9th establishes, the main goal of FLT in Primary Education is the acquisition of communicative competence, and this involves communicating appropriately. Therefore, students need to learn structures, but also how and when they are used. In addition to that, the Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the importance of this topic by including in its objectives, 3rd block of contents and assessment criteria the identification and use of the linguistic structures of the FL.

FIRST

To develop the first part of this topic, we will deal with the concept of morphosyntax. To do so, we will start by briefly trying to define this term. We understand morphosyntax as the system of the internal structure of words (which is concerned with morphology) and the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences (which is concerned with syntax).

Since morphology and syntax are part of grammar, knowledge of the most elementary communicative structures, studied by morphosyntax, is the gateway to grammar competence and, consequently, to communicative competence. In addition, according to Stephen Krashens Natural Approach, language must be taught from the simplest to the most complex. Hence, within these elementary structures, teachers must start with the morphological level, since the morpheme is the minimum unit of the language that has its own meaning. After that, they must continue with word classes and finally syntax.

After this brief introduction, we will go on to consider the essential elements of morphosyntax, which are the morpheme, the word and the sentence. In what follows, I will explain these concepts in detail.

Firstly, the morpheme is the smallest unit of grammatical description in the sense that it cannot be segmented any further at this level. This means that a morpheme cannot be divided without altering or destroying its meaning. Morphemes can be classified into free and bound:

On the one hand, free morphemes can occur as separate words, for instance the morphemes friend and iron. They can be classified into two types: lexical morphemes, which are words that carry the content of the message, mainly nouns, adjectives and verbs; and functional morphemes, which are the functional words in the language such as prepositions and articles.

On the other hand, bound morphemes need to be attached to a word, for instance the morphemes un and able in the word unavailable. They can also be classified into two types:

The first type is inflectional morphemes which are concerned with the ways in which words vary in order to express grammatical contrasts such as gender, number or tense. This occurs when a free morpheme is modified by inflectional affixes, such as prefixes or suffixes, which give this word the form required by grammatical rules. For example, we add the suffix s to the word book to form the plural books.

The second type is derivational morphemes which are concerned with the word formation processes and are used to make new words in the language, usually of a different grammatical category. There are three main processes in English by which new words are created:

- The first one is affixation, which is divided into prefixation and suffixation. Prefixation consists of adding a prefix to the base, for instance disobey whereas suffixation consists of adding a suffix to the base, for instance driver.

- The second one is conversion or zero affixation, which is when a word shifts from a word class to another leaving the base form unchanged, for instance walk as a noun and to walk as a verb.

- The third one is composition, which is when two bases or independent words come together, such as blackboard or bedroom.

- Apart from these major processes, there are also some less usual ways of making new words like reduplication goody-goody, clipping flu from influenza, blending brunch, Back formation to brainwash and acronyms USA VIP

Secondly, the word is, in Leonard Bloomfields words, the minimal free form. It is usually the easiest unit to identify in the written language as it commonly has spaces on either side. However, in speech it is more difficult to hear the spaces between words. According to Quirk, they can be classified into word classes: On the one hand, open classes allow the addition of new members and they are formed by nouns, adjectives, full verbs and adverbs. On the other hand, closed classes do not allow the addition of new members and they are composed of relatively few members such as prepositions, conjuctions or articles.

Lastly, the sentence is the most elementary communicative structure and it consists of one independent clause or two or more related clauses that can be either coordinated or subordinated.

Traditionally, every complete sentence has a Subject and a Predicate. The subject refers to the person or thing that performs the action of a verb. It determines the concord of the predicate, and most of the times it is a proper name, a noun or a pronoun.

The rest of the sentence is the predicate. It is the sentence element which gives information about the subject. It contains the verb, which can be transitive, intransitive or copulative. Transitive verbs require a direct object for instance He bought a new house and sometimes, certain transitive verbs allow a second noun phrase to be placed between the predicate and the direct object which is the indirect object, for instance He bought their family a new house.

On the other part, intransitive verbs dont require further sentence material, but they might be modified by adverbs which express a circumstance although they are not essential to understand the meaning of the sentence.

In addition, copulative verbs are followed by an adjective or noun that refers back to the subject as in the sentence Mary was ill. The main copulative verbs are to be, seem, look and become.

SECOND

After having examined the essential elements of morphosyntax, we will consider the elementary communicative structures.

One of the elements of communicative competence is the grammatical competence. In this sense, we cannot communicate properly if we do not know how to form and understand sentences, as they are the most elementary communicative structures. We also need to know the meaning of sentences in particular contexts. Bearing all these in mind, a proper study of elementary communicative structures must include three aspects: formal, semantic and pragmatic classification.

Regarding formal classification of sentences, this is based on grammar rules. It can be divided into four syntactic types:

- Firstly, there are declaratives, in which the subject is always present and generally precedes the verb she bough the car.

- Secondly, there are interrogatives, in which the operator is placed immediately in front of the subject in Yes-No questions Did you read the book? or the Wh-element is in the initial position Who did you see yesterday?

- Thirdly, there are imperatives, which normally have no overt grammatical subject and whose verb has the base form Speak to the boss today

- Finally, there are exclamatives, which normally have an initial phrase introduced by what or how without inversion of the subject or operator What a beautiful house!

Regarding semantic classification of sentences, this is associated with the discourse function at the most general level. It can be divided into four semantic types:

- Firstly, there are statements, which are used to convey information.

-Secondly, there are questions, which are used to seek information on a specific point.

-Thirdly, there are directives, which are used to instruct somebody to do something.

- Finally, there are exclamations, which are used to express the extent to which the speaker is impressed by something.

Direct association between syntactic and semantic class is the norm, but the two classes do not always match, as we can see in the sentence She told you I was lying? which is a declarative question.

Regarding pragmatic classification of sentences, this indicates how the semantic types of sentences are used in actual utterances, because a particular utterance may have different functions in different contexts. In this sense, a statement can be used to make an assertion, a prediction or an apology, for instance the statement I will see you tomorrow may be a promise, a threat or a warning.

THIRD

Once having studied the elementary communicative structures, we will go on to analyse the progressive use of grammar categories to improve oral and written communicative competence when teaching and learning grammar. For this purpose, we will point out the main goal of grammar instruction, the main principles and the stages of grammar teaching.

The formal teaching of grammar is not an objective in Primary Education; LOMCE 8/2013, December 9th states that the main aim of FLT is that students acquire basic C.C. which means learning how to use the language.

However, teachers must train students in understanding basic grammar since without the acquisition of basic sentence patterns and attention to the form of language, problems with accuracy will appear, and children will be unable to participate in communicative activities. In this sense, the goal of grammar instruction is to enable students to carry out their communicative purposes.

This goal has two main implications:

- On the one hand, students do not need to master every aspect of each grammar point, only those which are relevant to the immediate communicative task.

- On the other hand, teachers should not be over worried by errors correction. They can use error correction to support language acquisition and avoid using it in ways that undermine students desire to communicate in the language.

Now, before considering the main stages of grammar teaching, we will address some of the principles that must be taken into account when teaching grammar to Primary students:

Among these principles it is important that the new language is presented in a context that is familiar to the learner as well as using visual support to convey meaning. Also, the teacher must plan two types of activities: activities to practise the language (controlled activities) and activities to use the language more freely (communicative activities). In addition, students must be encouraged to develop their own strategies for grammar learning, since learning to learn is among the 8 Key Competences established by The Royal Decree 126/2014 and it is concerned with developing strategies to learn in an autonomous way.

Finally, the spoken form must be taught first. The written form must be introduced when the students can pronounce it well.

At this point, we will examine the different stages that we must follow when teaching grammar; that is the organisation of grammar teaching in presentation, controlled practice and production stages.

- Firstly, there is the presentation stage which is aimed to introduce the form, meaning and use of a new language item. They must understand what it means and when to use it, but they dont manipulate language. Some presentation techniques are listening to a dialogue where the structure is presented, using pictures and realia or miming.

- Secondly, there is the controlled practice stage which is aimed to get the learners to internalize the new grammar items completely and to prepare them to use these items for communicative purposes. The activities at this stage are controlled by the teacher. Since the students are practising the structures for the first time, the focus will be on accuracy and due to this, the teacher can correct errors. Activities that can be used are, among others:

Drills oriented to the repetition, substitution and transformation of sample sentences. Drills are a useful way of giving all children some speaking practice when the class is too large for individual speaking.

Gap filling exercises

Spotting the mistakes

Putting jumbled sentences in the right order

Classifying words under grammar categories (nouns, adverbs, verbs)

Singing: Songs provide an amusing way to learn some language structures.

Dictations. According to Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri, dictation is of great pedagogical value as it is useful to work on different aspects of the language such as grammar or vocabulary, and sometimes it leads to oral communicative activities.

Lastly, there is the production stage which is aimed to the production of language in a freer and more creative way after students have practised the linguistic forms. At the production stage, we will make note of the mistakes and use them as the basis of feedback.

Since the focus will be now on fluency, we should not correct students very often so as not to discourage them and make them lose self-confidence. Also, we should encourage self-correction and student-student correction. Next, we will point out some oral and written communicative activities to work with grammar at this stage.

On the one hand, some oral communicative activities are:

Information-gap activities: One student knows something that another student does not. This one has to discover the missing information by means of negotiation and interaction techniques.

Role-play: Students pretend they are someone else in an imaginary situation.

Problem-solving activities: Students work together in order to find a solution to a problem or task.

On the other hand, according to Jeremy Harmer, some written communicative activities are:

Writing instructions, short messages, short letters, diaries...

Story constructions: we give individual students partial information which they must put together with other students to write a coherent narration.

Fluency writing: they have to write a story about a series of pictures in a established period of time.

Project works: It involves some research and some group discussion about the topic until eventually, the students write the final product. Therefore, it is very useful for integrating skills.

To finish off this section, it is worth mentioning that some authors such as David Batstone refer to the Presentation, Practice and Production stages as Noticing, Structuring and Proceduralising.

Conclusion

To conclude, we would like to remark that, as proven along this topic, knowledge of grammar is essential for the mastery of the language, since we cannot use words properly unless we know the elementary communicative structures. Although they do not need to master every aspect of each grammar point, the truth is that if our students master some basic sentence patterns they will be able to communicate more efficiently. Therefore, our aim in teaching grammar should be to enable students to carry out their communicative purposes.

In this topic, we have first studied the essential elements of morphosyntax. Then, we have analysed the elementary communicative structures. Finally, we have concentrated on the progressive use of grammar categories to improve both the oral and written communicative competence and we have suggested some activities to teach grammar.

In order to develop this topic, the following bibliography has been used:

KRASHEN, S. CHOMSKY, N. PAUL DAVID AND MARIO RINVOLUCRI. Dictation: new methods, new possibilities. Cambridge University Press, 1993

HYMES, D. On Communicative Competence. Penguin, London 1972.

BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teachers Guide. Penguin English.

HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.

LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.

VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios Ramn Areces