Málfríður - 15.11.1990, Síða 7

Text Two:
“Police searching for a man in connection with... were last night question-
ing a man arrested at a West London hotel.”
“Armed anti-terrorist squad detectives surrounded the London Visitors
Hotel On Holland Road, Holland Park shortly before 6 p.m. after a mem-
ber of the public told them that the man they were seeking was there.”
“Mr Nat Handworth, aged 35, offerred no resistance and was taken to
Paddington Green police station after his arrest under the Prevention of
Terrorism act.”
From THE GUARDIAN, Saturday, 19th April 1986.
The first journalist has focused the
reader’s attention on the criminal,
whereas the second has told the read-
er what happened and what the
police did. The information in both
reports is the same. The focus of the
message has been affected by the use
of the passive in the first report as
opposed to active in the second
report. That is, the grammar has
changed the focus of the communi-
cation.
Another example from a newspaper
is this report about a former minister
in the government.
Figure II.
THE INDEPENDENT
Thursday 17 May 1990
Tebbit is
sued over
Lonrho
bidban
By John Moore
Assistant City Editor
NORMAN TEBBIT, a former
Secretary of State for Trade and In-
dustry, faces a courtroom confron-
tation with Lonrho and its chief
executive Roland “Tiny” Rowland
over the events surrounding the
takeover of the House of Fraser
stores group by the Fayed family.
Here the use of the indefinite article
has great significance. One would
normally use the definite article. By
using the indefinite article, the writer
has lowered the status of Mr. Tebbit
as a government minister and is ex-
pressing an attitude towards him.
When we start to see grammar in
these terms, mere structural rules are
not enough. How much time do we
spend as teacher, for example, getting
learners to manipulate the passive
form with transformation drills, when
often the real probiem is not how the
passive is formed, but when it is used.
2.2 Teaching grammar
When teaching grammar, there is a
tension between teaching learners
the form and teaching learners to use
grammar for meaning. To paraphrase
Halliday (1985), we often ask what
does this form mean? whereas we
should be asking how can this mean-
ing be expressed? How to mean is the
important aspect of communicative
grammar teaching, but in accepting
this, we mustn’t forget the need to
teach the form.
It is important that we acknowledge
the new task types and activities that
have been developed with the com-
municative approach. At the same
time, it is important that we do not
abandon all together the more tradi-
tional exercises that were once a regu-
lar feature of classroom practice. This
is not to suggest that we simply revert
to old practice, but rather that we try
to blend the old with the new.
Perhaps as Diane Larsen-Freeman
and Marianne Celce-Murcia (1985)
have suggested, we need to think of
teaching grammar in three phases
FORM — MEANING — USE. Accuracy
with grammatical form is important.
But that is only the first stage. The sad
thing is that often we don’t really go
any further. We accept the need to
“recycle” language, but too often this
simply means repetition, whereas it
could be the opportunity to look at
the language item from a different
and/or extended angle. This requires
that the teachers have a clear under-
standing of the probiems and difficul-
ties that their learners have, and
these will vary with different groups.
In some cases the meaning implica-
tion of a structure is very subtle as
among the different ways of express-
ing the future in English. It is not al-
ways possible to teach the subtleties.
In these cases, we must find ways to
sensitize learners to the use of
language.
One final point here is that we
shouldn’t be afraid of rules and ex-
planations, either giving the explana-
tion/rule or devising ways for the
learners to discover them for them-
selves.
3. Tasks
Finally I would like to look at a few
task types that I think can help learn-
ers towards understanding the com-
municative force of grammar. There
is no attempt here to provide any-
thing like an exhaustive list. I have
taken just four types:
i) traditionai with added dimension
ii) affective
iii) sensitizing
iv) cognitive tasks
☆
7