Málfríður - 15.11.1990, Blaðsíða 10

It is diffucult to give any reasonable
explanation for the difference be-
tween these two forms. It is some-
thing learners must sensitize them-
selves to.
iv) cognitive
Ta§k threc
Most newspaper articles tieal ivith bad news of disasters, scandals, probletns etc. It Itas been said that
this is because good news is boring and people will not buy papers ttnless they can tind exciting or
stiinulating ncws stories.
Hou 'ever. it shottld be possible to make good news just as exciting and interesting as bad news. Tltink
of stx newspaper headlines for good news that you wouhi like to have Itappen. Then ioin with
another person and discuss what the story might be. Choose one of your partncr s headlincs and
wnte the story. Since you want to concentrate on the effccts of the news on the prescnt time. you
should use the Present Perfect for most of the verbs and usc the Simple Past only for statements that
refer specifically to a particular time in the past, and one of the future forms for the future. Some
examples have been written for you.
lumples:
NEW VACCINt fllMINATES ALL VIRUSES
WAR ABOIISHED
FREE BOOKS FOR E.FL. LEARNERS
And Itere is an example of one of the stories:
The EEC has announced that all charges for books for registered EFL learners have been
abolished. The publishers have agreed to supply free books to anyone vvho has enrolled
in a full- or part-time English course and the EEC members have promised to subsidise
this enterprise. Commenting on the announcement, Ralph Marsh of the British Council
said T think they have made a very wise decision'. A student in Kuala Lumpur said,
'I have spent many hundreds of ringgiL on books for mv studies. Last month I spent fiftv
ringgit on a new dictionarv and my teacher has told me that I need a new grammar book.
Now I can get all the books I want.'
In this task, the learners have prac-
tice in the structure but also have to
fit the structure into a meaningful con-
text. At the same time, they are con-
sidering a texttype.
4. Conclusion
This is only really the first stage in
teaching grammar. As we become
more aware of the meaning potential
of grammar, we will surely have to
look at how we can incorporate first
language awareness into second lan-
guage learning. One reason that
grammar gave way to communication
tasks in the seventies was that is was
felt to be boring for learners and it
was felt that rules and explanations
were no part of the language class-
room. In a way language itself be-
came no part of the classroom.
Communication was talking about
anything except language. Perhaps it
is time we reconsidered that idea.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HALLIDAY, M.A.K. (1985) An Introduction to
Functional Grammar, London, Edward Arnold,
p.xiv.
LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. & CELCE-MURCIA, M.
(1985) Defining the challenge: An additional
Choice in Language Teaching, paper given at
1985 TESOL convention in New York.
WOODS, E.G. & McLEOD, NJ. (1990) Using
English Grammar — meaning and form, Hemel
Hempstead, Prentice Hall, International.
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