(teach) The Monitor Theory

[dk-5]

"Dave Kees suggests that grammar cannot be 'acquired' by explicit
instruction, and that teachers should therefore not attempt to teach it. I have a question. The other day a student asked me to explain the difference between 'imagine' and 'imagination' . I told her that 'imagine' is a verb and 'imagination' is a noun. She nodded understanding and proceeded to produce an acceptable sentence. Dave, how would you have answered her question?"

I would have answered her the same way you did. Then the next day, when she has forgotten this instruction and has used the word incorrectly, I would console her that it is not that she is a bad student and can't learn grammar. It's just that correct grammar usage, especially in speaking, can't be acquired by rules. For more on this see Stephen Krashen's online book discussing acquisition and the Monitor Theory. [1]

Yes, you can tell a rule to a student but this is not acquisition. Yes, if the student thinks about it and can recall the rule he was told, the student can make use of this information to apply to some English construction but this is not acquisition.

Many people acquire languages without any study of grammar or vocabulary.  Guy Brook-Hart, the author of Business Benchmark [2] by Cambridge University Press, told me during his last tour of China that he learned Spanish without any study of grammar or vocabulary. However, no one makes claims for the other side. No one claims a language can be learned only by studying grammar and vocabulary. (For more on this I will be sending a story about The Adventures of Francois Gouin.)

Dave Kees

Email - DAVEKEES@...
Chat - Skype:DAVEKEES QQ:897869963
Blog - http://DAVEKEES.blogspot.com
Podcast - http://gcast.com/u/DAVEKEES
Videocast - http://Dave-In-America.blogspot.com

INSIGHTS INTO TEFL
Blog - http://INSIGHTS-INTO-TEFL.blogspot.com
Podcast - http://gcast.com/u/INSIGHTS_TEFL

[1] http://www.sdkrashen.com/SL_Acquisition_and_Learning/001.html
[2] http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521672955

[Russ Taylor-2]

Dave Kees wrote:

Many people acquire languages without any study of grammar or vocabulary.  Guy Brook-Hart, the author of Business Benchmark [2] by Cambridge University Press, told me during his last tour of China that he learned Spanish without any study of grammar or vocabulary. However, no one makes claims for the other side. No one claims a language can be learned only by studying grammar and vocabulary. (For more on this I will be sending a story about The Adventures of Francois Gouin.)


My cmment:
I wasn't aware that anyone was making such a claim. This seems a specious argument.  In China, as we are all aware, there are the CET exams and the TEM ones (Test for English Majors) and whether we like it or not they are gammar heavy. Thwerefore, I do not see how any foreign teacher can teach English in a Chnese university and not be able to explain grammar points as and when they crop in class, usually as errors.I don't think anyone here is talking about teaching solely an English grammar class, but being to illustrate how the language is working by differentiating between verb tenses or different parts of speech, for example, as I do and have done as a grammar in use exercise is,I think, fully justified and useful. Plenty of students do remember the differences; plenty of course do not but that is a question more of their individual ability i learning  a language as well as about how often they get to use the language and less about the efficacy of teaching grammar I believe.

Russ Taylor


       
       
       








       


       
       




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