The present grammar syllabus at the university : knowing or doing?

Abstract EN

The present paper sets as its main objective the elaboration of a pragmatically sensitive grammar-teaching model.

The model aims at enabling the intended population of university students of English as a foreign language in Algeria to manage the structure of clause appropriately, i.e., to understand clauses as formal entities and use them appropriately to communicate.

This will be taught through a discourse framework, an area of language use which extends its scope of inquiry beyond sentence boundaries.

A specially adopted methodology is suggested, presenting learners with relevant discourse and pragmatic input through ad hoc materials and activities, and providing them with instances highlighting features of language use.

Once the input is sufficiently provided, students are expected to understand and produce discourse elements and routines on a pragmatic basis.

Views on language teaching have changed significantly over recent years.

An outcome of these changes has been a variety of methodological innovations with varying degrees of focus on the different language components.

One of these components, grammar, has sometimes been dealt with as an integrated part of language teaching, that is taught within the framework of other skills, listening and speaking, for example (as is the case with the pattern-drills method) (Rivers and Temperley 1970).

Sometimes it has been taught as a separate area of language teaching (Bright and Mc Gregor 1970).

A multitude of methods have therefore been adopted and implemented in teaching English grammar.

These methods, of course, differ as to the way they are carried out, curriculum guidelines, the syllabi and materials they select, the objectives they set and a myriad of other parameters (Hubbard 1983, Woods 1995).