This study in pedagogical description is motivated by a dissatisfaction with the traditional 'structural' method of teaching English grammar to prospective English teachers at Universities in Algeria. Within the broader context of advocating a more communicative (i.e. meaning and discourse-oriented) approach to grammar teaching, I explore the hypothesis that an internalization of grammar which relates to the learners' communicative needs could be facilitated if the teacher adopts a semantic analysis of certain difficult features common to the grammar of the noun phrase and the verb phrase which would interrelate form, meaning and context of use. The adoption of such an analysis would provide the learner with an integrative approach where grammar would act as a bridge between concepts and actual use. Part I of this study examines the notions of deixis, definite reference, specificity/genericity, boundedness and enumeration which are grammaticalized in both the noun phrase and the verb phrase. Part II examines first the actual teaching situation in Algeria which concentrates on the formal system of the language in isolation from actual contexts of use and as such, goes counter tothe learner's communicative need to express meanings. The approach proposed as a possible remedy will integrate the aspectual and the communicative aspects of language through the use of learning tasks devised to increase the learner's awareness of the communicative relevance of the semantic concepts dealt with in Part I.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:641523 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Benmakrouha, F. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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