Contextualized Grammar Instruction for College Transition Students

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE BRIEF
Issue 3 – January/February 2005
By Kathrynn Di Tommaso

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Why is grammar important for college transition students?

In academic settings, students are judged by their command of standard English, and many students need to modify the way they customarily use language. Research suggests that rote teaching of grammar does not serve students well. Students do not naturally transfer grammatical rules and patterns learning through worksheet drills into their own writing (Harris & Rowan, 1989; Hillocks, 1986).

Grammatical errors in writing are a common problem facing college transition students. The errors most frequently made by these writers can be divided into several categories including letter omissions such as “two boy” and “John coat,” redundancies such as “more better,” and shared forms such as “I seen him” (D’Eloia, 1987). The other most common errors made by these students are fragments, run-ons, and comma splices, which are often viewed as errors in punctuation (Shaughnessy, 1977). Most educators would agree that these students are more likely to succeed in academic settings if they are skilled in writing grammatically correct compositions.

What is contextualized grammar instruction?

Writing teachers have long searched for appropriate and effective ways of addressing the grammatical mistakes made by their college transition students. Traditional approaches to teaching grammar taught rules out of context, including rote drills and labeling of sentence parts in workbook exercises. Research has shown that these approaches have little or no effect on improving student’s writing (Meyer, 1986; Seliger, 1979).

After a great deal of debate in the last century over whether to teach grammar at all, most researchers now agree that grammar instruction can improve student writing if the grammar is taught in context (Goode, 2000; Sams, 2003; Sedgwick, 1989). Instead of teaching grammar only with worksheets of drill and practice, contextualized grammar instruction uses authentic and longer texts to teach grammatical rules and sentence structure. The argument behind teaching grammar in context states that because students have difficulty transferring what they learn in drills to their writing, grammar should be taught through the writing itself. Various methods of contextualizing grammatical concepts can be used to improve the writing ability of college transition students.

 How is grammar contextualized?

There are many approaches to teaching grammar in context. These approaches vary in terms of how contextualized the instruction needs to be. Some approaches involve teaching the skills and then showing how they can be applied in the context of writing, while others use essays written by the teacher or students to help students discover and learn grammatical concepts.

 Approaches to Contextualized Grammar Instruction

 Somewhat: Learning Grammar through Contextualized Rules and Diagrams

Memory Aids: Teachers can use memory aids to help students remember grammatical concepts so that they can apply those concepts to their writing. Possessive pronouns, for example, can be taught as students chant a memory aid such as “Possessive Pronouns Positively Prohibit ‘Positives” (Brown, 1996). Students memorize the rule and then are provided with examples from their textbooks to contextualize it.

Questioning: Students can be taught to transform sequences of words into yes/no questions or tag questions to determine if the sequence is a complete sentence. The sequence “Jim and Sue can dance the tango,” for example, can be transformed into the yes/no question “Can Jim and Sue dance the tango” or the tag question “Jim and Sue can dance the tango, can’t they?” and therefore is a complete sentence (Noguchi, 2001). Because “they” refers to “Jim and Sue,” the student can also easily locate the subject of the sentence and learn about fragments, run-ons, subject-verb agreement, and shifts in person.

Frames: Students can also be taught to locate main verbs by writing sentences into frames like “They somehow got _______ to ________” where the first blank is filled with the subject in an appropriate pronoun form and the second blank is filled with the rest of the sentence (Noguchi, 2001). For example, “Jim and Sue can dance the tango” becomes “They somehow got them to dance the tango;” thus, dance is the main verb. Sentences are taken from drafts of students’ essays and students use the strategies specifically to correct errors in their own writing.

Charts: The instructor writes a sentence such as “Those two big babies are crying” on the board and asks questions like “what question does ‘those’ answer?” (Sams, 2003). Students work through a series of sentences in this manner until they eventually realize how adjectives relate to subjects. Students record the steps of this analysis in a chart so that they have a visual display of the process. Students can also write the words of sentences from their drafts into a chart with classifications like “Preceding the Subject,” “Subject,” “Between Subject and Verb,” “Verb,” and “Following Verb” to learn about grammar through the structure of writing (Devet, 2002).

 Mostly: Learning Grammar through Contextualized Sentence Practice

Sentence Combining: Students practice manipulating a variety of grammatical constructions such as subordination, infinitives, and prepositional phrases. Some activities involve combining sentences with the use of cues such as “combine the two sentences below using ’s -ing… ‘I was worried about SOMETHING. My parents had disappeared mysteriously’” Students combine the sentences as indicated by the cue: “I was worried about my parents’ disappearing mysteriously” (D’Eloia, 1987). Other sentence combining activities eliminate all cues, allowing students personal choice in the combination. The most effective sentence combining exercises use sentences from student drafts or provide the context of writer, reader, and purpose (Rose, 1983).

Transformational Exercises : Students practice correct usage by taking sentences from their compositions and rewriting them. They are asked to change present tense verbs to past tense or to change first person pronouns to third person, and so on (Meyer, 1986).

Sentence Modeling: Students write sentences based on the pattern of a sentence from literary works being read in class. The teacher can begin by providing blanks and eventually students can imitate the sentences more independently (Sedgwick, 1989). Students can also rewrite sentences from their own journal entries by making them structurally identical to the sentences of a published author (Ehrenworh, 2003).

Sentence Expansion: Students write their own subject and verb and then are instructed to add various syntactical structures like modifiers. Eventually, students are asked to add to the subject and then to add to the predicate in a variety of sentence patterns (Sedgwick, 1989).

Sentence Rewriting: Teachers can mark which sentence on a student’s draft is in need of revision, but not state what the error is or how to correct it. Students can rewrite the grammatically incorrect sentence(s) on a separate sheet of paper along with an explanation of why each error is an error in the students’ own words. Students can also reference their own explanations with a writing reference text or with a list of common errors provided by the teacher. They can write several sentences using the pattern correctly, keep a journal of their most common errors, and even give a lesson to the class on that grammatical concept (Sedgwick, 1989).

Discovery Approach: Students can learn grammatical concepts through analyzing samples of sentences with and without a specific error and draw their own conclusions about sentence structure. For a fragment lesson, for example, students can be given a list of 8 related sentences (7 fragments and 1 complete sentence) to read and can be asked to identify the complete sentence. Each sequence of words is discussed in terms of how it changes from the previous sequence. Eventually, the class reaches the sequence that has the noun subject and the main verb and students are asked to define a sentence in terms of its structural parts (D’Eloia, 1987).

 Entirely: Learning Grammar through Whole Compositions

Grammar Specific Topics: Students can be given topics that specifically address certain grammatical concepts, like writing an account of a past experience that might affect a future choice that they make to practice verb tenses (Sedgwick, 1989).

Essay Editing Models: Modeling how to edit with student papers or a piece of the teacher’s writing can help students develop editing skills, making the composing and revising process more productive in improving writing ability (Weaver, 1996).

Self-Correction Strategies: Teachers can develop individual editing checklists for each student, depending on particular difficulties, and then allow students to correct grammar errors in their own essays (Weaver, 1996). Students can also read their drafts aloud slowly, noting any oral corrections and then editing their drafts accordingly or read their essays into a tape recorder and then follow along and correct as they listen. Teachers can also have students read their drafts by beginning at the end and reading backwards sentence by sentence, allowing them to focus more on form and the way the sentence is actually written, word for word. As students read their sentence aloud, slowly, and/or in a different order, their errors may become more apparent to them (Sedgwick, 1989). Students can also circle specific words in their essays, like past tense verbs or dependent clause markers to develop grammatical awareness (D’Eloia, 1987).

Process Methods: Evaluation sheets can be used to facilitate the peer editing process after the teacher models how to complete the sheet with sample drafts. The class can be divided into groups to proofread other students’ papers focusing on one or two types of errors and then returning the papers to the authors for correction (Sedgwick, 1989). Mini-conferences can be held with individual students to address specific grammatical problems in student compositions (Goode, 2000; Sedgwick, 1989; Weaver, 1996). The teacher might focus on one or two major problems, ask the student how to resolve the error, and then ask the student to correct the rest of the paper (Sedgwick, 1989). Mini-lessons or brief explanations in grammar are also provided by the instructor during class.

Which approach should I use in my classroom?

College transition students are a diverse group of adults with a variety of academic needs. Effective instruction of these writers must take their particular writing difficulties into account to increase their chances of academic success. Instruction can begin with assessing students’ needs based on a diagnostic piece of writing with a topic that encourages the use of various grammatical forms. After assessing students’ individual grammar and writing difficulties, it is really up to the teacher to determine which type of approach would work best with his/her students. Various approaches can be used in one classroom for different topics or teachers can group students by their needs and use a different approach with each group. Students who have difficulties with basic sentence structure may benefit most from contextualized rules and sentence manipulation activities. Learners who have an understanding of basic grammar but need editing practice may find reading aloud strategies useful. Students who are more advanced writers can use checklists to peer edit with partners. Teachers can regularly hold conferences with students to re-assess their needs and revise approaches when needed.

References:

Brown, A. R. (1996). Correct grammar so essential to effective writing can be taught – really! English Journal,85(7), 98-101.

D’Eloia, S. (1987). The uses-and limits-of grammar. In T. Enos (Ed.), A sourcebook for basic writing teachers,(pp. 373-416). New York: Random House.

Devet, B. (2002). Welcoming grammar back into the writing classroom. Teaching English in the Two-Year College,30(1), 8- 17.

Ehrenworth, M. (2003). Grammar – comma – a new beginning. English Journal,92(3), 90-96.

Goode, D. (2000). Creating a context for developmental English. Teaching English in the Two Year College,27(3), 270-277.

Harris, M, & Rowan, K. E. (1989). Explaining grammatical concepts. Journal of Basic Writing, 8(2), 21-41.

Hillocks, G. (1986). Research on written composition: New directions for teaching. Urbana, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills and the National Conference on Research in English.

Meyer, C.F. (1986). Improving instruction in grammar. Journal of Teaching Writing,5(1), 17-21.

Noguchi, R.R. (2001). Teaching the basics of a writer’s grammar. In S.N. Bernstein (Ed.), Teaching developmental writing background readings (pp. 98-118). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Rose, S.K. (1983). Down from the haymow: One hundred years of sentence combining. College English,45(5), 483-491.

Sams, L. (2003). How to teach grammar, analytic thinking, and writing: A method that works. English Journal,92(3), 57-65.

Sedgwick, E. (1989). Alternatives to teaching formal, analytical grammar. Journal of Developmental Education,12(3), 8-10, 12, 14, 16.

Seliger, H. W. (1979). On the nature and function of language rules in language learning. TESOL Quarterly,13, 359-369.

Shaughnessy, M. (1977) Errors and expectations a guide for the teacher of basic writing. New York: Oxford University Press.

Weaver, C. (1996). Teaching grammar in context. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.

About the author

Kathrynn Di Tommaso, AM, EdM, is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and a Fellow at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL). She has taught English and developmental reading and writing at community colleges in the Bay Area and in the Boston area. You can reach her at ditommka@gse.harvard.edu

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