Instructing Grammar

In recent weeks, we have been talking about teaching grammar in a foreign language classroom, namely PACE and TPRS. Grammar is what really interests me most about teaching because it requires making many connections regarding the syntax, semantics, and other parts of linguistics in order to identify and fully understand the grammatical theme. Teaching grammar is definitely requires a higher level of thinking from the students, so it really makes it more meaningful when the students grasp the material. However, teaching PACE in a meaningful way may be more difficult, as the teacher has to have great questioning skills to get the students to almost self-discover the meaning of the grammatical topic. TPRS, on the other hand, is very easy to teach and almost no Spanish needs to be spoken. Students are simply given texts and they learn words by translating them into English. The teacher also does not need to explain any grammatical ideas or concepts in the target language because it slows down the class and is unnecessary. Personally, the more Spanish the better, but TPRS is definitely easier to teach.

In my experience, grammar is most often lectured to students with little interaction and participation from those students. I always learned grammar straight from the teacher, and I was very often confused on the understanding of how the grammatical parts of Spanish worked. Now, with my better understanding of some grammar methodology, I would have to say my preferred method is the PACE method for certain. I feel like the students make better connections with higher levels of thinking than with the TPRS method which mostly focuses on translation and repetition with little culture. The PACE method is extremely beneficial if used correctly and with an attentive class, as I will explain below.

One thing that I really took from recent articles and class meetings is to introduce grammar through a story, most often authentically. Both methods create a story, but the PACE story has more depth and isn't as on-the-fly as the TPRS style. In the PACE article, the author says to PRESENT the grammar in a "thematic way" that will capture the students attention (223). In addition, the story much be presented orally first so that the students receive oral input of the grammar. The story should use "natural occurring repetitions" of certain grammatical features in order to help the students hear the grammatical focus that the story presents, and the story must be within the students' zone of proximal development so they don't become frustrated reading the story. As I said before, the presentation MUST be interactive so that students are participating, asking questions, and answering questions. Getting the students to answer the questions, however, may be very difficult and require a lot of practice and effort. This is where I think the TPRS may engage the students more. With TPRS, students are constantly involved either translating, reading, writing, acting, or more. With the PACE method, on the other hand, students are only orally comprehending during the presentation portion, which very well could be the longest section of PACE, stretching to even 3 days depending on the lesson. Students must understand the story to move on, so once the students fully understand the story, the teacher must focus the students' ATTENTION on the grammatical aspect of the lesson.

This portion is not as large as I originally imagined, and the students basically just figure out what the main point of the story is grammatically. The teacher can give semantic clues for the students to arrive upon syntactic conclusions of what is being presented, and then the teacher may step in if students do not understand what they're supposed to be focusing on.

My favorite part, the CO-CONSTRUCTION phase, is really where understanding is brought together through teacher and student interaction. Really, as a teacher, we want the students to arrive upon the conclusion of the grammatical focus themselves with only teacher guidance to help them. Questioning is the most important part of this stage because the questions are what help solidify the understanding of the students. Therefore, it is essential for the teacher to create a classroom "conversation" to convey the message of the grammar topic. Through this conversation the teachers "move students to understand how grammar functions in spoken and written texts, such as stories, so that they understand why certain grammatical choices were made over others.." (226).

Finally, there is the EXTENSION portion of the PACE method in which students put what they learned about the grammatical exercise into use. This leaves a lot of room for creativity, which I love to give as a teacher. Letting students create interesting extensions that interest them and their involvement within the target culture are very important because students are able to create their own work of art that deals with the grammar.  The extension phase can also take a lot of time like the presentation phase because the students will need time to create something meaningful based on the grammatical theme.

All in all, the PACE method is an excellent way to teach students grammar because it gets students using higher-level thinking skills that wouldn't appear normally with traditional grammar approaches. The students probably don't enjoy this method as much as the TPRS method because that method is much easier. However, students really won't learn as much using TPRS as they will using PACE because PACE hits at those higher thinking levels. Furthermore, it helps the students practice problem-solving skills that can help them in other classrooms, and knowledge of language that can help them in English class or any other language classes they may be taking. Through the PACE method, students are able to discover the particular grammar rule through higher-level thinking and teacher cooperation. Together as a class, the students figure out the rules behind grammar in the target language, and they are much more successful when using this grammar in their writing and speech. Some authentic texts may be hard to find, but I can create my own if need be and relate it to the students, which may end up being meaningful for them. I am excited to use the PACE method this week when teaching ser/estar, and I believe that it will have a very positive effect on how the students use the verbs in and outside of class.