The Future of Education
A Transformational Approach to Grammar Pedagogy
Qizhong Chang, National Institute of Education (Singapore)
Abstract
In this study, a new approach to grammar pedagogy is outlined. A toy version of a transformational/generative syntactic framework is integrated into an English grammar curriculum pitched at the level of upper primary school (age 10-12). English trainee teachers are first instructed in this framework, so that they can later use it in their teaching. As far as I know, there has been no serious or coordinated effort in pursuing an approach to teaching English grammar in Singapore that is based on a structural framework. The central preoccupation instead seems to be prescriptive and functional in nature: the student just needs to know and produce correct and grammatical forms; whether he/she understands why it is so is secondary. This project is therefore innovative by nature. But beyond being innovative, there are at least three pedagogical advantages that are inherent in such an approach:
- A systematic application of rules/procedures to derive phrasal/clausal structure. The systematicity also ensures that students will be able to analyse grammatical structures in an unambiguous and consistent manner.
- There are inherent links between different constructions in the language (from one of the basic tenets of Transformational Grammar – underlying/deep structure). In other words, there is strong coherence in the different modules of grammar in this approach.
- There are now principled reasons behind accepting grammatical constructions and rejecting ungrammatical variants. Also, some grammatical facts that previously had to be stipulated now come ‘for free’ from theory-internal assumptions.
The central aim behind this innovative research project can be stated thus: to adopt a systematic and structural approach to English Language Grammar education.
Keywords: Grammar, Pedagogy, English Language, Syntax, Structural;
