Words and their properties: Arguments for a lexical approach to pedagogical grammar

Abstract

Introduction Pedagogical grammar is a slippery concept. The term is commonly used to denote (1) pedagogical process – the explicit treatment of elements of the target language system as (part of) language teaching methodology; (2) pedagogical content – reference sources of one kind or another that present information about the target language system; and (3) combinations of process and content. All three senses of the term will be addressed in this article. Throughout the history of language teaching, the word grammar has usually meant sentence grammar and has been associated with a strong pedagogical emphasis on inflexional morphology and syntax. Recent formal concern with language in use offers to extend the scope of “grammar” to include, for example, discoursal and pragmatic dimensions. These will play an important role in the arguments that follow, though without dislodging sentence grammar from its central position. If pedagogical grammar is simultaneously part of the process and part of the content of language learning, it also affects many decisions about what to teach in a language course. In other words, pedagogical grammar logically embraces all aspects of language teaching that in some way or other seek to systematize the target language for presentation to the learner. This includes the specification of learning objectives and the elaboration of the syllabus. The systematization on which learning objectives and the syllabus are founded may well (and appropriately) remain concealed from the language learner, but it should nevertheless be continuous with pedagogical grammar as part of the explicit process and content of teaching.