The term 'spoken grammar' is used to describe features of English that are common in the informal or conversational language, but normally absent from conventional grammar syllabuses.
In this article, Ken Paterson shows you some ways to raise your students' awareness of four types of spoken grammar, by providing some exercises for you to use.
You can download the article below, in the Attachment box.
| Attachment | Size |
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| Spoken grammar article | 76.11 KB |
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Comments
Rania Jabr
carladelia
I really enjoyed using the handout. I used some of the activities with an advanced student of mine and he really enjoyed to have a class on informal and spoken Englsih. Previously, I had already giving him a class on slang and informal expressions using a movie and he could feel how important it is to also be able to use and understand informal oral English to have a better understanding of short conversations and even to be able to produce some small talk.
Regards,
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
elena.terentieva
zorbas
Ghazi62
Thanks very much indeed for your article. We all know that grammar is an important element in learning or teaching any language. As the Australian linguist Wilga Rivers said 'Saying that we don't need teaching grammar is like saying that you can have a chicken walking around without bones.'
AlexandraS
While I agree it is important for students to understand spoken English, I also believe we as teachers have a responsibility to emphasize that it is just that, and that it is not always appropriate, even in conversation. It is never a good idea to end a sentence with "... and stuff" or and "... and everything" in a job interview or an academic setting for example!
Teaching adults who have spent their entire lives exposed to English (or more specifically American) music, movies, television, etc, I find my students tend to have a better grasp of colloquial expressions and casual language than they do of proper grammar. By all means one or two lessons like this are fun and useful, but I see an increasing trend towards "spoken English" in language textbooks which makes me uncomfortable. Of course I don´t want anyone to sound overly stiff or formal, but, whether consciously or unconsciously, we all judge people based on the level of language they use, especially in business situations, and I believe that further down the road it is much easier to learn how to "dumb down" your language in a social situation than to "smarten it up" in a formal one.