Language Awareness and

Grammar Teaching in Mother

Tongue Education João Costa (FCSH-UNL)

Brussels, February 2012

Goal

• To relate goals in the teaching of mother tongue with the contributions from research in language development.

Outline

1. Teaching grammar: some goals

2. Implicit grammatical knwoledge in school age children: Contribution from some studies in L1 acquisition.

3. Implications for teaching and teacher training.

Mother tongue teaching

• Portuguese context - (CNEB and) Sim-Sim, Duarte e Ferraz (1997):

Explicit knowledge of language is a core skill in mother tongue teaching.

• This proposal is further supported by the 2009 syllabus.

Grammar teaching

• Advantages of grammar teaching have been documented in several studies (Duarte (1992, 1997, 2000), Sim-Sim (1995), Hudson (2001), among others.

• In Portugal, it is known that grammar has not been taught/learnt. A couple of studies indicate causes and consequences for this state of affairs. (Delgado Martins et al. 1987, Duarte 1996, Costa 2007, among others).

Reasons to teach grammar Duarte (2008): Instrumental goals Attitudinal goals General and specific cognitive goals

Mother tongue teaching

• Sim-Sim, Duarte e Ferraz (1997):

“[Compete à escola] contribuir para o crescimento linguístico de todos os alunos, estimulando-lhes o desenvolvimento da linguagem e promovendo a aprendizagem das competências que não decorrem do processo natural de aquisição”. (p.35)

Mother tongue teaching

• Sim-Sim, Duarte e Ferraz (1997):

“[Compete à escola] contribuir para o crescimento linguístico de todos os alunos, estimulando-lhes o desenvolvimento da linguagem e promovendo a aprendizagem das competências que não decorrem do processo natural de aquisição”. (p.35)

What is presupposed

• Conscious intervention implies knowing:

a) what language growth is;

b) Degree of linguistic development of students;

c) Difference between those skills that follow from the natural acquisition path and those that have to be explicitly taught;

d) Grammar teaching as developmental activities.

Costa, Lobo and Silva (2008)

Reis (2008)

Friedmann and Costa (2010, 2010a)

Ambulate and Costa (2010)

Costa and Lobo (2009, 2010)

Cerejeira (2009, 2010)

(+ several ongoing dissertations)

Relative clauses

Subject relatives:

Gostava de ser o menino que come gelado.

Object relatives:

Gostava de ser o menino que o avô encontra.

Relative clauses

Subject relative Object relative

Gostava de ser o menino

que come gelado.

Structure:

- Complex.

- With movement.

- Preserving the canonical order.

Gostava de ser o menino

que o avô encontra.

Structure:

- Complex.

- Without movement.

- Not preserving canonicity.

Development of relative clauses

• Vasconcelos (1991): relative clauses are acquired early, but there are problems in its parsing/comprehension.

• Friedmann (2003): there are asymmetries between subject and object in comprehension and production.

• Question: what’s children’s knowledge of relativs by the time they enter school?

Relative clause production

• Costa, Lobo and Silva (2008/2011):

Adaptation of preference task by Friedmann (2003), in accordance with the strategy of project COST-A33 “Crosslinguistically Robust Stages of Language Acquisition”.

• Participants: 60 children between 3;9 and 6;2 (average 5;2) from Lisbon.

Group result

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

TOTAL relativas SUJEITO TOTAL relativas OBJECTO

78%

31%

Individual results

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960

Reis (2008): relatives in writing task

0

20

40

60

80

100

3rd grade 5th grade 8th grade

Subject relatives

Object relatives

Alternatives to the production of

object relatives

- Gap filling:

“Gostava de ser o menino que o avô encontra o menino”

“Gostava de ser o menino que o avô encontra-o”

Alternatives to the production of

object relatives

- Transformation into subject relative:

“Gostava de ser o menino que encontra o avô”

- Non answer:

“Gostava de ser o menino que… é muito difícil, não consigo dizer” (G., 5 year old)

Relative clause comprehension

Picture selection task.

Mostra-me o hipopótamo que seca o menino.

Mostra-me o hipopótamo que o menino seca.

35 children between 4 and 6 (average 5;4)

Results

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Sujeito Objecto

97%

61%

Conclusions

• School age children do not master relative clauses in a stable manner.

• Problems are only to be found with object relatives, not with subject relatives.

• Problems are not related to the existence of complex sentences or containing movement, but rather in production of word order changes (see Cerdeira (2007) and Ferreira (2008) for different results with agrammatic patients).

Nature of the problem

• Other studies confirm the idea that intervention of the subject between the object and the base position is problematic.

Objeto …… Sujeito ……………. ____

Cerejeira (2009)

• Test on wh-questions (production and comprehension).

• Participants: 60 children aged between 3;9 and 5;11

Method for production Interrogativa de sujeito com verbo reversível

1. Apresentação do desenho

2. Estímulo:

“Alguém está a molhar o

menino. Eu quero saber

quem! Pergunta ao Pinóquio!”

Pergunta alvo: Quem é que está a molhar o

menino?

3. Apresentação do desenho

Interrogativa de objecto com verbo reversível 1. Apresentação do desenho

2. Estímulo:

“O pai está a molhar alguém.

Eu quero saber quem! Pergunta ao Pinóquio!”

Pergunta alvo: Quem é que o pai está a

molhar?

3. Apresentação do desenho

Results

Interrogativas alvo

SR OR SI OI

[3;2 – 3;11]

24/200 12% 5/200 3% 28/200 14% 50/200 28%

[4;1 – 4;11]

151/200 76% 56/200 28% 171/200 86% 144/200 72%

[5;0 – 5;11]

180/200 90% 123/200 62% 187/200 94% 158/200 79%

Comprehension

• Cerejeira (2009):

- Confirmation of production data;

- Asymmetry between object wh-questions (D-linked and non D-liked.

Movement is not the problem

• Friedmann & Costa (2010):

Comprehension task for the following conditions:

- Subject relatives

- Object relatives

- Null subject in coordinate sentence with object in the first conjunct.

- Null subject in coordinate sentence without object in the first conjunct.

Method and results • Picture selection

Method and Results

• 30 children aged between 4;4 and 5;11

Problem is not the interpretation

of “null positions” • Ambulate and Costa (2010), Silva (in prep.)

Better interpretation of null subjects than lexical subjects:

O Shrek disse ao Noddy que ___ está cansado.

O Shrek disse ao Noddy que ele está cansado.

Problem is not in the

interpretation of “null positions” • Costa and Lobo (2009, 2010):

Target intepretation of null objects (though not in reflexive contexts)

Example of test item

Condition: null object

Vamos ver o que é que o Rui fez ao cão.

Olha! Mergulhou na piscina!

Problems last in cases of

impairment • José (2011): Object reversible questions are the only

difficult ones for SLI children.

• Fonseca (2011): Object relative clauses are the ones causing difficulties for SLI children.

• Costa and Friedmann (2010a), Mangas (2011): Object relative clauses yield greater difficulties to hearing impaired children.

• Barragon (em prep.): interpretation of null subjects as critical criterion for bilingualism and SLI.

Conclusions

• At the onset of schooling, children have difficulties in dealing with syntactic dependencies of the type O S __

• Syntactic dependencies may be a marker of problems in language development.

• Loureiro (in prep.): ongoing research on language awareness in different moments of “school growth”.

Recall…

• Sim-Sim, Duarte and Ferraz (1997):

“[Compete à escola] contribuir para o crescimento linguístico de todos os alunos, estimulando-lhes o desenvolvimento da linguagem e promovendo a aprendizagem das competências que não decorrem do processo natural de aquisição”. (p.35)

Language growth

• We’ve observed that syntactic dependencies, in particular object relatives, are linguistic domain for which no steady knowledge is attained at the onset of school years.

• School has the task of promoting linguistic growth.

• School has the task of promoting activities that make it possible to exercize syntactic dependencies.

Stimulation

• Being aware of the fact that not all dependencies are alike (there are subject-object asymmetries) makes us understand that reading and writing activities are richer if the involve structures that promote growth.

• A pedagogical work guided towards the development of language awareness (Sim-Sim 1997) on unproblematic structures should come before the work on structures that are subject to late acquisition.

Where does explicit grammar

come in? • For the sucess of these processes, metalanguage

is needed:

- So the teacher knows what to work on;

- For the establishment of generalizations and rules;

- For consulting supporting materials.

Labels and categories are, therefore, a tool and not the goal of grammar teaching.

Implications for teacher training

• Solid background on:

- Properties of adult grammar;

- Language development;

- Grammar teaching as developmental activities;

- Criteria for tracing developmental problems.

One example: Relevance of grammar teaching for promoting literacy

Starting point

• Reading – crucial skill for all knwoledge.

Reading

Access to information

Aesthetical sense

Culture Values

Citizenship

Reading

• The good reader:

- Enjoys reading

- Read a lot

- Reads quickly

- Reads efficiently (interpreting what he reads)

Reading is needed for all other skills • READING is needed for all knowledge:

- Skill used for the development of knowledge in all areas.

Exclusive of READING?

Skills in Mother Tongue

Reading

Writing

Oral production

Oral comprehension

Grammar

Oral (Comprehension and Production) • Condition of success for situations like:

- Complaint

- Job interview

- Expression of feelings/symptoms

- Sucess in communicative interaction

…

Writing

• Condition of success for situations like:

- Job application

- Exposing professional situation

- Invitation

…

Grammar

• Condition of success for situations like:

- Reflexion for use

- Understanding and accepting variation

- Linguistic self-confidence

(Duarte 2008)

Reading

Writing

Oral Production

Oral Comprehension

Grammar

• Relations between reading and grammar

• Reading involves:

DECODING

INTERPRETING RELATING

(Martins & Niza 1998)

Decoding and graphic representation

Phonology

• Strong predictive relations between work on phonological awareness and reading skills (e.g. J. Morais 1994).

Morphology

IM-POSSIBIL-IDADE PENSA-DOR IN-VISIBIL-IDADE FUMA-DOR IN-CAPAC-IDADE LAVA-DOR I-MORTAL-IDADE BRINCA-DOR Morphological analysis enables sustained

reflection about the shape of words and the anticipation of meanings (e.g. Carslile 1995)

Lexicon

• Duarte (2008):

Factores sócio-

-económicos

Conhecimento

prévio

Domínio do

português padrão

Capital

lexical

Volume de

leituras

Compreensão

de leitura

Ensino explícito

do léxico

Produção

escrita

Syntax

• A. Costa (2005)

• Examples:

- Reading of non-canonical orders;

- Reading of complex sentences.

- Relevance for oriented READING!

- Great interaction with psycholinguistic processes associated to READING.

Semantics

• Santos (2002): retrieval of the antecedent of pronouns.

• Ana Costa (2010): comprehension of contrast with different connectors.

• Costa, Lobo and Silva (2011), Costa, Grillo and Lobo (2012): comprehension of object relative clauses.

Text

• PISA: - Good reader reads different GENRES

efficiently. • Coutinho (2003, 2006, 2009), among others: - Textual clues make it possible to differentiate

GENRES (register markers, subjectivity markers, etc.)

• Reading text and hypertext.

Paratext

• Anticipation of reading hypotheses conditioned by paratextual aspects:

- Text display;

- Images (Baptista, Luegi, Faria and Costa 2010);

- Support.

…

Context

• Context, reference may be important (they certainly constrain reading, but not all of them are crucial).

Relevance for teaching

• CREATION OF EFFICIENT READERS implies:

- Solid work enabling development of language awareness.

- READING develops through reading, but also through GRAMMAR.

Relevance for teaching

• CREATION OF EFFICIENT READERS implies:

- Managing intervention towards performance.

- Linguistic criteria in the selection of text (not just thematic or traditional).

- Clear dissociation between teaching to read and “animation” of reading.

I enjoy reading

I am able to read

• Cross-sectional dimention of mother tongue skills is more efficient if each skill plays a CORE role in the organization of learning.

General conclusion

• Children know grammar, but their grammaticl knowledge is not fully attained by the time they enter school.

• School must be aware of the real capacities of childre in order to be able to act efficiently.

• Mother tongue teaching benefits from information in grammar teaching, if it is based on the stimulation of linguistic skills and language awareness.

Acknowledgments:

Project “Syntactic Dependencies from 3 to 10”

(PTDC/CLE-LIN/099802/2008)

Schools and children who participated in the experiments.