Textbook Grammar: Does It Reflect Native Speaker Speech?

Glisan, Eileen W.; Drescher, Victor

doi:10.2307/329554

Cited by 7 publications

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“…This is not to deny the usefulness of being exposed to and working with cleaned-up versions of the spoken language that lack the many ungrammaticalities, false starts, slips of the tongue, and changes of direction so prevalent in unplanned speech. Rather, I am arguing here against the oral practice of grammatical features that are not common in conversation, such as the use of subordination, prepositional phrases, nominaliiations, and attributive adjectives and nouns as described by Chafe and Danielewicz (1987), Di Vito (1991), and Glisan and Drescher (1993), for example.…”

Section: Created Equal?mentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Moreover, because most grammars still are grammars of the written language, the shift to a focus on oral skills in FL teaching has had an unhappy side-effect: Although the grammar explanations still explain the rules of the written language, the sample sentences and the exercises provided to practice the grammatical rules appear to be aimed at imitating spoken language. As a result, students engage in the oral practice of written, sometimes even arcane grammatical phenomena (e.g., Di Vito, 1991; Glisan & Drescher, 1993). This is not to deny the usefulness of being exposed to and working with cleaned-up versions of the spoken language that lack the many ungrammaticalities, false starts, slips of the tongue, and changes of direction so prevalent in unplanned speech.…”

Section: Created Equal?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scope and Sequence: Rethinking Beginning Foreign Language Instruction

Tschirner¹

1996

The Modern Language Journal

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This essay presents an approach to developing a grammatical scope and sequence for elementary and intermediate foreign language (FL) instruction that is different from the standard model which bases the grammatical syllabus of a textbook on tradition, intuition, or both. It is argued that different descriptions of grammar are needed for each of the three skills of reading, writing, and speaking, and that a grammatical scope and sequence needs to take into account the fact that different grammatical structures are learned at different levels of development. Using the development of oral proficiency as an example, this essay then explores a research‐based approach to establishing a grammatical scope and sequence. It is argued that the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) forms a useful framework for interpreting findings from FL acquisition research within the context of teaching FLs in formal environments.

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Section: Created Equal?mentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Created Equal?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Scope and Sequence: Rethinking Beginning Foreign Language Instruction

Tschirner¹

1996

The Modern Language Journal

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“…How does the presentation of oral language in such instructional materials measure up to authentic oral discourse? Glisan and Drescher (1993) found that grammatical explanations in SFL textbooks generally did not reflect authentic spoken Spanish, often giving the impression that all grammatical forms are equally important in speech, while the data suggest that some grammatical forms are preferred in speech or used differently in speech than in writing. As Gilmore (2004) observes "…but to what extent should we deprive students of exposure to natural language?…”

Section: The Language Of Instructional Materialsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Marginalization of Local Varieties in the L2 Classroom: The Case of U.S. Spanish

Burns¹

2018

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The United States is one of the world's most populous Hispanophone countries, with over 35 million Spanish-speakers. In addition, Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the United States, with more students enrolled in Spanish at the higher-education level than in all other modern languages combined. How, then, is the United States' status as a top Spanish-speaking country reflected in the treatment of sociolinguistic variation in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) curricula at the university level? This case study of a large, public university, which is home to an SFL program among the largest in the country, explores that question using a two-tiered approach. First, an analysis was conducted to examine the ideological underpinnings of how varieties of U.S. Spanish are presented in beginner and intermediate SFL textbooks used at the university. Second, focus groups of SFL instructors were conducted to gain insight into their beliefs and practices regarding the presentation of language variation in the classroom. The study finds evidence of a systematic reinforcement of standard language ideology in the university's beginner and intermediate SFL curricula, with little attention paid to regional varieties of Spanish and, at times, an explicit de-legitimization of U.S. Spanish varieties in particular. _______________ 1 The RAE is not the only Spanish language academy. In fact, there is a consortium of Spanish language academies, (Asociación de las Academias de la Lengua Española; Association of Spanish Language Academies), most of which are located in former Spanish colonies. The consortium, known as ASALE, even includes a location in the United States, which was founded by a member of the RAE in 1973. However, ASALE is firmly under RAE leadership-the director of the RAE is also its president. The existence of additional Spanish language academies in Latin America and elsewhere, which in some sense are simply satellite branches of the RAE, has not mitigated the historic or present-day influence of the RAE and the colonialist 'standard' language it promotes. For more information, please see www.asale.org. 2 Catalan is a Romance language that is spoken mainly in northeastern Spain. It has co-official status with Castilian Spanish in three of Spain's autonomous regions: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian

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“…While such examples are representative of real usage, they lack a richer context that helps clarify and define their meaning. The critical role of context and intended meaning addressed earlier is further emphasized by research showing that longer contexts—those beyond the sentence level—are optimal for linguistic analysis (Celce‐Murcia, ; Dever, ; Glisan & Drescher, ; Halliday, ; Hymes, )…”

Section: Examining Preterite/imperfect Rules In Literary Contextsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Using literary texts to reveal problematic rules of usage

Frantzen

2013

Foreign Language Annals

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This article identifies problematic rules of usage for aspect (preterite/imperfect) in Spanish that are commonly taught in textbooks, citing as evidence examples from Spanish literature. The rules under scrutiny are: (1) the imperfect is used to express emotions in the past, (2) the imperfect is used for descriptions in the past, (3) the preterite and imperfect are associated with certain expressions, and (4) certain verbs “change meaning” in the preterite. Literary works not only provide an authoritative voice to expose these misleading rules but also furnish rich contexts within which to better understand aspect in general.

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Textbook Grammar: Does It Reflect Native Speaker Speech?

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Scope and Sequence: Rethinking Beginning Foreign Language Instruction

Scope and Sequence: Rethinking Beginning Foreign Language Instruction

Marginalization of Local Varieties in the L2 Classroom: The Case of U.S. Spanish

Using literary texts to reveal problematic rules of usage

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