Communication and Teaching of Grammar 最終レポート

2006.1.31

A summary of grammatical knowledge in this course.

■　number in nouns

English learners are likely to regard English nouns as countable and uncountable. However, it is more plausible to think that nouns will not be countable unless they have some boundary. The boundary is up to our awareness toward each entity. For example, eating materials are usually uncountable because we are not aware of their boundary; pork, tuna, chicken and so on. On the contrary, if we regard these things as creatures apart from eating materials, that consciousness has made the boundary from the outer world, which makes us use the article 'a/an'. Thus we call pork 'a pig' or chicken 'a hen/cock'
Japanese tend to think of 'a book' as 'Issatsu-no-Hon', but this is not the case. Basically, 'a book' means that the entity 'book' has some boundary. It doesn’t necessarily refer to the number of books.

■　come and go

The above perspective can be applied to 'come' and 'go'. We usually regard come and go as contrasting ideas, which is not true. Just like the article 'a/an', 'come' has specific function as expressing the movement toward the empathy focus, which means the area of speakers or listeners. 'Go' has other general and fundamental usage of movement.

■　at/in/on

'AT' has the function as 'Point', while 'IN' as 'Duration'. 'ON' takes other functions that neither 'AT' nor 'IN' do.

■　Polysemy and the structure of meaning

Polysemy means the feature of some English words which have or seem to have a lot of meanings. Actually, you can find a lot of 'meanings' in the dictionary. There are four concepts which help explain the polysemy: metaphor(月見うどん), metonymy(きつねうどん), synecdoche(親子どん), specialization(ケータイ)/generalization(サランラップ).

■　Others

Q. When to introduce grammar to students?
A. When students have clear doubts on the mechanism of English.

Plan for introducing the rule in my class
Title : sequence of tenses and narration (時制の一致と話法)

When I introduce the difference on sequence of tenses between English and Japanese, I use the following sentences.

1) I 【think】 she 【loves】 you. 彼女は君のことが【好きだ】と【思う】。
2) I 【thought】 she 【loved】 you. 彼女は君のことが【好きだ】と【思っていた】。

These sentences are easy for students to understand, because the topic of the sentence is familiar and the sentence itself is in the junior-high-shool level. Using these sentences, I try to make students focus on the difference of sequence of tenses.
When the main verb 'think' takes the past form, the other verbs in subordinate clauses also take the past form. This is the sequence of tenses in English, which is too abstract and thus difficult for students to understand. Hence, I introduce he maxim, 『子分は親分に従う』, and repeatedly use this maxim in the class.
Then, I introduce the next two sentences.

3) I 【think】 she 【loved】 you at that time.
あのとき、彼女は君のことが【好きだった】と【思う】。
4) I 【thought】 she 【had loved】 you at that time.
あのとき彼女は君のことが【好きだった】と【思っていた】。

The sentences 3) and 4) are in the situation of the class reunion when students become 30 or more. These sentences follow the same rule in 1) and 2). They can easily guess that they cannot use 【loved】 nor 【loveded】 in sentence 4). Then some of students can remember the other maxim that I taught them before: 『過去形が使えないときは完了形で代用』. They have used this maxim in tenses, auxiliaries, and subjunctive mood.
Like this example of sequence of tenses and narration, I always try to introduce the simple rule to students and use it again and again, say at least ten times in a year. I believe that the logical explanation and the repetition is the key to the successful grammar lesson.
The timetable for this lesson is as follows. The above procedure is about step a).

a) Introduction of sequence of tenses and narration (15min.)
b) Checking the answers of the exercises in the textbook (20min.)
c) Consolidation with a fill-in-the-bland handout (10min.)

In step b), I introduce many examples of narration to students, using exercises. The examples are;

She said to me, "Do you love me?"
She asked me if / whether I loved her.

Mother said to me, "Do the right thing."
Mother told me to do the right thing.

He said to me, "Let's have a break."
He proposed[suggested] to me (that) we (should) have a　break.

In step c), students can check their understanding of what they have learned in the exercises, using the handout. The examples are;

She ( ) to me, "Do you love me?"
「あなたは私を愛していますか．」と彼女は私に言いました．
She ( ) me ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ).
彼女は私に彼女を愛しているのかと聞きました．

Mother ( ) to me, "Do the right thing."
「正しい行いをしなさい．」と母は私に言いました．
Mother ( ) me ( ) ( ) the right thing.
母は私に正しい行いをするようにと言いました．

Jim ( ) to me, "Please lend me your bicycle."
「あなたの自転車を私に貸してください．」とジムは私に言った．
Jim ( ) me ( ) lend him my bicycle.
ジムは私に，私の自転車を彼に貸すように頼んだ．

In conclusion, this course has provided me with a variety of interesting ways to introduce grammar to students. They are exciting and undoubtedly useful for students. On the other hand, what I have learned in this course is about step a), which means that teachers have to keep considering b) how to provide the necessary and enough amounts of exercises, and c) how to study grammar by themselves. It is true that grammar theory is interesting to learn, but it is also true that practice makes perfect in English. Both grammar theory and proper exercise will be two wheels of the same vehicle. I also would like to learn how to provide proper exercises from you in the future.