Формирование грамматических навыков на начальном этапе обучения иностранному языку

Appendix

Introducing new language: examples.

(a) Physical surroundings: prepositions.

The teacher starts by producing some objects. They can be very ordinary, for example a stapler, a pen, a bag, a pencil, a pencil case, etc. The teacher elicits the words for these objects from the students and if they do not know them models the words and leads choral and/or individual repetition.

The teacher gives one of the objects (a book. for example) to one of the better students and then says something like “Put the book on the table.” If the student docs not understand the teacher helps by pointing and by gesture. When the student has put the book on the table the teacher says “Well done” and then chooses another student who is told to “Put the ruler in the box”, etc. As the students gradually do what they are asked they are getting wonderful listening practice.

The teacher now asks the students if they can give instructions thus eliciting the new language. When the students give their instructions the teacher will decide whether it is necessary to interrupt and model some or all of the new language or whether to move straight on to the immediate creativity stage where students are giving whatever instructions they want (within reason!).

As a written stage the teacher can write up some instructions on the board as models. Students can now be asked to write their own instructions which they give to their classmates who then have to do what is written there.

(b) Likes and dislikes

This presentation will consist of two stages. In the first students will learn to

say “Do you like ______?” and in the second they will be presented with “He/she likes/doesn't like ____”.

The teacher starts the sequence by asking students “Do you like coffee?”. With mime and expression he or she will soon convey the meaning of the question and a student will answer “Yes” or “No”. The teacher then gets

choral and individual repetition of the answers (“Yes I do/No, I don't”) if this is necessary. For a very brief period the teacher asks students questions and they give their answers. Then the teacher elicits the question (which the students have heard the teacher using). If necessary the question is explained and the teacher goes through the accurate reproduction stage, cueing students to ask and answer different questions. The students then work in pairs doing the same thing. This is a form of immediate creativity.

While the students are working in pairs the teacher puts the following on the blackboard:

NAME	FISH	CAVIAR	SPAGHETTI	LIVER	BANANAS

The teacher selects a student, for example, Carlos, and puts his name in the name column. The other students now ask him whether he likes the items on the chart and the teacher puts a tick (V) if he does and a cross (X) if he doesn't. The procedure is now repeated with other students until the chart looks like this:

NAME	FISH	CAVIAR	SPAGHETTI	LIVER	BANANAS
Carlos	V	V	X	V	X
Maria	V	X	V	X	V
Juan	X	X	V	V	V
Ctl'WI	V	V	V	V	V

The teacher then asks the students what they can say about Carlos and fish, hoping to elicit 'Carlos likes fish'. This new presentation (of the third person singular of the present simple with 'likes') now proceeds in the normal way using Carlos' likes and dislikes for the accurate reproduction stage and the other preferences for immediate creativity.

The teacher can later introduce the question 'Does Carlos like fish?', etc.

For the introduction of writing the teacher can use the fill-in idea (see (a) above) or the students can see the following model:

Carlos likes fish, caviar and liver, but he doesn't like spaghetti or bananas.

They can then be asked to write similar sentences about one of the other names on the list. This is a simple form of parallel writing.

(c) Using hands and gestures

Teachers can use their hands and various gestures to make grammatical form clearer.

One of the things we often need to do is to show how a full grammatical form is contracted in speech.

One way of explaining this to beginning students is to use the fingers of one hand to represent the different parts of the sentence, e.g.

do

not

like

pears

I

Figure

As we say the words we point to the fingers of the hand which represent those words.

Now we can show how “I do not like pears” becomes “ I don’t like pears”

don’t

like

I

pears

Figure

The use of the fingers has given a graphic description to the class.

We can pretend to hold the word ‘do’ in one hand and ‘not’ in the other. By bringing the hands together we show how ‘don't’ is formed.

(d) Explaining statements

In this case the teacher wishes to explain such model as:

She goes to school.

Here is a procedure we can follow:

Stage I The teacher says the sentence in a normal way with a clear voice using correct stress and intonation. This may he done two or three times.

Stage 2 The teacher isolates a particular feature of the model.

Stage 3 The teacher distorts this feature showing how it is constructed.

Stage 4 The teacher returns to the isolated element.

Stage 5 The teacher gives the normal model again.

W

T normal

model

e can represent this procedure in Figure :

Isolation Distortion

T returns to

isolated element

T normal model

Figure

Sometimes, however, the teacher may not have to distort the isolated feature (where it is only a one syllable word).

Where there is more than one item that needs isolating the teacher goes through the procedure in Figure. with the first item to be isolated and then repeats the sequence with the second item.

The following example clearly shows the procedure in action. The teacher wishes to isolate both the verb form and the pronunciation

T: Listen … she goes to school … she goes to school … listen …goes … goes … go … /z/ …go … /z/ … goes … she goes to school … listen … she goes to school.

The teacher may back up this oral explanation by writing the following on the blackboard:

She goes to school.

The use of a box to highlight the main grammar points helps to focus the students' attention on that point.

(e) Explaining question forms

When we have to do the same kind of explanation for a question form we may follow the same procedure as for (a) above. However, particularly where a question form is taught after the affirmative version of the same grammar point has already been the subject of practice, some extra techniques may help the students to understand the form of the question.

Unlike many languages English uses inversion to signal a question. Thus if we take an affirmative sentence such as "He is running" we find that the equivalent question form has the subject and the auxiliary in a different order, e.g. 'Is he running?'. Even where we put a question word (such as ‘which’, ’what’, ‘how’, ‘when’, etc.) at the beginning of the question this inversion is still used. Students of English frequently find this confusing.

When introducing a question teachers will follow the same procedure as for (a) above. They will, however, isolate and distort in a slightly different way, and it will be advisable to use the blackboard and/or gesture to make the inversion clear.

Suppose we wished to 'explain' the question model 'Is he running?' We might do it in the following way:

T: Listen ... Is he running? Is he running? ... listen ... he is running? ... no (teacher shakes head and crosses arms in un 'inversion' gesture} ... Is he running? ... Is he running?

We can write the following on the blackboard at the same time:

He is running

Is he running

	The receptive grammar skills		The reproductive grammar skills
	Task 1	Task 2	Task 3	Task 4	Task 5
Yura	3	3	2	3	3
Tanya	3	3	3	3	3
Andrey	3	3	2	3	3
Maxim	1	2	1	1	2
Sasha	2	3	1	2	2
Misha Ag	1	2	2	2	2
Yana	3	3	3	2	3
Dima	3	3	3	2	3
Sveta	3	3	3	3	3
Zhenya	3	3	3	3	3
Natasha	3	3	3	2	3
Vova	2	2	2	2	2
Tolya	3	3	3	2	3
Vasya	3	3	2	3	3
Misha Ab	3	3	3	3	3

“1” - more than 3 grammar mistakes

“2” - 1-2 grammar mistakes

“3” - 0 grammar mistakes

The results can be commented in levels.

80% - those children who have the receptive grammar skill

20% - those children who have a part of the receptive grammar skill

71% - those children who have the reproductive grammar skill

20% - those children who have a part of the reproductive grammar skill

9% - those children who have no reproductive skill

Conclusion.

In order to understand a language and express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of a language. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the relationship between the words in the given sentence. And vice versa, a sentence may contain one, two, and more unknown words but if one has a good knowledge of the structure of the language one can easily guess the meanings of these words or at least find them in a dictionary, No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism. Children need grammar to be able to speak, and write in the target language.

Our aim is to form grammar skills and prevent children from making grammar mistakes in their speech. The aim of foreign languages in primary schools is to develop pupils’ skills in order to understand speech and participate in conversation.

The method and techniques the teacher should use in teaching children of primary school is the direct method and various techniques which can develop pupils’ listening comprehension and speaking.

We have examined two kinds of grammar skills: the reproductive and receptive grammar skills. The reproductive grammar skills give pupils an opportunity to make up their own sentences in oral and written forms in other words to communicate and the receptive grammar skills give them an opportunity to read texts or aud and understand it.

To master the reproductive grammar skills one should study the basic sentences or models (grammar is presented as itself in the basic sentences), to master the receptive grammar skills one should identify and analyze the grammar item. We teach children to read by means of grammar. It reveals the relationship between the words in the given sentence.

We have such a conclusion that the forming of grammar skills depends on training. Training is of great importance to realize the grammar item. We must use a lot of training exercises for the assimilation of grammar. We should provide the motivation of learn English, encourage children to communicate and remember that the correction of errors in the early stages of a language course may foster the following negative aspects:

 children lose confidence when they have fear of making grammar mistakes.

 Children become reluctant to take risks: they only the say the information they know they can say.

School practice helped me to realize the importance of training exercises and the role of the individual approach to teaching the children of the primary school, Besides, the teacher must have a clear idea of the grammar of the language, its structure and usage; everything he teaches must be based on it; he should always be conscious of introducing or practicing some point of grammar.

Contents

Introduction

Theoretical part

Practical part

Conclusion

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Bibliography

Introduction.

Language is the chief means by which the human personality expresses itself and fulfills its basic need for social interaction with other persons.

The aim of the foreign language is primary schools is to develop pupils` skills and understanding English speech and participating in conversation based on the topics covered.

Robert Lado wrote that language functions owing to the language skills. A person who knows a language perfectly uses a thousand and one grammar lexical, phonetic rules when he is speaking. Language skills help us to choose different words and models in our speech.

In my diploma paper I examine the forming of grammar skills. Grammar is known to be an important component of the language as a system. Communicative skills without regular using grammar are limited.

It is clear that the term “grammar” has meant various things at various times and sometimes several things at one time. This plurality of meaning is characteristic of the present time and is the source of confusions in the discussion of grammar as part of the education of children. There have been taking place violent disputes on the subject of teaching grammar at school.

The ability to talk about the grammar of a language, to recite its rules, is also very different from ability to speak and understand a language or to read and write it. Those who can use a language are often unable to recite its rules, and those who can recite its rules can be unable to use it. Nowadays we can hear the following opinions among teachers of foreign language: One teacher says, “ I do not favor teaching any grammar before the fifth grade, and not much then,” another is likely to reply, “But if you do not, how will your students learn to capitalize correctly, to punctuate sentences, or to spell accurately?” Another teacher remarks,

“If you teach no grammar, how can you expect to have correct usage in speech and writing?”

In the elementary grades the major emphasis will be upon the actual use, rather than upon knowledge of the language itself and attention to restrictive rules. Grammar of the analytical and structural sort will have little place or no place in the elementary grades, but the oral and written conventions of English, those which function in actual speaking and writing, will be of chief concern.

Grammar organizes the vocabulary and as a result we have sense units. There is a system of stereotypes, which organizes words into sentences. But what skill does grammar develop?

First of all it gives the ability to make up sentences correctly, to reproduce the text adequately. (the development of practical skills and habits)

The knowledge of the specific grammar structure helps pupils point out the differences between the mother tongue and the target language.

The knowledge of grammar develops abilities to abstract systematize plural facts.

Examining the problem of grammar skills we must acquire how they are defined in literature. We must differentiate their kinds, features, and the conditions under which they are formed, the steps of forming grammar skills, and the grammar minimum for the primary school.

Learning grammar and forming grammar skills are important tasks of the subject “Foreign language” at the primary school. It is necessary for children not to make grammar mistakes. Roberto Lado wrote that a mistake is the wrong skill the aim of my diploma paper is to prevent children from making grammar mistakes, i.e. to form grammar skills. I think that the best way to form grammar skills is to use a lot of training exercises and individual approach in teaching grammar.

T Theoretical part he Importance of Grammar in Learning a Foreign

Language.

To judge by the way some people speak, there is no place for grammar in the language course nowadays; yet it is, in reality, as important as it ever was exercise of correct grammar, if he is to attain any skill of effective use of the language, but he need not know consciously formulated rules to account to him for that he does unconsciously correctly.

In order to understand a language and to express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of the language studied. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the relation between the words in the given sentence. And vice versa, a sentence may contain one, two, and more in known words but if one has a good knowledge of the structure of the language one can easily guess the meaning of these words or at least find them in a dictionary.

No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism.

If learner has acquired such a mechanism, he can produce correct sentences in a foreign language. Paul Roberts writes: “ Grammar is something that produces the sentences of a language. By something we mean a speaker of English. If you speak English natively, you have built into you rules of English grammar. In a sense, you are an English grammar. You possess, as an essential part of your being, a very complicated apparatus which enables you to produce infinitely many sentences, all English ones, including many that you have never specifically learned. Furthermore by applying you rule you can easily tell whether a sentence that you hear a grammatical English sentence or not.” *¹

A command of English as is envisaged by the school syllabus cannot be ensured without the study of grammar . Pupils need grammar to be able to aud, speak, read, and write in the target language.

*1 Roberts P. English Sentences. New York, 1962, p.1

A Brief Review Of The Major Methods

Of Foreign Language Teaching.

The grammatical systems of Russian and English are fundamentally different. English is an analytical language, in which grammatical meaning in largely expressed through the use of additional words and by changes in word order. Russian is a synthetic language, in which the majority of grammatical forms are created through changes in the structure of words, by means of a developed system of prefixes, suffixes and ending. ( p. 121,

Brown C. and Jule “Teaching the spoken language”, Cambridge, 1983)

No one knows exactly how people learn languages although a great deal of research has been done into the subject.

Many methods have been proposed for the teaching of foreign language. And they have met with varying degrees of success and failure.

We should know that the method by which children are taught must have some effect on their motivation. If they find it deadly boring they will probably become de-motivated, whereas if they have confidence in the method they will find it motivating. Child learners differ from adult learners in many ways. Children are curious, their attention is of a shorter duration, they are quite differently motivated in, their interests are less specialized. They need frequent of activity; they need activities which are exciting and stimulating their curiosity; they need to be involved in something active.

We shall examine such methods as “The Grammar – Translation Method”, ”The Direct Method”, “The Audio-lingual Method”. And we pay attention to the teaching grammar of the foreign language. We shall comment those methods, which have had a long history.

The Grammar Translation method will be discussed.

This method was widely used in teaching the classics, namely Latin, and it was transferred to the teaching of modern languages when they were introduced into schools

In the grammar-translation mode, the books begin with definitions of the parts of speech, declensions, conjugations, rules to be memorized, examples illustrating the rules, and exceptions. Often each unit has a paragraph to be translated into the target language and one to be translated into native one. These paragraphs illustrate the grammar rules studied in the unit. The student is expected to apply the rules on his own. This involves a complicated mental manipulation of the conjugations and declensions in the order memorized, down to the form that might fit the translation. As a result, students are unable to use the language, and they sometimes develop an inferiority complex about languages in general. Exceptionally bright and diligent students do learn languages by this method, or in spite of it, but they would learn with any method.

(R.Lado)

W

Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language.

Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.

Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.

Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of word.

Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early.

Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.

Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue.

Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.

Brown H., Douglas ‘Principles of language teaching’, N.Y., 1987

e list the major characteristics of Grammar Translation.

The grammar-translation method is largely discredited today. With greater interest in modern languages for communication the inadequacy of grammar-translation methods became evident.

The Direct Method.

The Direct Method appeared as a reaction against the grammar-translation method.

There was a movement in Europe that emphasized language learning by direct contact with the foreign language in meaningful situations. This movement resulted in various individual methods with various names, such as new method, natural method, and even oral method, but they can all be referred to as direct methods or the direct method. In addition to emphasizing direct contact with the foreign language, the direct method usually deemphasized or eliminated translation and the memorization of conjugations, declensions, and rules, and in some cases it introduced phonetics and phonetic transcription.

The direct method assumed that learning a foreign language is the same as learning the mother tongue, that is, that exposing the student directly to the foreign language impresses it perfectly upon his mind. This is true only up to a point, since the psychology of learning a second language differs from that of learning the first. The child is forced to learn the first language because he has no other effective way to express his wants. In learning a second language this compulsion is largely missing, since the student knows that he can communicate through his native language when necessary.

Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language.

Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.

Oral communication skills were built up in a carefully graded progression organized around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers and student in small, intensive classes.

Grammar was taught inductively, i.e. the learner may discover the rules of grammar for himself after he has become acquainted with many examples.

New teaching points were introduced orally.

Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas.

Both speech and listening comprehension were taught.

Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.

The basic premise of Direct Method was that second language learning should be more like first language learning: lots of active oral interaction, spontaneous use of the language, no translation between first and second languages, and little or no analysis of grammatical rules. We can summarize the principles of the Direct

Method:

The Direct Method enjoyed considerable popularity through the end of nineteenth century and well into this one.

Now we shall discuss “The Audiolingual Method”.

The Audiolingual Method (It is also called Mimicry-memorization method) was the method developed in the Intensive Language Program. It was successful because of high motivation, intensive practice, small classes, and good models, in addition to linguistically sophisticated descriptions of the foreign language and its grammar.

New material is presented in dialog form.

There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and overlearning.

Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.

Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.

There is a little or no grammatical explanation: grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation.

Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.

There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.

Great importance is attached to pronunciation.

very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.

Successful responses are immediately reinforced.

There is a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.

There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content.

Grammar is taught essentially as follows: Some basic sentences are memorized by imitation. Their meaning is given in normal expressions in the native language, and the students are not expected to translate word for word. When the basic sentences have been overlearned (completely memorized so that the student can rattle them off without effort), the student reads fairly extensive descriptive grammar statements in his native language, with examples in the target language and native language equivalents. He then listens to further conversational sentences for practice in listening . Finally, practices the dialogues using the basic sentences and combinations of their parts. When he can, he varies the dialogues within the material hr has already learned. The characteristics of ALM may be summed up in the following list:

Grammar explanations as used in the major methods.

We shall briefly review the treatment of grammatical explanations by some of the major methods. This is not meant to be an exhaustive study of all available methods; rather it is an attempt to show the variety of ways in which different methods deal with grammar explanations and may help teachers in evaluating available materials.

Grammar translation is associated with formal rule statement. Learning proceeds, deductively, and the rule is generally stated by the teacher, in a textbook, or both. Traditional abstract grammatical terminology is used. Drills include translation into native language.

The direct method is characterized by meaningful practice and exclusion of the mother tongue. This method has had many interpretations, some of which include an analysis of structure, but generally without the use of abstract grammatical terminology.

T

Table

he audio-lingual method stresses an inductive presentation with extensive pattern practice. Writing is discouraged in the early stages of learning a structure. Here again, there has bee considerable variation in the realization of this approach. In some cases, no grammatical explanation of any kind is offered. In other, the teacher might focus on a particular structure by isolating an example on the board, or through contrast. When grammatical explanation is offered it is usually done at the end of the lesson as a summary of behavior (Politzer, 1965), or in later versions of this method the rule might be stated in the middle of the lesson and followed by additional drills.

	Conscious grammar explanation	Isolation of (rule of structure)	Deductive or Inductive presentation	The “explainer”	Language type used for explanation	Oral or written explanation
Grammar-translation	Yes	Yes	Deductive	Book and/or teacher	Abstract	Written
Direct method	Yes or no	Yes	Inductive (if at all)	Teacher (when done)	Non-abstract	Oral-written
Audio-lingual	Yes or no	Yes	Inductive	Teacher	Example or non-abstract	Oral-written

Each method is realized in techniques. By a technique we mean an individual way in doing something, in gaining a certain goal in teaching learning process. The method and techniques the teacher should use in teaching children of the primary school is the direct method, and various techniques which can develop pupils` listening comprehension and speaking. Pupils are given various exercises, connected with the situational use of words and sentence patterns.

Teaching grammar patterns.

We’ll examine "Teaching Grammatical Patterns" by Robert Lado (Chapter 10 "From Sentences to Patterns")

Robert Lado thinks that even children who have never studied the rules grammar make use of the grammar of the language. This is seen in the mistakes they make. When a child says, He goed, he is forming a "regular" preterite on the pattern: showed, weighed, served: "goed." His error reveals the fact that he has been applying the pattern even though he is not able to describe it.

Patterns and Sentences

A grammatical pattern is an arrangement of parts having linguistic significance beyond the sum of its parts. The parts of a pattern are expressed by words or classes of words so that different sentences often express the same pattern. All the sentences of a language arc cast in its patterns.

John telephoned, The boy studied.

We understood are different sentences expressing the same statement pattern in English.

A pattern is not a sentence, however. Sentences express patterns. Each sentence illustrates a pattern. To memorize a sentence does not imply that a pattern has been memorized. There can be countless sentences, each unique, yet all constructed on the same pattern.

Patterns and Grammar

Children learn the grammatical patterns of their language before they study grammar in school. When a child says goed instead of went or knowed instead of knew, he is applying the regular preterite pattern on the analogy,

open: opened = go: goed

Patterns arc learned in childhood. Adults no longer have to learn new patterns; they learn new words that are used in old patterns. That the old patterns are alive is shown by putting unknown words and phrases into them.

And what is the role of the native language in learning the patterns of a foreign language?

Native Language Factor

The most important factor determining ease and difficulty in learning the patterns of a foreign language is their similarity to or difference from the patterns of the native language. When the pattern in the target language is parallel to one in the native language, the student merely learns new words which he puts into what amounts to an extended use of his native pattern. Since his word learning capacity is not lost, he makes rapid progress. When, however, the native language pattern does not parallel that of the target language, the student tends to revert to his native language patterns through habit.

Grading the Patterns

There is no single grading scale for teaching the patterns of a foreign language. Any systematic cumulative progression, taking into account the structures that are difficult, would be satisfactory from a linguistic point of view.

Pattern-practice

Approach The mimicry-memorization exercise tends to give the same amounts of practice to easy as well as difficult problems. It also concentrates unduly on the memorization of specific sentences, and not enough on the manipulation of the patterns of sentences in a variety of content situations. For those patterns that arc functionally parallel to the native language, very little work needs to be done, and very little or no explanation is necessary. On the other hand, for those patterns that are not parallel in the two languages, more specific understanding of the grammatical structure points at issue is needed while the sentences are learned and not before or after. And more practice with the pattern is necessary before it is learned, that is, used without

attention to its structure.

Basic sentences

The memorization of sample sentences that con­tain the grammatical problems to he mastered is common to both pattern practice and mimicry-memorization. For this practice there is ample justification in linguistics and in psychology. The utterances have to become readily available if the student is to use them in the rapid sequence of conversation.

Teaching the patterns

A sentence can be learned as a single unstructured unit like a word, but this is only the beginning. The stu­dent must acquire the habit of constructing sentences in the patterns of the target language. For this he must be able to put words almost automatically into a pattern without changing it, or to change it by making the necessary adjustments.

Teaching a. problem pattern begins with teaching the specific struc­ture points where a formal change in the pattern is crucial and where the student is not able to manipulate the required changes. The steps in teaching problem patterns are (1) attention pointer, usually a single sentence calling the students' attention to the point at issue; (2) ex­amples, usually minimally contrastive examples showing a pair of sen­tences that differ only on the point or points being made; (3) repetition by the class and presentation of additional examples of the same contrast;

(4) comments or generalization elicited inductively from the students and confirmed by the teacher; (5) practice, with attention on the problem being taught.

These steps an intended to clarify the crucial point of contrast at the time when sentences are being learned. They should take only a small portion of the class time—no more than 15 per cent.

Robert Lado accents that many teachers make the mistake of trying to explain everything at length while the class listens passively. Long explanations without active practice arc a waste of time, and even with practice they are inefficient. Most of the class should be devoted to practice. The following are brief descriptions of some of the more effective types of exercises.

The more effective types of exercises according to R.Lado:

Listening

It is understood that the student does not invent the target language. He must listen to good models. Random listening helps, but selective listening following instructions is more effective. Listening is assumed to he most effective when it is in preparation for speaking.

Listening can be combined with other activities.

Oral repetition In this practice the student repeats the pattern sentences provided orally by the model. This is the most basic and important of all exercises. It begins with the presentation of the very first sentence of the pattern, the basic sentence, and continues through all other examples of the pattern taught for speaking.

Oral substitution Once the student can speak the basic sentence by repetition, oral substitution becomes the most useful and powerful drill available to practice the pattern. It is fast, flexible, and versatile, and it approximates conversational use of the language. Several variations are described for the reader: simple substitution, substitution in variable position, substitution that forces a change, substitution requiring a change, and multiple substitution.

Transformation

Speech practice and etc.

T