04.1 A RADICAL ALTERNATIVE

04.2 A new systemising of teaching material

04.3 Grammar, bad and good

04.4 Description of our "Make Grammar Talk"

04.5 Some brief discussion points about language learning

04.6 Some examples of grammar "plays" for acting

plays 2 presents and exceptions

plays Im going out tonight Dad Q A (with two presents and exceptions)

playlets Qestion Answer Q A (with 2 pasts)

something in the cellar. Depression (with some any)

04.7 Some examples of "Grammared" newspaper articles

Amazon facts plus my sample essay

Jose, hero

A modern witch and "Dave"

pacifism discussion TV version

04.8 Some examples of my "Express grammar"

New 2 pasts

some, any something anything etc + a play using this grammar

3 futures + plays

04.9 What is CLIL (language integrated learning: ie.Vehicular English in subject teaching)

04.10 What would be the base for "interdisciplinary studies"?

MAKE GRAMMAR TALK. Published by Bulgarini of Florence. 2002.

•  there must be a very clear layout that is easy on the eye. (see page 1-3 express grammar sample pages. This in my real idea of how grammar should be presented. At the Italian publisher we were acting under constraints of wished for "completeness" that render is much less useful. However within the limikts of publishing parameters we tried tomake it user friendly.) Such things as the visual aids of layout, positioning of explanation and how example sentences were used were positive. The culture pages are also an original idea.

In a grammar.......

•  the "rules" must be short and clear .

•  the language must not be abstruse and remember who the user is..

•  short explanations are easy to hold in the mind . Long winded pedantry loses the student.

•  colour helps give clarity to the explanation. Visualisation is itself a form of explanation.

•  we used in our grammar for Bulgarini of Florence a regularity of 2 pages of grammar 4 pages of exercises. This makes it much easier to FIND what one wants. ours start on the left and follow for 6 pages. I think however that written exercises have to be much better integrated to spoken work.

•  the explanation must not get in the way of the example sentences.

•  for this reason the explanations are on the right so as to leave the examples easy to scan down.

•  we look up something in a grammar; we often don't need the rule. We just need to be reminded of the structural form. The eye needs to quickly scan down the page.

•  the translations must not get in the way of the example sentences.

•  once we have read a rule or a translation we just need quick access to the structures highlighted in the example sentences to REMIND us.

•  for this reason we have put the translations at the beginning of the exercise section. These are useful for translation activities.

•  To encourage memorisation we have given 5 pages of fun activities to use on the sentences.

•  the sections or main grammar "islands" must not be cut up . Often grammar logic is rela t ional - eg 3 futures and 2 pasts.

•  the grammar must have bridges into speaking activities (see our plays and culture pages.) making up for the common defects of text books used by adolescents. The books usually have a casual contents .

• Text books have a traditional division of units by "function ". This is confusing and forces the material to be banal ("buying a meal at a restaurant"). are based on the so called " communicative approach " and so have an ambivalent attitude to grammar. The approach is based on the distinction of acqiring a langauge and learning one. It's true that a child acquires his own language but in very special circumstances and age. This cannot be replicated at school. Enormous mystification has been caused. do not deliver what they promise and so the market had been buried under an avalanche of grammar books -often of a pedantic and confusing sort in our grammar.Tthe plays are there for quick learning by heart and use of cam recorder.

•  the plays are there to get students to make the big step into NON TEXT dependent speaking.

•  the plays are there also to show the students how to invent their own plays around sections of grammar.

•  to help this imaginative work, one of the functions of the "culture" pages is to suggest interesting situations for these plays .

•  the plays and culture pages are a very important element in this grammar book. Traditional exercises need to be supported by more open ended and autonomous language work.

•  the 5 page concept map of the cultural pages is as important as the pages themselves. because many young people have a very hazy idea of the contours of the world they inhabit. The "map" is a source of grouped categories of the elements that condition modern life.

•  A mother in a letter to La Repubblica in the autumn of 2000 wrote "Help, my son is a cretin.." She lamented a lack of curiosity or respect to the world outside his narrow circle of friends and "youth" interests.

•  The culture pages are a resource and rich in potential links to other matters. They should stimulate joined up thinking and a historical sense. Without a conceptual grid, inteligence is stunted as the mother describes. Young people need leading.

•  these cultural pages also example the respective grammar structure.

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