Pedagogical grammar as the framework of research in teaching foreign languages part 1. Levels and types of grammar

Abstract

The paper deals with the problems of pedagogical grammar (PG) design and its implementation in the teaching process. It is argued that the PG theory should take into account the relevant data of psychological, psycholinguistic, lin­guistic (including applied linguistics) and language teaching research. The author suggests four types of grammar (linguistic, pedagogical, psychological and intuitive) and analyzes the correlation between them. It has been assumed that in natural native language acquisition the child following lengthy and intensive practice goes directly from abstract to intuitive grammar. It happens due to the operation of predominantly subconscious mechanisms under the conditions of exclusive speech pattern orientation. For a number of reasons it is difficult to follow this model under the typical conditions of foreign language teaching and learning. The development of an efficient PG should be based on an adequate psychological model of foreign language acquisition. Such PG has to take into account the regularities of the development of speech grammar mechanisms in general and the foreign language grammar mechanisms in particular, specifically in the aspects where the said development is different in the native and foreign languages acquisition. Understanding those differences may contribute to a higher precision in the selection of the linguistic grammar information to be presented to the students, the principles of its processing, organization and application in actual teaching, the formulation of requirements to the types of pedagogic information according to the established acquisition regularities, in particular the dynamics of the types of pedagogic information correlation, depending on the specific conditions of teaching and learning. The research into those and other aspects of the PG issue comprises the prospects of the further research.