Highlights / notes file: About Language - Scott Thornbury
Teachers need to be both proficient in and aware of the language: knowing its systems is what lets them teach it. How much knowledge is needed depends on learners: beginners need a critical mass of vocabulary and formulaic language; advanced, exam and academic learners need extensive knowledge of grammar, lexis, phonology and discourse.
From my highlights
- Mother-tongue acquisition is unconscious and “leaves no trace in memory”, so native speakers struggle to describe what they know.
- The language-aware teacher is more likely to promote learning than one who isn’t.
- Language analysis for teachers is strictly pedagogical: what do I need to know to teach this?
- Grammar is one part of linguistic competence and probably necessary but not sufficient for acquisition.
- Learners need pedagogical rules: easy to understand and apply.
- Grammar as choice (speakers bend rules for meaning) vs grammar as structure.
- Metalanguage can save time (“wrong tense”), but “I’ve taught them all the tenses” is a verb’s-eye view of grammar.
- Danger: wanting to show learners how much you know.
- Working things out yourself pays off more in memory and understanding than being told (discovery).
DELTA relevance (Claude)
- Module 1 Paper 1 (language analysis tasks) and Module 2 background essays test exactly this: form, meaning, use and phonology of an item, plus the pedagogical rule you’d give. “Teacher language awareness” is Andrews’s (2007) term if you need a citation.
Connections
Inductive vs deductive grammar - match approach to rule type · Grammar teaching options - be eclectic (Thornbury) · Writing an LSA background essay · DELTA Module 1 Paper 1 - task-by-task technique
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