Ziegésar

Introduction

In his latest research about learning cognitions in the foreign langugage classroom Günther Zimmermann deals with the question how to estimate learning grammar and grammar lessons. Some of the answers were “boring”, “artificial”, “unrealistic”, “abstract” and so on. Although pupils don’t like grammar and grammar lessons very much they are also important for them as “a help for talking”. Additionally the research resulted that grammar lessons are not only very popular among 75% of the teachers, with 40 to 60% of the general lessons they also have a dominant position in the foreign language classroom.

On the basis of these results Detlef and Margaret Ziegésar thought about a suitable method that makes grammar lessons not only efficient but supports the pleasure of learning. They developed an “acquiring oriented method” to introduce new grammatical structures based on the assumption of the langugage acquisition research that draws a line parallel from the language acquisition of the mother tongue to the natural language acquisition of a second language and the navigated acquisition of a foreign language.

The 4 phases

The “acquiring oriented method” consists of four phases plus one optional phase:

• Phase 1: Demonstration
• Phase 2: Understanding and reacting
• Phase 3: Reproducing
• Phase 4: Producing
• Optional phase: Clarification

Usage and sequence of the first four phases can be managed flexibel during the lesson and depend on the pupil’s learning type and pace. Phase 1 to 4 are indispensable considering the given order but phase 2 and 3 can be shortened or combined. The explicit clarification of rules is optional and can occur after the second phase whenever it fits best.

Phase 1: Demonstration

Basis is the assumption that the foreign language acquisition at school uses the same working processes as the language acquisition of the mother tongue. Therefore learning conditions that are similar to the ones of the language acquisition of the mother tongue need to exist in the foreign language classroom.

A successful demonstration phase depends on five principles:

1.)The communicative situation made by the teacher has to be so clear and unambiguous that the pupils gain inevitably a comprehensible input of the new structure.

2.)The new structure has to be said for the pupils a lot of times to offer them enough linguistic input for their own thoughts and understandings. Even more repetitions have to be added if you teach complex structures or a weak class.

3.) The communicative situation has to be typical for the use of the new structure.

4.)As acquiring the mother tongue the pupils have to experience the new linguistic means as an instrument of communicative activities. Trivial texts that are only the wrapping of the new structures and don’t content real information can’t arrange the whole experience of language.

5.)The teacher has to introduce the structures by himself. By using intonation, facial expressions, gestures and authentic material he can point out the new structure and he invites the pupils to take part with verbal and non-verbal actions.

Phase 2: Understanding and reacting

• The pupils hear and read the new structure again several times (given in oral and written form by the teacher).
• They get enough opportunity to recognize the language material and to internalize and digest its form and meaning.
• The pupils prove their understanding with verbal and non-verbal actions without using the new structure.
• They are consciously not asked to produce the new structure because it doesn’t exist in the natural language acquisition either.

“If the teacher tries to hurry the process, the learners may be uncertain of what to say, make mistakes, and lose confidence.” (Billows, 1961, p.5)

Phase 3: Reproducing

• The pupils use the new structure the first time on their own, however, they only have to reproduce it because they still have the syntactic structure in their short-term memory by correcting the teacher’s false sentences.
• As in phase 1 and 2 the new structure is repeated severeal times first by the teacher then by the pupils themselves.
• Phase 1 and 2 fulfill three of Krashen’s demands arranged in his input hypothesis: The input has to be interesting and relevant for the pupils, understandable and it has to exist sufficient times. Phase 3, however, differs from Krashen and his supporters who think that mental language acquisition processes are also in the classroom resistent against external factors and a guided learning process by the teacher and the teaching method is therefore not necessary.
• But this method here rather considers the phenomenon known as “motherese” (input simplification).
• In acquiring the mother tongue the speaker (usually the parents) doesn’t only want his child to get comprehensible input he also supports his child by clear articulation, slow talking, long pauses, simple words, corrections and so on. As a teacher we don’t want to withhold these aids from our pupils since they already get less comprehensible input because of the short teaching time.

Optional phase: Clarification

• It is still being discussed controversally if the clarification of grammar rules is necessary.
• The acquiring oriented method of grammar introduction teaches language phenomena implicitly by using them as transporters for information and giving the pupils enough opportunities to build their own hypothesis about rules and to digest and link up the new structures.
• An explicit clarification is an option. If the teacher decides on it an inductive method is recommended where the pupils develop the rules on their own.

Phase 4: Producing

• The pupils don’t produce the new structure on their own until the very end of this phase.
• To encourage the pupils to talk actively they should work together with a partner and do information gap acitivities (e.g. tandem sheet).
• The pupils need to have internalized the new structure sufficiently and set up the necessary feeling for language to make this phase successful.
• Usual material for language teaching does have enough offers for phase 3 and 4 but too less to design the first phase. Besides it doesn’t take phase 2 into consideration at all. That way the necessary lesson sequence can’t be achieved.

Quellen

• übersetzt aus Englisch lernen und lehren, Timm, Johannes-P., Cornelsen, 1998, S.291ff