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Preface
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
- Additional Information
1 Preface Understanding English Grammar is a popular title and there are already a number of books in the market by that name. So what makes this book any different from the others? Part of the difference is reflected by its subtitle: A Course Book for Chinese Learners of English. Virtually all other books on English grammar that I know of were written for readers with no particular language background in mind. They may (of course) be intended for learners of a particular level (intermediate, advanced, etc.), but I have rarely if ever come across a book which assumes readers with a particular first-language background, and which actually exploits that knowledge in explaining English grammar to them. Regardless of the vicissitudes of Contrastive Analysis in the past 50 years, one basic tenet of the psychology of learning has remained unshaken, i.e. that previous learning influences subsequent learning, and in the case of language acquisition this is strikingly evident, not only in phonology but in syntax and semantics. To say that learners’ errors and difficulties in the second language are not fully predictable or accountable with reference to their first language is not the same as saying that their first language does not exert a significant influence, both positively and negatively, on their acquisition of the second language. I have written this book with the needs of Chinese-speaking learners of English in mind (having been one myself, and having taught them most of my life), in the belief that this has advantages with regard to clarifying and making easier certain key concepts and patterns in English grammar. But I want to emphasize that this is not a book on the Contrastive Analysis of English and Chinese. There are enough books of that kind and there is no need for me to add to their number. Rather than comparing English and Chinese grammar exhaustively, I have only drawn attention to those differences which matter most. But in spite of its focus on Chinese-speaking learners, this is first and foremost a book which attempts to present English grammar in a way which makes sense. It aims at helping learners of English to improve their understanding of English grammar through discovering its patterns and regularities for themselves. viii Understanding English Grammar The book originally arose from the observation that grammar is the weakest link in the overall language proficiency of many (if not most) of our learners of English, even after many years of communicatively oriented language learning. While there are many factors accounting for this state of affairs, and many possible solutions, my belief is that learners can benefit from a certain amount of explicit ‘focus on form’, as long as this is intended to supplement rather than supplant communicative language teaching. Unlike some applied linguists and teachers, however, I do not see a need always to integrate grammatical instruction in the context of some communicative activity, as long as it does not become the main focus of language teaching but a supporting activity. In learning any other skills, such as playing the piano or tennis, teachers have no qualms about getting their pupils to practise particular scales or strokes (or any other forms), and the ultimate goal is never in doubt — i.e. to play the piano or tennis, not scales or strokes. Why should language teaching be any different, and why should teachers feel any qualms about focusing on form — or forms, when particular forms have proved to be problematic? The underlying assumptions of the book are as follows: (a) While the general orientation of language teaching should always remain ‘communicative’ (since language is communication), there is a legitimate place for ‘focus on form’ (which includes focus on grammar) in teaching and learning a language; (b) Grammatical knowledge is best acquired if the learners work out systematic grammatical features for themselves and construct their own ‘grammars’ of the language on the basis of carefully selected, ‘consciousness-raising’ language data, and if this is followed up with practice on the forms in question; (c) The learners’ knowledge of their first language (in this case we have chosen to focus on Chinese) exerts a significant influence on their acquisition and conceptualization of the grammar of the second language (in this case English), and this prior knowledge should be duly taken into account in the teaching of the second language. The book approaches English grammar neither prescriptively nor descriptively but inductively; and not by telling but by helping to discover...