LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

[LAGB) Audit of grammatical knowledge

The (LAGB) Linguistics Association of Great Britain would like to invite those of you who teach first-year undergraduates to take part in a very brief audit of school-leavers' (explicit) grammatical knowledge. The audit uses a short two-part questionnaire which was first used in 1986, then again in 1997, so the results will reveal long-term trends as well as informing your teaching.

Teaching languages ab initio
Event date: 12 November, 2009
Location: The School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

MS-Office exercise and lookup templates (Nottingham, 6 July 07)
Event date: 6 July, 2007
Location: University of Nottingham

MS-Office exercise and lookup templates (Aston, 3 July 07)
Event date: 3 July, 2007
Location: Aston University

New methods in literary linguistics (26 Nov 2004)
Event date: 26 November, 2004
Location: Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London

Teaching Grammar: Perspectives on Language Learning in Higher Education
Event date: 18 January, 2001
Location: CILT, London

Lexical semantics
The nature of lexical semantics has changed markedly in the twenty-to-thirty years since classic texts like Lyons (1977) and Cruse (1986) were published. Such texts were written at a time when Structuralist lexical semantics essentially carried on separately from major [Generative] theories of grammar. During and since the 1980s, however, theories of grammar have become much more lexically-driven, necessitating much deeper attention to issues of lexical meaning. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in lexical semantics courses and in semantics textbooks to present lexical semantics essentially as it was 30 years ago, with the focus limited to polysemy/homonymy and the ‘nym’ relations (synonym, antonym, etc.). This guide examines ways to construct a modern classroom approach to lexical semantics, with a broader definition of the field.

The Applied Linguistics MA: course content and students' perceived needs
This article considers the expectations of students attending MA courses in Applied Linguistics, many of whom have a background in language teaching. It contrasts academic approaches to language with those widely adopted in the language classroom. It identifies four possible rationales when planning course content for Grammar and Linguistics modules at MA level. One treats linguistics as a body of knowledge; another aims to develop students language awareness. A third meets short-term goals by providing the linguistic knowledge necessary for the study of second language acquisition. A fourth aims for long-term goals by equipping students for new professional roles.

History of linguistics
The history of linguistics is already being studied by a significant number of language and linguistics students, often unwittingly. Such students can enhance their understanding by calling on the full range of available materials. These include general overviews of the whole history of linguistics, as well as studies of particular periods, languages, subdisciplines, or geographical regions. Teaching will typically involve a lecture element, but is more likely to revolve around the study of texts, the choice of which depends on the background of the students. Internet resources are as yet sparse.

Design of a pedagogic grammar
The main elements which influence the design of a pedagogic grammar are the audience (first language background, level of existing knowledge, knowledge of terminology), linguistic theory and learning theory.

Syntax: generative grammar
Teaching syntax using a generative approach

English morphology
English morphology is the branch of grammar that investigates the internal structure of English words.

Construction grammar
Construction grammar is a theory of syntax in which constructions are the central unit of grammatical representation. There is no textbook currently available for construction grammar, but there are many good case studies. Basic principles of construction grammar are outlined in the guide and references therein. The best learning technique is for a student to use one of the many freely available text corpora in various languages to select and analyze a single construction or family of constructions.

Grammatical categories, or grammar and semantics
The set of grammatical categories includes, among others, tense, aspect, mood, case. These are neglected in current Linguistics courses in the UK but are central in the grammars of natural languages. They connect grammar and semantics and play an essential role in the syntactic analysis of clauses and the semantic analysis of clauses and propositions. Their study leads to general issues such as the source of grammatical categories, the evolution of language, language and cognition, metaphor and first language acquisition.

Introductory course in English grammar

About a one-term introductory course on English Grammar which teaches BA students to analyse most of the syntactic structure of any sentence in any text; it uses Word Grammar analyses.

Typology
Typology is the study of language universals by the empirical method of induction from a sample of diverse languages. Textbooks are available (Croft 2002, Comrie 1989). the most effective learning tool is for each student to "adopt" a reference grammar of an unfamiliar language; the languages used in a class should be genetically and geographically diverse. Descriptive exercises are based on the adopted grammars, and analytical exercises on data sets available on the Web.

Morphology
Morphology is the branch of grammar that investigates the internal structure of words.

English grammar exercises
This resource consists of graded 'Hot Potato' exercises to develop knowledge/awareness of the structure and function of English Language. The materials provide a useful resource for students (e.g. modern foreign languages) who wish to improve, refresh or develop their knowledge of English Language or for professional development for teachers.

Portuguese language online
The aim of this website is to provide easy access to a range of up-to-date materials which will both complement formal classroom activities and facilitate and enhance independent and distant learning of Portuguese.

Irish: Computer-Assisted Practice Activities for Irish Language Learners (CAPAILL)
CAPAILL is an on-line learning package to help Irish-language learners with some previous experience of the language. The aim of the package is to support students in improving their knowledge and understanding of the language by practising selected topics, with the main emphasis on points of grammar, usage and spelling that are known to cause problems.

Danish: Speak Danish website
An online Danish language learning site for beginners. This free interactive course includes lessons in pronunciation, grammar and common phrases.

French: RealFrench.net
The realfrench.net website is a collection of free online French-teaching resources developed by the Department of Languages and the Department of Information and Communications, MMU. It includes a large number of interactive vocabulary games, grammar notes and interactive exercises, links, Internet worksheets and messageboards.

Linguistics: Quizzes
These quizzes are designed for students at the early stages of their Linguistics progamme or for non-specialist Linguistics students. They have been designed using Hot Potatoes authorware (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/) which can be used to create cloze, mix, match, multiple-choice exercises as well as crosswords and quizzes. The materials were authored by (and are copyright to) the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

German: grammar question bank
This bank of over 1,000 questions was created using Question Mark Perception. It was aimed at first year Undergraduate students of German. The grammar topics covered include definite and indefinite articles, adjective endings, personal pronouns, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, relative pronouns, indirect speech and verb tenses. Question types are either Selection (student chooses correct item from drop-down list) or Fill in Blanks. All questions have minimum feedback of correct answer; many have differentiated feedback and marking. The questions have been drawn mainly from GramEx German or devised using the Astcovea German concordancer. The bank can be used by institutions running Question Mark Perception to create diagnostic, formative or summative tests.

French grammar question bank
This bank of over 1,000 questions was created using Question Mark Perception. It was aimed at first year Undergraduate students of French. The grammar topics covered include possessive adjectives, partitive articles, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, relative pronouns, direct and indirect object pronouns and verb tenses. Question types are either Selection (student chooses correct item from drop-down list) or Fill in Blanks. All questions have minimum feedback of correct answer; many have differentiated feedback and marking. The questions have been drawn mainly from GramEx French or devised using the Astcovea French concordancer. The bank can be used by institutions running Question Mark Perception to create diagnostic, formative or summative tests.

French: for beginners and general French grammar
Interactive exercises for French created using 'Interactive Language Learning Authorware' designed by Steve Cushion, Guildhall University. The materials come in two files (A and B) which are compressed files that can be self-extracted by clicking on them. The programs run using a web browser and can be started by clicking on the 'home' icon.

Spanish: grammar question bank
This bank of over 1,000 questions was created using Question Mark Perception. It was aimed at first year Undergraduate students of Spanish. The grammar topics covered include uses of ser and estar, definite and indefinite articles, object pronouns, prepositions, comparative and superlative adjectives, verb tenses and the subjunctive mood. Question types are either Selection (student chooses correct item from drop-down list) or Fill in Blanks. All questions have minimum feedback of correct answer; many have differentiated feedback and marking. The questions have been drawn mainly from GramEx Spanish or devised by Spanish tutors. The bank can be used by institutions running Question Mark Perception to create diagnostic, formative or summative tests.

German: for beginners and general German grammar
Interactive exercises for German created using 'Interactive Language Learning Authorware' designed by Steve Cushion, Guildhall University. The materials come in two files (A and B) which are compressed files that can be self-extracted by clicking on them. The programs run using a web browser and can be started by clicking on the 'home' icon.

French: Online language resources for intermediate/advanced learners
The French language exercises available on this site consists of sentences for translation, grammar and vocabulary exercises which were originally designed for students on a second year French language course at the University of Portsmouth. They contain grammar difficulties and a variety of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions drawn from articles studied in class. They enabled students to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. The external links are grouped by the following categories: Grammaire, Dictionnaires/Glossaires, Traduction and Liens Utiles.

French: Difficultés de la langue française
This 2-semester grammar course is essentially geared towards English Learners of French and is intended to improve students' writing skills. Its main aim is to improve writing accuracy at noun phrase and sentence level; nevertheless, it also aims to strengthen students writing techniques and text-production/text-transformation skills through a review of linguistic processes of pronominalisation. It originated from the observation (i.e. via several error analyses conducted between 1997 and 1999) that foreign learners of French recurrently make particular mistakes when they write and that this is often due to a lack of grammatical knowledge. Thus, it is hypothesised that these mistakes can be avoided thanks to an introduction to/a revision of basic grammatical concepts (i.e. What is a Part of Speech? What is a Grammatical Function? What do Gender and Number mean? Etc). Further, though the course mainly focuses on writing skills, register differences, and in particular stylistic differences between written and oral expression, will also be underlined. Finally, this programme also reviews central difficulties linked to the choice and use of tenses in French (second semester).