Lesson 3: Inductive Approaches to Teaching Grammar

Review

1. A guided inductive approach to learning grammar is directly supported by the major tenet of Constructivism that proposes that new information is filtered through mental structures (schemata) that incorporate the student's prior knowledge, beliefs, preconceptions and misconceptions.

2. A major cognitive factor that supports a guided inductive approach is the claim that learner-generated routes of development are in tune with idiosyncratic constraints of the previous/current knowledge of the learner.

3. The deductive-inductive processing continuum is composed of various levels among which we can identify at least five levels in the following order (from pure deductive to pure inductive).

Clear Answers



Reflect

Below are three of 10 macrostrategies for language learning proposed by Kumaravadivelu (2003). Do you think these macrostrategies can be regarded as compatible with a guided inductive approach to teaching and learning grammar? Be specific in your answers.

1. Promoting Learner Autonomy: to provide learners with strategies necessary to self-direct and self-monitor their own learning. "A crucial task of the teacher wishing to promote learner autonomy is to help learners take responsibility for their learning, and to bring about necessary attitudinal changes in them" (p. 137).
2. Activating Intuitive Heuristics: "Heuristics refers to the process of self discovery part of the learner" (p. 176). Provide rich textual data so that learners can infer underlying rules governing grammatical usage and communicative use.
3. Foster Language Awareness: attempt to draw learners' attention to the formal and functional properties of their L2 to increase the degree of explicitness required to promote L2 learning: "design activities that foster both general and critical language awareness in the classroom" (p. 168).

Continue