As a high school teacher, I have my own personal views on the do's and don'ts of grammar instruction. In taking this Digital Writing course, I have come to some interesting ideas on the ways and instruction of grammar. This course has lead me to thinking; how many teachers use websites to "teach" grammar? Not just websites with grammar "exercises" and games, but how many teachers actually instruct their students on grammar using online and web based tools? More importantly, do the students like this web based approach? Are these methods effective? And what does the research say? These are my research questions leading this blog.
When I started my research, I found most information on ELL (English Langauge Learners); how teachers were using web-based grammar instruction/tools to teach English to non-English speakers. It was very hard to actually find what teachers are doing in the composition classroom by way of web-based instruction and tools. A second issue in the beginnings of research was a lack of familiarity with terms. Several journals, studies and readings used and referred to several acronymns I had no association with. For example, CALL (Computer Assisted Langauge Learning), CALI (Computer Assisted Language Instruction), MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Instruction), and TELL (Tech-Enhanced Language Learning). Needless to say, I had some looking up to do. These terms took me down many alley ways leading me away from my primary focus, but this was necessary research. I needed to know what was already out there by way of research and knowing these terms helped me to understand the results of research I came across.
So, after the preliminary research and clarification of terms, I starting coming across a variety of articles on the problems with current grammar instruction...and many solutions. A select few pointed to online grammar instruction as a possible solution. The grammar debate is nothing new and many articles and studies begin with a similar thesis in mind; what is the best way to teach grammar? I found that no matter the year of the article/study or the location, the same question was begging to be answered. This is why I was some what shocked that while I could find millions of articles and studies on effectiveness of certain types of grammar instruction; it was much more difficult to find articles and studies on solutions, specifically web based solutions.
In the context of these grammarian debates arises a debate on the actual role of computers in the teaching and learning of grammar. This is where the knowledge of the multiple acronymns came in handy. Around 1997, the researcher Levy came out with the term CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), and with that came new ways of teaching and learning. One such way was online tutorials and exercises using CALL. Many assumed this to be very different from a teacher, but essentially it is just the voice of a computer versus the voice of a teacher, in my opinion. Yet, even today, many argue that 'tutorial CALL' is more effective and accurate in teaching grammar. There is quite a bit of research out there on the advantages and disadvantages of CALL but I feel this as a dated argument and really a spring board for the debate on grammar today in the 21st century classroom. Not only do we have language and computing possibilities by way of internet options for grammar instruction and learning, we now have flash capabilities, videos, music, sound, visuals, interactive features, etc. The entire landscape of web based instruciton has changed, so while I mention CALL now in this post, I will not mention this as a solution for grammar instruction; it is a dated idea and evolving, and FROM this idea there are now many more options. For a not so brief introduction on CALL's background, see this piece written by Mark Warschauer in 1996; http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm. For a more brief history, I checked out Wikipedia and found further links for study.
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