Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
The continuing popularity of grammar practice books, which account for a high
proportion of the materials which language learners buy, indicates the folly of
specifying an approach to language teaching and learning which excludes pattern
practice and the assembly of structural components.
The most successful general English coursebooks have been those where both a
structural and a functional syllabus have been mapped out together i.e. where
authors have recognised the interdependence of syntax and semantics.
Knowledge of patterns (e.g. verb tenses as well as the most frequent contexts in
which they are used) plays an important part in the ability to recognise and
generate meaning.
The purpose of the list below is to illustrate the grammatical items which past
authors feel that learners of English should know in order to earn a recognised
public qualification at the higher intermediate level. Although the examination
syllabus for the Cambridge First Certificate is now presented in a way which
brings language use more to the foreground, ignorance of the grammatical items
listed below would not serve the cause of using language communicatively. There
is a fair degree of consensus as to what the grammatical syllabus should be at this
level.
Note: at this time the FCE examination syllabus was more structural in emphasis
than the syllabus of the same name today.
[ALL] ALLSOP, Jake "English for Cambridge First Certificate" Cassell 1979
[LJS] JONES, Leo "Progress Towards First Certificate" Cambridge 1983
[JGS] G-SPRENGER, J "On Course For First Certificate" Heinemann 1983
[RON] O'NEILL, R "Success At First Certificate" Oxford 1987
[SOC] O'CONNELL, S "Focus on First Certificate" Collins 1987
[WSF] FOWLER, WS "New First Certificate English: Use of English Book 3"
Nelson 1984
The Cambridge First Certificate examination was revised towards the end of the
period (1979-1987) to accommodate the approaches to syllabus design of D. A.
Wilkins ("Notional Syllabuses" 1976) and The Council of Europe ("Threshold" &
"Waystage" Specifications, Van Ek: Council of Europe, late 1970s).
However, the above course book writers made full use of contextualization and
useful situational contexts. They were as skilled as any who have followed at
providing naturalistic and meaningful contexts for presentation and practice
of grammatical components of English. The latter still need to be learnt if a
language user hopes to gain a high degree of proficiency in expressing and
understanding meaning.
Grammatical lists may still provide a less bureaucratic way of specifying syllabus
content than vague and lengthy operational objectives describing the required
performance in terms of language functions. Imagine having a lengthy, taskedbased performance target for each item in the list below. Who would bother to
consult such an unwieldly syllabus? The descriptions of the Key Stages in the UK
National Curriculum present a similarly untidy challenge, though most teachers I
know have their own prcis or working documents; the examinations have also
had to be streamlined.
Clearly there needs to be a bringing together of syntax and semantics, though this
was already present in many course books that chose to spell out the grammatical
syllabus. The Cambridge exam syllabuses needed to respond to new emphasis in
the changing theories of English language teaching and testing. The ARELS
Examination Board, which already emphasized oral English in situational contexts
in its exam designs, was slighly quicker to adapt to the growing importance of
semantics (Notions and Functions) in TESL/TEFL/Testing theory.
Adjectives: <with> in adjectival phrases 13 JGS 139
Adjectives: ADJ + INF 47 154 JGS 47
Adjectives: compound SOC 55SB
Adjectives: describing shape SOC 212FB
Adjectives: ing -ed endings boring bored 35 JGS 154
Adjectives: use & formation (c.f. comparison) SOC 17FG
Adjectives: with numbers SOC 38SB
Adverbs: form & use (c.f. Word Order & Comparison) SOC 17FG
Adverbs: formation 106 155 JGS 29
Adverbs: frequency (+ phrases: every other day) JGS 31
Adverbs: frequency: hardly ever JGS 31
Adverbs: sequence of events (first etc.) Time exprssns RON 15.4
Adverbs: sequence: first, next, after that as soon as JGS 45
Articles: 18 88 114 SOC 114SB
Articles: Definite article JGS 169
Articles: Definite Article <THE> Use & Non-use WSF 15
Articles: indefinite article JGS 169
Articles: indefinite article a an some RON 18.2
Prepositions ALL 3
Prepositions ALL 4
Prepositions ALL 5
Prepositions ALL 7
Prepositions ALL 8
Prepositions ALL 11
Prepositions ALL 12
Prepositions: adjectives & prepositions SOC 9SB
Prepositions: between / among RON 19.5
Prepositions: like JGS 82
Prepositions: PLACE: (+dependent preopositions) SOC 212FB
Prepositions: PLACE: for from at with round of LJS 1.6
Prepositions: PLACE: in out of wth to like btw fr abt LJS 7.6
Prepositions: PLACE: in out on off into onto out of WSF 12
Prepositions: PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES SOC 63SB
Prepositions: PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES SOC 145SB
Prepositions: PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES SOC 158SB
Prepositions: TIME: at in on WSF 9
Prepositions: TIME: by JGS 158
Prepositions: TIME: for v since JGS 79
Prepositions: TIME: for v since SOC 34FG
Prepositions: TIME:41, place 64, means 47, ins ag pur JGS 158
Prepositions: VERB + PREPOSITION SOC 37SB
Prepositions: VERB + PREPOSITION SOC 121SB
Pronouns: (reflexive) Do it yourself/The Queen herself WSF 19
Pronouns: (reflexive) myself yourself etc. RON 16.2
Pronouns: (reflexives & reciprocals) ALL 7
Pronouns: (universal) all both each JGS 106
Pronouns: (universal) both (A) and (B) ALL 17P
Pronouns: (universal) all v both SOC 129FG
Pronouns: (universal) each & every SOC 129FG
Pronouns: mixed: we us ours ourselves (our) WSF 21
Qualifiers: quite v rather WSF 14
Quantifiers & determiners both all an the plenty much LJS 2.6
Quantifiers: Enough SOC 123FG
Quantifiers: Enough 158 181 JGS 114
Quantifiers: Few A few Little A little RON 2.1
Quantifiers: Few A few Little A little WSF 20
Quantifiers: Few little JGS 108
Quantifiers: Few little a lot of SOC 123FG
Quantifiers: hardly any JGS 108
Quantifiers: Too Not enough..... WSF 33
Quantifiers: Too small small enough RON 16.2
Quantifiers: Too x INFIN, so x (THAT), such x (THAT) WSF 50
Quantifiers: Too/Not enough: X is T../N..E for me to ALL 5P
Question tags JGS 116
Question tags SOC 146FG