The Library
Using sentences for grammar practice : raising the importance of equal opportunities
Tools
Sharpling, Gerard (2002) Using sentences for grammar practice : raising the importance of equal opportunities. Humanising Language Teaching Year , 4 (2).
Research output not available from this repository.
Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.
Official URL: http://www.hltmag.co.uk/mar02/mart4.htm
Abstract
In this article, I would like to focus on a common activity in language teaching classrooms: giving students grammar exercises for controlled practice and going through them in class. On the face of it, this would seem to be a very simple activity, which is endemic in language teaching that it hardly needs to be questioned further. However, the very 'innateness' of this kind of exercise in the classroom means that it might be too unquestioningly accepted. Feminist critics have shown, for instance, that language is conventionally organised around male concerns, and that female thought cannot truly come into being because it is compelled to follow the lines imposed by men (Leclerc, in Moi 1987). Thus, the very strategies employed in grammar exercises might be seen by some as being exclusive. More recently, Sunderland et al (1994) have demonstrated the way in which the 'exclusiveness' of language is reflected in language teaching materials themselves. Women in course materials, they argue, are either absent, disempowered or stereotyped in terms of their relationships and professional lives. The exclusiveness of language may also be seen to discriminate against people with disabilities, or those from ethnic groups, or some social classes. Because of this apparent, continued marginalisation of so-called minority groups, the world picture presented within grammar exercises may easily be seen to be false or artificial, upholding a model of elitism which pertains to a different age from our own. Two other questions which this article addresses are why it is important to address the issue of equal opportunities in the first place, and how this might be achieved in classroom teaching.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Humanising Language Teaching Year | ||||
Official Date: | 2002 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Volume: | 4 | ||||
Number: | 2 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |