QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #85

Contrastive grammar

 

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What is contrastive grammar?

 

…a linguistic method for teaching/learning a foreign language. Grammatical features of the target language are introduced by comparing them explicitly with related structures of the mother tongue.

 

 

from http://www.physik.uni-bremen.de/physics.education/niedderer/download/SN.pdf

 

 

Yarmohammadi (1995) sees the purpose of contrastive grammar to provide information about the target language; to illustrate similarities and differences between the two languages; to achieve further elaboration on a working framework for contrasting languages; to predict and specify some of the major learning difficulties in L2 learning…

from http://www.kkhec.ac.ir/shahart2.htm

 

 

 

 

http://www.contragram.ugent.be/

 

“For a number of years, the departments of English, French, and Dutch linguistics at Ghent University have been engaged in joint research projects in the area of contrastive grammar. In 1995 the research group which evolved from this collaboration was christened the “CONTRAGRAM” group.

Contragram's present six year research project focuses on the relation between grammatical structure and meaning in Dutch, French and English, approaching the matter from a contrastive and corpus-based perspective. Specific areas of interest include the syntax and semantics of verbs of motion, verbs of privation, reception and separation, and directive verbs.”

 

 

 

 

http://www.statvoks.no/ictal/contr_grammar.htm

 

 

He gave her a book.	(English)
A book he-gave- her.	(Arabic)
The man to-her a book gave her.	(Persian)
A book her gave-he.	(Turkish)
He (particle which marks tense) give her a book already.	(Vietnamese)
Her “just”-I gave-I a book.	(Somali)

 

 

 

http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/ghabanchi-vosooghi/article.pdf

 

 

“Most of the scholars in the fields of language learning and teaching assert that, when confronted with difficult grammatical forms, learners often conduct an L1 - L2 comparison and since this comparison is implicit, it may result in the formation of wrong rules due to an incomplete L2 knowledge. (Selinker, 1992; Robinson, 1995). Here, the purpose was to evaluate one specific approach pertaining to the findings of contrastive analysis referred to as contrastive instruction.”

 

 

 

 

http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/268063.html

 

“In the present paper, the concept of vagueness will be taken up in detail, in order to make it more precise and to pin down its relevance for translation. In addition to view (some) translation choices as contrastive vagueness, I will argue that grammar too has to be contrasted, introducing the concepts of grammatical vagueness and contrastive grammatical vagueness.”

 

 

 

 

http://www.eslminiconf.net/may/story1.html

 

 

“When working with Chinese writers of English, teachers who are aware of a few of the grammatical differences between the two languages can help students to trouble shoot grammar hot spots and minimise errors through proof-reading. Grammatical accuracy in English requires much more tweaking than it does in Chinese.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previous editions of the QUICK RESOURCE SHEET

#1 – Creating quizzes (and more) online                                                         

#2 – Vocabulary builders

#3 – Online discussion groups for English teachers                                    

#4 – Grammar headaches – and how to cure them

#5 – Resources for new teachers                                                     

#6 – International Education Week

#7 – Mentoring programs                                                                    

#8 – Education publications online

#9 – Applied Linguistics                                                                   

#10 – English for Young Learners

#11 – World AIDS Day                                                                      

#12 – Online writing guides

#13 – E-mail exchanges                                                                      

#14 – Free online English courses

#15 – Effective e-mail communication                                             

#16 – Libraries online

#17 – American Studies                                                                     

#18 – Teaching methodologies

#19 – Internet tutorials                                                                       

#20 – Using the newspaper – Part I

#21 – Making books                                                                           

#22 - Using the newspaper – Part II

#23 – Human rights in language teaching

#24 – Blogging

#25 – Poetry and language teaching

#26 – The communicative approach

#27 -  Idioms

#28 – Earth Day

#29 – Alternative assessment

#30 – Peer assessment

#31 – Self-assessment

#32 – Portfolio assessment – Part I

#33 -  Portfolio assessment - Part II (Online Portfolios)

#34 – Intercultural communication

#35 – Teaching Adults

#36 – Learning disorders / Special needs

#37 – Using computers in reading instruction

#38 – Use of authentic materials

#39 – English for Medical Purposes

#40 – Sources for authentic materials

#41 – Education and technology

#42 – Academic writing

#43 – Teaching and stress

#44 – Back to school

#45 – Motivating students

#46 – Action research

#47 – Internet terminology

#48 – Fluency

#49 – Curriculum design

#50 – Pragmatics

#51 - Podcasting for English teachers

#52 – Critical reading

#53 – Learner autonomy

#54 – Scaffolding

#55 – Holidays

#56 – English for Academic Purposes

#57 – Mixed-level classes

#58 – The brain and language learning

#59 – Book clubs/Readers’ groups

#60 – Teachers and technology

#61 – Using video in the language classroom

#62 – Internet-based classroom projects

#63 – Observing student teachers

#64 – Digital literacy

#65 – Group work

#66 – Giving feedback on student writing

#67 – Vlogging

#68 – Educational leadership

#69 – The first five minutes: How to get a class warmed up

#70 – Managing test anxiety

#71 – Developing listening comprehension

#72 – Discourse analysis

#73 – English for Tourism

#74 – Storytelling

#75 – Virtual Learning Environments

#76 – Sociolinguistics

#77 – Corpus Linguistics

#78 – Teaching teenagers

#79 – Lexical Approach

#80 – Humanism in language teaching

#81 – Collaborative teaching

#82 – Distance learning

#83 – Open Education

#84 – The non-native speaker as English teacher