Theoretical grammar and Pedagogical grammar

 

Theoretical grammar and Pedagogical grammar

 

Grammar can be broadly divided into two types, i.e., theoretical, and pedagogical. Theoretical grammar is a set of general assumptions about the nature of language. It is also called linguistic grammar or scientific grammar. Theoretical grammar consists of the structural description and semantic interrelation of grammatical sentences of a language. In other words, theoretical grammar is framework which is used to analyze the language of the world. It goes beyond the study of individual language and deals with the universal features of human language. Theoretical grammar is designed to throw new light on the existing insight, or it is theoretically systematic and consistent. It explains the phenomenon of language in detail. Because of its exhaustive nature, it is a self-contained discipline. Some of the examples of theoretical grammar include Structural Grammar, TG grammar, Case Grammar, Functional Grammar and Tagmemic Grammar.

 

Pedagogical grammar, on the contrary, is any learner or teacher – oriented grammatical description of a language which is intended to help foreigners to learn a language or to help mother tongue speakers to understand their own language. To put simply, the grammar which is specifically designed for teaching learning purpose is called pedagogical grammar or pedagogic grammar. Pedagogic grammar can be not only for foreign speakers but also for mother tongue speakers. Pedagogic grammar can be either for teachers or for learners. It can be descriptive or prescriptive or a blend of both. It is practically oriented and hybrid in nature. It is not a self-contained discipline. it is eclectic in nature. According to Richard et al. (1999, p. 267-268), a pedagogical grammar may be based on:

a)     grammatical analysis and description of a language

b)    a particular grammatical theory, such as TG Grammar

c)     the study of the grammatical problems of learners (error analysis) or on a combination of approaches

For Greenbaum (1986) a pedagogical grammar is a course book which must be constrained by the length of class lessons and in which grammar topics and materials should be graded. He says that pedagogical grammars teach the language not about the language.

 

Verma (1985) says that pedagogical grammar is a tailor-made grammar because it is designed to address the learners' requirements of different academic levels and in different social settings. Similarly, Corder (1973) says that a well-qualified, energetic and inventive teacher can be a 'living pedagogical grammar'. It means that teacher himself can function as a pedagogical grammar. The whole or any part of the pedagogical grammar can be carried out by the teacher without the support of textual or recorded materials. The Grammar Book, by Celce -Murcia and Larsen Freeman and the Teacher's Grammar of English by Cowan are the typical examples of pedagogical grammar.

 

These are the two fundamental concept of grammar in terms of their nature

Scientific grammar	Pedagogical grammar
theoretical/ linguistic	tailor made/eclectic grammar
describes language	provides activities, task, methods for language learning
for language analysis	full of activities in order to develop language learning
about the description of language structures and interpretation in any of the levels	not about language but it is language itself
universal framework of language description	description of teaching and learning activities, methods, techniques and materials
linguist's grammar	selection of content to teach the students language
for language analysis	teachers and learner's grammar
theoretical in nature	for teaching and learning language
full of jargon	contextual and selective
the main goal is developing dictionary	eclectic in nature
ready made	tailor made (suits to the learner) full of task
Saussure, Bloomfield, Hockett, Sapir, Chomsky, etc. are theoretical grammarians	Thornbury, Larsen Freeman, Candlin, Cowan, etc are pedagogical grammarians
Sanskrit grammar, English grammar, Indo-Aryan grammar, anglo-saxon grammar, Nepali Byakaran etc.	Grammar for language teachers, learner’s grammar, grammar in context, Teacher's grammar, etc
Components of theoretical grammar are rules for sentence formation, levels of hierarchy, elements of linguistic units of description	Components of pedagogical grammar are teacher's role, student's role, rules for learning language, teacher's activities, learner's activities
very often descriptive	both descriptive and prescriptive
diachronic as well as synchronic	situational, contextual
theory based	practice based
Producer	consumer
General	specific to language

 

Types (Broad Classification)

Scientific:

·        structural

·        functional

·        generative

·        case

·        scale category

·        notional grammar

Pedagogic

·        teacher's grammar

·        learner's grammar

·        contextual grammar

·        adult's grammar

 

Difference between theoretical grammar and pedagogical grammar

 

1.     According to Saporta (1975, p. 266), "A scientific grammar enumerates the grammatical sentences of a language and provides each with a structural description and a semantic interpretation. The pedagogical grammar ideally attempts to develop the native speaker's ability to recognize and provide sentences." Theoretical grammar consists of the structural description and semantic interpretation of the grammatical sentences of a language whereas pedagogical grammar aims to develop the language learners' ability to understand and produce those sentences in a native speaker's way.

2.     Theoretical grammar is oriented towards the result of knowledge for its own sake whereas pedagogical grammar is oriented towards its utility in teaching and learning a language.

3.     Theoretical grammar is designed to throw new light on the existing theory whereas pedagogical grammar is designed to facilitate language teaching and learning.

4.     Theoretical grammar describes and explains the phenomenon of language in detail. Because of its exhaustive nature, it is a self – contained discipline. On the contrary, pedagogical grammar is selective because it filters out from the resource provided in theoretical grammar keeping the learners in question in view.

5.     Theoretical grammar is systematic and consistent since it is designed to throw new light on the existing insight. Contrary to this, pedagogical grammar is eclectic and less consistent because it has to assimilate linguistic reality along with learning psychology.

6.     Theoretical grammar is related to human language in general, i.e., it is universal in nature. Conversely, pedagogical grammar is language specific because it is a grammar of a particular language for teaching learning purpose.

7.     Theoretical grammar is full of jargons, while pedagogical grammar avoids them at the interest of unsophisticated users as much as possible.

8.     Theoretical grammar is one view, e.g. (Chomsky) view, Fillmore's view, Halliday's view, etc. conversely, pedagogical grammar is a selection from many views.

9.     Theoretical grammar is a set of rules whereas pedagogical grammar is application of these rules.

10. Theoretical grammar helps to know about language while pedagogical grammar helps to know a language.

11. Designing a theoretical grammar is a work in pure linguistics whereas designing a pedagogical grammar is a work in applied linguistics.

12. Theoretical grammar can focus on any level of language but pedagogical grammar should incorporate all of them on accordance with the learner's level.

 

Let me conclude in the words of Celce- Murcian and Larsen Freeman (1999, p.5), "while many linguistic grammars go into great depth about a restricted set of structures, pedagogic grammarians must be as comprehensive as possible in the number of structures they threat." It entails that linguistic grammar tries to capture (deal with) a structure in greater details, while a pedagogical grammar is selective about the amount of detail required for a specific group of learners.

 

Strengths of pedagogical grammar

 

1)    It prescribes rules like prescriptive grammar.

2)    It describes rules like descriptive grammar

3)    It is beneficial for formal analysis of the target language.

4)    It also benefits from the psycholinguistic notion of grammar as an internalize system.

5)    The method of grammatical analysis is useful for language students, trainee teachers, language teachers and those who engage in the day-today practice of the language and even theoretical linguistics.

6)    This grammar is never static. It keeps changing in the light of linguistic theory.