Pedagogical Grammar

PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR

Devitt et.al (1989)Lexicalist approach to text constructionWorked on news reportsUsed authentic texts taken from

newspapers

David Little (1994) enumerated the steps followed

by Devitt et.al in their experiment where they made use of Venn diagrams and linear flowchart as aid in text construction

Steps by Little 1.Learners are given a jumble of content

words and phrases derived from authentic text.

2.The learner’s second task is to write each word or phrase on a separate Post-it (a small adhesive label that can be used many times.

3.The learner’s sort the words and phrases into overlapping categories of time, place, person and event by sticking the Post-its onto a large Venn diagram.

4.The learner then devise a schema, or story outline, by arranging their post-its in a linear sequence.

5.The learners expand the skeletal discourse into a text that exploits word meaning to generate sentence structures.

6.There may be more than one solution.

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