LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:11 November 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Spoken Grammar Isn’t Broken Grammar
A Case for Teaching Spoken Grammar in ESL/EFL Contexts

Anindya Syam Choudhury, Ph.D., PGCTE, PGDTE,
CertTESOL (Trinity, London)

Abstract

Spoken language has almost always been neglected by grammatical tradition until the advent in the 1990s of large and varied spoken English corpora which have not only given us a peep into the nature and characteristics of forms which occur primarily in the spoken form of the language but also forced us to reconsider the way we look at language pedagogy, especially grammar pedagogy.

This article takes up the issue of spoken grammar, beginning with a few introductory remarks on the different ways in which spoken grammar is perceived before moving on to a discussion about the salient features of spoken grammar driving home the fact that there is a systematicity in their occurrence. At the end, the article questions the idea that spoken grammar is wholly distinctive and tries to see the so-called unique features of spoken grammar as part of a speech-writing continuum before concluding with some pedagogical tips for teaching those features of grammar of English which are either restricted to speech or are primarily present in it.

Keywords: spoken grammar, fillers, vague language, conversation, ESL/EFL contexts

Introduction: The Traditional View of Spoken Language

A look at the etymological origin of the word “grammar” makes us understand why the notion of grammar has always been associated with writing. The word “grammar” has originated from the Greek word grámma which means “something written, a letter of the alphabet” (Leech et al., 2006). The other related Greek forms are grammatike or grammatike techne, meaning “the art of writing” (Palmer, 1984). There is no doubt, therefore, that traditionally grammar did have to do with the written form of language, and the value terms “good” and “bad” have always been used with grammar depending on whether or not language forms fulfilled the norms of grammatical appropriateness. In this context, speech has always been devalued and considered to be belonging to a ‘low’ register as compared to writing, comprising mainly “slurred” and “elliptical” forms and a minimal of structure and vocabulary, as has been expressed by Yungzhong (1985):

In spoken language, grammar and vocabulary are reduced to a minimum. The words used often have special or hidden meaning born of some shared experience which an outsider would fail to grasp. The speaker makes much use of elided and slurred forms in the familiar pattern of their ordinary everyday speech. Utterances are typically short and often elliptical….Constructions that occur commonly in speech are not necessarily acceptable in formal and dignified writing. (15)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Anindya Syam Choudhury
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Assam University
Silchar 788011
Assam
India
anindyasyam@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.