Grammar – Professor Jack C. Richards

How can teachers balance communicative language teaching with the necessity of grammar instruction?

Teachers can balance communicative language teaching and grammar instruction by treating grammar as a tool for communication rather than as a separate subject. In practice, this means the following:

1. Start from meaning, not from rules
Teachers should design tasks in which a specific grammar point is naturally needed (e.g., the past tense to tell stories, conditionals to give advice).
Students should first attempt to complete the task using their existing linguistic resources.
Only afterwards should the teacher highlight the target structure, showing how it allows students to express meaning more clearly, accurately, or precisely.

This aligns with a focus on form approach:

the main classroom focus remains on understanding and expressing meaning
attention is briefly drawn to grammatical form as it arises in communication

For example:

recasts: a student says “Yesterday I go…” and the teacher reformulates “Yesterday I went…”
quick clarification: the teacher writes a couple of examples on the board, underlines the form, checks understanding, and then returns to the activity

These are short, targeted interventions rather than long rule explanations.

2. Integrate grammar into communicative tasks
After a brief grammar focus, the structure should be used immediately in meaningful communication, for example:

information‑gap activities that require the target form
role plays, problem‑solving tasks, or surveys built around the structure
purposeful writing tasks (e.g., emails, reviews, stories) in which the grammar is essential

3. Revisit grammar cyclically through richer communication
Teachers should accept that one exposure is rarely sufficient.
Key grammar points should be recycled in later lessons through new contexts, topics, and skills.
Each encounter keeps the focus communicative while gradually increasing accuracy.

4. Differentiate the level of explicitness according to learners’ needs

At lower levels: focus on simple, high‑frequency patterns with extensive oral practice and minimal metalanguage.
At higher levels: provide more explicit explanations, contrastive analysis (L1 vs. L2), and detailed form‑focused feedback in speaking and writing.

Since some learners prefer clear rules while others benefit more from implicit learning, a combination of approaches is most effective.

5. Use correction strategically
During fluency activities, teachers should correct only errors that impede communication or relate to the target structure.
More detailed accuracy work can be reserved for post‑task stages, writing feedback, or short “grammar clinics.”
This maintains students’ willingness to communicate while still supporting linguistic development.

6. Encourage noticing and reflection
Teachers can use short noticing activities with authentic texts, such as underlining verb forms, reordering sentences, or inferring rules from examples.
Asking questions like “Why do they say it this way here?” encourages learners to reflect before receiving explicit explanations.
Students can then articulate simple grammar rules in their own words.

In summary, communicative tasks should form the backbone of lessons, with brief, purposeful grammar instruction woven in through a focus on form that emerges from—and feeds back into—real communication.

Question:

Submitted by Deborah, Israel

Dear Professor Richards,
I am reading some of your excellent articles on grammar and have a question about terminology.
Grammatical knowledge, grammatical ability, grammatical competence and communicative competence.
You have explained the first two terms very clearly in Richards and Reppen 2014. Is grammatical knowledge synonymous with grammatical competence? Is grammatical ability synonymous with communicative competence (Richards, 2006 on CLT)?

Dr. Richards responds:

Yes, I think it is fair to say that grammatical knowledge and grammatical competence refer to the same thing. Grammatical ability refers to knowing how grammar is used in communication. Communicative competence in the Canale and Swain model includes three dimensions:

Grammatical competence: the knowledge of grammar, lexis, morphology, syntax, semantics and morphology
Sociolinguistic competence: the knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and rules of discourse
Strategic competence: the knowledge of how to overcome problems when faced with difficulties in communication.

Submitted by Rodney and Graham UK/Hong Kong

A simple activity that helps strengthen knowledge of connections between grammar and vocabulary is gap-filling. Having learners either listen for the missing ‘bits’ in the transcript of a spoken text, or try to work out from the context what is missing in a written text can be a good way of drawing their attention to the use of particular forms in particular contexts, and can provide a starting point for exploration of their functions. Also, having them compare ways that they have filled in blanks with the original version of a text or conversation can help them notice where they are having difficulties producing appropriate forms and to explore why certain forms are appropriate and certain forms are not.

The following procedure can be used:

Find, adapt or write a text containing occurrences of a particular feature you would like your students to work on.
Prepare a version of the text with some or all of the occurrences of this feature blanked They may be single words or longer stretches of text like phrases or clauses.
Have the students fill in as many gaps as they can, either based on some limited exposure to the original text (listening to it or reading through it once) or based on their own contextual or grammatical knowledge.
Present the original text to the students (either in spoken or written form) and have them compare the ways they filled in the gaps with the occurrences of the feature in the original text and notice the kinds of forms that are used and where their answers are different from the original.
Have students explore the reasons why certain forms are appropriate or inappropriate by trying to either justify what they wrote or explain why it should be changed.
Have students practice producing the feature in an appropriate way in similar conversations or texts.

Further reading: Jones RH, Lock G (2011) Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom: Noticing, Exploring and Practicing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Submitted by Rodney and Graham, UK/Hong Kong

Elaborating refers to activities in which students add to and expand the information contained in a text, and in the process, need to use more sophisticated grammatical features. Elaborating activities can help to dramatize for them the fact that learning grammar is not just about “correctness” but that it is first and foremost about gaining control over resources for making communication more effective. The general procedures used in elaborating are:

Present students with a simple text.
Create a situation in which questions are asked about the text in a way that students notice that additional information would make the text better and that this new information is typically associated with certain grammatical features.
Explore with students why certain kinds of additions in the text require certain grammatical features and others require different ones.
Have students practice by continuing to elaborate on the same text or elaborating on a similar text.
Explore with students why certain kinds of additions in the text require certain grammatical features and others require different ones.
Have students practice by continuing to elaborate on the same text or elaborating on a similar text.

Further reading: Jones RH, Lock G (2011) Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom: Noticing, Exploring and Practicing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Submitted by Rodney and Graham, UK/Hong Kong

Sequencing activities are those in which learners are presented with a text that has been altered in terms of the sequence of elements, including paragraphs, sentences within paragraphs, clauses within sentences, and words and phrases within clauses. Sequencing activities guide the learners to notice and to explore either (a) grammatical or lexical features in texts that give information about the sequence of elements (e.g. articles, pronouns and conjunctions) or (b) larger patterns of textual organization’. The general procedure involved in sequencing, are as follows.

Choose a text or series of texts and change the sequence of some of the paragraphs or sentences within paragraphs or of certain elements within sentences.
Have students work out what the original sequence might have been in one text or a portion of one text through noticing a particular grammatical feature or set of grammatical features.
Work with the students to explore further the kinds of grammatical features that can be used as clues to help determine the original sequence and why the original sequence is
Have the students practice this procedure on their own with the rest of the text or another similar text.

Further reading: Jones RH, Lock G (2011) Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom: Noticing, Exploring and Practicing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sumitted by Rosa, USA

The noticing hypothesis suggests that unless learners notice the way language is used, their grammatical proficiency will not develop. Noticing can be the focus of activities such as the following:

An example of a guided noticing activity is for the teacher to give out extracts from texts (e.g. magazine or newspaper articles) and to ask students to see how many examples they can find of a particular form or grammatical pattern. These are then examined more closely to observe the functions they perform at both the sentence and text level.

An example of taking a noticing activity outside the classroom is when students act as ‘language detectives’: they can be asked to observe and notice target forms in use in the ‘real world’, such as by watching interviews and other speech events on the internet or on television and documenting the use of particular grammatical features they have been asked to focus on. This can serve to reinforce vocabulary or particular forms, but it can also be used to help more advanced students become aware of how grammar works together at a textual level instead of focusing only on vocabulary or on sentence-level structures. Students can use a notebook or mobile device for recording examples and can bring these to class for further discussion or clarification.

Further reading: Jones RH, Lock G (2011) Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom: Noticing, Exploring and Practicing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Submitted by Rosa, USA

It is important for learners to understand the role of grammar within the context of longer stretches of discourse – or “texts”. There are several ways in which students can be introduced to the concept of text, the ways in which texts work and how they reflect grammatical choices. For example:

Have students read two texts with the same content and identify what makes one an effective text and the other not effective;
Have students compare written and spoken texts on the same topic (e.g. a news event) to compare how they are organized and how the grammar of the texts
Have students listen to or read examples of transactions such as requests made in different contexts (e.g. among friends with a boss) and see how features such as modals and pronouns work together to create politeness.
In more advanced academic contexts, give students examples or model texts of different types of writing and have them analyze how the text is put together and to use the information to inform their writing, e. by studying the different ‘moves’ or sections that make up a text. Students focus on questions such as: how does a text begin? Where is the main idea introduced?

Question:

Submitted by Burree Sultan Ray, University of Sargodha, Pakistan

If there is such a thing as universal grammar, why is learning a second language more difficult than learning a first language?

Dr. Richards responds:

The notion of universal grammar is merely a theory advocated within a Chomskian framework of cognitive linguistics. It does not speak to the query you raise. There are many factors that account for differences between L1 and L2 learning and that account for the fact that the former is generally successful but not necessarily the latter, and there is no need for a theory of universal grammar as a reference point.

Such factors include:

Distance between the L1 and the L2
Intensity and amount of exposure and practice
Learning contexts, meaningfulness of use
Motivation, and differences in communicative needs

Question:

Submitted by David, University of Damavand, Iran

Is there a difference between “Simple present” & “Present simple” in grammar?

Dr. Richards responds:

No, these are alternative terms.

Submitted by Efren Garcia Huerta, Puebla, Mexico

Right before I start presenting new grammar. I usually find a short paragraph where the grammar that I am going to present is being used. Next, I organize the class into pairs and have them play a dictation game. One of the students is going to write the paragraph and the other student is going to dictate. The paragraph is printed in a piece of paper, and I place the text away from the students who are writing and the partner who is going to dictate will have to go to the text and memorize as much as possible, then, go back to his partner and dictate what she/he remembers, if the student does not remember. She/he will have to go back and read the text again.

During the game I use a “switch call” so that the students can change roles until they finish the paragraph. At the same time I try to find music beats that motivate my students. The students who finish first will be congratulated by the class.

This activity energizes students, but most importantly students become more interested in grammar activities.

Question:

Submitted by Nur, Indonesia

Would you please tell me your definition of grammar?

Dr Richards Responds:

There are two dimensions to grammatical knowledge (also known as grammatical or linguistic competence) that are central in second language learning and teaching:

knowing how to use the grammatical system of a language to create sentences
knowing how to use the grammatical resources of a language as part of the processes used in creating spoken and written texts

The system of rules used to create sentences refers to the knowledge of parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses and syntactic structures used to create grammatically well-formed sentences in English. The rules for constructing grammatically correct sentences belong to “sentence grammar”. This is the kind of grammar that is the focus of many grammar reference books and grammar practice books for students.

Older approaches to grammar teaching and the design of course books reflected a view of language that saw the sentence and sentence grammar as forming the building blocks of language, language learning, and language use. The goal of language teaching was to understand how sentences are used to create different kinds of meaning, to master the underlying rules for forming sentences from lower-level grammatical units such as phrases and clauses, and to practice using them as the basis for written and spoken communication. Syllabuses were essentially grammar-based and grammar was a primary focus of teaching techniques. Correct language use was achieved through a drill and practice methodology and through controlled speaking and writing exercises that sought to prevent or minimize opportunities for errors.

However learners also need to know another kind of grammar, and that is the grammar that is used when sentences are connected in longer stretches of discourse to create texts . Knowledge of the grammar that is used to create texts can be called text-grammar. For example here is information about the past tense and other grammatical features that are used in recount texts:

Recounts are either personal recounts, factual recounts or imaginative recounts. Personal recounts usually retell an event that the writer was personal involved in. Factual recounts record an incident, e.g. a science experiment, a police report. Imaginative recounts describe an imaginary role and give details of imaginary events – e.g. a day in the life of a pirate.

Grammatical features of recounts:

Written in the past tense
Frequent use made of verbs which link events in time, such as when, next, later, after, before, first, at the same time, as soon as
Recounts describe events so make frequent use of verbs (action words) and adverbs (which describe and add more detail to verbs)
Use of personal pronouns (Personal recount)
Passive voice may be used (Factual recount)

Grammar can therefore be understood as a resource people make use of to create discourse that is grammatically appropriate at both the level of the sentence and the text. While vocabulary can be thought of as the units that describe people and places, concepts, topics, states, events, relationships, and actions, grammar can be thought of as the resources we use to package words into sentences and texts according to the grammatical conventions of our language. However much of a person’s knowledge of grammar is implicit rather than explicit. When learning a second language, knowing “about” rules of grammar does not necessarily translate into being able to draw on grammatical knowledge in communication, and this is one of the dilemmas that arise in relation to grammar instruction. Traditional approaches to language teaching often assumed that the more students knew about the grammar of English, the better they would be able to use it, but unfortunately this is not the case.

Contemporary approaches to grammar describe grammatical knowledge and grammatical systems in terms of the way people actually use the language, not the way they “should use” it. Describing grammar in terms of how people “should” speak is known as prescriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is often based on the features of written language and typically written language as it was described several generations ago. Language teaching courses and published materials today generally seek to present grammar as it is actually used by speakers of English, often based on the study of authentic language use and information from corpus research. But because the grammatical resources of English are often very different from the grammatical resources used in the learner’s native language, mastery of grammar presents a significant challenge for many language learners.