Teaching Grammar, Structure and Meaning

Book excerpt: Teaching Grammar, Structure and Meaning introduces teachers to some basic ideas from the increasingly popular field of cognitive linguistics as a way of explaining and teaching key grammatical concepts. Particularly suitable for those teaching post-16 English Language, this book offers a methodology for teaching key aspects of linguistic form and an extensive set of learning activities. Written by an experienced linguist and teacher, this book contains: · an evaluation of current approaches to the teaching of grammar and linguistic form · a revised pedagogy based on principles from cognitive science and cognitive linguistics · a comprehensive set of activities and resources to support the teaching of key linguistic topics and text types · a detailed set of suggestions for further reading and a guide to available resources Arguing for the use of drama, role play, gesture, energy dynamics, and visual and spatial representations as ways of enabling students to understand grammatical features, this book explores and analyses language use in a range of text types, genres and contexts. This innovative approach to teaching aspects of grammar is aimed at English teachers, student teachers and teacher trainers.