Teaching English grammar at the undergraduate level: a generative syntactic approach

Abstract

This paper presents a model of teaching English grammar at the undergraduate level based on the Government and Binding theory of syntax proposed by Chomsky (1981-). The model covers sentence construction in terms of Argument structure of the verb, predicate type and complement selection, and teaching the lexical categories of noun, verb, adjective, adverbs. While presenting these phenomena in the light of the aligned syntactic framework, how each of these different grammatical phenomena can be taught is also illustrated in the form of teaching points and activities. Thus, each theoretical description is supplemented by instructions for teachers for its practical application in the ELT classroom. Since this is a presentation of a teaching model, to be experimented with undergraduate learners, it does not constitute an exact empirical study, and hence the lack of references to methodological steps and tools. Nevertheless, it attempts to answer the research question ‘how the insights of theoretical linguistics, mainly generative syntax, can be applied in the writing of a pedagogical grammar for undergraduate learners’ in a broader perspective.