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LINGUISTIC COMPLEXITY AND THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH STRUCTURE
Author(s) -
Schmierer Richard J.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1979.tb01067.x
Subject(s) - linguistics , theoretical linguistics , verb , grammar , focus (optics) , theme (computing) , psychology , linguistic description , computer science , philosophy , physics , optics , operating system
Two linguistic considerations essential for the successful teaching of English grammatical structure to students of English as a Second Language are noted. The first of these – that grammatical instruction given to ESL students must be linguistically complete – is taken as a fact which is universally recognized and 7 accepted by ESL structure teachers. The second – that linguistic complexity commonly varies in different manifestations of a given grammatical structure and that such varying complexity must be purposefully controlled and manipulated by the teacher of English structure – provides the focus for the present discussion. This viewpoint concerning the role of linguistic complexity in the teaching of English structure is introduced using as an example the English present continuous verb structure. On the basis of this example, common shortcomings found in the instructional programs of those structure teachers who fail to take considerations of linguistic complexity into account in their instruction are then cited. Two further examples ‐ one concerning the linguistic complexity of negation as it interacts with the some/any distinction in English, and one concerning the linguistic complexity found in English embedded sentences ‐ are introduced to provide additional support for the central theme of the paper: that the conscious manipulation of parameters of linguistic complexity is required for the successful teaching of English grammatical structure.