Criteria of grammatical minimum selection

Aims and objectives of language teaching define the content of teaching grammar. Since the course of study is subject to definite aims and objectives and regulated by time limits, the necessity for defining the grammar store and for the minimisation of grammar material arises.

The problem of grammatical minimum selection needs to be specified in the following points: 1) the grammar store; 2) sources of selection; 3) criteria of grammatical minimum selection with the account of the kind of skill developed (receptive/productive).

Grammar material is usually subdivided into two groups: grammar material for oral speech and that for reading. We have already mentioned that these groups are traditionally called active and passive grammar minima.

The object of selection is a grammatical item, which is understood as a form bearing a certain grammatical meaning, e.g.: He reads, she learns (the 3^rd person singular). Obviously, both grammatical meanings and their morphological forms must serve as an object of selection. However, not only mono-component structures but also units of other levels may be an object of selection. Every speech item has its own structure reflecting definite connections between its components. There are five levels of speech items:

1) the level of a word form, i.e. a word and its grammatical forms (a boy, boys, the boy’s);

2) the level of a word -combination, i.e. word-combinations with different types of cohesion (a new poem; a piece of chalk; very strict, etc.);

3) the level of a phrase/sentence, i.e. sentences of different syntactical types (He wants to play in the garden. This is the garden I like best. Etc.);

4) the level of a supra-phrasal unit;

5) the level of a text.

For teaching grammatical material the first four levels are relevant, as at the text level, both written and oral, grammatical habits have to be able to function but not to be in the process of formation.

As far as the sources of selection are concerned, grammatical minimum for oral speech must be selected from the sounding speech of educated native speakers or the speech of the characters of literary prose, where colloquial literary style finds its place as well.

Grammatical minimum for reading is selected from written sources and reflects the peculiarities of belles-lettres style. It should not be supposed that the former and the latter minima have no connections with each other. The majority of grammatical items coincide in both of them, though their preferable usage should be taken into consideration. While selecting grammar one should also take into account: 1) students’ acquired vocabulary and 2) lexical minimum for a given level of learning to prevent the break between the theory of grammar and its functioning in speech.

The selection of a school grammatical minimum is based on definite principles. The leading principle of school grammar selection is the principle of occurrence/frequency of a grammatical form or structure in a definite language activity. For active minimum it is the general principle of frequency of grammatical structures characteristic of oral speech. For passive minimum it is the general principle of occurrence of grammatical structures characteristic of written word.

Special principles of active minimum selection are: 1) the principle of representativity; 2) the principle of a pattern-like characterand 3) the principle of excluding grammatical synonyms. The specific principle of passive minimum selection is the principle of polysemy.

Frequency inthis context means how often a certain grammar item occurs in oral or written speech. For example, if present simple is frequently used in both oral speech and written texts, it should be included in both minima according to the principle of frequency (occurrence).

Representativity means generalisation of a great number of structures by grammar rules. E.g., the indication of the plural of nouns in English is the ending -s. All other cases of noun formation are assimilated as morphological forms: ox-oxen; child-children; phenomenon-phenomena etc.

Pattern-like character of a grammar structure is understood as the possibility of this structure to serve a model for constructing other structures by analogy. The formation of adverbs with the help of -ly suffix may be taken as a typical example.

Exclusion of grammatical synonyms means assimilation of only one most frequently used form out of a set of synonyms. E.g., possessive pronouns have two forms: the relative form (my book) and the absolute one (a book of mine). The absolute form is not necessarily included into the active minimum while the relative one is.

The principle of polysemy is very important for selecting grammar material for reading. Students should be taught to distinguish certain grammar items that serve to express different meanings. Thus, the ending –ing serves to express gerund, present participle, verbal noun; the ending –ed serves to express past participle, past simple and so on.