Self-assessment in teaching grammar: raising grammatical awareness of philology majors

В статье пересматривается роль самооценивания и взаимоооценивания в изучении грамматики студентами языковых специальностей в рамках эксплицитной модели преподавания грамматики. Указанная модель нацелена на повышение грамматической осознанности студентов за счет развития умений критического осмысления грамматических явлений и сознательного применения их в речи. Авторы рассматривают грамматические знания как эффективное средство сознательного изучения иностранного языка и предлагают задания на повышение грамматической осознанности студентов с привлечением практики самооценивания и взаимоооценивания.

Ключевые слова: самооценивание и взаимоооценивание, эксплицитное преподавания грамматики, грамматические знания и навыки, развитие умений критического осмысления грамматических явлений.

The importance of grammar in building foreign languages competence is indisputable [Gao, 2001; Swan, 2006]. Moreover, its significance increases as the learners advance in proficiency, since it is the grammatical sub-competence that acts to promote accuracy and fluency leading to effective communication [Gao, 2001; Swan, 2006]. At the same time, how grammar is best acquired and taught has been a long-standing discussion among the teachers of EFL. The discussion has also become a stumbling block in designing language syllabi at some universities: many experts disagree about the place and role of grammar in foreign language acquisition. An unfavorable situation for grammar is even more aggravated by the current tertiary education reform in Ukraine which brought the reduction of classroom contact hours to language learning. As a result, it is essential to adapt some relevant approach in grammar teaching to a new learning paradigm that will enhance a foreign language acquisition.

The shift to this paradigm makes educators recognize that "a teacher must not explain or teach everything" [Duncan]. Instead, he or she must help the students to form their own concepts [Boud, Falchicov, 2006]. So, the enhancing of critical thinking skills among learners is crucial. The result of such teaching lies in the acceptance of self-assessment as a means to provide opportunities for feedback improvement through reflection on how to proceed with a grammatical task, monitor one's own performance on an ongoing basis, and self-evaluate task completion.

Besides, there appear many other questions to consider when teaching Grammar. What are grammatical objectives in tertiary school? What types of knowledge and skills do learners of a foreign language view as necessary to acquire while studying grammar? Does conscious knowledge help learners improve their language skills? Is grammar taught in a holistic way or item by item? What are the possible ways to enhance grammar acquisition?

To have these questions at least partially answered, we will analyze the researches in teaching grammar and focus particularly on how self-assessment affects teaching and learning. Thus, the goal of this paper is to consider benefits of self and peer assessment in teaching/ learning grammar, specify the objectives of teaching grammar as well as give insight into consciousness-raising to a language form. The latter affects the learners' capacity to learn and is a key to a successful FL grammar acquisition by adult learners.

Objectives of teaching grammar in tertiary school

It is quite obvious that the objective of teaching grammar varies 'accordingly to whether the user of a reference grammar is a student of linguistics or a FL learner [Newby, 2003]. Grammatical sub-competence as one of four areas of the communicative competence theory focuses on command of the language code, including such things as the knowledge of the language code (the rules of word and sentence formation, meaning, spelling and pronunciation) [Gao, 2001; Celce-Murcia, D'rneyi & Turrel, 1995]. Swan points out that grammar is commonly presented as a set of rules for combining words into sentences [Swan, 2006]. Also, he argues that this statement is incomplete as it does not explicitly explain the functions of the rules in the sentence and the reasons for people to use the rules in speech.

Many experts though view competence not only as a matter of knowledge [Celce-Murcia, D'rneyi & Turrel, 1995, p. 6]. The linguists like Chomsky, Taylor and Kasper make distinction between “competence” as rather static knowledge, “the ability to make use of the competence” and “performance that occurs when proficiency is put to use”. However, Celce-Murcia, D'rneyi & Turrel (1995) stress that certain competences - linguistic, for example - are more static while others are more dynamic (strategic competence).

Knowledge, as many applied linguists state (M. Swan, M. Celce-Murcia, D. Larsen- Freeman and others), provides the fastest and the most efficient way of language acquisition, particularly with adult learners. Apart from the fact that language knowledge enhances language learning, it is an integral component of any professional development. Thus, grammatical knowledge is an objective of grammar learning for students of Linguistics.

Grammatical knowledge can be defined as the system of rules of the language that provides some general and systematic guidance on the structure and syntax. Klein (1986) outlines the two kinds of knowledge that are necessary to gain proficiency in second language learning [cited from Widodo, 2006]. These are explicit and implicit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge is “conscious knowledge of grammatical rules”, which gives a learner “ability to articulate the facts about the language in some way”, as well as “to apply it” [Brown, 2000; Widodo, 2006]. “Explicit knowledge is learnable” when given through practice item by item [Widodo, 2006].

Thus, explicit knowledge can furnish students with rules for example, of:

- grammatical units, e.g., morphemes, affixes etc.;

- grammatical categories, e.g., the category of number and case; the active and the passive voice, etc.;

- word-building patterns;

- parts of the sentence; position of the parts of the sentence in a sentence;

- the structure of the different types of the sentence etc.

The implicit knowledge is “unconscious, internalized knowledge of language that is gained in the natural language learning process. There are strong facts against the possibility that adult learners can acquire implicit knowledge [Cook, 2001, Swan, 2006]. Adults learn a second language at a much later time, a time when “the bioprogram” has advanced past the stage of acquiring language naturally and the acquisition of a second language takes place in the artificial language environment when rules of language and conscious attention to a language form may be necessary [Cook, 2001; Larsen-Freeman, Swan, 2006].

Larsen-Freeman (2001) acknowledges that “understanding of the grammatical facts of the language we are teaching is not these facts that we wish our students to learn. Instead, what we do hope to do is to have students be able to use grammatical structures accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately. In other words, grammar teaching is not so much knowledge transmission as it is skill development”. Accordingly, a learner is expected not only to know rules about language and be able to explain any grammatical phenomenon, but he is also to be aware of the function a certain grammatical form performs and can operate a necessary rule in a context. For example, a learner can decide on the form which can help him express his arranged plans for the weekend, or a learner can justify his choice of one of the forms to express future action. In short, grammatical ability is another objective of grammar teaching.

Passov Yu. defines grammatical ability as an automatic choice of the grammatical pattern which is correct in the form of spoken or written language and relevant to the context [Passov, 1991, p. 150-151]. As there are four speech skills universally recognized, we can distinguish between grammatical abilities in speaking, listening, writing and reading. The developed grammatical abilities in speaking and writing is a prerequisite to express one's thought and the developed grammatical abilities in listening and reading - to understand other people's thoughts.

In regard of this, we view grammatical competence as the ability to use knowledge of the language code to successfully and accurate communicate the meaning both orally and in writing. Thus, grammar teaching aim purposefully at: 1) knowledge of the language code and 2) the abilities to use this knowledge.

Approaches to teaching grammar in tertiary school

Traditionally, there are two prevailing approaches to teaching grammar - explicit and implicit. The former focuses on analyzing grammar rules and learning the elements of the language while the latter focuses on the use of a target language and encourages students to communicate from the start. Today, the aim of FL acquisition is to use a FL as a medium to resolve personal and professional communicative tasks [Hudyma, 1991]. Thus, Krashen's hypothesis shared by many applied linguists is that “Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill [cited from Widodo, 2006, p. 125]. As a result, the teaching of grammar suggests that “learners acquire grammar through understanding the scope of language forms in an unconscious way rather than explicit learning process” [Swan, 2006; Hu, 2012]. A recent example of such approach is an attempt to exclude grammar teaching overall even from the curriculum designed for Linguistics students.

At the same time, the literature analysis as to the effects of explicit and implicit instruction in grammar teaching shows that “young children rely more on memory-based processes, whereas adults are more characterized by rule-based learning” [M. Nikolov and J. M. Djigunovic]. This view relies on empirical researches proving that many explicit methods appeared much more effective in comparison to implicit methods when it comes to adult teaching [Hu, 2012].

Among other factors in favour of explicit teaching grammar, Michal Swan also brings out complicated structural patterns that are and hard to learn and minimal out-of-class exposure to language practice. Thus, explicit teaching and systematic practice will help learners understand these patterns, master and use them adequately, as it can overcome age-related weaknesses in implicit learning [Schmidt, 2010; Swan, 2006].

Despite a strong evidence of the benefits of explicit grammar teaching in a FL classroom, we are also aware of the criticism of university students of a rule-based approach to teaching grammar. The main disadvantage of this approach, according to students, is that the same grammatical rules and forms have been taught for years, though there is no noticeable improvement in language acquisition and accuracy. As a result, students keep making mistakes in using tenses, articles, modal verbs etc.

Since our goal is to achieve a better fit between grammar, accuracy and communication, it may be helpful to consider a contemporary look at explicit teaching that adopts modern data and the findings of psychological researches on conscious vs. unconscious learning/teaching grammar.

Consciousness-raising approach equips learners with understanding of a specific grammatical phenomenon and develops declarative rather than procedural knowledge of it [Ellis, 2002 as cited from Widodo, 2006]. In other words, the main point of this approach is to make learners make observations of linguistic forms of the input that they are exposed to if those forms are to become intake for learning [Schmidt, 2010]. In our understanding, this suggests that attention is directed to the shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered grammar teaching, which results in active engagement of students in independent learning, learner responsibility and autonomy.

Self-assessment as a means for consciousness-raising

In our attempt to equip students with an effective strategy of consciousness-raising in teaching grammar we turned to alternative assessment, particularly to self-assessment, whose beneficial impact has long been recognized, specifically, in promoting students' independence in language acquisition [The impact, 2004]. Using self-assessment in educational contexts in terms of consciousness-raising provides students with explicit goals, increases student responsibility and autonomy; raises awareness; strives for a more advanced and deeper understanding of the subject matter, skills and processes; lifts the role and status of the student from passive learner to active leaner and assessor (this also encourages a deeper approach to learning); involves students in critical reflection [Boud, 1995; Spiller, 2012].

Self-assessment is a process of formative assessment during which students reflect on and evaluate the quality of their work and their learning, judge the degree to which they reflect explicitly stated goals or criteria, identify strengths and weaknesses in their work, and revise accordingly [Andrade and Du 2007, p. 160 as cited from Spiller]. In other words, self-assessment widely supports the idea of modern tertiary education which lies in promoting lifelong learning, and is called to furnish students with the strategies that will make them independent from the opinion of others.

The concept of self-assessment in the teaching/ learning process may be considered from two points of view [Hudyma, 1981, p. 12]: 1) self-assessment as a psycholinguistic phenomenon (inner self-assessment) which includes mental operations related to monitoring personal progress in language acquisition; and 2) formal self-assessment as a learning activity that is based on specially developed student's learning skills to evaluate the results of their progress according to developed criteria.

Formal self-assessment is conducted on the basis of final results of the language product; inner self-assessment is a continual process and takes place throughout and beyond the instructional programme [Hudyma, 1981, p. 12]. Inner and formal self-assessments do not substitute but complement one another. Though formal self-assessment can be replaced by the assessment of students by teachers and vice versa, the assessment of students by teachers cannot serve as a substitute for inner self-assessment.

A similar point is also shared by Boud, who states that any assessment has two key elements. The first is the result of the development of knowledge of the appropriate standards or criteria that are used to meet the standards of any given work. The second is the capacity to make judgments about the quality of the work and whether the work meets or doesn't meet these standards [Duncan, Boud & Falchicov, 2006].

It is only natural that all learning efforts of assessment should encourage the development of inner self-assessment, as a guarantee and support of lifelong learning [Hudyma, 1981; Boud& Falchicov, 2006]. In this regard Boud argues “that it is the responsibility of university educators to help students to develop the skills they will need to be effective beyond their university life” [Boud & Falchicov, 2006]. Also, he points out that self-assessment is s a complex skill, as normally students lack “the ability to look at their work and know of what's good and what needs to be improved” [Boud & Falchicov, 2006]. Thus, there is no doubt that teacher involvement can be high initially, and careful planning is needed to promote students' selfassessment. Self-assessment skills are developed through formal assessment in conjunction with peer and teacher assessment [Hudyma, 1981].

According to the extensive research findings, the role of peer-assessment in developing self-assessment skills can be hardly overestimated [Boud & Falchicov, 2006, Duncan]. Duncan claims that peer-assessment is “a precursor and an aid to developing self-assessment" and recommends teachers never to treat peer and self-assessment separately, but rather view it as “mutually supportive components of a scholarly professional community”. In his work, Boud insists that those students, who are involved in judgments of others, may not actually need any other set of skills and strategies that will enable students to judge and evaluate their own works [Boud & Falchikov, 2006, p.403]. Thus, it is important to encourage students to work collaboratively involving pair and group assessment, which, apart from making judgments, will motivate learners to construct their own knowledge, focus on producing rather than reproducing, and offer a constructive feedback.

It is also important to develop students' understanding of criteria and standards used in judging their work. As many scholars admit, 'weak students tend to overestimate their work, while strong students usually underestimate themselves' [Boud, 1995]. Yet, those students, who can judge their progress accurately, are more motivated and their engagement in learning is higher. In this case, it is usually expected that the grade of a teacher and a student agrees. To ensure this agreement, as Boud and Duncan highlight in their work, “it is fundamentally important that in all cases the objective is to ensure that students are helped to gain a clear understanding of criteria and standard which relate to their work” [Duncan].

How to implement self-assessment in grammar teaching

In implementing self and peer-assessment as a means of consciousness-raising promotion in grammar teaching, we rely on the guidelines borrowed from the literature discussion presented above:

1) Self-assessment is a continual process and can be integrated into most learning activities by regularly providing opportunities for students to identify or reflect on their progress in relation to particular learning outcomes. The process of grammar acquisition mentioned by Richards (2002) includes four stages - noticing, discovering rules, accommodation and restructuring, experimentation [Richards, 2002, p. 42-43 cited from Hu, 2012]. Within the given stages teaching/ learning objectives are grammatical rules and grammatical abilities in four speech skills. Accordingly, self-assessment is part of every stage and is aimed at every objective through effective monitoring and improvement of performance through on-going selfassessment.

2) Students need clear criteria in support of the development of accurate selfassessment abilities. Plentiful researches state that in order to ensure accurate self-assessment opportunities it is important to provide students with the key and scoring grades to every selfassessment learning task. The criteria help students to locate their problems in progress and choose a way to make a necessary improvement. Self-assessment in teaching grammar is usually based on objective assessment which can be easily organized by providing students with the key. Though, even apparently 'obvious' answers can generate useful debate.

3) To avoid misunderstanding in interpreting self-assessment data students can benefit from teacher-involvement in self-assessment processes. This will help to avoid inadequate use of self-assessment feedback, on the one hand, and will support improvement in student learning, on the other.

4) To encourage a greater sense of involvement and responsibility a peer rating format is widely used. Peer-assessment assists in establishing a clearer framework and promotion of excellence, draws direct attention to skills and learning tasks and provides increased feedback [Boud & Falchicov, 2006]. Peer assessment can generally solve a variety of class-room problems connected with the lack of an individual student's involvement and responsibility; it encourages students to reflect on their role and contribution to the process of the group work, raises students' interest and learning motivation, teaches how to collaborate and support each other's learning.

A practical implementation of self and peer-assessment in teaching grammar is achieved through the following task completion format.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5