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The role of context in the presentation of grammar
Assistant Professor of ESL at St. John's University in New York City. He completed his doctoral work in theoretical linguistics at the City University of New York and has taught courses in linguistics and ESL for a number of years. His current research interests involve the role of context in the determination of grammaticality judgments.
Although the need for contextualization in ESL grammar instruction has long been recognized, a great deal of traditional teaching methodology in this area still persists. Standard texts, which are adequate for certain grammatical rules, have often misrepresented other rules, usually at the expense of semantic factors crucial for correct application. While the misrepresented rule is sufficient for the student to provide correct responses in carefully contrived exercises, it often fails in real-language situations. The argument is made here that no single approach is satisfactory for teaching all grammatical rules; rules must first be distinguished on the basis of certain linguistic criteria before pedagogical strategies can be considered.