Richard,
I was very interested in your list - particularly:
14. TG has no skeleton, no structure on which to hang language and grammar
information;
I have been struggling in Tokyo for nine years to teach English,currently
with what is known as an eclectic approach. This is by the use of textbooks
that incorporate bits and pieces of everything - traditional
grammar,communicative language teaching, task-based teaching. New
textbooks come and go. A recent textbook has an accompanying CD that
allows students to drill their grammar on the shinkansen. Memories of
England fity years ago on the trolley buses! We need something more -
something on which to
hang the grammar. After years of conscientious study many Japanese still
have no clue about English. Could the secret lie in Beverly Dererwianka's
"the basic unit of meaning in English is the clause"? Or in Martha Kolln's
ten basic structures and diagramming?
Can you help out a struggling teacher at the chalk face?
John Curran
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