*“I Am Afraid if My Students Can't Understand Me.” A Consciousness-Raising Approach to Teaching the Modal System

Thomas H. Goetz
Hokusei Gakuen University

Abstract

Teaching the modal system through consciousness-raising is an approach to grammar in which grammar instruction is viewed as a way of educating the learner about the grammatical features of a language by using form-oriented activities. It can indirectly facilitate L2 acquisition. Through this approach, learners identify modal usage with form-function mappings. Ellis advocates that learners transform input into intake to facilitate learner output, increasing the probability that the output will be comprehensible. As Swain points out, output facilitates acquisition by making learners aware of gaps, enabling hypothesis testing, and allowing learners to reflect on their performance and develop linguistic meta-understandings (Swain 1985). The following can be used to elicit learner output: 1) consciousness-raising for explicit knowledge; 2) feature focus exercises, such as interpretive tasks; and 3) focused communication activities. In line with Ellis' theory, a pedagogical design was created to serve as an exercise to allow learners to facilitate input into intake. As learners comprehend, they draw upon their general knowledge. Measuring such involves a grammatical consciousness-raising task on the modal system with a pre-and post-test. In order to measure the persistence of effect, a repeated measures design is employed. Moodle, a widely available and free LMS, was the learning management system used to collect the data. It is hoped that this approach will highlight a student's implicit and automatic grammatical knowledge rather than explicit and controlled knowledge. Preliminary results will be shared.





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