Enhancing Grammar Learning Through Assessment at Tertiary Level

Abstract

The chapter suggests an updated look at assessment in enhancing grammar learning. The material, presented in the article, is a classroom-based research, conducted at a tertiary level and is prompted by the necessity to achieve a better fit between years of learning grammar and students’ language proficiency. A major focus is to show how interaction between assessment and teaching grammar to students of Linguistics can yield substantial enhancement of their professional competence. Assessment is viewed in this case as a tool for managing, revisiting, and redesigning the FL training through feedback analysis. An empirical research was carried out among fourth year students of the Philological department. According to the data analysis the authors suggested priority changes to teaching grammar instruction.

Appendix 1

Stage 1—noticing

Task 1. Read the paragraph and point out the subjects.

(1) It appears that one of the most noticeable changes has been in our marriage customs. (2) It was only a hundred years ago, when marriages were arranged by a matchmaker and a couple’s parents. (3) Besides, the first meeting between a bride and a groom often took place on their wedding day. (4) Moreover, it was not uncommon for a man to have more than one wife, if he had enough money. (5) Today, however, it is “love marriages” that have become much more common, and polygamy is no longer practiced. (6) More than that, it is hardly tolerated in most communities.

Task 2. Answer the following questions:

• What are functions of the subjects?

• Are functions of “It-subjects” in sentences 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 similar or different?

Stage 2—discovering rules

Task 3. Answer the questions and discuss them with your partner.

• Into how many groups can you subdivide “it-subjects”?

• Which sentences illustrate the usage of impersonal/introductory/emphatic subjects?

Task 4. Study the information in Table 4. Tick the information in the table that is new for you. Compare your results with your partner.

Table 4 It-Subjects

Task 5. Complete the following rules.

• (a) Impersonal IT introduces information about_______________

• (b) Introductory IT describes ______________________

• (c) Emphatic IT draws ___________________________

Stage 3—accommodation and restructuring

Task 6. Identify the type of IT subject.

Example	Type
So it was in March that you left
It’s raining
It’s no use going there so early
It thrilled her to be invited there
It’s all over with the reconstruction of the sight
Dick came home late. It provoked his father

Task 7. Complete the text with suitable subjects. Identify their functions.

When (1) is winter, frogs stay in a dormant state at the bottom of ponds or holes where (2) is wet. In spring (3) is important for the frogs to reproduce, and there is the place they know they return to lay their eggs. (4) may be necessary for them to travel a long distance, and (5) is not unusual for frogs to take risks. When they arrive, they call to each other. Each species of frog has a particular set of sounds, because (6) is important that frogs of the same species find each other. The frogs mate in the water and the fertilized eggs live in a layer of jelly in the water. There are large numbers of eggs, because (7) is likely that predators will eat most of them. (8) takes about ten days before the tadpoles leave the egg.

Task 8. Rewrite the sentences using “it” subjects.

• 1. Getting a visa won’t be difficult. _________________________

• 2. She may well marry him. _________________________________

• 3. Exactly Mary wrote a thriller with all the traditional ingredients.____

• 4. Everyone seems to enjoy watching a new film. _________

• 5. You have to walk two kilometers to get to the cafe. _________

Stage 4—experimentation

Task 9. The text can be improved by rewriting some sentences from the paragraph with impersonal/introductory/emphatic “it.” Underline the sentences that can be improved and rewrite them.