A New Approach to English Pedagogical Grammar ─ The Order of Meanings

This book proposes a meaning-order approach to pedagogical grammar (MAP Grammar) as a practical pedagogical approach in ESL and EFL contexts by teaching grammar through an easy-to-understand three-dimensional model. MAP Grammar takes the clause as the fundamental unit of English and describes it with meaning units, thus allowing visualizable associations between individual grammatical items. In addition, MAP Grammar reduces the commonly used five or seven clause patterns into one meaning-based clause structure for teaching and learning by focusing on the order of meanings. As such, MAP Grammar makes syllabus design, teaching, and learning easier in the following manner.

• A road map shows teachers and learners where to start and where to go next through dynamic associations between individual grammatical items.

• Instruction relies on meaning, rather than metalanguage, which can reduce learning burden and increase motivation.

• The meaning-based clause structure allows teachers to attend to global errors and learners to communicate successfully in English.

Akira Tajino is Professor of Educational Linguistics and Director of the International Academic Research and Resource Center for Language Education (i-ARRC) at Kyoto University, Japan. His research interests include EAP, classroom research, and pedagogical grammar. He is a recipient of the JACET (Japan Association of College English Teachers) Award for excellence in teaching (2011) and the JACET Award for excellence in academic publication (2014). He is the (co) author/editor of more than 20 books, including Researching Language Teaching and Learning: An Integration of Practice and Theory (Peter Lang, 2009) and Team Teaching and Team Learning in the Language Classroom: Collaboration for Innovation in ELT (Routledge, 2016), and has published articles in academic and professional journals. He has served on the editorial panel of several journals, including Oxford’s ELT Journal.