Introduction Chapter I grammar in early modern English

THE BASICS
Estuary English has such phonetic features as glottaling ([kwʌɪʔ nʌɪs]), l-vocalisation ([miwk]), happy-tensing (using longer i-sound at the end of happy, coffee), and yod-coalescence (using a ch-sound instead of tj-sound in Tuesday and the like). There is a tendency in EE to stress prepositions and auxiliaries. EE speakers tend to use and more easily accept Americanisms into their speech. Also, EE has standard grammar and the speakers of EE tend to overuse the tags right? and inni’?
The urgency of the problem. One of the major contemporary issues of linguistics is the problem of development of the language, its causes and forms, as well as the symbiosis of language in terms of forced intercourse, which resulted in the formation of other languages ​​with a simplified grammar, phonetics and spelling, called – Standard Scottish English (SSE).
Perspective of the study. The phenomenon of language SSE to be active in the study of philology and psychology, only recently, as previously followed a secured status of "second-class languages. In spite of a sufficient number of papers on the subject, the status of SSE and its place in the world's languages ​​remain quite uncertain, and the matter remains little developed in both theoretical and practical terms. Its origins are many, insofar as one teaching methodology tends to influence the next. The communicative approach could be said to be the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audiolingual and grammar-translation methods of foreign language instruction.
They felt that students were not learning enough realistic, whole language. They did not know how to communicate using appropriate social language, gestures, or expressions; in brief, they were at a loss to communicate in the culture of the language studied. Interest in and development of communicative-style teaching mushroomed in the 1970s; authentic language use and classroom exchanges where students engaged in real communication with one another became quite popular.
In the intervening years, the communicative approach has been adapted to the elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary levels, and the underlying philosophy has spawned different teaching methods known under a variety of names, including notional-functional, teaching for proficiency, proficiency-based instruction, and communicative language teaching. Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audiolingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.
Margie S. Berns, an expert in the field of communicative language teaching, writes in explaining Firth's view that "language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light, language study has to look at the use (function) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social roles are, why they have come together to speak) . This approach aims to make students capable of communicating in real life situation. The best way to learn language is to use it in interaction rather than to learn about it. In this approach fluency is more important than accuracy. Classroom activities focus on fluency much more than accuracy. Authentic materials provide useful input for learners and are therefore often used in the classroom. Learners often engage in role play or dramatization to adjust their use of the target language to different social contexts.
Grammar translation focuses on developing students’ appreciation of the target language literature. Language is learnt by analyzing and applying grammatical rules. In classroom practices learners study grammatical rules presented through grammatical terms , then applying them in exercises. The Grammar Translation method embraces a wide range of approaches but, broadly speaking, foreign language study is seen as a mental discipline, the goal of which may be to read literature in its original form or simply to be a form of intellectual development. The basic approach is to analyze and study the grammatical rules of the language, usually in an order roughly matching the traditional order of the grammar of Latin, and then to practise manipulating grammatical structures through the means of translation both into and from the mother tongue.
The method is very much based on the written word and texts are widely in evidence. A typical approach would be to present the rules of a particular item of grammar, illustrate its use by including the item several times in a text, and practise using the item through writing sentences and translating it into the mother tongue. The text is often accompanied by a vocabulary list consisting of new lexical items used in the text together with the mother tongue translation. Accurate use of language items is central to this approach.
Generally speaking, the medium of instruction is the mother tongue, which is used to explain conceptual problems and to discuss the use of a particular grammatical structure. It all sounds rather dull but it can be argued that the Grammar Translation method has over the years had a remarkable success. Millions of people have successfully learnt foreign languages to a high degree of proficiency and, in numerous cases, without any contact whatsoever with native speakers of the language (as was the case in the former Soviet Union, for example).
There are certain types of learner who respond very positively to a grammatical syllabus as it can give them both a set of clear objectives and a clear sense of achievement. Other learners need the security of the mother tongue and the opportunity to relate grammatical structures to mother tongue equivalents. Above all, this type of approach can give learners a basic foundation upon which they can then build their communicative skills.
Applied wholesale of course, it can also be boring for many learners and a quick look at foreign language course books from the 1950s and 1960s, for example, will soon reveal the non-communicative nature of the language used. Using the more enlightened principles of the Communicative Approach, however, and combining these with the systematic approach of Grammar Translation, may well be the perfect combination for many learners. On the one hand they have motivating communicative activities that help to promote their fluency and, on the other, they gradually acquire a sound and accurate basis in the grammar of the language. This combined approach is reflected in many of the EFL course books currently being published and, amongst other things, suggests that the Grammar Translation method, far from being dead, is very much alive and kicking as we enter the 21st century.
Without a sound knowledge of the grammatical basis of the language it can be argued that the learner is in possession of nothing more than a selection of communicative phrases which are perfectly adequate for basic communication but which will be found wanting when the learner is required to perform any kind of sophisticated linguistic task.
Grammar features in English