Noun Phrase In English

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INTRODUCTION

The role of grammar in teaching foreign languages ​​had variations throughout history depending on a large extent of language and learning theories which appeared in accordance with different teaching methods. Thus, the method of grammar based on the teaching and whose main objective was the study of the foreign language in order to read the literature written in that language, emphasized the deductive analysis of grammatical rules and their subsequent application to translation exercises. This method, according to which the learning of a language consisted mainly in the memorization of morphological and syntactic rules, emphasized the grammar instruction. In the mid-nineteenth century, however, voices rejected such teaching, such as those of Gouin, Saveur, Victor and Sweet, who proposed direct or natural methods based on the primacy of oral versus written language. Concerning these methods, grammatical rules were presented in an inductive way, they being presented after students had already considered the grammar points according to oral or written contexts.

Already in the present century, so-called structuralist and audio-lingual methods, based on a structuralist conception of the language and on behavioral theories of learning, emerged with great growth. According to these methods, the learning of a language consisted in the mastery of language elements and of the rules by which those elements are combined: phonemes in morphemes, morphemes in words, words in sentences and sentences in sentences. One also conceived to learn a language as a mechanical process of habit formation, which in practice led to the memorization of dialogues and the realization of various types of mechanical grammar exercises such as repetition, transposition, expansion and so on which were, in fact, the essential components of education.

Learning foreign languages (such as English) is an aspect that involves going beyond direct instruction and creating rich contexts with multiple opportunities (affordances) so that students with different abilities can intervene and in which grammar reflection is also given in various scenarios. It implies a conception of grammar not only at formal level, but integrated by the morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects.

The present paper is divided into three parts, respectively the scientific one, the methodical one and the research one. In this respect, the scientific part contains two chapters referring to general aspects regarding teaching grammar activities, as well as information about conditional sentences. In order to realize the first part of this study, I will use specialty literature and other various bibliographic resources.

The transition to part two is represented by the representation of methodical aspects. Thus, it will include suggestion for methodology, as well as the steps for creating a lesson plan or a test for assessment, with related examples.

The research part consists in an experimental study. In this respect, the study will highlight the major importance of teaching English in Romanian schools, but also the manner students of intermediate level understand and are able to apply noun phrase in different given situations.

CHAPTER I.

THE NOMINAL SYNTAGM IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY LINGUISTICS

1.1 Foundations for a study of the nominal syntagm.

The noun phrase (NP) has been studied mainly in the common and literary language, but its use and structure in the scientific-technical discourse, also called professional or academic, has still received attention from philologists and linguists, despite that the predominance, importance and difficulty of the nominal element in scientific prose is recognized. This circumstance is probably due to the fact that it constitutes a grammatical unit of remarkable complexity and versatility. At the same time, it is precisely the desire to contribute to a better knowledge (and, therefore, to a better understanding) of the functional structure of the NP in different types of texts, which has led us to carry out the present qualitative and quantitative study on it.

Until very recently and, above all, in a more traditional grammar line, there has been a certain neglect in the analysis of the Nominal Syntagma (NP in the following). Different linguists (De Haan 1989, Giorgi and Longobardi 1991, Jucker 1993b and Baron 1994, among others) have already alluded to the exclusion of the NP in most of the linguistic analyzes of previous eras in favour of the verbal part of the sentence. The latter, because it was considered erroneously more complex, has motivated a considerable volume of grammatical studies and has justified numerous and extensive investigations. It is verified that the verbal structures and the function of their multiple elements can reach, without a doubt, levels of real difficulty, but the simplicity can not be inferred from that, without a firm basis, the NP has sometimes been presupposed. This justifies, then, that the current linguistic studies begin to give importance to it in a more balanced proportion.

De Haan (1989, 1) argues that traditionally graded grammars, because they have discarded the NP category as a grammatical construct capable of encompassing a considerable accumulation of simultaneous relations and of considerable complexity, have often obviated the importance of such linguistic unity as object of study. An example of this is the more modern idea of ​​ NP as a structure that can hold the connection between a core and the clauses that are often contained in its post modification. The nature of these as a potential part of a syntagmatic unit was ignored for a long time, since these clauses of post-core modification have often been described with great lightness as a subclass -analysis comparable to the verb-dependent adverbials- that "in some way" could be related to a substantive antecedent. For a similar reason, according to De Haan himself (1989), non-personal relative clauses or verbal calls have sometimes received a different treatment than finite ones (without being considered as clauses, but, for example, as " participle constructions ") or verbal (classified as" adjuncts "), respectively. This linguist has attributed such incorrectness to the lack of coherence in the criteria for the distinction of syntactic-grammatical units, which is governed in certain cases by the form or structure thereof, while the distinctive pattern in others gives its function. As it is clear in the examples cited by the aforementioned author, the underestimation of the potentials of the syntagmatic unit that occupies us in the present work or the repeated omission of a treatment more appropriate to its semantic and structural scope, could have undesirable consequences in linguistics, such as descriptive insufficiencies, errors of interpretation or other nonsense of greater or lesser severity.

1.2 Universality, origin and interpretations of the concept.

The concept of NP, although it has been applied to a greater or lesser extent in research, has not always been part of linguistic theory. It is not even an entity universally applicable to all languages. This has been shown in some typological studies on their form and structure (Rijkhoff, 1992a and 1994) and on theoretical, comparative and diachronic aspects of nonverbal preaching (Hengeveld, 1992), since not all natural languages ​​use the same lexical and grammatical in their NPs (in case they have these syntagmas, since they do not always distinguish the category of noun nor present the same lexical catalogue). In fact, several linguists (such as Hudson, 1984) have questioned the nominality that is presupposed at the core of this syntagma – which, as Raumolin-Brunberg (1991:63) recalls, may also be occupied by elements such as a pronoun, a adjective or a quantifier, among others- and have even suggested replacing its extended denomination with the one of determining syntagma, although this proposal to consider the determinants as nuclei of the syntagma did not prosper. It seems certain, however, that the essentiality of the category of the noun is relative, since the latter by itself (De Haan, 1989: 5), isolated from the syntactic construction, completely lacks a referential function (Alston, 1964; Kempson, 1975), since "a noun can be used meaningfully only when it functions as part of a noun phrase" (original emphasis).

The reasons for such interlinguistic differences are varied, according to Rijkhoff (1992b: 1-3) in his comparison between a series of European and non-European languages. These factors include pragmatic factors (courtesy, familiarity, ability to remember, etc.), cognitive factors (such as the inclination of each language towards a certain level of syntagmatic complexity), stylistic factors (the differences between oral and written language, for example) or even personal (related to the user of the language, such as sex, age, social status, cultural level and so on.). In this sense, the ideal of Universal Grammar could be a fallacy. In addition, it is assumed that not all languages ​​exploit to the same point and in the same way the morphological, semantic, structural or functional resources with which they count.

Until well into the twentieth century (Expósito González, 1996:17) the NP unit, "understood as one of the categories of intermediate level between the lexical and orational units" and syntactically relevant and distinctive, does not take root in most grammar schools (at least that is the case in the study of the English language), since, during the long previous period, the verbal was the center of the sentence and the core of the message that it transmitted, so it was distinguished as Linguistic concept of greater substance and semantic, syntactic and textual relevance. González (1996: 22-23) warns that according to Trask (1993: 189), the generality of traditional grammars -based on the so-called parts of the sentence, without dwelling on their relationship patterns- did not recognize the NP, excepting for some that did it rather implicitly. Although Trask (1993) has placed the first allusion to NP in 1951 by the formalist Harris (who defined it rather diffusely as a segment of speech that admits an explicit description), González (1996: 23) recognizes the definitive use of the noun group concept (although an exceptionally and descriptively one, but still very weakly used) in Kruisinga's grammar, published in 1932.

Both Trask (1993) and González (1996) and many others agree, however, to admit that the concept of noun phrase (first with the group name and then with the phrase) can be attributed to the American structuralist school and dates of the thirties. González (1996: 40) has specified, however, that "the systematic grammatical exploitation is even later". This notion proliferated through the influence of Generative- Transformational Grammar, for which the syntagma constituted an intermediate level between those of clause and word, defined in the Chomskian theory as the maximum possible level projection for the lexical category of the name (Trask, 1993: 189; González, 1996: 17). Lerat (1997: 24) says in his book The Specialized Languages ​​that "the real Chomskianism value of the sixties consists of having provided a guiding thread to the descriptive studies that allowed advancing the syntagmatic knowledge of languages ​​far beyond what that had achieved the previous theories (of Guillaume and Hjelmslev in Europe) ".

The analysis of this syntagma (De Haan, 1989; González, 1996) has been addressed throughout its history from different perspectives, has enjoyed defenders (Hudson, 1980a and 1980b, among others) and has survived its detractors (Zwicky, 1978; Dahl, 1980; Hietaranta, 1981 and so on). Thus, for structuralism (Huddleston, 1988), the "life" of the NP as a unit depends on its core (a name), while, from the distributive point of view, its definition is only an appendix and is considered as the set of elements with the property of permuting their position within it. From a semantic prism, the function of reference (Dik, 1989) or of representation (Langacker, 1991) is attributed to the NP. At the same time, the functionalist conception of language describes it as that entity which, through its relationship with other sentence constituents, is capable of performing the functions of Subject, Object or Complement (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik, 1985). In contrast, other more formalistic positions of linguistic analysis consider that it is the morphological features of the NP that constitute its differentiating register. Each of these interpretations may be incomplete by itself, so an integrating perspective would seem most convenient to optimize the results of a study on the NP, which can be explained, after all, as an "analyzable abstract construction" from the language system (Lerat, 1997: 80), although it does not constitute an universal one.

1.3. Limitations of some existing descriptions.

As it has already been said, despite the fact that previously this unit has gone largely unnoticed in linguistic research, especially when compared to the verbal phrase and the elements dependent on it and / or contained in it, many scholars have coincided lately in the breadth of perspectives and points of interest susceptible to be raised in any rigorous description of it (León Pérez, 1995a). In fact, according to González (1996: 19), it could be said that not even generativist grammars -that, with figures like Chomsky and his school, almost always held the most outstanding places in the international panorama of linguistic research -mostly, Anglo-Saxon- devoted sufficient attention to the NP structure, excepting the works such as those of Lees (1961) and Giorgi and Longobardi (1991).

In effect, the linguists Giorgi and Longobardi (1991: 1), in a compilation of several of their studies on the NP's own syntax, pointed out that a review of the formalist studies on this unit showed the stagnation (very visible also during the previous thirty years) that suffered the issue after the "Remarks on nominalizations" of Chomsky in 1970. More specifically, it seems that there one can not talk about the internal structure of the NP in this linguistic paradigm until 1979, the year in which Anderson presented his doctoral thesis entitled Noun Phrase Structure, while some studies on NPs appeared in other languages, such as French or Italian. Apparently these shortcomings are explained by the fact that Chomsky (1970) established the premise – which was not very successful and remained fossilized for a decade – that the syntactic structure that is related to the verb is identical to the one that rotates in around the noun. Giorgi and Longobardi (1991: 1-2) explain this position of Chomsky (1970) affirming that, according to him, "lexical heads like Verbs and Nouns belonged to an underspecified category, unifying in a radical way the lexical and, to some extent, syntactic properties of these two categories" and they add that, despite the evolution in the theory of syntax and the works of Cinque (1980) and others, "this view […], though very natural, could not be pursued further, since Verbs and Nouns presented in the structure they project a number of differences which could not easily be observed in the theory at the time and were difficult to reconcile with their similarities".

More recently, Jucker (1993b) compiles in a joint edition a series of contributions by several authors from different points of view about the NP or focused on some of its elements or aspects. This work focuses on the importance of the analysis on variation, linguistic use and distribution of said syntagma, both in the general language and in the technical, scientific or literary language. At the same time, Jucker (1993b) emphasizes the need for more theoretical studies of metalinguistic character or properly descriptive (phonological, morphosyntactic, semantic or pragmatic) by means of corpus analysis, both from a diachronic and synchronic perspective. It highlights, in turn, the important implications that these works could have for comparative linguistic studies, the teaching of foreign languages ​​or translation, among other fields of possible application.

Some examples of such types of study are included in the compilation of Jucker (1993b). However, the various problems still unsolved of which the aforementioned work warns -as well as the repeated reflections on the structural and functional complexity of NP found in a large part of the bibliography that we have consulted- have sensitized us about the variety of unknowns and the potential difficulty that this grammatical entity implies (still today without exploring with total depth) as a challenge for the linguistics of the 21st century. Many of the descriptions one have in this field are partial in terms of scope; in this respect, they do not approach the NP as an integral unit with the set of their "problems" or "questions", but they limit themselves to examine certain constituent elements of the same or a certain characteristic of their functioning. On other occasions, these studies lack sufficient descriptive support, which means that they are theoretical markedly and are usually based predominantly on the linguist's subjective intuitions rather than on the systematic analysis of a representative body of texts. In addition, in many cases, the analyzed syntagmas belong to the most general use of the language, so they leave aside probable "consequences" of the professional or scientific use of the same that could be reflected in the phrases extracted from an appropriate corpus.

Finally, some of the reviewed studies present an eminently formalistic approach or, what is the same, they have diverted their attention from the basic communicative function of linguistic structures and adopt a more Cartesian and computational position of filiation and perform a less anthropological interpretation or sociological language. It is true that the syntax of what can be called "mental" according to Steel (1993), is linked to the language of thought, but the semantic content of mental representations is decisively conditioned by the social environment of use. This imbalance towards the formalist has been a dominant trend in linguistics for decades. Perhaps the integration of the two extreme paradigms (formalism and functionalism) in the conception of natural languages ​​and their different uses could be a better option (because it is more compendious and less exclusive) that would avoid certain partial positions and, therefore, some ominous omissions of those that suffer very valuable studies. However, this conciliatory solution, which does not exclusively and exclude a single paradigm, could object – desperately, as we believe – a less scientific character because it is perhaps less committed. However, in our opinion, the foundation of science is to put in continual doubt some approaches and those that (supposedly) are contrary to it. Steel (1993: 107) defends that "there are reasons to think that the two perspectives do not have to be completely incompatible and that, therefore, it is possible to defend that these conceptions attend to aspects of the nature of language complementary to each other."

1.4. Contextualization of the problem in linguistic studies.

Before presenting the functional analysis of the structure of the English NP that aims to address this research and the description of the theoretical framework that circumscribes it, it is convenient to expose a brief review of the state of knowledge about the problem in order to provide the reader with a general notion of the contributions that this field already has. For this, the works that, particularly in English, have been carried out on this syntagma in the last twenty years, either in the general use of this language, or on its own in the expression of science and technology, space in which the discourse that concentrates the descriptive interest of the present study is framed. The studies whose synthesis is offered below have served as a frame of reference, consultation and comparison for the present work, either by sticking to the description of the same linguistic unit, or by using a similar approach, having similar objectives, based on in a similar method or simply show interest in a common research plot. Although many may present ostensible differences in terms of the grammatical theoretical frameworks considered, the characteristics of the samples described, the situational context and the communicative purpose of the language under analysis, the types of text, the intrinsic properties of the discipline or the subjects treated and so on, each of the revised works pursues one way or another to shed more light on the internal structure of this construct from which, so far, have not addressed, as we shall see, all the linguistic "conflicts" posed .

1.5. The nominal syntagm in the grammatical studies of English.

Among the works we have reviewed there are some monographs such as, for example, the works of Varantola (1984), Jucker (1989,1992), Giorgi and Longobardi (1991), Raumolin-Brunberg (1991, 1993) and Expósito González (1996). All these works approach the NP problem from an integral perspective, as a whole, because they have contemplated the object of study in its holistic, global dimension, as a universe in itself and have analyzed it in an extensive way. Some of these authors have carried out their studies on linguistic variation (Raumolin-Brunberg, 1991, 1993); others have combined this perspective with a stylistic analysis (Jucker, 1989) or with a description of the structure of the syntagma (González, 1996), in which others have preferred to concentrate exclusively from a formalist theoretical point of view (Giorgi and Longobardi, 1991).

After the review that follows about the monographs on the object of study of this work, we will also refer to a series of publications of more limited magnitude. For the most part they are either more or less short articles, or more extensive treaties, such as Postmodifying Clauses in the English Noun Phrase by De Haan (1989) on the clauses in the postmodification or that of Raumolin-Brunberg (1993: 107-120 ) on the degree of stability and variability of the NP from the fifteenth century to the present day entitled "From Thomas More to Present-Day English: Noun Phrase Stability and Variability", which consist of analyzes focused only fractionally on the same syntagma. These studies present a circumscribed approach to one or several specific constituents of the NP unit and some of its internal relations or restricted to very specific problems related to its function or distribution.

1.6. Monographic works.

The mentioned works present certain common aspects. Thus, the grammatical framework used is a feature shared by the studies of Jucker (1989), Raumolin-Brunberg (1991) and González (1996). They address many of the issues raised by Quirk et al. in A Grammar of Contemporary English (1972) and, more specifically, in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985). On the one hand, among most of these studies there have been similar variables for the description of their respective syntax samples. In this respect, González (1996) adapted the system of parameters for the codification of the variables from the one already suggested at the time by Raumolin-Brunberg (1991), who in turn started from that proposed by Varantola (1984). The latter carried out a description of the structure of the NP in the corpus of a language for specific purposes -the English of engineering- and added a textual perspective to the syntactic analysis of this grammatical unit.

Of course, notable differences can also be pointed out between these works, such as the synchronic or diachronic approach, the chosen linguistic paradigm -especially the contrast between the work of Giorgi and Longobardi (1991) and the other works- or the concrete use (general or specific one) of the language from which the NP s that are examined are extracted, in what later we will insist. On the one hand, we can distinguish the authors who have directed their interest towards the NP in the context of the general use of the language (Giorgi and Longobardi, 1991). Others, however, have observed the same phenomenon in a specific linguistic use, being the focus of attention the English of bureaucratic language (González, 1996), journalistic (Jucker, 1989), literary (Raumolin-Brunberg, 1991) or scientific-technical (Varantola, 1984), to which special attention is devoted in the present study as reference work and point of comparison of results and conclusions.

1.7. Socio-stylistics of the nominal syntagm in the periodistic language.

Jucker's analysis (1989), entitled "Stylistic Variation in the Syntax of the British Newspaper Language", constitutes, in essence, a study of the socio-stylistic variation of the structure and syntactic complexity of NPs extracted from a corpus. The analyzed texts are extracts of some numbers acquired, according to the researcher (1989: 4), "more or less at random" from the British press written in the period between October, 1987 and February, 1988. Jucker aimed to perform a new assessment of the traditional tools of sociolinguistics for stylistic studies in order to provide certain contributions of interest for both fields and describe the exploitation of the NP and its syntax at the service of journalistic language. Jucker (1989: 6) analyzes the performance of the NP as a stylistic marker by examining its variation, even within a small range of different styles, for which it also offers a brief grammatical description of this unit in the general use of the language. Stylistic Variation in the Syntax of the British Newspaper Language presents a detailed view of the English NP structure in which it refers to the grammatical categories that constitute it and to the functions of the determinants and modifiers that gravitate previously and subsequently to its nucleus. The author also devotes a chapter exclusively to the appositions of proper names and titles or honorary treatments.

With the aim of determining the different socio-stylistic levels of the contemporary British journalistic genre, Jucker (1989) stops at the analysis of the internal modification of the NP. By considering this structural unit, like other linguists (Varantola, 1984, among them), as a style marker, the linguist concentrates his attention on it, motivation also shared by Raumolin-Brunberg (1991) in his work on the same unit, although contextualized in another epoch (the sixteenth century), within another genre (the literary one) and with a corpus of another nature (texts by a single author). Jucker, on the other hand, analyzes a total of 43,000 NPs, although without distinguishing between the different syntagmatic levels in which they are performed, so that all NPs receive a homogeneous descriptive treatment. This contrasts greatly with the studies of Raumolin-Brunberg (1991) and González (1996), which concentrate on the grammatical description of the syntactic expansions of the highest level of the syntagmas in the clause (2651 and 6602 cases, respectively), although considering the unit as indicative index of a certain phase in the evolutionary process of the English language (González studied the 15th century and Raumolin-Brunberg, the 16th), without implying diachronicity. This disparity of criteria for the identification of the syntagma’ s object of study has as a positive result in the work of Jucker (1989) the consideration of a greater number of NPs submitted to examination. In return, the uniform treatment that this author provides to all of them (regardless of whether their level was syntagmatic, sentence, etc.) has been assessed as an error, in the opinion of some analysts (González, 1996), to which we add. In fact, the questionable homogeneity of the Jucker’s syntagmatic sample could result in a lower reliability of its conclusions about the socio-stylistic use of the syntagma and its structure, level of complexity and distribution.

Finally, regarding the number of informants, Jucker (1989) decides to stick to a representation of the British journalistic language of varied authorship; González (1996), as will be seen, to the expression of the documentary genre in charge of the officials of the London Chancellery and Raumolin-Brunberg (1991), to a literary selection of various writings by Tomás Moro, the only author of the texts of the sample (in spite of which the author considered it representative). Regarding this aspect, it can be noted that the analyzes of Jucker and Expósito González adopt a paradigm dependent on the speaker (speaker dependent or interspeaker variationist), similar to that of Labov (1972), Trudgill (1983) or Milroy (1980, 1987), reason why personal variables are not fixed or controllable. On the contrary, Raumolin-Brunberg adopts a situation dependent or intraspeaker variationist paradigm, such as Crystal and Davy (1969), Halliday (1978) or Biber (1985, 1986a, by 1988), which explains why their Circumstantial variables are more subject to changes than personal ones, which do remain uniform in this case.

1.8. Historical grammar of the nominal syntagm in literary texts.

Regarding the genre addressed, the method of corpus collection and analysis, and the time frame, the work of Raumolin-Brunberg (1991) presents notable differences with respect to the aforementioned Jucker (1989). In his work The Noun Phrase in Early Sixteenth-Century English. A Study Based on Sir Thomas More's Writings, Raumolin-Brunberg (1991) also studies the variation of the structure of the NP in relation to its context of use, but within a corpus consisting of texts written by a single author (which provides greater reliability) in different personal situations and social positions, from which he extracted 2,651 examples. The linguistic stage studied in this case is early modern English (first half of the 16th century). The work of Raumolin- Brunberg represents an attempt to elucidate the relationship between the linguistic use of the epoch and the structure and internal relations of the NP. His is a synchronic study, but concentrated in a concrete historical moment of the evolution of English. Raumolin-Brunberg (1991: 62-109) offers an overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of the structure of the English NP and part of the concept of syntagma, through its internal constituents (determinants, modifiers, and nucleus) and dependency relationships among them, until reaching more problematic issues, such as the analysis of the so-called "verbal names" (almost equivalent to the controversial nominalizations), 3 relative clauses, grammaticalization and lexicalizations. Nor does the author forget a series of general considerations about the Late Middle English NP.

It also addresses the description of Raumolin-Brunberg (1991: 111-272) the characteristics of simple and complex NPs (their elements and relationships), their extension and frequency, the order of words and the variation of elements before and after the nucleus to establish, finally, a comparison between the NP profile of the early sixteenth century and that of the current standard English. This work also presents an examination of the inter-textual variation of said syntagmatic structure according to a series of extralinguistic conditioning factors.

1.9. Structure of the nominal syntagm in the transformational syntax.

Following the theoretical framework of the Transformationalist theory of Government and Binding and with the title The Syntax of Noun Phrases, regarding configuration, parameters and empty categories, Giorgi and Longobardi (1991) publish a solid compilation of studies on the NP structure as an argument for what they call lexical projections of the language. After an introductory reflection on what it means to analyze the NP in the paradigm that serves as environment, these authors defend the existence of the so-called "empty categories", besides studying the word order and the Principles of the Chomskian Projection, on whose theory describes some advances in relation to the projections of the determinant. These linguists propose a series of tests to determine the semantic and syntactic circumstances that cause the fact that an empty pronominal subject is performed through the NP category and analyze the structural behavior of the nominal nucleus. In short, Giorgi and Longobardi (1991) provide a broad theoretical description of the NP structure (nucleus, specifiers, genitives, adjectives, possessives, etc.) with inter-linguistic applications, a structure possibly extendable to the other Romance languages, which contrast in the same aspects with the Germanic ones.

The description of the internal structure of the NP in the work of Giorgi and Longobardi (1991) is generated under the pretext of covering some of the needs arising from the empirical challenges disclosed in several studies on the same grammatical unit and to suggest at the same time , some ideas aimed at improving Chomsky's grammar. Linguists represent the NP structure using the tree diagrams characteristic of Chomsky's "X-Bar" theory, which was originally elaborated by Jackendoff (1977). In such schemes, each category or syntagma is located in one of the "nodes" or branching points of the "tree". It presupposes a regime relationship (or domain, "government") of the most complex categories (or syntagmas) over the simplest ones. In the words of Giorgi and Longobardi (1991: 8) "every word is a head and every head projects higher constituents of a corresponding category type: the highest will be called maximal projection". Among those "maximum projections" is the noun phrase, along with other syntagms such as verbal, adjective, etc.

Inspired by the generalizations of the works of Cinque (1980: 1981), Giorgi and Longobardi (1991) update and extend the linguist's analysis of the internal structure of the NP, the relations of the regime, the position, the ergativity, the movements – towards the area of ​​the Specifier, if they are exogenous with respect to the syntagma- and, finally, they suggest a treatment that they considered more appropriate, from their perspective of formalist syntactic theory, for the interlinguistic problem of word order. In this respect, Giorgi and Longobardi conclude that the internal structure and the locatable empty categories within the NP are very similar to those of the clause. In short, we can highlight the work of these linguists, on the one hand, the concept of internal regime relations to NP and, on the other, their proposals for a new theory of extraction generated from this syntagma and for the improvement of the famous Chomskian theories and Goverment and Binding (Giorgi and Longobardi 1991: 57).

1.10 Partial studies.

The dimension of the scope of these works is given by the specificity of the aspect that concerns them, since they describe the grammatical entity of the NP as a fragmentary reality and from a non-totalizing perspective, less global and more atomistic than the works described above. In general, these studies are limited to the analysis of several specific aspects of the linguistic phenomenon that concerns us, some of which constitute topics that have attracted the attention of the authors in a particularly recurrent manner.

1.10.1. Description of constituent elements.

As a first illustration of the variety of interests presented by the analyzed works, the studies by Chesterman (1993: 13-24) on the article will serve; de Fries (1993: 25-44) on the gradation of the adjective; de Dahl (1993: 45-56) on the composite adjective modifier; of Warren (1993: 57-68) on the contrast between the adjective modifiers and the nouns, that of Varantola (1993: 69-83) on the use of the nominal modifier or that of Jucker (1993a: 121) on the structures that express possession through the Saxon genitive and the prepositional phrase with of. All of them can be consulted, among others, in the work published by the same Jucker (1993b) on the structure and variation of the English NP and represent contributions to the knowledge of said syntagma whose descriptions are adjusted, as we see, to one or several elements of the set without trying to cover all the elements involved in it. Two corpus studies by Botley and McEnery (2001) on demonstrations are also considered.

Chesterman (1993) carries out a classification of the article in English based not only on grammatical but, above all, pragmatic criteria (variation, use, reference, situation, cultural context, Principles such as those of the Levinson Information, the Rationality of Kasher, the Economy of Leech and the Maximum of Amount of Grice). Fries (1993) makes a diachronic study of the adjective in a corpus and focuses on the phenomenon of gradation. In this regard, he concludes that the adjective in a comparative or superlative form is usually infrequent in modern English (if contrasted with the early modern), as is the case with periphrastic comparatives (because speakers prefer inflection), which, however, in certain occasions (almost always for reasons of style) they can occupy the place that would correspond to the flexed forms according to what the linguistic norm establishes in principle. Finally, an outline on the work of Dahl (1993), also with the adjective represents an object of study.

Warren (1993) performs a study of adjectives and nouns that act as modifiers (to characterize or define, correspondingly) the nucleus of the NP and delimits the differences (semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological) between them. The author analyzes in this work the characteristics of certain elements of the modification that share both adjective and substantive properties and functions. Jucker (1993a) examines in his study of journalistic English both particular and common functions of the expression of possession by prepositional phrases and the Saxon genitive and determines the lexical reasons (semantic nature of the modifying noun), syntactic (type of relationship between nucleus and modifier) ​​and pragmatic (attitude of the speaker, degree of formality of the communicative exchange, interpersonal relationship between speakers, objective and nature of the message, etc.) that condition the inclination of the speaker for one or the other option. The distribution and thematic organization of the information are used as some of the reasons that may explain certain uses that apparently seem exceptional in the use of these two linguistic alternatives.

1.10.2 Definition of certain internal relations.

One argues that the problem of modification (before or after the nominal nucleus) has worried a remarkable number of NP scholars. One can cite, for example, the work on the headlines of the press written in English made by Mårdh (1980), entitled Headliness. On the Grammar of English Front Page Headlines, in which the author gives a count of the constituents in both types of modification of the NP and concludes that those that present only one of the two types are usually, paradoxically, more extensive than those that contain both of them. However, the subject of the modification has interested in a particular way to De Haan, since several are the works that it realizes on the mentioned subject. From the statistical analysis of a corpus, De Haan (1989), in his work Postmodifying Clauses in the English Noun Phrase. A Corpus-Based study, presents the detailed examination of a series of syntactic properties typical of the modifying clauses of 2,430 NPs placed in position after the nucleus and the relationship between them. These had been treated in the more traditional grammars under the generic heading of "attributive clauses", because they are elements that usually qualify or modify a name.

Since almost the only type of modification studied so far was that of the relative clause, De Haan (1989) proposes a change of perspective for the study of this aspect of English that abandoned a formal consideration (as a "type of clause"). introduced by relative pronouns"), already outdated and limited, to move towards a more functional orientation based on the notion of construction or grammatical unit, that is, based on the concept of NP. It can not be said that De Haan (1989: 2) has followed a specific linguistic theory, although the descriptive approach of his study is clearly centered on the use of the language, based on some structuralist and traditional analyzes of the NP to verify the validity of the same, with some pretensions to also analyze the distribution of this syntagma in different varieties of English. After reviewing the notion of NP in accordance with the more traditional postures of linguistics, some structuralist analysis and some transformational grammars (De Haan 1989: 8-27), the considerations of this author (1989: 53-192) focus on the elements and mechanisms of the internal postmodification of the NP to offer a typology of the postmodifiers from the functional and formal points of view, thus describing their syntactic properties, their presence in different NP types and their frequency.

It also examines the clauses and the verbal phrase as elements that can intervene in the nominal postmodification, as well as the function of the links, among other aspects. The structural elements described in this work receive the denomination of determinants, a term that refers in this work to the elements of the previous and subsequent modification to the nucleus of the NP. Their results cover different areas, such as the structure and function of the NPs with postmodifying clauses of various types (explanatory and specifics, averbales, apositive, etc.), the grammatical patterns of the same, as well as the realization and reference of the nuclei of the NPs that contain them. This work also deals with the influence of NP structure on other structures (De Haan 1989: 24). One may consider that the analysis performed by De Haan (1989) constitutes a step forward in the studies on the NP, since for almost all traditional grammarians, with rare exceptions, the possibility of constituting a NP had been, until then, limited to a few monolexical elements such as adjectives, pronouns, etc., because this was considered a vetoed land, therefore, for units such as the clause. According with De Haan (1989: 2), a large sector of grammar begins to consider that a postmodifier must be defined exclusively from the notion of NP: "noun phrases can have a variety of structures. One of these structures involves the presence of an attributive adjunct in post-head position: the postmodifier." The author also offers a detailed quantitative analysis of NPs without prenuclear functions, of defined and undefined NPs and their premodifying elements. In summary, it is clear from the description of the corpus of this work that in more than half of the NPs with postmodification it is a clause that performs such a function (De Haan 1989: 2). This scholar dedicates, on the other hand, an entire chapter to a specific aspect of the NPs with postmodification: the distribution and concludes that the nucleus seems to be an area of ​​maximum tendency to variation in the NP.

According to this analysis, the textual variety, in which the function of the NP has an indirect effect in turn, could explain to some extent the position and size of its post-modifying clause. Also, it verifies that the texts of the corpus not belonging to the genres of fiction (that represented two thirds of the sample) tend to present syntactic structures of greater complexity, while the post-modifying clauses of the NPs extracted from the fiction texts are, for generally, shorter and simpler, which then thrives as a widely accepted generalization. De Haan also tackles other aspects related to NP, such as coordination or apposition – Acuña Fariña's doctoral thesis (1993a: 6), entitled On So Called Appositive Structures in English-, grammatical phenomena that had been discarded or, less, neglected in previous studies. Previously this linguist had made certain incursions in the field of the same syntagma, in "Exploring the Linguistic Database: Noun Phrase Complexity and Language Variation" or, again on postmodification, "Relative Clauses in Indefinite Noun Phrases", both of 1987, in addition to a work published in 1984 ("Relative Clauses Compared") and in another one, together with Van Hout from 1988 ("Syntactic Features of Relative Clauses in Text Corpora"). The latter shows that the relationship between the position of the relative clause and the function of the NP is more complex than many early studies on language acquisition had warned.

1.10.3 Delimitation of some syntatic functions.

The results of the work performed by De Haan (1989) on the postmodification indicate that, regarding the position of the NPs with postmodification, they apparently show a preference for the final zone and avoid the initial or the previous to the final. It follows that its usual syntactic functions are not those of Indirect or Subject Complement (unless the postmodification is extrapolated at the end of the clause or are formal existential constructions of the type "There is evidence (to suggest) that …"). In addition, apparently, the post-core modification adopts the same functions as the previous one, so it is concluded that both do not usually coexist in the same NP. The author also points out differences between written scientific English and that of conversation (about structural complexity, internal modification and so on) to reach several conclusions similar to those of another study conducted much earlier by Aarts (1971) regarding the behavior of the NP in English in a work entitled "On the Distribution of Noun-Phrase Types in English Clause-Structure", which detects the existence of a close relationship between the structure of the syntagma, its function and its distribution in the clause.

1.11. Study of the words order.

The position of the syntagma, together with the sequence and capacity of movements of its constituents, stands out prominently among the various topics that have generated grammatical investigations about the English NP. In this field, De Monnink (1996) publishes an article on the mobility of NP elements, entitled "A First Approach to the Mobility of Noun Phrase Constituents". It seems that until now there was insufficient analysis about the nature and frequency of realization of the syntagmatic constituents called "mobile". Regarding the English NP, this author bases his work on three classes of elements with mobility capacity that are specific to the modification, which he calls discontinuous modifiers ("discontinuous modifiers"), shifted premodifiers ("shifted premodifiers") and floating post-modifiers.

As Quirk et al. (1985: 48), De Monnink (1996) uses the term mobility as an expression of the ability of a constituent to move to a "higher" unit (Dubois 1982 used this label, however, to refer to the changes between positions of different functions). Previously, Halliday (1994: 3-24) had alluded to the same concept through the denomination of change of rank of the constituents, while analyzing the concept of constitution ("constituency") in writing, speech and also in grammar. It seems clear that the mobility of the constituents of a sentence or clause is restricted to the same syntactic level, that is, it is intra-level. However, De Monnink (1996) shows that the constituents of the syntagmatic level tend to have greater mobility or, what is the same, they have a mobility of inter-level reach since they are capable of occupying positions that transcend the border of the syntagma itself.

Also on nominal postmodification, but with the objective of studying the ordering of its components, other worthy analyzes are available. Oostdijk and Aarts (1997), in their article "Multiple Postmodification in the English Noun Phrase", work resulting from the analysis of a corpus of texts, review a selection of NPs with multiple postmodification to elucidate the linear order to which the different categories of the same. Quirk et al. (1985: 1296) defined multiple postmodification as the concurrence of several modifiers subsequent to the nominal nucleus, which can themselves be of different types: a prepositional phrase, a clause or, less frequently, a noun, adjectival or adverbial phrase. Likewise, one can speak of multiple postmodification when a modifier is applied to more than a single core. Oostdijk and Aarts (1997) try to compensate with their work an important academic void, because – in spite of existing very complete classifications of the constituents of the nominal postmodification and some comparative studies on the use of the genitive and the constructions with of- it had been lent. Until then, very little attention has been given to the conditions to which the phenomenon of multiple postmodification is subject.

1.11.1 Analysis of aspects of textual distribution.

In 1993, De Haan reviews the interrelation between the textual dimension of the language and the structure, type and function of the NP in his "Noun Phrase Structure as an Indication of Text Variety". To his previous conclusions, this linguist adds that verbal constructions predominate in the literary text together with a structurally simpler NP that usually performs the subject's syntactic function, whereas nominal constructions are shown as markers of the non-literary text. The same article proves that the NP can be a factor indicative of the type of text (because they are intimately related), since the functions and combinations of the different classes of syntagma and its constituents can mediate their textual distribution. Thus, for example, the number and type of postmodifiers can also be conditioned by the textual type in which the NPs that contain them occur, since, although these distribution differences are not very striking, according to the study, it does seem which are statistically significant. De Haan understands, then, that the grammatical variation of the NP can have implications in the textual variation. As previous studies have shown-and despite some counterexamples-it seems that fiction texts have a tendency to use much less complex NPs (and the opposite is observed in non-fiction ones), especially if they play the syntactic function of subject.

1.11.2 Illustration of the discursive dimension.

The "behaviour" of the NP in a specific linguistic use also constitutes the subject of some studies, such as "The Noun Phrase in Advertising English", in which Rush (1998) offers a formal description of two unusual features of the behavior of the English NP that they did seem "normal" (respectively, systematic) in the advertising of the written press. The examples analyzed in this work come from newspapers and magazines in circulation between 1993 and 1996 in Canada and the United States. The author studies, on the one hand, the capacity of the NP unit to function as an independent clause in each of the sections of the announcement: holder, subtitle, signature of the advertised product and body of the text. On the other hand, it analyzes the structural complexity of the previous modification of the core of the syntagma, which is a trait that probably shares with the scientific text in general due to the common needs of linguistic economy. Other demands, perhaps not so common, also seem to explain this complexity, among which we can mention, in the case of advertising texts, the abundant use of adjectives in the comparative and superlative degrees or of compounds referring to sensations, colors, etc. and certain tendencies of word order (such as placing the product or the commercial brand in the first positions) that, it seems, represent an alteration of the habitual sequences in the English NP.

1.12 Other approaches.

Without intention of exhaustiveness, some other studies on the subject that concerns us could still be cited. However, for reasons of limited space and because many of them are already prior to the last twenty years in which one focused our literature review (from 1982 the oldest work included in our scrutiny, corresponding to that of Dubois on the NP in several articles of zoology), one will highlight only some more studies, following a strictly chronological order. Thus, Chatman's article (1960) entitled "Pre-Adjectives in the English Nominal Phrase", on the position of the pre-determiner in the English NP, presents an analysis of certain NP elements such as adjectives, participles, names or genitive noun phrases and even those adverbs (such as even, just, only, etc.) called "limiters" and also defined as part of the syntagma, of which we can already see that they require a different treatment than those that modify other parts of prayer. Later, Lees (1961) carries out a work, framed in the Transformational Grammar, entitled "The Constituent Structure of Noun Phrases" which, in fact, is counted among the few transformational descriptions dedicated exclusively to the NP and not as part of the discussion of other topics (pronominalization, nominalization, relativization or the insertion of clauses). Dean's paper (1966), "Determiners and Relative Clauses", consists, in turn, of a description of the relationship between the elements before and after the nucleus, although not in a very broad way.

Within this last period prior to the period covered by our review, Hill (1966) presents an experiment in "Postnominal Modifiers" in which he studies the effect of intonation on relative clauses, both restrictive and explanatory. It seems that only the first type shows changes in intonation. This NP approach is especially focused on the description of the premodifier and the core, as most structuralists have done. In 1970, Yotsukura wrote a book called The Articles in English. A Structural Analysis of Usage, in which he performs the quantitative analysis of a corpus that has been criticized for its excessive extension: the extracted sample consisted of a total of 8,936 names among the 100 most frequent of West's lists (1953) and Thorndike and Lorge (1959), from nine textbooks for secondary education. Later, Aarts (1971) publishes "On the Distribution of Noun-Phrase Types in English Clause-Structure", where a great difference can be appreciated regarding the distribution of NPs with and without modification according to the function they perform in the sentence. Moreover, Aarts (1971) detects the weight of the modification of the NP on its own sentence function (for example, it seems that it is less common for an NP with premodification to function as Subject). This study determines, in turn, the restrictions imposed by the NP function on its performance. Regarding this last consideration, the author (Aarts, 1971) proposes the division of the NPs into simple (light) and complex (heavy) -translated own, according to the nature and category of the core and its accompanying elements. This work is based on a corpus of the Survey of English Usage, from which fiction, scientific, informal and formal use texts, both oral and written, were extracted, which the authoritative opinion of De Haan (1989: 200) considered appropriate. on the basis of the similarity of their own results with those of Aarts (1971), with the exception of some trends (De Haan 1989: 172) that could not be applied to the post-modification of the NP. Somewhat later, Delorme and Dougherty (1972), in "Appositive NP Constructions: we, the men; we men; I, a man; etc. ", they try to show that it is the nouns and not the NPs that can function as antecedents of the relative clause. Finally, Kuno (1974), exponent of a conservative linguistic formalism -although cataloged as functionalist by Nichols (1984: 102-3) in his classification of the schools of such current- publishes the paper "The Position of Relative Clauses and Conjunctions". It deals with, among other matters of interest, the functions that can be assumed and that the NP tends to comply with in relation to relative clauses. This atomistic perspective of some specific aspects treatment regarding the syntagma, continues to be maintained in some recent studies, of which Acuna Farina (1998) is an example, on the phenomenon called right dislocation in the complement clauses or That-clauses.

NOTE

Traditionally the concept of style has been very ambiguous and susceptible to various interpretations, sometimes confusing and overlapping in other definitions such as gender, registration, type of text or even specific language, according to the views of different scholars and schools. Lerat (1997: 16) offers an alternative to the imprecision with which this term has been used, which he has referred to as the set of the most striking differences in a peculiar way of expressing himself, citing the archaisms as an example of their common features or the phraseology. The second part of this work makes some allusions about what this term implies in our work and some observations about what is called academic style. It should be noted, perhaps, that with regard to this issue we agree with Lerat (1997: 80) when he states that "what one expects from the syntactic analysis of specialized languages ​​is their ability to linguistically express dominant habits in such text type, that is, a style ", especially because some authors (Varantola, 1984; Jucker, 1989) estimate that NP can be a style marker in certain specific linguistic contexts. The so-called school of Washington – a group of linguists interested in rhetoric grouped in 1978 under the influence of Trimble- believes that the style in specialized texts conforms to the rhetorical techniques essential for the adequate expression (from a technical point of view) of a state of affairs, in such a way that it can achieve the greatest possible communicative effect among specialists – see the publication English for Specific Purposes: Science and Technology, by Trimble and Drobnic (1978). Consequently, functional types of style can be defined as abstractions of types of text in different areas of human activity, such as literature, advertising or scientific prose, based on choices (both conscious and unconscious) of the speaker (Doležel, 1969).

CHAPTER II.

COMPLEXITY AND COMPOSITION OF THE NOMINAL SYNTAGM IN SPECIFIC ENGLISH

2.1. Background

The Theory of Functional Grammar (or GF Theory) of Dik (1989, 1997a and 1997b) -functional reference model in this research for the determination of the categories destined to the description of academic articles corpus defines the NP basically as the linguistic unit that natural human languages ​​have to express the reference in its various uses (both general and specific). From this perspective, it follows that the linguistic instrument to refer to objects, people, facts, opinions and so on that are part of the extralinguistic world is, par excellence, the syntagma that in this investigation interests us.

From the philosophy of language point of view, Lerat (1997:18) emphasized that "specialized knowledge has a linguistic name thanks to terms, which are generally words and groups of words (nominal, adjective, verbal, etc.), subject to conventional definitions. "It can be argued, then, that the words or groups of words constitute the terminological repertoire characteristic of any specific subject or activity, since the specialized terminology is not presented as a set of notions but is materialized in form of expressions, in order to name things or concepts of the specific profession or disciplinary field (Lerat 1997: 17). According to the above, one of the central functions of the NP (which has a term) in the text of any language for specific purposes is not only to designate (name, indicate, indicate) but, above all, to designate, in this respect, as Kleiber (1981) explains, to name a notion, an object or a class of them. Hence, it can be admitted that the grammatical description of the NP in varied samples of specific English could enrich the knowledge about the articulation of the means and linguistic mechanisms useful for the naming and rhetorical expression of concepts and procedures in different academic activities). Therefore, one of the basic characteristics of the specific use of languages ​​(to which we will refer hereinafter with expressions such as specialized languages ​​or, preferably, languages ​​for specific purposes), in addition to the well-known ones of economy and clarity in the Presentation of the contents, is the use of specific terminology. All science needs to be expressed through different languages ​​and for this aspect requires the use of both an important technical apparatus and certain effective mechanisms for the creation of neologisms. This happens because the terms available in linguistic usage are often insufficient to satisfy the designation of realities as changing as those inherent in academic environment. When the tool used for this is the natural language, not only the morphological and purely lexical means of it are useful, since, in one way or another, they constitute finite paradigms (use the current use of the script in the scientific language -technical as an example of one of the logical consequences in this ongoing attempt to solve lexical constraints). All this justifies the important role that the syntax (hence the internal structure and functions) of the NP can play in the description of specialized languages ​​in general and scientific-technical discourse in particular.

2.2. Treatment of tangential aspects

Regarding languages ​​for specific purposes, Swales (1990: 131-312), in his well-known work Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings, offers a list of the textual studies carried out between 1972 and 1988 on different grammatical aspects or of linguistic variation in gender – or subgenre, as some prefer to call it (Bathia, 1993, among others) – of the research article, which makes up the corpus of texts analyzed in this paper. Of all the entries in the list of Swales (around 43), the only work that deals with aspects related to NP- despite the possibilities of this entity for the denomination, abstraction and synthesis, which is so prone to the scientific language- is the one that Dubois made in 1982, under the title of "The Construction of Noun Phrases in Biomedical Journal Articles", based on a reduced corpus of journal articles on zoology, for example. In the strictly related to the academic discourse (which will focus our work), the verb is the grammatical aspect that has aroused the greatest interest (Wingard, 1981, Malcolm, 1987), as well as some descriptions that are told about the variation and discursive structure of certain sections of the research article and of some other genres (Bruce, 1983; McKinlay, 1984; Adams Smith, 1984 and 1987). In the studies on specific discourse, the verbal aspect has been, in the same way as in those on the language of general use, much more protagonist than the nominal, of what is proved by the well-known work of Swales (1976) entitled "Verb Frequencies in Scientific English ", which had so much impact. However, as it can be seen below, the nominal peculiarities of English in academic purpose did arouse interest and curiosity in certain specific areas of linguistic research.

2.3 The theme of complexity and composition.

Also in the field of languages ​​for specific purposes, the flexibility and complexity of the semantic and syntactic structure of the NP, subjects widely studied in the general language, have aroused some research. One found some works on this syntagma, not focused specifically on the Academic English, but in specific English, such as Ellegard's (1978), entitled "The Syntactic Structure of English Texts", according to which the largest dimension of sentences found in a sample of specific English (in comparison with three others taken from the Brown Corpus of Present-Day American English Prose) are due to the copious modification by adjective clauses present in the NPs, although Johansson (1978), in "Some Aspects of The Vocabulary of Learned and Scientific English", attributed to the scarcity of personal pronouns the remarkable sentence dimension linked to the specific text.

In the semantic-lexical aspect, with important pedagogical implications, the theme of the nominal compound stands out, which qualifies Salager-Meyer (1983b: 142) as "the major difficulty in the reading of English specific literature" for implying "a major obstacle to the overall comprehension of the texts "even for native speakers", as affirmed by Todd-Trimble and Trimble (1976). The compounds have also been studied in general English in an article by Downing (1977) "On the Creation and Use of the English Compound Nouns"; but in the specific one, Salager-Meyer's research is particularly prolific. On NPs composite, the author publishes "Compound Words in Technical Russian and Technical English Literature: a Comparative Study" (1980), "Compound Nominal Phrases in Scientific Technical Literature: Proportion and Rationale" (1983b) and, on specific discourse exclusively, "Syntax and Semantics of Compound Nominal Phrases in Medical English Literature: A Comparative Study with Spanish" (1985a). According to Salager-Meyer (1983b, 136 and 140), the essence of the so-called compound NPs is explained by the principle of economics that is consubstantial to specific writing. After comparing a corpus of texts with one of general use written in English, Salager-Meyer (1983b) measures the frequency of this type of NP (which he defines as "single 'condensed' word combination", Salager- Meyer 1983b: 140), to qualify that only in extreme cases is composed of more than five lexical units (Salager Meyer 1983b: 139), although it offers examples such as this complex of space engineering: nozzle gas ejection space ship attitude control. It seems that the average extension of these compounds is similar, according to the Salager Meyer count (1983b), in different samples of the corpus, although the more specialized the texts are, the more extensive are the compound syntagmas they contain. The author concludes (1983b: 142) that there is also a significant difference in the higher frequency of these NPs in English for technical use.

But the problem of compounds, this time of adjectival type, promotes some more work. Dahl (1993) publishes an article about it from a specific study. In it, the adjective composed of the nominal modification is defined as a distinctive feature of technical English. The linguistic economy, the coherence and textual cohesion and the expression of complex concepts by means of a single word are among the functions that Dahl (1993) attributes to the element analyzed. Its frequent use can be explained, according to the author, with both lexical arguments (due to its neologizing and terminological function) and structural arguments (due to its classification and hierarchizing function).

On the unstable nature of the constituents of the structure of the NP, in a shorter work published later to his thesis (1984) and entitled "From Thomas More to Present-Day English: Noun Phrase Stability and Variability", Raumolin-Brunberg (1993) ) lays the foundations on the absence of major changes with respect to the capacity for variation and function of the NP in its evolution from early modern English to the present, since both its constituent elements and the relationship established between them prove to be very similar in both periods. The sensitivity of the NP structure to certain linguistic and extralinguistic circumstances does, however, show some variations in the frequency, distribution and use of certain elements, attributable, according to the author, to the linguistic register, the motivation and the subject of the message, the type of receiver and its relation to it or the context in general. The abundant use of nominal modifiers, so reviled by many traditional posture stylists, has its reason for being, according to the author, in an extended inclination to generalization and abstraction in the way of interpreting the world. His diachronic analysis of different texts since 1750 confirms that the multiple nominal premodification (or recurrent, as others call it) is a great performance tool for the expression of new concepts through terminological innovation (in specific language) and for economics (in the journalistic language and others).

2.4 The purpose of the nominal modification.

The center of numerous works on specific English has also been the problem of the modification of the noun, either through another noun or through a series of them, or even through highly complex structures, as is evident in the work Postmodifying Clauses in the English Noun Phrase. A Corpus-Based Study (De Haan, 1989) was already described. With a double interest for compound nouns and nominal modification, Bartolič (1978), after a formal study of the so-called nominal compounds, writes the article entitled "Nominal Compounds in Technical English" to demystify the underlined "static" character attributed to the NP in English specific discourse, in which it functionally analyzes the complexity of the prenuclear modification (in which it registered from one to six possible nouns). Bartolič (1978) states that this is a consequence of the simplification inherent in those definitions in which the information is known to the reader, in which case a mobilization of the postmodification to the position prior to the nucleus usually occurs.

In the same field, the multiple nominal modification of nouns still occupies a notable space in the analysis of specific languages, although it seems that, in turn, it is a phenomenon inherent to the most common (less marked) syntax of English usage. general. Bolinger (1967: 297-99), who since 1952 had devoted his attention to this topic in a preliminary article entitled "Linear Modification", highlights in "Damned Hyphen" the greatest syntactic difficulty -and semantics, it may be added- that implies this type of modification (by the implicit of its connections – ideal, interpersonal and textual) and shows that the tendency toward it in the English of science has its explanation in the greater objectivity of the semantic content of the noun compared to that which is characteristic of the adjective. With respect to this issue, Woolley (1997) analyzes, as will be seen in the following pages, several examples of recurrent modification of the nominal nucleus in phrases delimited in a corpus of texts.

Again in the field of substantive modification, another aspect that continues to arouse some interest even today is the tendency that is assigned to the specific text to a dense premodification of NP, for its classification function, as opposed to post-modification, which it is rather descriptive and less specific to specific language (see Leech 1966: 128 or Dubois 1982), while more "normal" according to Quirk (1971: 172-73). Consequently, while the previous modification seems to be superficially linear, the posterior to the nucleus tends to be based on more explicit syntactic dependencies from which semantic relations are also more intelligible and transparent, which, as has been demonstrated, demand less specific knowledge on the part of the receiver; regarding Bolinger’s message (1952: 1117), he notes a contrast between prenuclear and postnuclear modification based on the permanent, typical (categorizing) characterization of the class defined by the nucleus versus the specificity and restriction (temporality) of postmodification.

2.5 The problem of nomination

Another object of study concerning NP in the academic English is nominalization in its different levels of complexity (the discharge of the contents or insertion of an IV line, for example). Due to its static character, compared to the dynamism of the verbal, this constitutes another of the functional aspects of the NP that can act as a neologizing instrument or, simply, as one of the cardinal means for the abstract expression of processes or mechanisms regularly linked to the scientific context As expressed by Halliday (1966: 24) in his book Grammar, Society and the Noun, nominalization promotes the conversion of "processes" into "objects" (also in qualities, states, relationships or attributes), which materialize as NPs with the potential functions (syntactic, among them) characteristic of expressions whose referents are people or objects. As suggested above, the mechanism of nominalization produces, therefore, a quantification or classification of what is usually expressed in more general uses of the language as an action or a process and triggers the loss of some information (temporary, prepositional in nature). This increases the level of ambiguity in the text and implies the presupposition of more prior knowledge on the part of the recipient of the message.

It seems, on the other hand, that this last characteristic can be predicated of the communication established in the different genres contained in the research publications, since it is inferred in it a "specialized" dialogue (able to tolerate a certain level of ambiguity) in the one that, therefore, many of the explanations that would be absolutely essential for the non-expert interlocutor (who usually lack the pragmatic information that is necessary to avoid disambiguation) must be ignored. In this respect, Varantola (1984: 175) points out that "the structure of the NPs gives little help in solving possible ambiguities", so the syntax deserves more detailed studies. On the ambiguity of specific English, Halliday and Martin (1993: 84) clearly and correctly express the double effect of these difficulties originated in grammar, which is at the same time its explanation: "They suit the expert; and by the same token they cause difficulty to the novice. "

2.6. Specific descriptions

The NP structure in different types of text has deserved, albeit partially, the interest of extensive works (extensive grammars or exhaustive corpus studies) based on the SEU (Survey of English Usage) corpus, like those of Godfrey in 1965, Quirk et. al in 1972 and Bald and Ilson in 1977, although also the realizations and classes of NPs, specifically in the academic English, have been subject of study in certain occasions recalling, at the same time, the aforementioned work "On the Distribution of Noun-Phrase Types in English Clause-Structure" by Aarts (1971), which deals with the distribution of NP and other syntactic categories within the framework of the clause in various types of text (among which figure the researcher) contained in a selection also extracted from the SEU. In the same year and with reference to a specific field of English, Sears presents a description of the types of premodification in the NP. It can be mentioned, finally, the work of Bartoliĉ (1978), in which he studies the English compound noun and the structural construction characteristic of this syntagma. As we have already mentioned, Dubois' (1982) analysis of the text function of the prenominal modification constitutes another one of the few references on the English NP, in this case referred to specific articles together to a corpus study (Varantola 1984) that came to light two years later, at the University of Turku (Finland), in order to analyze the structure of said syntagma in research articles.

More recently and already in the field that concerns us in the present study, Walther (1995) carries out a work in the area of ​​automatic language processing, which focuses on the structure of the NP as a basic tool for the operation of a specific word processor that was in the process of being developed at that time. In similar terrain, Woolley (1997), equally concerned about specific English, carried out a study, also aiming at the analysis of the sequence of elements in the structure of the NP, in order to improve a system of automatic translation of languages.

2.7 The meaning of nominal syntagma with a generic reference

Let us consider the following phrases:

(1) The man always in every moment, is living according to what the world is for him;

(2) Nuts get fat;

(3) A gentleman must behave well with his lady.

In the phrases man, nuts and a gentleman, no reference is made to a specific individual, but to the whole set of individuals that make up the class. These are phrases that preach characteristic properties of a class of objects or of a species and that, therefore, do not refer to particular objects (nor to events or events localized in time and space). Let's compare the previous sentences with the following ones:

(4) Andrew got the lottery last year and the man is now living in a big way;

(5) The nuts I ate last night hurt me;

(6) I was walking quietly when a gentleman asked him where the Cervantes bookshop was.

The generic interpretation of the phrases man, nuts and a gentleman is completely excluded, because it is possible to identify its referent in the context. Thus, the same expression as man can appear in a context or situation where he is indeed a determined and well-known man of the interlocutor, and in other environments, refer to the whole human race. Otto Winkelmann (1980), who has dealt with the reference, distinguishes different types of syntagmas: syntax of generic reference, specific reference and non-specific reference. In generic reference SNSN, the referent is the entire class of objects denoted by the noun. The generic interpretation of a NP, by its very characteristics, excludes the specific reference to any precise element of the context. It is possible, therefore, to affirm that the specificity or the genericity of a NP is not a characteristic of articles or quantifiers, but a property of nominal expressions, which depends partly on its internal composition and on the other hand on external elements related to the context in which the NP is located and the pragmatic properties of that context. A possible test to recognize if the reference of a NP is specific or generic is the interrogation with which. Within the system of interrogative words which is characterized by its identifying function, often linked to a group of referents already located in the previous discourse; so that it can not be related to generic and nonspecific SNSN. If to the question, which one? Referred to the NP it is possible to give a response from the context, the phrase would be specific and not generic, because it does not make sense to use it to ask about the subject of (7): A diamond is expensive. This would provide a selection between specific and non-specific SNSNs. Within the non-specific phrases, generics would be distinguished by their possible commutation by the whole operator:

(8) Every man is mortal;

(9) All nuts get fat;

(10) Every gentleman should behave well with his lady.

2.8. Factors that intervene in the interpretation of the SNSN with a generic reference

Affirming that the context and circumstances determine the generic or specific interpretation of the NP is appropriate, but does not clarify exactly how this phenomenon occurs. Besides the pragmatic aspect, there seems to be a syntactic aspect of the question, which consists in formally describing the presuppositions, either linked to the SNSN by means of syntactic features, or as basic presuppositions established from the lexical elements and the type of construction in that are used. It is necessary to suppose that the interpretations are inferred in some way from the grammatical data, in this respect, that they are not totally independent of the grammar. First of all, we have looked at internal factors to the NP, such as its composition and the characteristics of its determinants and modifiers.

2.8.1 Internal factors

Both the common name and the proper name can be interpreted generically:

(11) The Browns are very clever;

(12) Roosters wake up at dawn.

With regard to the group of common names, it is to be noted that continuous names are discontinuous names that are susceptible of generic interpretation. We have taken the following examples in Guillaume (1964):

(13) Iron is a metal;

(14) Love is a feeling, opposed to its particular value;

(15) I have brought iron;

(16) The love of his son ennobles him.

Guillaume observes that if information is added that restricts the set (specific modifiers), a whole is still obtained, but limited to the fraction of the set.

(17) Northern iron is a pure metal;

(18) Youthful love is an ineffable feeling.

Note that fractioning requires more information in the predicate. The plural does not alter the effect either:

(19) The irons of the North are very resistant;

(20) The young loves are never forgotten.

However, with the continuous names the NP of indefinite type is not compatible:

(21) * An iron is a metal;

(22) * A gold is more valuable than silver.

This same incompatibility is found in a case dependent on the external conditions of the predicate, that of the generic cumulative reference. When the reference refers to the gender, but not to the individuals, the variation art. det./art. ind. are: (23) The man lords the earth does not have the same reference as (24) A man lords the earth.

2.8.1.1 Determinants of name

Neither does the article contain in itself the feature genericity or specificity. This characteristic depends fundamentally on the beliefs of the speaker about the events of which he speaks. However, in the presentation of these beliefs, the article plays a very important role. For our purposes, analyzing the use of the article from the point of view of the information is very useful. As regards the information axis, the enunciator uses a / an to introduce the element of the speaker in the world of communication; on the contrary, one points out that it is referring to an element that is already in the context, because it has already introduced it, or because it is presupposed. As regards the axis of the enunciator, the speaker, when presenting the generalization with the information as presupposed, shared, therefore, by enunciator and addressee, seems to be less committed to this information, to give it more objectivity. However, when presented with a like new, it gives a feeling of greater relativity. With him, the enunciator tries to present his personal valuation as something that does not depend on him, universally recognized and objective, while with one he takes charge of what he is saying, recognizes that it is a personal assessment of him. These are two expressive values with two different implicatures.

Regarding the use of the plural in the generic reference SNSN, it is necessary to note that the generic interpretation has not always been accepted with the plural indefinite article ones / ones, JC Garrido (1987: 244), however, objects that, in appropriate contexts, some works generically as one:

(25) A British gentleman never lies;

(26) Some British gentlemen never lie, but there are others who do.

According to Garrido (1987: 245), in both cases it is indicated that it is a part of the basic or contextual set, composed of all the British gentlemen. The plural confers a discontinuous character that divides the category. The partitive mention only makes sense when the context requires it, as in the case of expressing contrast between one part of the genre and the other, since, if not, the totalizing mention in the plural is used. The generic scope in the indeterminate plural is less frequent than in the singular. Thus, if this explanation is accepted, it is possible to interpret all these phrases generically:

(27) The British gentleman never lies;

(28) A British gentleman never lies;

(29) British knights never lie;

(30) Some British gentlemen never lie, but there are others who do.

If we analyze the determination of demonstratives and possessives, we can observe that it is incompatible with the generic scope, since both determinations locate in the space and with respect to the people involved in the linguistic act. At the moment in which a demonstrative or possessive appears in a NP, it becomes referential. Comparing the referential and generic interpretations respectively of these sentences:

(31) This child cries when hungry or The child is crying when hungry;

(32) The child cries when he is hungry.

Finally, as regards the constitution of the NP with a generic reference, it should be noted that most of the examples used to discuss the generic/ specific ambiguity contain simple SNSNs, formed by a sequence of determinant and name.

In effect, the minimum amount of information that they contribute makes them ambiguous. In more complex SNSN, the ambiguity is markedly restricted. Therefore, the richer, more precise and more detailed the descriptive content of a NP, the greater the tendency to understand it as specific. On the contrary, a NP that provides vague and imprecise information without references to specific time and space coordinates will often be of non-specific type and in certain generic conditions:

(33) The child who climbed the tree the other day when hungry cries;

(34) The child when hungry cries.

In reality, it is not the amount of information that is the relevant factor, but rather the type of information provided that can lead directly to a specific object or not.

2.8.1.2 NP modifiers

Relative sentences could also provide some clues to establish the referential statute of a NP with indeterminate article. The presence of a relative restrictive does not decide by itself which is the most natural interpretation, but it can be said that a relative non-restrictive or explanatory favors the specific interpretation. These relative are not incompatible with generic SNSN, but the conditions that must be met to modify a non-referential NP are much stricter than those that must be met to accompany a proper name or a defined NP. This makes the combination of generic undefined and relative explanatory infrequent SNSNs.

(35) A British gentleman, who has an iron code of honor, never lies.

On the other hand, the generic interpretation is incompatible with the comparative or superlative alteration of the adjective that eventually accompanies the name. Compare the specific interpretation of the phrase to the most educated man in:

(36) There are so many and so varied the plant products of the torrid zone, that it would be impossible for the most educated man to list the thousandth part of them, as opposed to the generic interpretation of the syntagma the educated man.

Non-restrictive nominal appositions behave in the same way. While they are perfectly normal after proper names, personal pronouns and definite descriptions, their use is more restricted with generic and nonspecific undefined SNSN. It is not an absolute criterion, but rather the manifestation of a general trend: specific SNSN carry appositive or explanatory modifiers more frequently than nonspecific or generic ones. The generic interpretation will be impossible if there is the presence of specific modifiers (they are specific, according to Kleiber (1989: 190), the predicates that provide coordinates of time and place to locate an individual), or elements such as certain or determined. One should observe the difference between:

(37) A friend that I met yesterday is charming and

(38) A friend who tells jokes is lovely.

2.8.2. External factors

With regard to the predicate of the SNSN with a generic reference, it is not clear that genericity always depends on the time or aspect of the SV, but to a certain extent these factors seem to condition this interpretation. Most of the generic sentences are in the indicative present, the least marked time in English. This verb tense is frequently used to refer to events of general or universal scope that exceed all temporality.

(39) The good reader does not have academic prejudices;

(40) You know that chickens stop when the winter rages;

(41) A great writer creates his predecessors.

However, it is possible to find generic SNSN in other verb tenses.

(42) A man would perish if he could not breathe,

(43) In ancient times, when men had not come to discover metals or to work them, they made almost all objects of stone;

(44) A British gentleman would have helped us.

It deserves further study to verify to what extent the time and the verbal aspect condition the generic interpretation of a NP. Regarding the lexicon of the SV it has been found that certain modal categories condition the reference rate of the SNSN. For example, the verbs power and duty present two different senses that correspond to two modal categories: the epistemic and the deontic.

It seems that the possibility of generic readings in undefined SNSN is more restricted when the manners are epistemic; not so with the deontic modality:

(45) A ruthless man can see without feeling the sorrows of another.

However, they are not excluded either in this modality:

(46) A drunkard may be sympathetic, but he is burdensome.

The types of nominal syntagma according to the reference used as subjects, are related to the types of predicate to which they are linked. For example, the indeterminate article can not be used in generic contexts of cumulative reference, to which we have already alluded:

(47) * A horse has been domesticated for thousands of years.

The syntagms with generic reference seem to behave in certain contexts in different ways with respect to non-specific syntagmas. Unlike the nonspecific, those do not seem to affect the sentence modality, nor the negation:

(46) Are men, then, whiter or darker as they live in colder or warmer lands ?;

(47) The animals do not speak.

Neither the alternation of modes in the relative ones (it is normally accepted that a relative sentence in indicative mode is part of a specific NP, whereas a relative sentence in a subjunctive mood unequivocally characterizes an unspecific NP) can be taken as a formal mark of the generic / non-generic opposition.

We have taken this example from specialty literature which had noticed that the generic interpretation cancels the mode / specificity correlation:

(48) A house that is too big is difficult to heat.

(49) A house that is too big is difficult to heat every day.

Finally, it should be noted that they favor the generic interpretation of temporal quantifiers such as: always, often, every day, every year, usually, never. Concluding, the SNSN with a generic reference refers to a class of objects or a species , and do not refer to particular objects that can be found in time and space. This interpretation is due to the intention of the speaker to refer to the generic notion, it is, therefore, a pragmatic characteristic; however, there are other factors that, although minimally, condition this type of interpretation:

internal factors to syntagma

– The article and its combination with the noun lexeme and with the number morpheme.

– Incompatibility with demonstratives and possessives.

– Impossibility of generic interpretation in the specific syntagmas and with alteration of the adjective.

external factors

– Influence of verb tense and specific predicates.

– Incompatibility of the indeterminate article with predicates of generic cumulative reference.

– Compatibility with time quantifiers: always, every day, often.

One must note that this small work is a beginning to the study of this type of noun phrases. There are still many aspects to be investigated, both from the theoretical point of view – for example, issues related to the lexicon of predicates – and from the point of view of their application in the teaching of EFL-contrastive studies, presentation of these phenomena in the classroom and so on. For our part, we will try to continue delving into these issues in the future.

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING NOUN PHRASE ASPECTS

3.1. Describing aspects of teaching noun phrase

3.1.1. Different purposes

The reflection of the student regarding his own processes of knowledge is one of the fundamental aspects to develop the capacity to learn on own account. Awareness of the processes used in their own learning, both of the real processes and of the ideals, makes it easier to improve them and develop the capacity to learn continuously, inside and outside the school environment. One could consider that one uses cognitive strategies to carry out a learning process and metacognitive strategies to control that process. In order to develop activities of self-control or self-evaluation of learning, the following aspects must be considered:

To be aware of what should be studied in a particular learning situation;

To be aware of what actions lead to what results;

To reflect on the extent to which action has been taken;

To take action when there are difficulties in understanding or when there is no progress in relation to goals.

Generally, students have been promoted to acquire and memorize information and reproduce it based on previously established patterns. A new configuration of the process traditionally used in our centers is indispensable, where knowledge does not rest in the teacher and where the role of the student is not that of the mere receiver of information. The teacher must become the designer of instructional situations for the student and a tutor of the process while the student must assume responsibility for his own learning.

During the teaching-learning process, school develops for the students a capacity to learn on their own through:

1. be able to ask questions, recognize their ignorance on many issues and seek knowledge on their own from various sources.

2. have study habits that involve discipline, concentration, fulfilment of engagements, search for information, true desire to learn

3. develop analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills.

4. recognize that the responsibility to learn is always something personal and do not hold anyone responsible for not having learned something.

5. know how to seek the necessary information despite ignoring the area of ​​knowledge to investigate.

6. develop efficient reading skills.

7. identify your particular way of learning and putting it into practice.

8. distinguish the different levels of reliability of the information.

9. analyze the information with critical spirit.

10. teachers can postulate hypotheses and test them to increase their knowledge.

The fundamental means of human communication is oral language, voice and oral language, which allow the individual to express and understand. The acquisition of oral language is conceived as the development of the ability to communicate verbally and linguistically through conversation in a given situation and in relation to a particular context and temporal space. The fundamental medium of human communication is oral language, voice and Oral language, which allow the individual to express and understand ideas, thoughts, feelings, knowledge and activities. The spoken language is given as a result of a process of imitation and maturation through the wealth of stimuli that exist in the environment. The acquisition of oral language is conceived as the development of the ability to communicate verbally and linguistically through conversation in a given situation and in relation to a particular context and temporal space. Therefore, when considering a series of productions, it is essential to intervene the linguistic and extra-linguistic context of the verbal exchange, the topic of conversation, the attitudes and motivations of the participants, as well as information about the formal organization of the statements and the words that compose it. In its broadest sense, oral language can be described as the ability to understand and use verbal symbols as a form of communication, or it can be defined as a structured system of symbols that emphasize objects, relationships and facts within the framework of a culture. Being the most specific language of the communication, one may affirm that it is a code that understands all that belongs to a linguistic community. Puyuelo, M. (1998:33) defines language as a communicative behaviour, a specifically human characteristic that performs important cognitive, social and communication functions which allows individuals to make intentions explicit, to stabilize them, to make them very complex regulations of human action and to access a positive plane of cognitive and behavioural self-regulation, which can not be reached without language. Based on the above, many authors have focused on the development of oral language, allowing different societies to become aware of its importance as an instrument par excellence used by man to communicate with Their fellows.

Oral language is part of a complex communicative system that develops among humans. Scholars have called for the development of language in the child’s “development of communicative competence". This process begins as early as the first weeks of a newborn baby, when looking at faces, smiles and other gestures and listening to the linguistic interpretations given by the adult. These verbalizations have extreme importance to create a later development. During the process of linguistic development, different communicative capacities evolve, such as intentionality, inter-subjectivity, that is, transmitting and sharing a mental state; the reciprocity, which is to participate in a proto-dialogue (the child cries, the mother responds by taking him in her arms, caressing him, talking to him) to culminate in the so-called interactive routines where the adult and child participate in games of giving and taking inserting vocalizations. It is observed how the oral language starts from a social dimension and goes through a continuous process of refinement.

Regarding general language, specialists, with some exceptions, considered that it is possible for a child to speak well by three years of age. In order for this situation to occur, several conditions must be met: normality of the linguistic organs, both receptive (auditory or visual and cortical capacity), and productive (capacity for ideation and articulator ability). Also, the child's exposure to an appropriate socializing and linguistic context, as well as the development of a communicative environment supposes a continuous stimulation of the adults towards the child generating the appropriate answers.

Given these conditions, the process of language development proceeds in stages that begin with a pre-linguistic development, which requires:

Experience that in a way has a meaning for the child.

The faculties of attention (ability to focus the information to be more relevant for a specific objective).

Perception: (converts data captured by the senses into abstract representations).

Memory: stores the mental representations of perceived objects and events for later use.

Internal mechanisms of the child.

Interactive experience to develop.

All these conditions make it possible to process the sensory data through which the elements of the linguistic code are integrated.

Requirements for language comprehension

In addition, in order for the oral language acquisition process to develop properly, there must be a good availability for both physical and psychological communication between the child and the people who interact with him, so the language that serves as a model for the child must comply with at least two conditions:

It should consist of a wide range of correct grammatical phrases.

It should give oneself at an expressive level, initiating conversational exchanges, and at the receptive level, responding appropriately to the utterances made by the child.

3.1.2. Spoken vs. Written language in the context of noun phrase

Overcoming the writing/ orality dichotomy. Discursive genres

Traditionally, oral and written language were conceived as two opposing registers, one informal (represented by the characteristics of the spontaneous conversation) and the other formal (represented by those of academic writing), respectively. However, this conception of the oral and the written, by virtue of simplistic, leaves out of reach many oral texts that participate in formal features and many texts written with informal features, such as a conference or a chat, respectively. That is why, at present, the relationship between oral and written language is considered a gradual relationship, and oral and written are combined according to communicative situations.

Any text can be produced orally or in writing, which does not have to do with how the message is conceived (the content of that message or with the language used in its production), which will depend to a great extent on the Degree of immediacy / distance of that communication. The parameters for determining the degree of immediacy / distance of a oral language are:

– privacy of communication: the more private the communication, the closer it will be to the pole of immediacy.

– the mutual knowledge of the interlocutors: to greater knowledge, greater immediacy.

– shared knowledge: to greater shared knowledge, greater immediacy.

The communicative immediacy is prototypical of the oral conversation and communicative distance is prototypical of the written. Thus, the concepts of writing and orality intersect with those of immediacy and communicative distance, forming a plane in which all possible discourses – oral and written – are distributed in a language, and at the ends of which there would be discourses such as (A) a spontaneous conversation, (B) a conference, (C) a family letter or a chat, (D) a specialized treaty.

From this scheme, one may consider the prototypical oral discursive genres to refer to texts that are located in the A zone (for example, spontaneous conversation) and prototypical written discursive genres for those who are in the D area (for example, A treatise on thermodynamics), which were traditionally associated with writing and orality, as one observed at the beginning. For their part, texts that are not located in these areas will be called intermediate discursive genres.

Oral language vs. Written language

According to what one has just seen, one could not systematize the features of the oral language versus those of the written language, while the difference between oral and written simply informs us of the communication channel of the message, but not of the form of its form (how it is formed, what words it uses, what register, etc.). However, it is interesting to analyze the linguistic features of the prototypical discursive genres (those that are at the extremes) bearing in mind that there will be many texts that share traits of both.

In order to focus on my subject here, the starting point would be to clarify the difference between orality and legality, but bearing in mind that both modalities complement and influence each other.

A first difference lies in the conditions of production and reception. In drafts, the writer often returns back on the syntagmatic axis. In addition, one can accumulate the elements of the same paradigm, before choosing one. The preparation stages are erased in the written text. In contrast, the spoken language shows the stages of their preparation. We observe both the accumulations of paradigmatic elements like the going and turning on the axis of the syntagms, either to complete it, or to modify it. Of course, there are also deficiencies of the oral with respect to the written (although in a noticeably smaller number). Perhaps the most important is the impossibility of erasing the correction in the oral statement. Here it highlights the inherent artificiality of the writing where the author can pretend not to have made corrections. When we speak or write, we look for words, and we often list several before finding the right one. This enumeration corresponds exactly to the paradigmatic axis of Saussure. But in this case, the elements of the paradigm are present at the same time. These enumerations would be exasperating in reading, but they are not in the oral discourse (Blanche-Benveniste, 1998:168). It is thought that up to seven attempts can be made to find the right word. If the number becomes seven, the case is considered pathological; this loss of the word should be treated by specialists in oral language disorders. Undoubtedly, paradigmatic accumulation is one of the important characteristics of oral production. It should be noted that sometimes it is used to produce a stylistic finding effect. Another feature of spoken language is the ease of introducing incised sentences. These are the three essential characteristics of the oral texts that we want to emphasize: paradigmatic accumulations, goings and turns on the axis of the phrases, introduction of incised sentences. Usually, one may observe an equivalence between oral and spoken language, on the one hand, and writing and written language, on the other. This equivalence has as fundamental criterion the means of communication, that is, it establishes the difference between the phonic realization of a statement and its graphic manifestation. However, this criterion is limited and insufficient in not considering the conception of these terms and their ability to go beyond terminological boundaries. It is also necessary to specify that there is no univocal correspondence between letters and phonemes. In the different alphabetical writings is given polyphony for the same grapheme and polygraphs for the same phoneme. Oral texts and written texts are ideal types that often overlap, blend, intersect. For example, a conference combines written conception with the phonic medium and a private letter, in turn, combines the spoken conception with the graphic medium.

In addition, there is always the possibility of a medial change in any statement, which John Lyons (1981:23) calls medium transferability (Oesterreicher, 1996: 69). David Olson (1977:257-281) introduces in this polemic a fundamental distinction between what a text means and what it says literally (in English to mean and to say (Blanche-Benveniste, 1998:232). One may insists on the idea that writing is meant to write down what is said and not what is meant. The intentions of the students are not reflected. In this sense the discourse analysts define the text as a linguistic product and apply the term of discourse to this contextualized text. This idea would be embodied in the following formulas:

• oral language = text + production conditions

• text = oral language – production conditions

Consequently, the concept of discourse encompasses the interaction of the agents of discourse with the utterance and with the communicative situation” (Tovar, 1996: 36). The differences between the two modalities of the language (oral and written) cover different aspects: communicative situation, degree of planning, permanence, redundancy, interaction. Also, one may not forget that the communicative situation is shared by the sender and receiver. Let us remember the elements that are given in any communicative fact: they are the components grouped in the acronym SPEAKING of Hymes (1972: 269-293). The acronym is formed by the initials of the eight components in English: Situation, Participants, Ends, Act sequences, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms and Gender. An aspect of utmost importance in the study of oral language is the transcription of the oral and all the difficulties that it entails. The different systems of transcription signs do not reflect the great richness of orality. Punctuation and typography are not enough either. Let us also think of the difficulty in hearing the spoken language. "We hear" one part for what the perception offers us and another we reconstruct by interpretation. All communication can receive disturbances that hinder it. Any disturbance is called noise in the Theory of Communication. This term does not refer here only to a sound annoyance. It can be errors in the use of code or obstacles in the transmission channel, ink spots or fading in a writing, barely perceptible oral language, deafness, distraction of the listener or reader, interference in telephony, radio or television, etc. To avoid the loss of information that can cause the noise, a set of units of defence, the redundant elements, is available. The word redundancy (which in the ordinary language means 'unnecessary and surplus repetition') applies in the Theory of Communication to any of the means used by the sender and that prevents the code, to avoid the loss of information. Thus, for example, the elevation of the voice to compensate for the deafness of the listener are redundant; the underlining, the use of a different typography to draw attention to certain words of a written message; certain morphemes that, for example, accompany the name, to indicate redundantly its gender (the open door) or its number (the open doors). Finally, one may also think that it is difficult to repeat literally what has just been said. Even the emitter of the message would say a paraphrase, as close as possible to the meaning, but already with different signifiers.

Marks of orality in written texts

In every written expression dialogue underlies as the most natural form of language: always someone communicates with another (Tovar, 1996: 66). It is the dialogical character of all text in terms of Bakhtin (2010:112): every statement is aimed at a receiver. The presence of oral features in written texts is a widely researched topic. Literary texts usually reproduce the oral language. But they are orality figures, since you can not reproduce the substantial reality of the sound elements. These are represented with graphic characters and actually appear as described or suggested elements, etc. That is why we define this orality as fictional. In this process of fictionalization the oral in the writing is feigned. It is a mimesis of the spoken. These simulations of communicative immediacy are now known as textual polyphony (Reyes, 1984:23). Oral statements contain non-verbal codes (paralinguistic, kinetic, proximal). The paralinguistic studies the intonation, the intensity of the voice, the speed of emission, and elements such as: laughter, crying, yawning, crying, coughing and sneezing. Kinaesthetic is dedicated to body language, to the distance between the interlocutors.

In a written statement we never find what is spoken in an authentic state. Let us add as examples the exclusion of the situational context, the planning of the utterance, the possibility of correcting it, the communicative distance (between production and reception of the utterance). But we can find in the written texts features of the spoken and their diatonic and dysphasic variants. One should not forget that the level of cultural training influences the level of written competence. The low cultural level would easily lead to the use of low dysphasic registers, not normally admitted in writing. On the other hand, in the private letters abound the examples of a language less elaborated, facilitated by the intimacy, the spontaneity and the familiarity of the communicative situation. One must not lose sight of the desire to achieve certain stylistic effects in both cases. The elements of the spoken language are often used as literary resources, among them, to characterize the characters. These resources sometimes include the desire to adapt the linguistic expression to the reader's possibilities of understanding and, therefore, to choose a language close to the colloquial one. Conversation (dialogue) is a social activity, regulated by a series of norms that are also reflected in the use of one or other linguistic formulas. In addition, principles of cooperation and courtesy, Grice's maxims, are fundamental. It is important to note that cooperation (or conversational) maxims are usually recognized negatively, that is, when they are unfulfilled. One may consider in a schematic way the presence or absence of courtesy in communicative acts.

Courtesy also uses non-verbal signs such as shaking hands, patting back, smiling, clearing, etc. A very interesting field for the study of this aspect would be the translation of texts. It is curious to see that the translation makes the character more "polite" than it is in reality (Salamanca, 2006:110). Another special case of orality in writing is oral poetry. It has come to choose this curious oxymoron (oral literature) to designate the set of traditional forms as songs, stories, legends, myths, etc., collected directly from oral informants. One of the problems posed by this "oral literature" is its multimedia condition: "Written language … is confronted with the imperative to cover a whole transmitting process that in orality is accompanied by theatricality, gestural dimension, a certain phonticism, a rhythm of locution or a ritual aesthetic” (Pizarro, 1985: 53).

Without considering the details of the controversy, we can point out that oral poetry has an elaboration closer to the communicative distance. It is also an artistic production of texts with a clear aesthetic purpose. However, the subsequent staging, recitation and representation add numerous features of orality. This entire problem is very similar to what was spoken in the dramatic text. Again we find the communicative distance in terms of conception, aesthetic purpose and a whole repertoire of orality and verbal and non-verbal codes in the theatrical performance. However, it is not possible to study the spoken language through the dramatic texts nor in general through the writings. These often offer artificial dialects. It is the imitation that a specific author makes of the spoken language; it is a mimesis of the spoken, of a pretended orality, the product of a previous conscious elaboration, with a certain target and with some inevitable deficiencies.

To conclude this section, one may observe some ideas of Nietzsche on the style collected in a posthumous text regarding the doctrine of the style (Gauger, 1996:22). One may chose five of the ten ideas in total:

1. The first thing that is needed is life. Style must live.

2. The style has to be appropriate to you with respect to a particular person, with whom you want to communicate (law of double relationship).

3. You have to know first of all: this is how I would say it if I spoke – before I started to write. Writing has to be just imitated.

4. As he who writes he lacks many means available to the student, he must have as a general model a very expressive form of oral communication: his reflection, the writing, will necessarily prove to be much more discoloured.

5. The richness of life is shown through the richness of gestures. One must learn to feel everything as gestures: the length and brevity of the sentences, the punctuation, the words that are chosen, the pauses and the order of the arguments.

Typology of what was written

The creation of a typology of what is spoken in writing is extremely important for diachronic linguistics. And the previous steps would be to study the causes of the appearance of linguistic features of orality in written texts. Let's look at the different possibilities. There are actually four systems of discourse:

Spoken language – Oral language encoded by the speaker: a conversation.

Written language – Discourse codified by the writer: a letter.

Oralized language – Written oral language that is spoken: reading aloud.

Transcribed language – Oral language that is written: the taking of notes.

Trademark marks in oral and written texts

One has seen some marks of orality in written texts. The complementarities of the two modalities also provokes the opposite phenomenon: the penetration of the writing in oral texts. A striking example is punctuation and typography. The exclamation mark, comma, capital letters or quotation marks represent approximate equivalents of oral phenomena, although they can not reflect the great diversity of orality: ironic tone, rising tone, elongation, accent of Insistence, speed, etc. However, the oral discourse surprisingly resorts to these means of written expression, which everyone considers insufficient, to use as markers within the oral discourse. Paradoxically, we come to pronounce in quotation marks, in parentheses or with a capital letter, instead of using an oral procedure such as modulation of intonation, change of rhythm or change of voice. We have already discussed the greatest prestige in written societies today. Curiously, Blanche-Benveniste (1998:102) comments: "We questioned children about ten years of age to see if they thought they spoke French well. The answer, as we expected, was "no", but justification surprised us: they said they did not speak well because they spoke with "misspellings." This answer – which did not seem to surprise the teacher – is very eloquent about the representation of what is spoken, because it is entirely moulded on what is written.

Difficulties in the teaching of noun phrase

Perhaps a first reason for these difficulties is the abandonment of the rhetorical tradition in the teaching of language and literature. In the case of written language, it is very easy for teachers to select and offer students written texts that serve as worthy models to imitate. The same can not be said for noun phrase. It is much more difficult to select models of good speakers, pronunciation and so on. The deficiencies in teacher training in this regard affect the didactic aspects. There are few methodological strategies and techniques for programming content related to oral competence. There are also few observational guidelines for this competence and the evaluation criteria. All these difficulties carry the risk of falling into a formal didacticism when putting into practice the contents related to orality. In order to avoid this danger, it will be necessary to work, care for and promote the affective and psychological dimension of orality from a solid scientific and pedagogical foundation, in particular.

Prototypic oral gender: the spontaneous conversation

Most authors consider that spontaneous conversation is “the primary and universal form of realization" of oral discourse and constitutes, in addition to a linguistic process, a social process that allows the construction of identities, relationships and situations (in the conversation "the speakers do not only demonstrate their communicative competence, but also the procedures used for the construction of a social order"). "Characteristic of the conversation is the fact that it involves a relatively restricted number of participants, whose roles are not predetermined, all of which in principle enjoy the same rights and duties (the interaction is" symmetrical "and" egalitarian "), and Whose sole purpose is confessed the pleasure of talking; it has, in short, a familiar and improvised character: the subjects to be addressed, the duration of the exchange or the order of the speaking turns are determined step by step, relatively freely-relatively, for even […] The more anarchic they obey in fact certain rules of manufacture, although they leave room for manoeuvre clearly wider than other more "regulated" forms of communicative exchange”. Among the works of the authors who have dedicated themselves to the study of the conversation, we can affirm that the spontaneous conversation:

One may observe the presence of an interlocution, a face-to-face one of the simultaneous, immediate and current participation ("here and now") of a restricted and variable group of people, for whom there are no categorical restrictions that speaker can intervene to contribute to the dialogue the information you want or to answer another partner).

There are no pragmatic restrictions: the moment, the place, the social context can be any and the objective pursued depends only on the will of the interlocutors, it is not imposed from outside.

The communicative roles of the participants are not predetermined and the change of speaker is recurrent during the development of the conversation, thanks to the alternation in the turn of noun phrase. For this reason, the conversation is dynamic, while there is a dialogical tension between participants, whose interventions often overlap are common briefly. Also, there are mechanisms to repair errors in transgression:

It has a strong improvised character, while it deals with subjects without predetermining, with a duration without predetermine.

The approach and implementation phase occur simultaneously.

Symmetry and equality in social roles: the interlocutors are not hierarchical. They have the same status in the act of communication.

Ludic purpose: A priori, spontaneous conversation has no more purpose than the conversation itself.

Family tone and proximity of the participants. Spontaneous conversation occurs among speakers who are on the same social plane.

Although the conversation has, as we have mentioned, a marked character of unpredictability and indefinition, the interlocutors are taking a series of agreements implicitly that allow the correct development of the conversation. To begin with, participants must decide to initiate interaction, choose a topic and a (more or less serious) tone of conversation, which they will maintain or change by mutual agreement until they decide to end the interaction. All these decisions of the interlocutors that allows the development of the conversation occurs implicitly, based on indications of the communicative situation, which is why (the implicit nature of decision-making), there are frequent situations of confusion or misunderstandings. For all this, we could think that one of the aspects in which there are more clashes between the participants is in the exchange of communicative roles. However, in general, the word shift is regulated in the spontaneous conversation because the interlocutors recognize what are called places appropriate for the transition, which may be marked by different resources (a pause, a question, the establishment of visual contact)

Different features of noun phrase

In the phonic level of a discourse, pronunciation is one of the aspects that can present greater variety, informing us about psychosocial and cultural characteristics (on the geographical origin, on social origin, on elements of the situation or on some personal characteristics). Thus, phonetic realizations can be related to social variables of all kinds (diatonic, dysphasic or individual). Another great phonic element that models noun phrase aspects is prosody (intonation, intensity and rhythm). Intonation helps to organize information in two senses mainly: as a support of the practical modality (enunciatively, interrogative, exclamative) and as a resource of emphatic and modalizing expression (focusing [giving importance to a part], enhancement of certain structural elements …), which can also be manifested by intensity (for example, "greater articulatory intensity usually corresponds to the information focus"). In addition, the intensity allows, in languages ​​of "free accent" the distinction of meanings (celebrated, celebrated, celebrated). Finally, rhythm, in addition to transmitting attitudes – hostility, serenity, for example – has a great weight in the discursive organization, while it controls the management of the pauses within the discourse. In the line we have been maintaining, the complexity at the morph syntactic level in oral discourse – as in writing – varies markedly depending on the discursive event in question (a spontaneous conversation and a lecture). However, common to all oral discourses is the temporary space coexistence of participants in that discourse. This fact favours the presence of deictic elements, which can only be correctly interpreted in their use in a given context. Deictic can point to different elements of the communicative situation: they organize time and space, locate the participants, determine the relationship between them and also point to the elements of the text itself. According to this, five types of deixis are distinguished: personal, spatial, temporal, social and textual.

– DEIXIS PERSONAL: It indicates the people of the exchange, those present in the act of enunciation and those absent in relation to them. It manifests itself in personal and possessive pronouns, and in verbal morphemes of person. The signalling is flexible and changing according to the circumstances of the enunciation; Is structured in the opposition between the ME (mine) / WE (ours) that refers to the enunciator and YOU (yours) that refers to the enunciate. With the third person, the excluded are named from the framework of interaction (HE / SHE).

– In this area of ​​personal refers the DEIXIS SOCIAL that selects the partners characterizing them socio-culturally; Are the forms of treatment expressed in the pronouns, appellations and honorific that describe the relations between students .

– DEIXIS SPACIAL: Organizes the place in which the communicative fact unfolds. They fulfil this function: adverbs or adverbial locutions (here / here, there, there, there, near / far, up / down, front / back, right / left, etc.), demonstratives, that, and that), prepositional phrases (in front of / behind, near / far from), some verbs of movement (going / coming, coming / going, going up / down)

– TEMPORARY LEAVE: The temporal central axis is the "now" of the enunciating self. Temporal references are marked by some adjectives (present, old / modern, future, next) and especially adverbs and adverbial locutions of time and reflect different relations with the moment of enunciation:

Simultaneity: now, at this moment

Previous: yesterday, the day before yesterday, the other day, last week, a while ago, recently

Later: tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next year, in two days, soon, soon, soon

Neutrals: today, Monday, this morning, tonight

When the axis is transferred and placed in the past, the dejis is relative (at that time, then for simultaneity, the eve, the previous week, a little before for the previous, the next day, two days later, more Late, then for later, another day, neutral). Absolute verbal tenses are also deictic: the simple past tense (pastiness), the present (simultaneity) and the imperfect future (posteriority). Others like the past perfect plus perfect, the perfect future, the compound conditional are relative times since they measure time from another point different from the now of enunciation.

– DEIXIS TEXTUAL: The text becomes metaphorical time and space of reference; The deictics point to elements already appeared (anaphoric reference) or will appear later. They can be pronouns of all kinds (neutrals can substitute segments superior to the syntagma), adverbs (also, no, yes, no), proverbs (to do, to happen, to happen)

Other recurrent morph syntactic features in oral discourse are the use of word order as a focalization element and the preference for coordination and juxtaposition versus subordination, although we may find a certain correlation between the elaboration of the syntax and a more formal. On the other hand, the lexical level depends to a great extent on the register, on the tone of the interaction, on the aims to be achieved, as well as on the socio-cultural characteristics of the participants (such as belonging to a group). Thus, "we can speak of a lexicon more or less cultured, careful, technical-jargon, relaxed, common, formal, marginal, slang, etc." (Casalmiglia and Tusón, 1999: 125). On the other hand, it is interesting to observe how care at the lexical level also has a gradual character conditioned to the discursive event in question: in the spontaneous conversation, the low degree of lexical density and the high degree of redundancy are characteristic. Finally, in terms of textual organization, it is necessary to distinguish between oral discursive monological and dialogical genres. The organization of the first will depend on the textual structure – depending on the purpose and the event – of the linguistic and textual forms that serve to shape the noun phrase aspect and the verbal and nonverbal interaction marks.

Linguistic-textual features of written and oral language

In languages ​​such as English, written discourse, on the graphic level, is based on an abstraction of the sounds of the language, which are standardized by convention. In this respect, most of the written discursive genres conform to the fixed orthographic norms. There are two areas in which writing acquires its place of specialization: the literary and the academic. Thus, at the morph syntactic level, "academic writing is constituted as the example of a reflective writing that must meet the requirements of impartiality, dispassion, neutrality and distance. As far as syntactic constructions are concerned, it tends mostly to represent in a canonical and neutral way the sentences of the language. The model text in the writing is presented as a planned and controlled text in which the predominant sentence modality is declarative / enunciative, word order, canonical (CC) S-V-O (CC); And the relationship between sentences, explicit. " These characteristics are imposed by the very nature of these academic texts, which pursue clarity, order, precision and interlocking. Likewise, these texts tend to objectivity, so they will use expressions that dilute the modalisation regarding the noun phrase aspect (impersonal, passive or third person sentences). As a consequence of the organization and planning enjoyed by these texts, they are not their own redundancy or repetition, but "the achievement of an orderly informational development, connecting unequivocally the prayers at the local level and the higher units Such as periods, paragraphs or chapters at the global level ".

Linguistic-textual features of written discourse in certain languages ​​such as Spanish, for example, written discourse, on the graphic level, part of an abstraction of the sounds typical of the language, which are standardized by convention. In this sense, most of the written discursive genres conform to the fixed orthographic norms, in our case by the SAR. There are two areas in which writing acquires its place of specialization: the literary and the academic. Thus, at the morph syntactic level, "academic writing is constituted as the example of a reflective writing that must meet the requirements of impartiality, dispassion, neutrality and distance. As far as syntactic constructions are concerned, it tends mostly to represent in a canonical and neutral way the sentences of the language. The model text in the writing is presented as a planned and controlled text in which the predominant sentence modality is declarative / enunciative, word order, canonical (CC) S-V-O (CC); And the relationship between sentences, explicit. " These characteristics are imposed by the very nature of these academic texts, which pursue clarity, order, precision and interlocking. Likewise, these texts tend to objectivity, so they will use expressions that dilute the modalization in the noun phrase aspect (impersonal, passive or third person sentences). As a consequence of the organization and planning enjoyed by these texts, they are not their own redundancy or repetition, but "the achievement of an orderly informational development, connecting unequivocally the prayers at the local level and the higher units Such as periods, paragraphs or chapters at the global level ".

As for the lexical level, it is worth noting the preference of writing at the normative standard level. In the case of scientific and technical writings, one uses a specialized lexicon (technicalities), while in the literary field, expressivity is more valued. "The fields of knowledge and experience are, as it were, passed through a filter of economy, precision and rigor in the case of scientific writings, and creativity in expression, in the case of literary, thus constituting key spaces for the expansion of the lexical competence of the speakers in the order of the language elaborated ".

Textual and discursive organization

As in oral language, writing also unfolds linearly, albeit in a graphic medium. This sequence of words on the page uses various resources to present in an organized way the themes, sub-themes and topic changes. Thus, the basic unit before us is the paragraph (a "significant supra-national unity, constituted by a set of related statements by the content"), which, in turn, are organized in sections, chapters and parts. Punctuation is a resource that helps in the ordered expression of written discourse, while its basic functions are the grammatical organization of elements and the relation of statements and parts of statements. Although the fundamental function of the punctuation is to favour the correct interpretation of the discourse, it is conditioned specifically by the syntax, the length of the period, the intonation and the taste of the author. In this sense, we can point out: the normative use of the punctuation against its stylistic use. Finally, the presence of titles and subtitles – typographically and with a cataphoric function – also distribute the content of the written discourse.

3.2 Analysis of current teaching approaches regarding noun phrase

Four basic methodological approaches can be distinguished in teaching the higher processes of noun phrase aspects: a first approach is based on the analytical study of the general structure of language; the second proposes a more holistic work of communication, based on types of text and real materials; the third approach emphasizes the development of the writing process; finally, the fourth focuses on the content of texts to take advantage of the creative and learning potential of written expression. The present passage outlines the main linguistic, didactic and psychological characteristics of the four approaches, and does it in a mixed way, listing the main theoretical bases, explaining what happens in the classroom, and comparing several examples of each approach.

The present study aims to outline the four methodological approaches with which noun phrase aspects can be taught. To do so we rely on the four approaches established by Shih (1986) for teaching English as L2. Our work develops notably this distinction, drawing the theoretical lines of each approach and presenting the concrete practice of each one. In this way, the description of the approaches is valid for the teaching of written expression in general, regardless of whether it is L1 or L2. The four didactic approaches that are presented are:

approach based on GRAMMAR,

FUNCTION-BASED approach,

approach based on the PROCESS,

approach based on the CONTENT.

GRAMMAR-BASED APPROACH

1) It was born in the school context of the teaching of written expression in the mother tongue, and then is transferred and adapted for the teaching of writing in L2. The basic idea is that to learn to write one has to master the grammar of the language (the rules that construct it, the essence, the structure, the underlying formal organization, etc.). In this respect, the core of the noun phrase teaching is precisely this set of grammatical knowledge about the language: syntax, lexicon, morphology, spelling, etc., obviously the most important influence that this approach receives comes from the field of linguistics or grammar.

It is based on the ancient and fruitful tradition of research in grammar, which starts from the Greeks and reaches modern linguistics, through the Latin grammarians, the scholastic; the grammarians of Port Royal, comparative linguistics or grammar, structuralism, generativism and linguistics of the text. The grammatical model it offers varies according to the current of research that supports the approach of noun phrase aspects. In general, we can establish two great models: the sentence model, which is based on studies of traditional grammar, and the textual or discursive model, which is based on the linguistics of the text, also known as discourse grammar.

2) In general, the noun phrase aspect is presented in a homogeneous and prescriptive way. On the one hand, it is homogeneous because it does not take into account the dialectal reality of the language nor the sociolinguistic value of each word. A single linguistic and grammatical model is offered to the student, which usually corresponds to the neutral and formal standard of the language (the most spoken dialect of the language, or the one with the most diffusion and sociolinguistic importance). Rarely do we offer examples of different dialect varieties and, if done, receive a very scholarly and impractical treatment; they are presented as peculiarities of the language (almost like curiosities) and not as valid linguistic forms in certain situations. Also, the presence of different records or levels of formality is very limited. The student usually learns only the structures and the most formal and neutral lexicon; colloquial and even vulgar language never appears. On the other hand, the linguistic model is also prescriptive, not descriptive or predictive. Students learn what must be said, what the grammar books say: the normative aspects of noun phrase. What is important is that they know what is right and what is wrong.

In the sentence model, the teaching focuses primarily on the grammatical field: the categories or parts of the sentence, the concordance, the spelling, etc. On the other hand, in the textual model, the contents cover the text or the complete discourse: it is taught to construct paragraphs, to logically structure the information of the text, to write an introduction and a conclusion, using, of course noun phrase models.

In the more traditional sentence model, the models that are offered are usually literary classics, selected and adapted to the level. The books that follow this approach offer a good sample of the most important authors of the target language. In this way, the learning of the noun phrase may be related to the study of literature; it is a very traditional union that has been abandoned (or, to put it more exactly, it has been rethought with various solutions: learning a language implies entering not only in its literature, but also in all its culture, we must separate the teaching of language from culture, so that the methods must be culturally neutral or international, etc.).

3) The curriculum or course schedule is based on grammatical content. These vary according to the grammatical flow that follows. In a traditional approach, learners basically learn spelling (accentuation), morphology (conjugation of verbs, gender and number in names …), syntax (subordinate, concordance …) and lexicon (enrichment of the lexicon). In a more modern approach, based on text linguistics, aspects such as adequacy (level of formality, registration, presentation of text …), cohesion (ellipsis, pronominalization, punctuation) internal coherence and organization of information (paragraphs) emphasize its structure. Each didactic unit, lesson or section deals with one of these points, so that at the end of the course the whole grammar has been globally dealt.

The way to structure these contents can also vary. The traditional proposals are usually more analytical and resemble the form presented by the contents of a grammar book: they separate the different levels of analysis of the language and proceed neatly, first dealing with spelling, then morphology, syntax and lexicon. On the other hand, the most modern proposals tend to be holistic and do not care so much for a logical ordering as for making the student a global learning of the language. In this manner, they inter-relate the contents of different levels of analysis between them in each unit or lesson.

4) Also, the approach of noun phrase aspect may be developed as follows: An item is explained (the teacher explains it, it is read in the textbook, etc.), in a theoretical way and then, one should give certain examples. Students understand the explanation. Mechanical practices are done. Students exercise the new item in controlled situations and in small contexts (words, phrases …). They practice openly and exercise the item in uncontrolled situations (redactions) and more global contexts. The teacher corrects the exercises of the students.

Finally, the correction is another aspect that characterizes each approach. In this case, the teacher corrects basically the grammatical errors that the students have committed. He is interested in that the texts that write these are correct according to the established norm. On the other hand, it has no base in other parameters such as originality, clarity of ideas, structure, communicative success, degree of development of the text and so on.

5) Following the same example of comparison structures and adjectives, a possible final activity would be as follows: write a wording on the following topic: Advantages and disadvantages of living in a town or city.

6) Most methods of writing, textbooks, and textbooks of L1 and L2 follow this approach.

FUNCTION BASED APPROACH

1) It is developed in the context of teaching an L2 and, specifically, within a methodology: the communicative one. It follows the tradition of notional-functional methods, developed in Europe during the sixties, in which the most important thing is to teach a language to use it, to communicate. This type of method has its origin in the philosophy of language (Wittgenstein, Austin, Searle, etc.), and in the functionalist conception of the language that developed it. It also receives influences from sociolinguistics, from the first works on linguistics of the text and, in the field of didactics, from the movements of pedagogical renewal and active teaching.

According to this regard, language is not a closed set of knowledge that the student has to memorize, but a useful communicative tool to get things done: asking for a coffee in a bar, reading the newspaper, expressing feelings, asking for information, showing kindness, etc. The concrete action with which some objective is achieved is called an act of oral language and consists in the codification or decoding of a linguistic text. The complete set of noun phrase acts is the set of things that can be achieved with the language and can be classified with large generic groups of functions: greet, take turns speaking, excusing, expressing opinion, etc. These functions are related to the corresponding linguistic resources (the notions): lexicon, structures, abstract concepts, etc. and constitute the contents and objectives of a noun phrase course.

In the classroom, the noun phrase is taught from this point of view. The purpose of a class or lesson is to learn to perform a given function. The methodology is very practical in a double sense: on the one hand, the content of the class are the same uses of the language, as they are produced in the street (and not the abstract grammar that underlies them); on the other hand, the student is constantly active in the classroom: listening, reading, talking with classmates, practicing and so on. For example, students listen to realizations of a particular function, understand them, repeat them and begin to practice them, so that they subconsciously learn the lexicon and grammar that appear in them.

The first examples of this approach were developed in the teaching of English and French as L2 for beginners or for first level students. In the case of students with basically needs, these courses gave a very limited treatment to written expression. In fact, it is not until the early 1980s, when exclusive methods of written expression are developed with these approaches (Johnson, 1981:11). In this respect, some of the most important findings of text linguistics are incorporated, such as concepts about text properties (coherence, cohesion, adequacy, etc.), typologies of texts or genres of writing. The latter are basic to the programming of these manuals, since they replace the initial concept of function or oral language act. The concept of type of text is much more operative in the written language than that of function; for example, English language has many words to refer to types of written text (letter, note, notice, instance, examination, diligence, article …), which have no correspondence regarding the oral aspect.

2) The most important aspect of this approach is the emphasis on communication or language use, as opposed to the previous grammatical approach, in which language structure and grammar rules were important. This central idea underlies the other characteristics:

– descriptive language, opposite to the previous prescriptive vision. Noun phrase is taught as used by speakers (with their variations, imperfections, and inaccuracies), and not as it should be. It is not taught what is right and what is wrong, but what is actually said in each situation, whether normative or not, accepted by the Royal Academy of Language or not. The correct / incorrect binomial is replaced by the right / wrong binomial. In this way, the noun phrase context in which the terms are used is taken into account: a certain grammatical form is not correct or incorrect per se, according to the grammar books, but is adequate or inadequate for a given communicative situation (a recipient, purpose, context, etc.). For example, non-normative use is unacceptable in an academic and formal situation (conference, article …), but may be very suitable for colloquial use (a letter to a family member).

– Several linguistic models: dialects and registers. The noun phrase is not monolithic and homogeneous, it has dialect modalities and, in addition, levels of formality and of varied specificity. A noun phrase course must offer varied linguistic models: a student must be able to understand several dialects of the same language and, also, within the standard that has to dominate productively, it must be able to use very formal and other more colloquial words. Thus, in the field of written expression, sociolinguistic variations due to the degree of specialization of language are very important: a learner who learns to write must know the difference between how the reader is, the profile of the recipient or the psycho-sociological characteristics of the message receiver.

– Real or realistic materials? The texts that are used for the class must be real or, at least, plausible. This ensures that what is taught in class is what is actual.

-Special attention to the communicative needs of each student. Each student has different teaching and learning needs, so he must learn different language functions and resources. Each group requires specific programming for it. For example, it is very different to teach English to a group of foreigners working in the country, than to a group of tourists. Both groups require particular programming in teaching noun phrase.

At this point the difference between this approach and the previous one is substantial. While in the first one is always taught the same grammar, whatever the student, in the second are taught and learn different functions according to the recipient.

3) In notional-functional methods, programming is based on a set of functions or noun phrase acts. These vary from one course to another, but coincide in the basic functions of communication: presenting, requesting information, excusing, etc. In the exclusive methods of written language, the programming is based on the typology of texts developed by the linguistics of the text. Each lesson deals with a different type of text and at the end of the course the most important ones or those that the students ask for and that they will use in their real life will be treated.

Several typologies of texts are often used. Two of the best known are:

1. Based on the areas of use:

– Personal scope: diary, notes, agenda and so on

– Family and friendships: letters, postcards, invitations

– Work environment: reports, letters, resumes

– Academic field: essays, notes, summaries

– Social field: advertisements, letters and articles in the press

2. Based on the function, following the proposal of J. M. Adam (1985:55):

– Conversation: written dialogues, transcription of oral texts.

– Description: of objects, people.

– Narration: stories, jokes.

– Instruction: recipes, instructions for use.

– Prediction: horoscope, futurology.

– Exhibition: lesson, essay.

– Argumentation: opinion, defence of thesis.

– Rhetoric: poetry, recreational uses.

Working in this line of typologies or textual genres, Serafini (1985:77) presents a very interesting analysis of texts, writing functions and cognitive skills, with the aim of developing a progressive curriculum of written expression. His proposal is very interesting and goes beyond the limits of the functional approach to penetrate the field of cognitive operations, which already belongs to the third didactic approach.

4) In a class act as follows:

Several real or plausible examples of a particular type of text are presented and a comprehensive reading of them is made.

Students perform several practice exercises:

-Line with cloze of verbal forms.

– Change the registration of a very common letter into a familiar language, without vulgarisms or profanity.

-Write the introduction and conclusion for a given body of letter.

The teacher explains a situation so that the students write a family letter: they want to organize a trip and have to get companions writing some letters to friends and family. The exhibition of the situation is made with various materials: travel advertising, maps, excursions, etc.

Other typical exercises of this approach are the repair, manipulation and transformation of texts: change the point of view, complete an unfinished fragment, restore a missing paragraph, cohesion of disconnected and disorderly sentences of a text, change the record and so on.

Regarding the correction, it is governed by strictly communicative parameters. The teacher basically corrects the errors that make comprehension difficult and that could muddle the meaning of the noun phrase. Theoretically, noun phrase errors that do not have communicative value are not corrected, but in practice the criterion of correcting those important and repetitive errors of the structure, whether or not they have implications in the communication, is imposed.

Finally, one last important aspect of the class is the motivational and stimulating aids for students who do not know what to write regarding the noun phrase. The teacher tries to look for topics that are interesting and, in addition, prepares exercises prior to writing, so that the student knows what to write and is interested in doing so. These exercises may consist of reading an introductory text on a topic, having a previous discussion or discussion, etc.

5) the same exercise on the advantages of living in the countryside or in the city, adapted to this functional approach would be the following: Your cousin, who lives in Madrid, has a job offer in Melgar de Abajo (Valladolid). He does not know if he should accept it because he has always lived in a big city and does not know the field. Write a letter to tell him your opinion on the subject.

The content of the text and grammatical resources are the same as in the exercise of the first approach, but here there is a real communicative context. The writing theme has become a letter to a cousin. Since writing is a type of text that only exists in the classroom, exercise can never be communicative. Instead, by proposing a plausible motive, purpose, and receiver for the same text, exercise becomes a possible communication situation. The student has to search for the right register, he has to structure the text according to the established conventions and he has to decide what is the most important thing he can write and how.

6) A good example of this approach is the Spanish methods L2: Equipo Avance (1986) and Equipo Pragma (1984 and 1985). In L1 we would highlight three examples in Catalan: Cassany et al. (1987:44), Coromina (1984:45-50) and Bordons et al. (1989:225), with very different programming proposals. And all with permission of a classic English: Johnson (1981:142).

FOCUS BASED ON THE PROCESS

1) From the 1970s a series of researches on the production process or composition of written texts developed in the United States. A group of psychologists, teachers and pedagogues who taught written courses for American or foreign students in private colleges and universities began to analyze what their students did before, during and after writing the text. These teachers were very disappointed with the current methods they used in their classes in teaching noun phrase, because they did not offer satisfactory results in their courses. The research methods used were very varied: observation, video recording, analysis of the drafts students wrote, interviews with them, tests of written expression ability and so on.

The results of the research suggested that competent writers (students who performed well on tests) used a range of strategies or cognitive skills to write that were unknown to the rest of the students (those who scored poorly on the same tests). This finding was the recognition that in order to write satisfactorily, it is not enough to have a good knowledge of grammar or to master the use of the language. It is also necessary to master the process of writing texts: to generate ideas, to make diagrams, to revise a draft, to correct, to reformulate a text, etc. The set of these strategies constitutes what is called, in a rather crude way, the profile of the competent writer. This is the one that takes into account its reader, writes drafts, develops its ideas, revises them, re-elaborates the outline of the text, looks for a shared language with the reader to express itself, etc.

Together, these investigations and the general approach in the teaching of noun phrase are strongly influenced by cognitive psychology, as well as other branches of knowledge such as studies and creativity techniques or problem solving methods and heuristics. On the other hand, in terms of didactics, there is also a certain influence of humanistic pedagogy or approaches that emphasize the human and global dimension of the student.

2) This approach emphasizes the process of composition, as opposed to previous ones, which rewarded the finished and ready product. What is important is not only to teach how the final version of a writing should be, but to show and learn all the intermediate steps and strategies that should be used during the writing and writing process. The student often thinks that writing consists of filling in letters with a blank sheet; nobody has taught him that the written texts he reads have had a draft, and that the author has had to work hard to get it: that he has made lists of ideas, that he has worked out a scheme, a first draft, that he has corrected it and that, in the end, it has happened to clean. According to this approach the most important thing to be taught is this set of attitudes towards writing and the corresponding skills to know how to work with ideas and words.

Consequently, in the classroom the emphasis must be placed on the writer, on the student, and not on the written text that comprise noun phrase aspects. In traditional courses of noun phrase, it is taught how the written product should be: what are the rules of grammar, what structure should the text have, the linking of phrases, the selection of the lexicon, etc. Instead, this approach aims to teach the student to think, to make schematics, to order ideas, to polish the structure of the sentence, to review the writing, etc. The important thing is that at the end of the noun phrase course the student is able to do that, and not so much that the texts that you write do not contain inaccuracies. With an excessively easy metaphor, one could say that the focus is to teach how to sculpt and not teach sculptures.

3) Programming collects the set of strategies or skills and attitudes regarding noun phrase that characterize a competent student. In short, these are the mental processes that cognitive psychology has isolated and described as fundamental: generating ideas, formulating objectives, organizing ideas, writing, reviewing, evaluating and so on. These processes form the great blocks, sections or lessons of a course, and for each one are taught several useful writing techniques. Thus, the generation of ideas can be taught techniques such as the whirlwind of ideas, analogies or comparisons, systematic exploration of a topic based on questions, etc.

One should then transcribe the list of chapters or lessons of the method of Flower (1985:77):

Step 1: Explore the rhetorical problem.

Step 2: Make a work plan.

Step 3: Generate new ideas.

Step 4: Organize your ideas.

Step 5: Know the needs of your reader.

Step 6: Transform writer's prose into reader prose.

Step 7: Review the product and purpose.

Step 8: Evaluate and correct the writing.

Step 9: Correction of connectors and consistency.

Individual analysis of student needs is also very important in this approach. According to the theory, there is no single correct process of noun phrase composition, but each student has developed his own strategies according to his abilities, character and personality. Some researches (Jensen and DiTiberio, 1984: 55) have attempted to relate personality factors (extroversion / introversion, thinking / feeling …) with cognitive styles or compositional strategies and have found some connections. Individuals prone to extroversion prefer techniques such as freewriting, or as dialogue with themselves or with other authors, and usually write in an impulsive and spontaneous way, while the introverts use the schemes, lists and order at work.

In this respect, one can not teach unique "noun phrase recipes", nor can we expect the same techniques to be valid and useful for everyone. Each student has to develop his own style of composition based on his abilities: he has to overcome the blocks he suffers, he has to select the most productive techniques for him or her, to integrate them and adapt them to his way of working, to make productive time and so on. Teachers help their students by analyzing their writing and becoming aware of their defects and potentialities, suggesting appropriate techniques for each one, correcting the way they work, and so on. In short, this is a very individualized work with the subject of writing (and not with the object: text), which closely resembles the relationship between psychologist and client.

4) The classes based on this approach work in a very particular way. They are very similar to the well-known literature workshops or workshops of written expression (Auladell and Figuerola, 1989: 44), although what the students write does not have to be necessarily literature or texts with artistic or playful intention, but they can write letters, school works, essays, intimate diaries, etc. Basically, a topic is proposed and students spend all class time writing about it. The role of the teacher is to guide and advise the student's work: tell him how he can work, what techniques he can use in approaching noun phrase aspects, read his drafts and show him mistakes or loose points and so on.

In fact, the class can have various forms. One can work in a more programmed way, with precise tasks and instructions on what has to be done, collaborating in a group, sharing the results or it can flow spontaneously according to the rhythm and interests of each student, without specific exercises or organization, with only a very open general task. For example, on a given topic, the teacher can give detailed instructions every ten to fifteen minutes about what has to be done to develop the noun phrase aspect: a list of ideas, a scheme, a group of questions, a draft, etc. and the students follow the instructions successively. On the other hand, class time can also become a free and autonomous space for each one to write at a pace predetermined texts at the beginning of the course, quarter or month (in much the same way as the Garrison method, quoted by Sokmen, 1988:78). In this case, the teacher becomes a supervisor-collaborator of the student, who walks around the classroom and responds to the doubts of the students.

Another very special aspect of this approach is the correction of student work. According to the theory (Cassany, 1989:47), the product is not corrected but the drafting process. It is not so much interest to eradicate the grammar mistakes of the writing as the student improves his grammatical habits: to overcome blockages, to gain agility, to make his time profitable, etc. In this way, the correction far exceeds the linguistic framework and concerns psychological fields such as thinking or cognitive style, techniques or study skills, creativity, etc. In short, we are no longer talking about correction, but advice.

5) With the process-based approach, the same exercise in other chapters would become a task that would require several instructions and a lot more time to complete:

Make a whirlwind of ideas on the subject of the advantages and disadvantages of living in a town or a city.

Write down everything you can think of. You have 6 minutes.

Read what you've written and sort it into groups of ideas. Complete the groups.

Develop ideas from two of the groups.

Write a first draft of a text entitled Advantages and disadvantages of living in a village.

With the previous exercises, the student was explained how the final text had to be presented: subjects, extension, type of text, etc. On the contrary, in this respect the pupil is shown what he has to do to get the writing: how he can get ideas, how he can develop them, structure them, etc. In this approach, the student's work process is more important than the final product.

CONTENT-BASED APPROACH

1) This approach developed in parallel in two different academic contexts, in the United States during the 1980s: on the one hand, in writing courses at universities and colleges; on the other, in basic and middle schools with the movement "Writing through the vitae". In both cases, the underlying idea is the supremacy of content over form (whether it be grammar, function, type of text or process).

With regard to the first context, the writing teachers of these educational establishments developed a new methodology to attend to the characteristics and special needs of their students. This methodology is based on the following points:

• The written expression needs of these students are basically academic: exams, notes, papers, essays. This type of texts has very specific characteristics (research cited by Shih, 1986:110-147).

Consequently, mastery of the understanding and production of academic texts requires a type of strategies substantially different from those necessary for the mastery of the more general social texts. And this also implies a change in teaching noun phrase.

• Likewise, the need for noun phrase correct expression is born with the interest or obligation to pursue a university degree; in this respect, with the interest in a certain discipline of knowledge, usually very technical and specialized. Students are not interested in writing on general topics such as vacations, sports or leisure, but are intended to develop their ideas on electronic engineering, organic chemistry or computer science, for example. In this manner, noun phrase written expression exercises have to be closely related to the students' syllabus and also, teachers have to know the subject about what their students write in order to correct and help them.

• Interest in noun phrase written expression is related to the interest in other language skills such as reading or listening comprehension, as well as to other more abstract skills such as the selection of relevant information, summary, schematization and general processing of the Information, etc. Thus, by having to also attend to more general cognitive needs, other than the strictly linguistic ones, expression exercises become very complex tasks or projects that require important intellectual work.

Altogether, this is a very specialized approach in the teaching of academic language skills. It is done in the context of higher studies and uses exercises of tasks or projects on academic subjects.

In the second case, the pedagogical movement called writing through the curriculum (writing across the curriculum) aims to use the creative potential of the writing process to teach other subjects. It is a question of students writing about social issues; Mathematics or physics, in the corresponding subject, so that they learn about these subjects, besides practicing and improving their expression. In this respect, the teaching of written expression breaks the limits of the language subject and goes to cover the entire curriculum. The two fundamental principles of this movement are the following: the process of composing texts includes in some way a learning process of noun phrase. Writers learn things about what they write when they write. Writing noun phrase is an instrument of learning. This instrument can be used to learn about any topic or subject of the curriculum. The written expression exercises based on noun phrase not only serve to evaluate the knowledge of the students on a subject, but can be used to learn about this subject.

Griffin (1982:2) presents the main features of these pedagogical movements and proposes examples of exercises regarding noun phrase. Other didactic experiences closely related to this content-based approach are task-based work, or project work, originally developed in the teaching of English as L2 (see The Reality of a Dream: An Example of Project Work, 1988); and the whole of the discipline – very modest – of metacognition: self-learning, study techniques, learning to learn, and so on. (Nisbet and Shucksmith, 1986:58; Noguerol, 1989:36).

2) The main features of the approach are as follows (Shih, 1986:110):

Emphasis is placed on what the text says, in content, and not on how it is said, in form. Questions are interesting as if the ideas are clear, if they are ordered, if they are original, if they are related to solid arguments, if they are creative, etc. The formal aspects of expression and text (structure, presentation, grammar, etc.) are not included in the course schedule and are only addressed if the student presents needs of this type.

It is not written about the personal experience of each one, but about some academic subject. The sources of writing are, therefore, basically bibliographical: books, lectures, notes, articles, etc. In this way, the written expression classroom is very closely related to the content disciplines of the career.

The skill of noun phrase written expression is integrated with other language skills (listening, reading and speaking) in the context of academic work. It is understood that the development of a skill is not done in isolation from the overall learning of language skills. In addition, the type of study activities that students have to do in their career integrates and mixes all the skills. Consequently, in the classroom, students not only write, but practice all types of grammatical exercises.

In class exercises, two very clear and separate sequences are distinguished. A first phase of study and understanding of a subject (of "input") always precedes the final phase of developing ideas and producing a written text. In a first stage, the student "immerses" in the subject: read articles, listen to exhibitions about it, comment and discuss the content with colleagues and teacher, etc. In the final stage, he begins to collect information, to schematize it and to prepare his ideas for a written text based on noun phrases.
3) In principle, the programming of the course is based on the content of one or several study subjects. It can be a very complete and structured program from a subject or a discipline, or one can find more flexible programs that consist of a simple list of topics of interest to students. In the latter case, we would be very close to an approach as well known as the student’s famous centres of interest.

However, behind this simple and attractive list of topics, teachers have organized a wide range of activities (tasks, projects, works, exercises, etc.) that respond to a wide range of objectives: they practice all types of analysis, comprehension, synthesis, evaluation, they use very different types of text (oral / written, argumentative / informative, etc.) or force them to work in different ways (in class, in House, group, alone, in the library, etc.). And there is no doubt that this is the true program of the course: an extraordinarily varied set of exercises that require all kinds of efforts on the part of the student. Shih and Griffin offer various classifications of skills or academic skills that may be the basis of written expression programs.

4) A class based on this approach includes the following steps:

Deep research on a topic (or, as Shih says, incubation): reading texts, analysis of theses and arguments, search for new information, selection, etc.

Processing of information: elaboration of schemes, group discussions, contrast of opinions, etc.

Written production: preparation and writing of academic texts.

In general, the type of exercises that are performed are very global. They come from full texts, not sentences or fragments; of real documents, without manipulation, which have not been specially prepared for teaching; and of graphic material: schemes, maps, photographs, etc. Students always focus on the content: they extract the main ideas, compare two texts, interpret a scheme, etc. and what they have to produce are real academic texts: reviews, essays, articles for a school magazine, comments of text, etc.

Regarding the correction, two basic lines stand out: primary attention to the content of the text and individualization to respond to the needs of each student and, also, to deal with the formal aspects.

5) The example that serves as a contrast here becomes a real task that would occupy many work sessions:

Search for information in the library about the quality of life in Melgar de Abajo and in Madrid (or Valladolid), concerning the example given before

Read and interpret the following graphs: number of hospitals, cultural offer, pollution, cost of housing, prices gather the main data in a summary.

Listen to a lecture on the subject of life quality in Spain and take notes of important points. Discuss the most important points with colleagues.

Review all the documentation on the subject and write a short article about the research.

6) Two good texts on this approach are those already cited by Shih (1986:114) and Griffin (1982:150). 

3.3 The teaching of noun phrase from the perspective of the communicative approach

For more than twenty years, the predominant focus on second language (L2) and foreign language (LE) didactics in Europe is the communicative approach. Of course, in these years the communicative approach has been enriched with different contributions, different models have emerged and have materialized in the publication of various methods and courses, becoming a flexible theoretical framework always evolving. First, we will examine the principles and ideas common to all manifestations of this approach; then we will briefly analyze their development, from non-functional programming to homework teaching; finally, we will point out some methodological consequences of the principles of the communicative approach.

IDEAS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

We could say that a communicative type of teaching is one that targets the development of communicative competence. The essence of this approach lies in the enrichment of the learning objectives: it is not only a question of students acquiring a particular linguistic system, but of being able to use it to communicate properly and effectively. The concept of communicative competence has been re-elaborated since its first formulation (Hymes, 1971:57) with the contributions of various researchers to a complex network of sub-competences. In one of the most widespread models, that of Michael Canale and Merril Swain (1980:75), later expanded by Canale (1983:147), the following are described:

The grammatical competence: it supposes the dominion of the linguistic code, that is to say, of the grammar, of the phonological system and of the lexicon.

Sociolinguistic competence: it has to do with the knowledge of the properties of the statements in relation to the social context and the communication situation in which they occur (information shared between the interlocutors, communicative intentions of the interaction, etc.) .

Discursive competence: it refers to the knowledge of the relationships between the different elements of a message and the mastery of the rules of combination of these elements according to the different types of texts.

Strategic competence: it refers to the mastery of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to control communication, to reinforce the effectiveness of communication, or to compensate for the insufficient mastery of other competencies.

We see, then, that the communicative approach subordinates the study of the formal aspects ​​to the use of these for communicative purposes. The emphasis is, therefore, on the processes involved in the use of language, respectively on the study of meanings, their expression, understanding and negotiation during interactions. This conception of what a noun phrase is and how it is learned can not dispense with the approach to the culture in which the noun phrase acts as a vehicle of communication. In recent years, the importance of the cultural component in communicative processes and the need to incorporate it into different programs have been highlighted in order to facilitate intercultural understanding. In the communicative approach, a type of teaching noun phrase centred on the pupil is promulgated, in both communicative and learning needs. This supposes a loss of protagonism on the part of the teacher and of the teaching programs in favour of a greater autonomy of the students and, therefore, of a greater responsibility in the decision making on their own learning process. The analysis of the needs and the negotiation with the students constitute, thus, in the axis on which articulates the action of the teachers.

In the 1970s, we began to talk about the crisis of behavioural psychology and proposed cognitive models (Piaget, Vygotsky) as a possible alternative. In this respect, Chomsky's ideas are imposed, and his conception of language as the innate faculty of the human being clashes head-on with Skinner's behaviourist ideas. At that time a real revolution in the world of second language teaching took place with the emergence of the different "humanist" methods and the communicative approach in Europe, which respond to the new conception of teaching and learning noun phrase aspects. In this first stage of the communicative approach, the main concern of researchers will be to try to account for the communicative needs of students. Thus arise the non-functional programming, which will be widely disseminated and quickly adopted in the new textbooks. Much of the success is undoubtedly due to the support of the Council of Europe, which will base the definition of the contents of a threshold level for language teaching programs on the concepts of "notions" (concepts such as place, sequence, quantity, time) and "functions" (or communicative intentions such as greet, offer, present). The last stage in the development of the communicative approach is marked by the development of homework teaching. In an attempt to turn the classroom into the real communicative process scenario, the tasks (meaningful activities that result in a particular product) are proposed as the articulating axis of the teaching-learning process.

According to Nunan (1989:78) one can define task as "a unit of work in the classroom that involves students in understanding, manipulation, production or interaction in the L2 (second language) as long as their attention is concentrated primarily on the meaning than in the form."

From the communicative approach, the objective of the teaching-learning process of noun phrase is that students reach a certain level of communicative competence in that language. This objective is shared by teachers and students, and in the same statement it is clear that students are the real agents of the process. They are the ones who, with the help of the teacher, manage to learn, so the teacher has a very important but subsidiary function. In reality, the teacher does not have direct control over the learning to the extent that this is an internal process of the students. Hence, in his activity he must offer the kind of stimuli that the process requires, but remembering that his behaviour must be subordinated to the learning needs of the students. Experience shows that what teachers teach in their classes is not learned in the same way and in the same order by our students; it seems obvious that there are different ways of learning, and that students can know how they work best. All these aspects lead teachers to discard the conception of the student as a passive agent of the learning process. It is time, therefore, to listen to the students, who have much to say about all the aspects that integrate the process of which they are protagonists: the objectives (the for what), the contents (the what) and the methodology. In conclusion, one can say that there has been "an investment in the teaching-learning relationship: before, the belief was that it had to be taught well, and learning was a direct consequence, the teacher taught (taught) and it was the student's responsibility to learn; learning was subsidiary to teaching. Now, the belief is that it is learned in many ways and teaching is a subsidiary of learning; the student learns, and it is the teacher's responsibility to facilitate or enable their learning" (Martín Peris, 1993:14). This investment has been possible thanks to the entry into the field of second language methodology of new ideas from the Sciences of Education. In addition, in the last two decades, the findings of different linguistic sciences, such as Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics or Psycholinguistics, have substantially modified our conception of what a language is and therefore how it should be taught. Studies in the field of Sociolinguistics and Pragmatics have transformed the conception of our object of study, so that in the English course is not expected to be taught only the language system, but how to use it properly to communicate. It has also shown the need to contextualize the language to correctly interpret the statements. Psycholinguistics points out, in turn, the different strategies that are used to learn a language, and that should be taken into account when teaching it, although its main contribution is the concept of inter-language, where the error is no longer considered as negative form. For all of these, it seems clear that the traditional vision that identified the English teacher with an instructor who passed on his knowledge to the students, that is, that "taught grammar" and that he made all decisions regarding the progress of the class in the theoretical framework already established, the role of the process protagonists can no longer be the same. From this point of view, the role that the student should assume is an essentially active one, as a result of the awareness of its responsibility in the process of which it is an agent, as for the teacher, its function must now be defined around two fundamental axes: negotiation with students and their role as facilitator of learning .

3.4. Alternative/ complementary methods of improving the noun phrase grammatical skills

It seems interesting to highlight some principles of action for the teacher in the classroom. These include:

– Flexibilization of processes, resources, spaces, times, results, etc.

– Promote autonomy, personal development, shared and collaborative, but always respecting their own possibilities.

 – Cooperation and mutual support between the participants of the group stimulating to share doubts, solutions, strategies, results, etc.

– Diversity and abundance of resources that make it possible to choose and search for alternatives when results are not obtained.

– To favour the experiences and the experiences. Education is not just doing or knowing, it is also feeling.

– To stimulate the communicative interaction between the students with work in pairs, small groups or large interactive groups.

– Explicit integration offering activities for the development of reflective and social skills that favour it.

 – Assume respect for diversity with its real practice and the search for careful solutions with it.

– Learn from others through the preparation or discovery of personal strategies or modelling activities.

– To create, to make explicit and to practice a new Philosophy of Classroom that manifests our attitudes and differences.

– To propose a general multipurpose methodology and without fixed moulds that assumes that there is no universal scheme of learning but as many suitable ways as students.

– Propose individual intervention guidelines so that individual training itineraries can be developed with their specific development, participation and follow-up.

– Enrich work with group intervention guidelines that favour interaction and mutual progress.

– Generate some monitoring mechanism in which the student participates (agenda, journal, card, table, etc.) that allows to support a curricular design and development of each student.

– Intervene to resolve not to become angry or to disparage the student. Learning difficulties do not have to be obvious, or when they jump, they should not be attributed to the responsibility of the student who did not choose it, of course.

The communicative potential of a person is not determined simply by their learning potential in the context of a more capacity to learn, to develop, to grow, the broader horizons of noun phrase grammatical aspects. But the limitations may come from a variety of sources as limiting or more than the same intellectual disability: affective-relational factors, perceptual deficiencies, motor or postural difficulties, precariousness of resources or opportunities, lack of training, lack of support and motivation or misguided approaches in the selection of technical aids can act as a reduction of a person's communication potential. In order to properly consider a person's communication potential, we need to pause to consider briefly what is meant by communication and the forms of communication at our disposal. Communication must be understood as a multi-directional, interactive and intentional process that maintains two or more people exchanging meaningful elements. We understand that we are the ones who give meaning to the elements we exchange (do not have to be words) according to the communicative intention of the sender and according to the interpretative guidelines of the receiver.

As for the ability to learn noun phrase, which has been noticed more deficiency, it is due to the influence exerted by the mother tongue on the English language. Students who are learning English grammatical aspects tend to translate everything they hear, read and write from English to their mother tongue. This is a mistake that most English learners make, because not everything is translatable into English, there are other types of expressions, grammar and sounds, among other factors. The student feels that if I can not translate everything into his language then he will not find another way to express himself. On the other hand, to accurately reproduce the sounds of English and pronounce correctly must have knowledge about the phonetics of the English. Often in English courses there is not enough phonetic teaching in English, which forces the student to depend totally on the pronunciation of the teacher or what he hears in videos, songs, audios, etc. English has phonetics different from any other language, due to the position of the organs of the oral cavity (lips, tongue, teeth). To produce the sounds of English correctly, certain muscular movements must be made with the mouth, different modes of breathing, etc. For students it is extremely difficult to memorize all the positions that need to be done to create the sounds correctly so the easiest and most commonly practiced is to learn from the ear. This is how English children learn to pronounce the language well by listening and repeating everything they hear. (Learning English, 2010)

To practice and improve grammatical skills both in the classroom and outside of it, the most advisable is the following:

Be concrete: organize ideas to know exactly what students want to convey, do not try to speak so quickly, do it at a medium pace.

Avoid "revolver" languages: try as much as possible to forget a language, think in English and not want to translate everything from a language to English.

Bring words to action: If students do not know the meaning or how to pronounce and say something, it is better to be honest and ask for help or through different actions try to communicate what they want.

It is not what is said, but how it is said: It is very important to focus on the intonation of what is pronounced, it may be that something important is being said but if the proper intonation is not added, the message can be transmitted erroneously, of this that is not understood the original idea that was wanted to communicate.

To analyze the accents and inflections of the language and to work in it: it is important to focus on imitating the accent in English, it is advisable to get used to listening to an accent (American) first, and when students are familiar with it, to become familiar with others (British, Australian, etc.).

Study sentences and not isolated words: it is better to learn vocabulary words within sentences in a given context, such as noun phrases, so they can be used on different occasions and this will create more sentences to have a more fluid conversation in a more natural way.

Concentrate too much on grammar: if grammar is to be prioritized at all times, it will make it easier to be learned; if students think about the rules of grammar, it will cause more fluency. In this respect, it is advisable to form a pattern and to understand the primordial of the grammatical structure, to pay attention to the use of this structure and to concentrate on practicing conversations with what has already been learned without thinking of the rules, but in the contexts and experiences prior to the talks.

Listening, listening and listening: special attention must be paid to listening to the language; it is advisable to watch series and movies in English, to be in constant practice with the language, not to listen and do this daily. The more students are in contact with the language, the more they become familiar with it and it will become easier to know what another person is speaking in English because the brain is getting used to imitate structures and phrases, forming patterns to follow. (Coto, 2010:478)

The learning strategies used by teachers to help students manage the grammatical aspects are the key to make a difference in the learning process. Steinberg (2001: 76-77) says: "Learning strategies are the particular approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn a second language." It points out that learners will use a particular strategy depending on the problem they are facing, such as remembering a new word. Students can also remember and explain what they did to remember that word. That is, the learning strategies employed by students vary from student to student depending on their individual mental processes.

For the purposes of this project, the definition of noun phrase learning strategies to be used is that of Oxford (1990:2), because it offers a holistic vision, which contemplates making learning easier and more pleasant through the application of strategies. Oxford says, "Learning strategies are steps taken by students to expand their own learning. Strategies are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active and self-directed participation, which is essential for developing communicative competence. Appropriate language learning strategies result in better performance and greater self-confidence. "(Oxford, 1990: 1)

Oral Production Skills

Bygate (1991:17) presents a series of facilitation and compensation strategies that students naturally employ to facilitate their discourse. He considers that "firstly, we can see how useful it is for learners to be able to facilitate their oral production by making use of these devices, and how important it is for them to get accustomed to compensate for problems" (Bygate, 1991: 20).

The facilitation strategies are: simplification, ellipsis, shortcuts, devices to gain time, and formulated expressions.

Interactive oral activities that have some impact on learners: The different authors, consulted in the realization of this project, provided a wide variety of interactive oral activities according to their experience. Some of their points of view and suggestions are briefly described below: Folse and Ivone (2005:77) point out that asking students to write their ideas before participating in a discussion allows them to re-examine, rethink, and recycle their thoughts. Tillitt and Newton (1993:89) suggest a simple way for students to learn noun phrase strategies and the functional use of language in this respect. They consider that students need to know the social rules of language use that may be different from those in their own culture.

Yorkey (1985:58) suggests several activities designed to be performed by two students for the purpose of practicing listening and communication skills in order to approach noun phrase aspects. It is necessary to work cooperatively to solve different situations such as following routes on a map, reproducing drawings by means of lines, strips of stories, and making appointments among others. The intention of this type of activities is to help the students to develop real communicative competence.

Zelman (2005:77) proposes a series of activities to promote grammatical fluency such as interviews, role change, group work and discussions. Role change activities present hypothetical situations in which two or more students interact with one another without prior preparation. This type of activity demands the creativity and imagination of the students, helps to improve their fluency, and creates a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom.

3.5 The Goals of Noun Phrase Teaching

Noun phrase teaching depends on its goal. Its aim is that of teaching noun phrase competence. But what is the meaning of this term? The meaning of this term can be deduced by making a comparison with grammatical competence. The concept of grammatical competence refers to the ”knowledge people have of a language accounting for their competence to make sentences in a language”. (Nunan, 1991:185) Also, it highlights the knowledge of building blocks of sentences (for example, different phrases, parts of speech, clauses, sentence patterns or even tenses) and the way sentences are formed. Grammatical competence represents the focus of grammar practice books, which presents in a typical way grammar rules on the first page, and proposes practical exercises on the other page. These exercises are provided using the rule on the first page. The sentence is the unit of analysis and practice. Grammatical competence is seen as an important dimension of language learning. At the same time, it has a clear involvement in studying a language in order to learn it. In this way, one can coordinate the rules of sentence formation in a foreign language and still not being able to use it for meaningful communication. It represents the latter capacity understood by the communicative competence concept.

This concept includes aspects of language knowledge (Richards, Jack, 2006:7) such as:

Recognizing the way a language can be used for different functions and purposes

Recognizing the way people use language in accordance with the setting and participants

Recognizing the way to produce authentic texts and understand them

Recognizing the way of maintaining communication despite the limitations in one’s language knowledge

Richards (2006:25) suggests that ”Grammatical Teaching is a paradigm that has led to eight major changes in approaches to language teaching”. These changes are:

Learner autonomy: It is important to give learners a choice of their own learning. This aspect can be achievable by using small groups or self-assessment.

Social nature of learning: Learning is not considered an activity characterized by individuality or privacy, but a social one with great dependence upon interaction with others. The movement known as cooperative learning reflects this viewpoint.

Curricular integration: The existence of a connection between curriculum strands is emphasized, so that English language is not seen as a stand-alone subject. It is connected to other subjects in the curriculum. This approach is reflected by text-based learning, seeking to develop fluency in text types across the curriculum. Project work in language teaching requires students to explore external issues.

Focus on meaning: This concept is considered to be a driving force of learning. Content-based teaching shows the view and at the same time, it seeks to make the exploration of meaning through content the core of language learning activities.

Diversity: Students can learn in different ways. Their strengths are also different. Teaching activity must consider these differences rather than try to force learners into a single mould. In the activity of language teaching, this aspect has led to an emphasis on developing learners’ use and awareness of various learning strategies.

Thinking skills: it is important language to serve as a way of developing higher-order thinking skills. It is also known as creative and critical thinking. In language teaching, the language is not being learned for its own sake, but to develop and apply students thinking skills in situations that go beyond the language classroom.

Alternative assessment: This concept reflects a mixture of new forms of assessment and it must replace traditional multiple-choice, for example, that test skills at lower-order level. Nowadays are outlined multiple forms of assessment such as observation, interviews, journals, portfolios. They can be applied in order to build a comprehensive idea of what students can do in a second studied language.

Teachers seen as co-learners: The teacher is considered a facilitator constantly applying different alternatives such as learning through doing. In teaching a foreign language, this aspect has led to an increased interest in action research and other forms of classroom investigation.

A key issue is that of assessment and the way learners can be assessed: ”in accordance with the content knowledge, with the language use or both”. (Nunan, 1991:284)

The term assessment is used in various contexts and has different meanings regarding things to different people. Most statistics consider the assessment in terms of testing and grading (for example, scoring quizzes and exams, as well as assigning course grades to students). Assessment is typically used to inform students about the way they are doing or the way they did in the courses. An emerging vision of this concept is that of ”a dynamic process that continuously yields information about student progress toward the achievement of learning goals” (NCTM, 1993:15). This vision acknowledges that when the information gathered is consistent with learning goals and is used appropriately to inform instruction, it can enhance student learning as well as document it. Rather than being an activity separate from instruction, assessment is now being viewed as an integral part of teaching and learning, and not just the culmination of instruction (Mathematical Sciences Education Board- National Research Council, 1993: 25)

The presence of a reform movement through the educational assessment encourages teachers to assess more broadly than testing and using test results to assign grades to students, as well as to rank them. A recent report on assessment, "Measuring What Counts", highlights two basic principles of assessment, respectively:

The Content Principle: According to this principle, assessment should reflect the content that is most important for students to learn.

The Learning Principle: According to this principle, assessment should encourage content learning and support good instructional practice.

These principles lead in a direct way to the use of alternative forms of assessment in order to provide complete information about what students have already learned. At the same time, students should be able to use their knowledge, as well as teachers should provide more detailed and timely feedback to students about the quality of their learning. Assessment approaches now being used in different domains capture aspects of students’ way of thinking, reasoning and applying the learning.(Ciara O’Farrell,2009:14) Some of these alternative methods are described below – portfolio assessment, authentic assessment and performance assessment.(Joan B. Garfield , 1994:3)

Portfolio assessment is a method based on a collection and evaluation of a selection of students' work that has been carefully chosen concerning noun phrase. By this method, the number and types of selections included in the portfolio may be various, but they are typically agreed upon by the teacher and student for the purpose of representing what that student has learned.

Authentic assessment is a method of obtaining information about the way students understand a context reflecting realistic situations regarding noun phrase. At the same time, students are challenged to use what they have learned in class in an original context.

Performance assessment is a method through which students must present a task, project, or investigation regarding noun phrase. Then, the teacher evaluates the products in order to assess what students actually know and can do.

Before making a selection of alternatives to traditional testing, it is important to consider criteria regarding their appropriate use. Different standards regarding the assessment in various domains may be considered criteria for assessment procedures, being below. (Joan B. Garfield , 1994: 4)

They are relevant to the development or selection of statistical assessment materials as well. By these criteria, one could consider that:

A good assessment regarding noun phrase should provide information in order to contribute to decisions about instruction’s improvement

A good assessment regarding noun phrase should be aligned with various instructional goals.

A good assessment regarding noun phrase should provide information on the students’ knowledge.

A good assessment regarding noun phrase should supply other assessment results to ensure a global description of students’ knowledge.

Considering these criteria, a broader view of good assessment regarding noun phrase emerges and it is considered to be beyond that of testing and grading. This way, the assessment becomes an integral part of instruction, consists of multiple methods as complementary sources of information about student learning, providing, at the same time, both the student and instructor with a more complete analysis of what has happened in a particular course.( Joan B. Garfield , 1994:6)

3.6 Purposes of testing and evaluation in the context of noun phrase teaching process

The most compelling reason of a teacher to consider implementing other testing and evaluation methods than traditional tests and quizzes is because traditional forms of assessment rarely improve teaching and learning methods regarding the noun phrase, offering teacher limited understanding of students. In this way, the attitudes and beliefs students bring to class, the way they think in a foreign language, as well as their ability in applying what they understood should be taken into account. With this knowledge it is not difficult to determine and establish the way a change is made or an instruction is designed in order to improve student’s learning. (Ayala, C., 2005:12)

The main purpose of student assessment regarding noun phrase should be the one of improving student learning. There are also few secondary purposes established in order to gather testing and evaluation information, such as (Adkisson, C., McCoy, L. P., 2006: 31):

providing of individual information to students about how well they have understood and applied a particular topic, as well as where they are having difficulty.

providing information about how well the class understood a particular subject and what other additional activities might need to be introduced in the curriculum or whether it is time to approach another topic.

providing diagnostic information about individual understanding of students or difficulties in understanding a new topic.

providing information about students’ perceptions and reactions to the class, the material, the topic matter, as well as other particular activities.

providing an overall indicator of students' success in achieving course goals.

helping students to determine their strengths and weaknesses in studying the provided material.

The process of selecting appropriate testing and evaluation methods and instruments is directly dependant on the purpose of assessment. If this purpose is the one of determining that students have learned some important concepts or skills, this may have effects in a different instrument or approach than if the purpose is to provide feedback to students. This way, “students may review material on a particular topic”. (Doughty & Long, 2003:44)

Regardless of the specific purpose of an assessment procedure, incorporating an assessment program offers teachers a way to reflect about what they are doing, but also to find out what happens in classrooms. The assessments provides teachers with a systematic way of evaluating information in order to use and improve their knowledge, not only of students in a particular topic, but the general knowledge of teaching. By using assessment to identify what is not working, as well as what is working, teachers can help their students to become more aware of their own success in learning a specific topic, as well as “to assess better their own skills and knowledge”. (Kumaravadivelu, 1994: 10)

Ways to test and evaluate student learning regarding noun phrase aspects

In order to gather test and evaluate information regarding noun phrase, there are different methods. Multiple methods should be used at “providing a more complete image of student learning”. (Lawrence M. Rudner, 2002: 65) All types of testing and evaluation have in common their role in a particular situation, over a task, or questions; a student response, an interpretation, an assignment of meaning to the interpretation, as well as reporting and recording of results are the basis of a good learning assessment. Different testing and evaluation methods may include:

projects or reports which can be individual or in groups

different quizzes

minute papers

essay questions

journal entries

portfolios

exams that cover a broad range of material

attitude surveys

written reports

open-ended questions

enhanced multiple-choice questions where responses are designed to characterize students' reasoning .

Quizzes and essay questions should be graded and assigned a single grade or score. More complex assessments are “projects and written reports and they may be evaluated using scoring procedures in an alternative way”. (Biehler, Snowman, 1997:440) These procedures are also used to help students to learn the way to improve their performance, both on this task or future ones. Evaluation procedures for projects and reports consist of:

Giving a grade of A or "needs work" – this procedure allows the student to revise and improve the product

Using a scoring rubric to assign points (for example, 0, 1, 2) to different assessment components – this procedure provides more detailed feedback to students on various aspects of their performance. The following categories may be used in order to evaluate a student project:

Understands the problem

Describes an effective solution

Discusses limitations of the solution

Communicates effectively

One may recommend to use scoring rubrics, model papers and exemplars of good performance in order to assign student grades. These methods provide students with insights over the good performance expected to be, allowing them, at the same time, to acquire standards in “comparison with teacher’s performance standards”. (Ciara O’Farrell,2009:15)Also, there areother assessment information such as minute papers or attitude surveys. These do not require a score or grade, but they can be used to inform the teacher about what the student understands and feels, as input for modifying instruction.

The assessment framework regarding the noun phrase aspect

The assessment framework comes from the different aspects of assessment: what teachers want to have happen to students in studying a topic, different methods and purposes for assessment, together with additional dimensions presented below.

The first dimension of this framework is WHAT to assess. This may be divided into: “concepts, skills, applications, attitudes, but also beliefs”. (Ciara O’Farrell,2009:15)

The second dimension of this framework is the PURPOSE of assessment. This reflects the reason the information is being gathered and the way it will be used. For example, it has the role to inform learners about strengths and weaknesses of the learning process, or to give information to the teacher about the way of modifying the instruction.

The third dimension of this framework is represented by the identification of the individual who will assess. He can be the teacher or a student; in this respect, he is considered to be “a critical and early part of assessment process”. (Brumfit, C., 1984:22) Constantly, students express a need for knowledge and they should have different opportunities in order to improve their learning methods by stepping back from the usual work and considering what they did and learned. Pupils should have opportunities to apply criteria in the sense of scoring their own of other colleague’s work so they are able to compare their ratings to those given by teacher.

The fourth dimension of this framework is the method to be used. This method involves the use of quizzes, group or individual projects, reports, portfolio or writings.

The fifth dimension of this framework is represented by action and feedback. These represent one of the essential components of the assessment process, providing the connection between the process of assessment and improved student learning. This framework does not suggest an intersection of the previous dimensions in order to make “a meaningful assessment technique efficient”.(Littlewood, 1981:11). A good example is that of measuring students' understanding about the variability concept, respectively WHAT to assess for fulfilling the PURPOSE of identifying if learners understand this concept, using them in the group as assessors (WHO), applying the METHOD as a quiz, and the ACTION or FEEDBACK being represented by a numerical score. This assessment framework may not have particularly meaningful and useful results. It also does not make sense to assess student stances towards computer halls (WHAT) by having peers (WHO) read and evaluate student essays (METHOD). It is obvious that “some dimensions are more appropriately connected than other ones”. (Brumfit, C., 1984:34)

Another important target in applying this framework is that it is often difficult to assess a single concept in isolation of other concepts and skills. “It may not be possible to assess understanding of standard deviation without understanding the concepts of mean, variability, and distribution” (Littlewood, W., 1981:13).When given the task last fall, a group of statistics educators were unable to design an appropriate assessment for understanding the concept of "average" without bringing in several other concepts and skills. There are some examples below regarding the assessment activities illustrating the dimensions of the framework from the English class activity at secondary level.

Example 1:

WHAT: Students' understanding of the topic „Creativity”

PURPOSE: To find out if learners need to review text material or if the teacher needs to introduce additional activities designed to exemplify the concept.

METHOD: An essay question as a quiz; students will be asked to explain the topic and exemplify it using an authentic example.

WHO: The teacher evaluates the responses.

ACTIONS/FEEDBACK: The teacher will read the responses and assigns a score of 0 to 3. Students with scores of 0 and 1 are assigned additional materials to read and understand or different activities to complete. Students with scores of 2 are given feedback on where their responses could be strengthened.

Example 2:

WHAT: Students' ability in applying basic exploratory data over analysis skills.

PURPOSE: the main purpose is the one to determine if students are competent in applying their skills to data collection, analysis and interpretation.

METHOD: A student project, where instructions are given to the sample size, format of report and so on.

WHO: First, the student is asked to complete a self-assessment grid, using a copy of the rating sheet the teacher will use, being distributed prior to completing the project. After that, the teacher evaluates the project using an analytic scoring method. Below, one can identify explanations of each category:

Communication: an use of appropriate language and symbols.

Visual Representation: an appropriate construction and display of tables and graphs.

Decision Making: it is written in order to represent the data and the appropriate summary.

Interpretation of Results: the ability to use information from various representations and summary measures in order to describe a data set.

Drawing Conclusions: the ability to draw conclusions about the data, point out missing information or relate the performed study to other information.

ACTIONS/FEEDBACK: there are assigned scores to each category. Then, scores are given back to students together with written comments. This way, the teacher aims to create feedback between them and his students.

Example 3:

WHAT: Students' involvement in cooperative group activities while studying the topic “health nowadays”.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the teacher is to find out the way groups are working, their efficiency and to determine if the procedures at group level need to change.

METHOD: A "minute paper" is a very successful method. It is assigned during the last five minutes of class, when students are asked to write about their perceptions of what they like best and like least about their experience with group activities. All the papers are anonymous.

WHO: The teacher will read the papers.

ACTIONS/FEEDBACK: The teacher summarizes the responses. Then, he shares the responses with the class, making changes in groups or group methods as necessary.

Example 4:

WHAT: Students' understanding of topic’s assumption. The studied topic could be “pollution”.

PURPOSE: The purpose of teacher is to evaluate students' understanding of topic’s assumption, giving a grade to students for a major portion of work on the specific subject.

METHOD: A portfolio is a good method to be used in this situation. Students will be asked to select samples of their work from a unit developed on four weeks on inference to put in a portfolio folder. Students select examples of written assignments, group activities or writing assignments. They make sure that particular topics are represented. Students will select samples of their work, will write a summary in maximum 20 rows describing why they selected each part. Finally, they give their own rating of their work quality.

WHO: The teacher reviews the portfolios and completes a rating sheet for each one. He can use a scoring rubric, including categories such as:

Demonstrates understanding of subject testing.

Correctly determines and interprets different error.

Correctly uses and interprets different concepts.

Selects the appropriate procedures in testing the subject involving one or two groups.

Demonstrates understanding of the topic significance.

ACTIONS/ FEEDBACK: Portfolios are returned to students with completed rating sheets. The students will review domains of weakness points or errors made and may submit a follow-up paper demonstrating their understanding of these topics. The teacher will highlight few mistakes or weakness points in class before approaching the next subject.

Some suggestions can be identified below for teachers approaching alternative assessment procedures for their class:

The teacher should analyze every assessment activity, considering it a way to provide students with feedback on the improvement way for learning and not just as an activity used to give a grade.

The teacher should not try to do it all at once. He should choose one method, try it for few days, and then introduce and experiment it in a gradually way with other techniques.

The teacher should not try to do it all alone. He should plan, review and discuss with other teachers, colleagues of him, about what he is doing and what he is learning from the assessment information.

The teacher should be open with his students about the reason and the way they are being assessed.

The teacher should make sure that he has opportunities to highlight the assessment information he obtains, reflecting upon it, as well as monitoring the impact of the results on his perceptions of the class and of the topic he is teaching.

The teacher should consult resources for ideas of different approaches to use and ways to evaluate assessment information.

The assessment drives instruction, so the teacher must be careful to assess what he believes is important for students to learn. The teacher should use an assessment form in order to confirm, reinforce and also support his ideas of what students should study. A good teacher should not lose track of the main purpose of assessment: learning improvement.

Summative assessment

The formative impact of summative assessment is presented in the following part. According to Crooks (1988:467), “classroom evaluation could affect learners in many different ways”. For instance, it guides their judgment of what is important to learn, affects their motivation and self-perceptions of competence, structures their approaches to and timing of personal study (e.g. spaced practice), consolidates learning, and affects the development of enduring learning strategies and skills.

Classroom evaluation seems to represent one of the most powerful forces influencing the process of education. Also, it requires a careful evaluation and a considerable investment of time. Many of the skills and attitudes, considered education aims, take years to improve and develop, and development can be compromised by “a lack of support for teachers in the educational experiences of students” (Willis, J., 1996: 56), all in a consistent way.

There are effects of summative assessment manifested on short term , such as:

Focusing on attention over important aspects of the topic;

Giving students great opportunities to consolidate learning by practicing skills;

Guiding further instructional activities or even learning ones, within the course;

There are also some “effects on medium and longer term” such as (Crooks, 1988:470):

Influencing students' motivation as learners, as well as their perceptions of own capabilities. This aspect is known as self-efficacy;

Communicating and reinforcing teaching goals. This aspect includes key performance criteria. It also desires great standards of performance;

Influencing students' choice and development of learning different study patterns, skills or strategies;

Influencing students' subsequent choice of activities and even, careers.

Formative assessment

“Formative assessment is known as an active learning process partnering teacher and students to continuously and systematically gather evidence of learning with the express goal of improving student achievement. Intentional learning reflects a cognitive process having learning as an aim and not an incidental outcome”(Bereiter&Scardamalia, 1989: 66)Teachers and learners engage in an active and intentioned way in a formative assessment process in the moment they work together. They will:

focus on learning and developing topics as goals.

size up the position of the current work in relation to the aim.

take action to move closer to the aim.

The formative assessment process has an “impact on teachers”.(Bereiter&Scardamalia, 1989: 66) This way, teachers adopt a working assumption in order to:

be aware of students learning more effectively aspects regarding noun phrase when they know and understand the learning aim.

help each student succeed. In this way, the teacher must precisely know the student position in relation to the learning aim, respectively the one of noun phrase.

provide specific suggestions by effective feedback. These suggestions will be provided in order to close the gap between the actual position of students and where \they need to be in relation to the learning aim.

provide students a way of regulating their own learning.

encourage meaningful learning. This type of learning appears between minds, during strategic conversations, as well as in the moment students become models of success for each other.

provide motivation. Motivation is not a material thing a teacher will give to his students; it is an aspect a teacher must help students to develop.

Teachers should act in a “constructive way” (Skehan P., 1996: 78) in order to:

Bring precision to their long time planning.

Communicate learning aims in a friendly and appropriate language.

Unpack the exact criteria learners must accomplish in order to succeed.

Collect evidence of student learning for monitoring and adapting the teaching during a lesson.

Give focused, generative and descriptive feedback.

Develop and improve a collection strategies regarding the feedback.

Teach each students how to self-assess.

Make checklists, guides, rubrics or other meta-cognitive tools considered as integral part of what students shall do before, during and after finishing the process of noun phrase learning.

Encourage students in order to become learning resources one to another.

Plan and ask strategic questions, producing an evidence of noun phrase learning.

Align appropriate levels of challenge and support.

Create learning experiences in an intentional way, students being able to learn what they do well, what they should do more or how to focus their efforts in order to maximize a successful situation.

About formative assessment in the context of noun phrase, one could consider some key points. A key premise is that of the students’ improvement ability. In this regard, “students must have the capacity to monitor and evaluate the quality of their own work”. (Beglar, D., Alan, H.,2002: 102) This process requires:

students to appreciate the level of work quality,

students to evaluate, having necessary skills in order to make objective comparisons about the quality of what they are producing in relation to the standards,

students to develop and improve a set of tactics which can be drawn upon for modifying their own work.

The process of giving or receiving feedback must occur during English classes. Simple knowledge of results is consistently provided by direct or implicit means. A more detailed feedback is used where necessary, in order to help student work through misconceptions or other weaknesses at the performance level. Compliments should not be used meagerly and when used “they should be task-specific, whereas criticism is usually counterproductive”.( Valerie J. Shute, 2007)

Royce Sadler (1989) identified three essential elements of formative assessment effectiveness:

helping students to recognize clearly the desired goal – students should understand what a teacher requires;

providing students with evidence about how well their work matches that goal;

explaining ways to close the gap between the goal and their current performance.

Quoting Crooks, “self-assessment represents a vital learning component. Feedback on assessment cannot be effective unless students accept that their work can be improved. Also, they have to identify important aspects of their work, in order to improve it. Self-monitoring became a key component of all professionals work. In this regard, if teachers want their students to become professional learners and very good in their fields, they should promote self-assessment in an active way. If students are asked and encouraged to make a critical examination and comment on their own work, assessment will be more a type of dialogue than a monologue, contributing stoutly to the educational development of students.” (Crooks, 1989:13)

Marks or grades do not produce learning gains. There can be reflected some the way students mostly gain learning value from assessment when feedback is provided without marks or grades. Where the teacher provides a mark, it seems to dominate students' feelings and thinking, being seen as the real purpose of the assessment.

Student motivation is essential to learning. Without it, assessment will be faulty, assessment having major influences on motivation. Therefore, it is very important to anticipate and optimize the motivational effects of feedback on assessment. ( Shute, Valerie. J., 2007) Researching, specialists highlighted the fact that the greatest motivational benefits will come from focusing feedback (Gibbs, G. , 1988) on:

qualities of student's work, rather than on making comparisons with other students;

specific ways in which the student's work could be improved;

improvements that the student has made in comparison to his earlier work.

There are “some points that summarize the key lessons regarding formative assessment that promotes learning” (Goldstein, I. L., Emanuel, J. T., Howell, W. C. , 1968: 154), as following:

it involves students in self-assessment;

it involves learning aims that are being understood and shared by teachers and students;

it helps students to understand and recognize the standards to be achieved;

it provides feedback, helping students to recognize next phases and they way of taking them;

it builds confidence that students can develop their work by improvement.

In order to obtain a productive formative assessment, learners should be trained in self-assessment. This way, they can understand the main purposes of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do in for achievement. Opportunities for students to express their understanding should be designed into different fragments of teaching and for this, one will initiate the interaction whereby formative assessment aids learning. The dialogue between teacher and student focuses to evoke and explore understanding, but at the same time, it should be thoughtful, reflective and conducted so that all learners have the chance to think and to express their own, authentic ideas. Tests and homework exercises are considered to be an invaluable guide to learning. However, the exercises must be relevant and concise for the learning goals. At this level, the feedback should give each student the guidance on how to improve. It is important to know that each child must be given opportunity and help to work at “the improvement and development”.(Richards, J., C., Theodore R., 2001: 100).

Assessment that promotes learning:

has a view of teaching and learning- this way, it is an essential part;

involves sharing learning points with students;

has the objective of helping children to know and to recognize the standards they are aiming for;

involves students in self-assessment;

provides feedback which leads students to recognize the next steps and the way of taking them;

is underpinned by confidence that every student can improve;

involves teacher and students- this way, they review and reflect on assessment data.

Formative assessment of completed or draft work

There should be taken into consideration some student-centred contextual components (Black, Paul, William, Dylan, 1998) such as:

Who is this student?

What considerations require special attention? (cultural, social and so on)

How confident is this student about this curriculum area or type of task?

One can talk about self-efficacy?

How does the student respond to teacher’s requirements?

Does praise, criticism or guidance work best?

The following tasks should be taken into consideration. They are specific to contextual components. The teacher will be able to answer the following questions (Lundeberg & Fox, 1991):

Did the student understand the task?

The teacher must have broad thrust

The teacher must have specific qualities desired, and their relative importance

The teacher must have the standards that would be applied.

How much effort has the student put in order to complete the task?

The teacher must appreciate if there were mitigating commitments or circumstances.

Did the student receive substantial help while working on the task? Did it receive distraction?

The teacher must appreciate if the help or distraction came from school staff, peers or parents or other family members.

What use did the student make of help available from others?

The teacher must appreciate if he ignored or rejected it

The teacher must appreciate if he learned from it, and incorporated it into his/her work

The teacher must appreciate if he used it essentially verbatim, without evidence of learning

There are some components (Ramaprasad, A.,1983), such as:

Summative ones

The teacher must appreciate how well does student’s work meet the desired criteria and standards

The teacher must appreciate if a mark should be recorded for the student and if so, where and how?

Components with both summative and formative aspects

The teacher must appreciate the strengths of the work.

The teacher must appreciate the weaknesses of the work.

The teacher must appreciate if the student should be given "knowledge of results"

Formative Components

The teacher must appreciate how does a student's performance match his expectations for that student.

distinctly better than expected

largely as expected

distinctly worse than expected

The teacher must appreciate the evaluative feedback that should be given to the student

what should be passed over without comment?

what, if anything, should be commended?

what, if anything, should be criticised?

The teacher must appreciate the most corrective requirements or suggestions that should be given to the student

The requirements or suggestions will be focused on improving some particular piece of work

The requirements or suggestions will be focused on better performance on future work

The teacher must appreciate if the student should be required or encouraged to resubmit the work with improvements

The teacher must take into consideration and appreciate “the following student-centered contextual components” (Felder R. M., Brent R.,2005:15):

Who is the student?

What considerations require special attention?

How confident is the student about this curriculum area or type of task?

How does the student respond to criticism, praise and guidance?

What works best between criticism, praise and guidance?

Task-specific contextual components could be considered the following:

The teacher must appreciate if this is the sort of task that the student usually finds motivating, but also if the learner understands the task. Here, we can talk about:

task’s broad thrust

specific qualities desired by teacher and their relative importance for student

the standards that will be applied in order to accomplish the task

Below, there are some “formative components that must be taken into consideration” (Trigwell, K., Prosser, M., and Waterhouse, F, 1999:56)

What questions should a teacher ask in order to better understand what the student is doing?

What a teacher should be doing in order to encourage the development of self-assessment skills?

How well is the student’s work progressing towards meeting the teacher’s desired criteria and standards?

What are the strengths of the student’s work thus far?

What are the weaknesses of the student’s work thus far?

How is the student's performance matching the teacher's expectations for that student?

They are considered to be distinctly better than expected

They are considered to be largely as expected

They are considered to be distinctly worse than expected

What evaluative feedback on the progress made should be given by teacher to his students?

Will the progress be commended at this stage?

Will the progress be criticized at this stage?

Will the progress be passed over without comment at this stage?

What corrective suggestions or requirements should be given by teacher to his student?

To focus on improving his particular piece of work

To enhance the student's work more generally

Are there issues here that should be raised with other students or with the class as a whole?

What is required before this work can be regarded as completed, and ready for summative assessment (if required)?

There are some key factors influencing the “validity of formative assessment”, presented in the following part. (Kulhavy, R. W., & Stock, W. , 1989:280)

In the category of affective factors are included:

Motivation

Teacher is devoted to give help in student learn.

Student considers learning is very important and he wants to improve and develop it.

Trust

Teacher is encouraging, but also constructive and sensitive to student's feelings.

Different relationships and attitudes of the relational environment support student's learning.

Student admits difficulties and uncertainties. In this regard, he feels safe.

In the category of task factors are included (Richards, J.C., 2006):

Knowledge

Teacher will understand the key aspects and difficulties of the required task.

Criteria

Teacher will identify and explain in a professional way the qualities sought.

Students will understand clearly what is needed in order to complete the task.

Standards

Teacher will set some proper standards for student to aim.

Through descriptions and examples, the teacher will explain the standards to aim.

Students will understand the standards and will accept them as appropriate for them.

In the category of structural factors are included:

Connections

Tasks’ final version can take advantages from formative assessment.

CHAPTER IV. EXPERIMENTAL STAGE

4.1 General frame

The basis of this work was the pedagogical research. Thus, pedagogical research starts from the specifics of education and reaches to research in order to highlight the formative valences that certain elements (instruments, situations) have on children. In this respect, the concept of education implies a responsible and centered manner in which a moral and independent adult establishes an inter-human relationship with a child in need of support, who follows his way to maturity, leads and has an uplifting influence on his life. As a universal and characteristic of human life, this phenomenon of reality (Education) should not be seen only as a preparation for a normative life somewhere in the future, but it must be seen as life itself.

Thus, the present pedagogical research has the role of highlighting the phenomenon of adequate education and it is essential to understand that education is the practice where the actions of the teacher are driven by experience or knowledge (a certain type of intuitive knowledge) and education; it is also the theoretical subject of examination, reflection and description.

The present pedagogical research seeks to discover and reveal the core essentials of the educational phenomenon, and also to describe, among other things, what education really means, but it is also an observation and investigation action on the basis of which we know, improve or innovate the educational phenomenon.

Educational practice constitutes, for the researcher, a source of knowledge, a means of experimentation, hypothesis verification and generalization of positive experience. At the same time, pedagogical research, through its conclusions, contributes to the innovation and improvement of the education and education process.

The role of pedagogical research consists in: explaining, interpreting, generalizing and innovating the educational phenomenon through structural changes, or by introducing more efficient methodologies.

The research project is a synthesis of the organization of the phased research and may have the following structure:

• topic(s) to be investigated: importance and timeliness;

• motivation of choice of theme: purpose and mode of assessment;

• the history of problem research; the current state;

• general hypothesis, partial assumptions and research objectives;

• research methodology: research duration, place, research team, stages, dependent and independent variables, sample, methods, techniques and means of education, research tools (tests, didactic projects);

• verifying the research hypothesis by final tests or other means;

• finalizing the research and capitalizing on it (elaboration of a scientific paper, implementation of the conclusions, etc.).

Pedagogical research methods can be categorized according to the pursued fundamental objectives. From this point of view, one can talk about:

a) methods of data collection (observation, experiment, interview, questionnaire, case method, test and so on);

b) data processing methods (statistical method, mathematical method, graphical representation);

c) methods of interpreting the conclusions (historical method, hermeneutical method, psychoanalytic method and so on).

The most important methods used in pedagogical research are :

The method of observation. It is one of the most used methods of pedagogy and consists of intentionally pursuing, according to a plan, the specific phenomena of education under the conditions of their natural, natural development. Even if in the initial stages the observation is unintentional, diffused, fragmented, over time it specializes in becoming systematic, organized, continuous. The effectiveness of systematic observation is given by the observance of certain conditions: the studied subjects do not have to learn that their observation is exercised (their behavior changes), the observed facts will be recorded immediately and completely – in order not to interfere with other facts or with the observations of the observers .

The quality observation is made after a certain plan. Teachers who want to learn more about their students using this method need to go through the following steps:

• highlighting a fact that is worthy of observation or establishing a field of interest;

• theoretical information on the specificity of the field observed;

• the actual observation of the facts and the recording of the results;

• interpretation of results and their integration into the field of educational practice.

This method has the advantage that it does not require special research conditions (sophisticated equipment, laboratories and so on) and the allocation of special time for research. It can be done at any time of the teacher's activity with students.

The method in question also has some limitations: the observer is dependent on the phenomena observed, the results of the observation are more qualitative approaches that do not support high-level processing, the consequences are observed, not the causes that generate certain phenomena.

The observation method should be correlated and supplemented with other research methods.

Method of pedagogical experiment. The pedagogical experiment is a "provocative observation" and consists in the intentional production or modification of the phenomena in order to pursue them under favorable conditions. This method has the following characteristics: the phenomenon to be researched is produced "synthetically" under determined conditions; the phenomenon is repeated under certain conditions; production conditions undergo systematic controls that can be controlled. The pedagogical experiment can be classified as follows:

1. After the researched object: individually and collectively.

2. Following the intended purpose: constructive, constructive, verification.

3. After the conditions of the course: laboratory, natural.

4. After the research issue: educational, didactic, organizational.

5. By the number of independent variables: univariate, multivariate.

6. After the investigation level: transversal, longitudinal.

Method of the products of the activity research. The products of the activity are the materializations of the knowledge, the abilities of the values incorporated by the pupils and they can take into account the quality and the depth of the instructive-educational activity. In the range of products made by students, thematic or quarterly papers, theses, quarterly or half-yearly papers, papers, portfolios, compositions, other personal works (drawings, albums) can be entered. These works faithfully reflect the quality of instruction, inclinations, natural dispositions, interests and aspirations of students. It can be seen on this occasion the level of training of students in relation to the requirements of the school policies, as well as the attention given by the teachers to some important aspects of the students' training.

Case method. It consists in studying representative situations to arrive at some theoretical or practical conclusions. The implementation of this method involves the following steps:

• selecting the subjects to be studied;

• gathering data about subjects by applying several methods;

• synthesizing of data gathered as diagnostic;

• performing the adopted measures in time.

In case of failure, the case study resumes while another diagnosis is identified and another treatment is prescribed.

Test method. This instrument is a standardized sample, usually a written one, that is administered to subjects and aims for measuring as objectively as possible a psychic, behavioral, aptitude, and acquisition phenomenon. Involvement of the tests in pedagogical research involves several stages: the proper elaboration of the test, the application of the test, the interpretation of the data. The most commonly used test is the knowledge test (or docimological). The results obtained from the use of the test are not always conclusive, which necessitates the need to use complementary tools of knowledge of the educational reality.

4.2 Design of research activities

Objectives of the present research

• Prevention of the consequences caused by the inadequacy of the educational objectives in the English language educational curriculum and the way of their implementation through the main auxiliary didactic available to all pupils, the English language textbook, with the help of a planning adapted to the materials and means of the school;

• identifying the main problems faced by pupils in receiving and using grammatical information;

• identifying the main problems faced by pupils in receiving the epic noun phrase;

• identifying ways to positively influence the quality of reception and use of grammatical English language through the interdisciplinary approach of novice at the gymnasium cycle.

The purpose of the research

Efficiency of the skill development and skills of receiving the noun phrase information and use of pupils' grammatical skills as the main measure to be taken in order to achieve effective communication behavior.

Identifying the effects of building a teaching plan based on the basic idea that one of the basic objectives of studying English language and its grammar particularities in school is to create oral and written communication skills.

Research hypothesis

If the teacher will use active-participatory strategies in teaching-learning-activity assessment, students will better leverage their knowledge through extra reading and problematic concern.

4.3 Applying teaching strategies

4.3.1 Methods and procedures specific to reception activity

Methodology of research

Sample, operational lot

The research was conducted during 2016-2017, on a sample of 24 pupils in the VIIth grade, from the "……………….." School, city, county. Students come entirely from rural and urban areas.

As experimental space, the educational environment has two peculiarities. On the one hand, it is less favorable to the natural deprivation of standard grammatical language, as a result of their exposure to their local habitat, to regional and popular linguistic forms (family, circle of friends and knowledge). This can be seen as a disadvantage in terms of appropriation of the correct, standardized grammatical language, but also as an advantage with regard to the skills of using a language with plasticizing peculiarities. On the other hand, the educational environment presents an advantage in terms of the development of the competences of reception and use of English language, including its grammatical rules, due to the direct contact between the child and the surrounding nature, an essential element in the transfer of representations, concepts, emotional states from the environment into the ensemble of school compositions.

The type of sampling used is the stratification that combines both the principle of selection and that of the grouping of the study under certain characteristics, and it is more relevant in terms of yield.

Methods used

Several categories of methods were used to ensure the relevance of the results during the three stages of the research. Both for the data collection, from the initial evaluation stage, for the stage of the formative evaluation and the final evaluation, the documentical test, the observation and the didactic experiment were based on the research. The graphical and statistical representation were used for data processing. Statistical and mathematical methods were used for systematization of data, the results obtained at different evaluations were recorded in synthetic and / or analytical tables, then graphically represented in frequency polygons, interleaved diagrams, comparative histograms, resulting in the progress made by the students.

Stages of research

The research was conducted in four stages as follows:

• pre-experimental phase: the 2017-2018 school year

• Initial assessment phase: September 30, 2017

• Phase of the formative assessment: September 2017 – May 2018

• final evaluation phase: 28 of May, 2018

4.3.2 Forms of organizing reception activity.

Recording, processing, analyzing and evaluating the results of the initial evaluation

Initial assessment – 30 September 2017

Throughout the research, we have seen the development of those core competences included in the skills pyramid: spelling and punctuation skills, lexical, grammar, observation, and expression, all of them regarding noun phrase.

The table below allowed you to record the score obtained from applying the correction scale and highlights the distribution of subjects by competency, the results obtained by each pupil in part on both the segments of competencies concerned and the level of general competence identified with the original test score .

CENTRALIZER – ANALYTICAL TABLE (initial evaluation – VIIth grade)

Interpretation of the results regarding the initial evaluation

After correcting the initial tests, we found 5 types of deficiencies:

1) spelling – such as misspelling / misuse of the orthographs, the use of initials at the beginning of the sentence, illegible writing, writing with iii, placing the text on the page;

2) use of vocabulary: ignorance of the meanings of some words, some even common ones, others in the category of words that enroll in the vocabulary table;

3) Syntactic and semantic coherence in the composition of noun phrases and texts;

4) clarity in written communication of thoughts, ideas and personal feelings;

5) text layout on the page.

As a result, we have moved on to establish measures to improve the activity in order to alleviate the deficiencies encountered by:

a) planning the activity from the perspective of the school compositions seen as basic educational activity in the development of the English grammar classes;

b) giving more importance to vocabulary exercises in order to increase the active vocabulary and the expressivity of the pupils' language (synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, paronyms, expressions, words with their own meaning and figurative meaning, oral-exposure exercises with given expressions or with words , commenting on proverbs);

c) to diversify the pupils' life experience through extracurricular activities in order to stimulate their spirit of observation;

d) stimulating the grammar receptivity by commenting on known grammatical works;

e) the use of interactive teaching materials in order to bring some grammatical theory concepts to a better understanding of them.

Starting with the findings from the initial evaluation, the first step that I considered essential was the review of the didactic planning by:

a) reordering the learning contents present in the manual, taking into account the time and effort required to learn the literature as the Gaussian curve. Thus, the contents of the 7th grade textbook were dealt with at the end of the second semester, and they were put into semi-annual planning in the first half of the second semester. Reordering is allowed even through a program that specifies: "In all gymnasium classes, the traditional or otherwise modality, ordering, combining, and didactic treatment of the content units in this chapter is exclusively based on the option of the manual author and the teacher" ;

b) a better correlation of general and special skills with the activities planned to be carried out within the unit of learning;

c) individual marking in the planning of composition exercises and composition lessons so that they are permanently at the teacher's attention;

d) increasing the frequency of grammar composition exercises in English language classes to emphasize the connection between grammatical expression and literary-artistic expression

Regarding the effectiveness of the skills that pupils acquire or fix, one must also point out that another drawback is the fact that they have not been able to give each type of composition lesson (teaching, fixation, evaluation) equal attention and efficient distribution during the time. We consider that the fixation function, specific to the recapitulative lessons, is not sufficient due to the distance in time and the diversity of the information accumulated by the pupils between the teaching and fixation stages. So the teacher should be mindful that fixation becomes a constant reflex of didactic design. The collective assessment of the compositions made by the pupils also has important features of fixation and activation through direct student-student interaction, student-teacher, teacher-student. It is a viable alternative to the individual assessment of compositions, which can generate a series of stereotypical, hypercritical attitudes from the teacher and which most of the times have the effect of inhibiting the desire to involve students. The classroom experience helped me to extract some useful steps in the actively applying collective evaluation of the composition works:

– creating a desirable atmosphere, inducing a communicative tone according to the activity to be carried out;

– establishing in-class arrangements with the pupils in order to ensure the effectiveness of the audition exercise of the composition (for example, we do not interrupt the reading to make observations or corrections, the observations are synthesized on our own notebook by passing the name of the student- lecturer, the positive or negative observations we make with key words to be subjected to collective attention at the end of the reading, they can be schematically signaled at the beginning of the line with (+) or (-), each auditor who wishes to say his / her opinion must find both the qualities and the faults of the text, the composition being heard);

– the teacher acts as an active mediator, can open discussion lines with students, supports their attention and interest, moderates the tone of the discussion, orients or corrects (when appropriate) the informational or attitudinal errors of the participants in the discussion. Hypercriticism of audience students or teachers is avoided;

– the teacher ensures that each student knows, accepts and obtains consent to the application of the principles of communicated communication: the principle of cooperation, the principle of politeness, the principle of expressiveness, the principle of economy, the principle of alternation, the principle of relevance;

– the teacher is the last to give his / her opinion on the qualities and defects of the composition to be heard, in order not to induce his / her own views on audience students and not to inhibit the desire to express their own opinion;

– the teacher can take the initiative to give a student a word when he finds himself with no active participation in the discussion;

– the teacher is always mindful of the perception and interpretation of the verbal, non-verbal and paraverbal signals emitted in the group communication process, which are a source of information on the degree of understanding of the issues discussed and thus the involvement of both lecturers and listening activities.

A particular emphasis in the formative evaluation stage was the appropriation of specific structures in drafting some argumentative compositions, the acquisition of key concepts and trademarks of genres and literary species, ensuring scientific consistency and providing schematic support for such compositions. The emphasis on schematics does not limit the possibilities of pupils’ personal expression in the argumentative composition but, on the contrary, in the phase of teaching new knowledge, the logical schemes organize and even fix previously acquired notions, thus contributing to the increase of the intelligibility of the information. Students are pleased to note that the noun phrase demonstration scheme has both common points with the demonstration of other grammatical aspects and differentiating elements so that, over a year, they succeed in acquiring the technology of demonstrations of a text using logical schemes.

The planning of the subject according to the general objective of the school composition, although it succeeded in supporting the effort to bring the didactic approach coherent with the general competences, with the associated contents existing in the 7th grade English language textbook, failed to is reflected in equally progressive positive outcomes for all pupils, here a quite long series of individual variables (economic-material situation, educational culture and family work culture, intelligence coefficient and so on), important issues to achieve efficiency in teaching-learning the noun phrase. But the fact is that diversity of human nature and the uniqueness of man are represented by a social being.

Recording, processing, analysis and evaluation of final evaluation results

Final evaluation – May 28, 2018

In order to accurately measure the progress achieved through the application of different working methods with students, according to our theory of reintegration of the school composition into the didactic process not only as an exercise but also as a specially designed hour, we chose to apply method of assessment docimological test. As with the initial evaluation and current assessments at the formative stage, the docimological test has proven to be a measure of progress that can provide concrete and reliable data so that we can form an objective, accurate picture of our pupils' evolution .

The test was structured on two large subjects, with different items, at an average level of difficulty. After analyzing it in order to ensure that the information content is adequate to the assessment objectives I have proposed, the test was presented to students.

The purpose of the test: measuring the progress of the students towards the initial test.

The operational objectives proposed for measurement through the test are:

1) knowing and applying by students the orthographic and orthoepic rules;

2) the quality of the student's vocabulary (correctness, diversity, plasticity, reflexivity);

3) the quality of vocabulary use in written expression (fairness, clarity, fluency, expressiveness);

4) the ability to grasp the stylistic nuances of the vocabulary at the level of short prose epic works;

5) knowing and applying layout rules.

As will be seen from the synthetic table below, the final test has undergone some structural changes to the initial assessment test. So:

– the number of composition samples has increased and diversified. In addition to the free composition in Section A of the test, we added a compositional exercise based on the literary support text;

– the individualized grammar knowledge was abandoned, considering that the grammatical aspect of the composition is more complexly verified by means of the two compositional times. The itemized evaluation of the grammar notions, related to our objective, would have been inconclusive. The answer to the question of whether the pupil knows a disparate grammatical notion would not have helped us a lot to understand if and to what extent the same student has the skills necessary for a correct use of written language;

– the exercises from the first subject aim at knowing and recognizing style figures, but also perceiving their emotional significance. They prefigure the effort of broad expression from the next items of the test and provide the possibility of a gradual interpretation of the analytical skills of a grammatical text.

The table of results (grades) obtained is also a synthetic and analytical one. For better analytical reading, it was marked with different colors (according to the legend), both the types of exercises used and the students who managed to move to a higher value. I did not mark those who had an evolution of less than 0.50 p. In the comments section we recorded the evolution points but also the deficiencies left unresolved.

CENTRALIZER – ANALYTICAL TABLE (final evaluation – VIIth grade)

Interpretation of final evaluation results – May 28, 2016

The comparative analysis revealed somewhat surprising results. If at the beginning of the research we considered that the good results would appear more easily in the first half of the value scale, pupils with marks between 10 and 7, the results with which the research was completed contradicted this expectation, thus proving that proactive attitude should characterize the teacher's work not only in classroom work or in interaction with students, but also in organizing and planning his or her teaching activity.

So, out of the total number of students who formed the experimental group, 7 of them achieved a value of 0.50 pp and 1 point is not the most important one. Consolidation of the middle class value, students of mark 7, represents a positive aspect not only as individual performance but also as an improvement of the classroom's educational environment, thus providing development conditions for all pupils, no matter where they are on the value scale. The micro-social environment developed by the unitary group of students of the 7th grade becomes healthy both for the good ones that evolve in a more competitive environment and for the weaker ones who can benefit from a stronger positive influence environment .

Poor results were recorded in the value segment represented by students with mark 2. A more detailed analysis of them revealed a number of particular causes (health or social and family contexts) that allow them to be categorized pupils with special needs and who, from the psycho-pedagogical point of view, require special attention both in the teaching activity and in the organization of the didactic materials: worksheets, didactic methods and auxiliary means. In terms of oral activity, positive results were achieved by improving attitudes towards individual and group work tasks. I was exemplary with a number of three pupils who, at the beginning of the 7th grade, had difficulty reading a text and who, by the end of the school year, were able to make a reading with a higher degree of speed, fluency and correctness of intonation. As a result of the research findings, the measure that is required for the next school year is the development of a curriculum adapted for this group of children mentioned in the synthetic and analytical table in the comment field.

 Didactic and life experience also showed that success can not be precisely determined in space and time, and that nothing that we do in life is left without a result (positive or negative). So the work we are doing today for and together with a child will develop its results in time.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCES REGISTERED BY SEVENTH CLASS STUDENTS IN THE TWO EVALUATIONS

Following the initial and final evaluation, the following points can be noted:

Enhancement of spelling, originality of the title, epic construction on the moments of the subject;

Some stiffness in written expression in some students;

Fluency of expression, plasticity, well-metered and proportionate combination of means of exposure;

reducing the number of mistakes of expression, the originality of ideas in composition; lack of expressiveness in the description in terms of the lack of style figures;

Some fluidization of ideas, plus expressivity;

spelling mistakes and incorrect page layout are also occurring;

Fluency of ideas, originality, interesting title; the main character is portrayed both physically and morally;

Insufficient expressive vocabulary;

decrease in the number of mistakes and spelling mistakes;

Poor imagination at certain pupils;

broad narrative, different ways of characterization – regarding the protagonist;

Insufficient consistency in expressing ideas;

Adapted curriculum – speech impairment, disadvantaged social environment;

Adapted curriculum – neuropsychiatric deficiencies.

The plea for the use of specific methods in group activities is based on several obvious advantages, which correspond to both the cognitive and the socio-integrative objectives of the teaching-learning process:

• offers the possibility of different views;

• provides an interactive climate, enhances communication;

• encourages the emergence of new relationships of mutual knowledge and mutual respect;

• uses participants to accept different points of view, increases the degree of support of their own point of view;

• offers the chance to reflect on their own ideas, values ​​and attitudes and occasionally reconsiders them in the context of contact with individual differences;

• attractiveness and pleasure due to the playfulness of interactive methods.

• form appropriate behavior for integration into social life.

• better knowledge-based learning is required through additional reading and problem-reading through active-participatory strategies in teaching-learning-activity assessment.

Following the final evaluation test, where the average is clearly superior, it was demonstrated that:

– the students have mastered the notions of grammatical theory;

– students can understand the cognitive values, the moral attitudes of a grammatical work;

– students are able to make essay-type compositions and have critical analysis and critical thinking skills.

4.3.3. Didactic tools used in reception activity.

Modern strategies for approaching the noun phrase in order to optimize the didactic act

In order to identify the correspondence between the narrative idea and the images imagined by students in the context of a particular work studied, the didactic framework uses some modern strategies to approach the noun phrase. First of all, there is an algorithm for the study of noun phrase, namely:

• Understanding:

a) framing the text: writer, opera, etc.

b) expressive reading of the text;

c) explanation of unknown words, explanation of the title;

• Analysis, deciphering of the text:

a) finding words with expressive value (style figures);

b) verbal forms, pronominal;

c) artistic images (visual, auditory, olfactory);

• Text Interpretation:

a) narrative vision (transmitted sentiments);

b) the artistic emotion transmitted to be lived;

c) identifying the topic.

The epic text must be read and interpreted "in its key" to decode its fundamental meaning.

         The reception of the epic text perpetuates the way from events / deeds (What is it?), To highlight the "ways of saying" (How to say?) Followed by interpretation, the didactic approach to studying the text is done in a different order: first, of the "modalities of saying", of the formal elements (phonetic, lexico-semantic, morpho-syntactic, figurative, prosodic), then of the structures and meanings, "by details and nuances".

The study of the epic text in the gymnasium stage follows different models imposed by the theories of reception, models that are found in the didactic course of the Romanian language and literature textbooks from different publishing houses:

The classic approach to receiving epic text is to:

• title talks before / after first reading;

• establishing the topic;

• establishing the structure of the work;

• level analysis;

• interpretation;

• figures of speech.

The structuralist model proposes to go through some stages only for didactic reasons:

• affective reading that is preceded by auditions, watching cinematographic images/ sequences, paintings, etc .;

• The first exploration of the text begins with reading, the idea of ​​the theme, the dominant sentiment, the students select the passages that have impressed them, etc .;

• Fragment / Sequence analysis seeks to query the text at all levels;

• the synthesis stage – it can be done through a unitary scheme, by formulating open questions of interpretation, by establishing analogies with other texts, etc.

The model proposed by Judith Langer emphasizes the role of reading in the reception process and formulates four types of relationships that are established between the reader and the text, through the act of reading:

1. Go from the outside to the inside: entering the world of the text;

2. Being indoors and exploring the world of text;

3. step back and rethink the data we have;

4. Get out of the world of text and object the experience.

5. Entry into the world of text is done with small steps corresponding to the precursor and the immediate reaction after the first reading: making narrative texts and evaluating them by colleagues, interrogating the expectations of the students by starting them, asking questions about the first reading impressions; unclearness is noted to be discussed at the final stage of text study.

Exploring the world of the text is structurally made, on reception levels: phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexico-semantic, stylistic-textual – by activity on groups.

Reconsidering text data means resuming the blur of the first stage. There are thus possible possible meanings of the narrative text by formulating open, problematic questions.

Exit from the world of text and the objectification of the experience materialize in the synthesis of information by a graphical method (e.g. brainstorming, clusters), an interpretation plan on which students will create a text, a type of writing about the grammatical text.

Synthesizing, we can say that the gymnasium textbooks offer a pattern of reception, which, as in the case of the epic text, carries out three stages in which activities are carried out to observe, understand, interpret and reflect on the lyrical text.

Stage of development is different, depending on the level of reception and interpretation: information on the author and the work will be succinct, in the case of class V and VI students, generally following the biographical notes in the manual – and complex, in the 8th-8th grades, when some clarifications, about the species, the genesis of the work, the structure, the aesthetic formula, etc., facilitate the understanding. But in the case of epic texts, the input phase in their study must exploit the paratext:

• Students will be interviewed on the expectations they have from the text, starting with the title and subtitle, or the images that accompany the text in the manual (or other pictures):

What does a title suggest like Two lots?

What do you think about when you look at the image? etc .;

The teacher can use the didactic game / grammatical contest by asking for a narrative text to introduce students to the literary creation lab. The activity takes five to six minutes and is evaluated:

• Write a 10-line text based on a metaphor of the given text;

• Opening up through lexical fields is another way of introducing into the study of epic text;

• Make the lexical fields of the "ticket" and "jacket" words and describe the poles around which gravitates the elements of the two fields.

The stage of understanding / in-depth study is achieved through repeated and integral reading to penetrate into the fictional universe: the first (affective) reading will be followed by other readings made by pupils in thought and / or loud.

A strategy of sequential scrolling of a text (but also the descriptive sequences of a narrative text) is the subjective map of the reading that is done by cutting the text on sequences, the repetition of the sequences by the teacher repeatedly, during which students write They represent graphically, individually, what they see and feel. The path of each reader through the text is proper, and the meaning of the act of reading is also personal.

     It is recommended to avoid reading on fragments followed by the formulation of the main ideas – modified by didactics; the epic text describes events / facts, but also expresses feelings, attitudes through the narrator.

In the following reading and relaying sequences, pupils are required to observe phonetic, lexico-semantic, morphosyntactic, stylistically-textual and punctuation aspects through "in-depth reading" (activity by groups).

Text can be approached structurally, by reception levels, pupils being grouped into groups that reveal the particularities of the text, as above. The discovery activity is not an inventory but an explanation of the role of these elements in the expression of feelings.

Exploring the text leads to the discovery of other issues such as:

• The narrator's presence;

• Dominant feelings, inner feelings;

• The theme of the opera;

• The meaning of the title;

• The message of the work, etc.

Interpreting epic text, finding the meanings of discovered elements is a difficult task because the epic text reflects a "universe of fantasy and essence" that is hard to define. Interpretation is an invitation to students to "think, feel, formulate their opinions" and argue, because they have to learn that any statement, to be accepted, must be sustained.

       The textbooks also constitute, in this stage of the reception of the epic text, a guideline that guides the discussions towards the formulation of conclusions, by frontal activity or by cooperation, proposing strategies such as the cube method, the conversation, the linear brainstorming or the clusters, the " think / work in pairs / communicate, "the reading journal.

Reflection (Out of the Text and Objective Experience), as the final sequence of the prose study, highlights the steps taken to receive the epic text:

Conclusions are made, the peculiarities of the epic opera are being synthesized to help students in deciphering similar texts. It proposes a plan for analyzing the epic text on the basis of which the pupils will make a text like "write about the literary text" – according to the analytical program.

Various work tasks can be formulated in the classroom or at home for cultivating and verifying receptivity:

• memorizing sequences, if desired;

• reading and group discussion of a text break at first glance;

• writing written texts, starting with the studied work;

• Free compositions on topics proposed by students, etc.

We insist on over-treating pupils, not only by age / class, but also by their readiness to produce oral or written texts: we refer, in particular, to texts concerning creativity, quality to be taught by the teacher and other ways: drawing up portfolios, writing magazines written by pupils for other pupils, literary circles and so on.

Making the commentary by middle school students should contain the following data, answering some questions:

What text? – General text data (author, year of appearance, genre, species);

About what? The theme of the text and the meaning of the title;

Who? Narrator (person, vision, state, feelings);

What and how? – Composition of the text;

What are the pictures? What do I play? What spaces? What thoughts? What feelings? What state? What metamorphosis? How are they made?

What purpose and effect? – Global meanings; effects on the reader.

Without turning into a template, the proposed algorithm is a necessary guide, but it will be applied differently depending on the text and age of the students.

Taking into account the proposed objectives, I can appreciate the research activity as follows:

Has had positive influences on subjects;

the control class has not been neglected, and the optimal conditions for acquiring knowledge have been created;

many students have begun to give a greater impetus to reading;

for me, as a teacher, it was an experience of learning and enriching the knowledge regarding the educational phenomenon of knowing students in the situation of working with active learning methods;

From the discussions with students, after using some active methods in the lessons, there was a desire to work in this way;

I can appreciate that active-participatory methods are exciting, give the shy ones the chance to say, but in the classroom creates an atmosphere of anxiety; that is why the lesson must be well prepared and mastered, with adequate teaching material and requires rigor and creativity from the teacher;

I can now say that complex pedagogical research means much more than a psycho-pedagogical experiment.

Another algorithm for studying epic text is represented in the following rows:

1. Data about the author.

2. Tangencies of the work with the writer's universal creation.

3. Significance of epic opera title.

4. The theme of literary work.

5. Idea. The main ideas. Secondary ideas.

6. The message of the work.

7. Reasons. Leitmotifs.

8. Exposure modes in text:

a. Description

b. narrative.

c. Dialogue, monologue, etc.

9. Characters. About the role of the characters and their placement in the opera. The role of the characters in the opera.

10. Symbols, style figures.

11. Emotions, feelings.

12. Formulating the final conclusion, using metaphorical expressions, highlighting the essence and quality of the text.

13. *** a quote, a maximum

Algorithmic, heuristic and demonstrative strategies used to access texts / build plural sense of the work.

1. Algorithmization

It is the method that was imposed after the discoveries of contemporary psychology regarding the operativeness of thought. An algorithm is an operation consisting of a sequence of sequences leading to the same result.

From a methodical point of view, learning one raises certain problems. Once the algorithm has been detected, it is to be described by specifying the sequences or operations in their internal sequence. Then the disassembly, the analytical learning of each sequence follows, so that these sequences are finally coupled and chained. Consolidation and automation is accomplished through applicative extensions.

In the English Language discipline, all the teaching and learning of a new text involves the observance of some algorithms, the algorithm applying in the language classes, when grammatical analysis of the words in a sentence, when a text is divided in fragments.

2. Exercise

It consists in repeating actions, tasks, operations until the operation is enhanced and refined.

In order for the exercise to fulfill its role of developing the skills and abilities of expression, the teacher should keep in mind that the students:

• Know the purpose of the exercise

• Know what I can use to solve it (rule, principle)

• Understand the action pattern

• To execute it several times to get it

• Exercise gradually, from simple to complex exercises

• Benefit from checks immediately after resolving.

Overall, the exercises contribute to the development of pupils' communication skills, grouped into:

Reading exercises – aims at practicing fluent, correct, conscious reading through:

• Full reading of the text

• Selective reading

• Reading on roles

• Reading a text similar to the one in the manual, chosen by the teacher or even by the students

Lexical Exercises – Contributes to enriching the vocabulary by:

• Exercises to explain unknown words encountered in the lesson by consulting the dictionary

• Integrating words into context

• Exercises for naming the synonyms or antonyms of a word and putting them in contexts

Exercises for the application of reading techniques – these will aim at enhancing reading skills by:

• Read the text carefully

• Read the express text

• Read the text by delimiting fragments that express an initial moment

• Say the main idea

Text transformation exercises:

• Transforming direct speech into indirect speech

• Transforming indirect speech into direct speech

• Exercises for recognition and signaling of stylistic expressive elements are done as follows:

• Recognize and read the fragment that tells an action, a landscape, or a person's face

• Recognize the words that compare and compare

• Choose from the text the pictures you enjoyed the most and enter them in new sentences

Creative exercises:

• Continue the story with other invented questions

• Change the end of the story, in a way you would like more

• Create new happenings in the course of the action.

3. Modeling

Models may have two functions: an illustrative one in the sense that it presents a fragment of reality and another cognitive.

In literature, this method offers life models, analogies from everyday experience. This is the character used by the author.

4. Discovery

It is a heuristic method and consists in creating the conditions for updating the experience and the individual capacities in order to discover new situations – problem.

Thus the student rediscovers old knowledge, and the teacher has to favor maintaining an active attitude.

5. Debate

It consists of an oral discussion with the class that surprises, aims to find arguments and appreciate their effectiveness. It must be real and contradictory.

Students should be allowed to express themselves freely in the debate and the criteria are:

• The identity of the theme (those involved discuss the same theme)

• People who are in dialogue have different opinions

• Argumentation of opinions

6. Role Playing

It is a method of challenging a discussion based on a dramatic play on a problem with a direct incidence on a chosen subject. The subject of "play" must be familiar to students; to be extracted from their current lives. Class members are required to play those roles, improvising a conflict scene, and group members will intervene to mitigate the "conflict."

The game itself will not take more than five to ten minutes, followed by the "spectators" comments and comments.

Heuristic Methods (Combined)

1. Predictive reading

a) Inventica – is a modern strategy designed to help students advance in the text by understanding and reflecting the work aimed at helping to objectify the reading experience – first through personal reactions and then by more objective exploration of the text. It may be useful for the teacher to make a brief presentation of the lesson in order to prepare the students for a clearer reading or listening.

b) Word game

Another technique to stimulate curiosity is for the teacher to choose three or four words from the text and to get students to work on groups and speculate about how these words might work together in the story.

c) Questions for focusing attention

The teacher can ask questions to make students focus on some elements of the text. Through reading / guided thinking, what students have anticipated based on what they have already learned and what they have learned as they advance reading. The teacher starts by reading the title of the book and showing the cover and some illustrations then tells the students:

– "Have you heard what the title is? Have you seen the illustrations? What do you think will happen, what do you think you will read? "

Then the teacher asks the students to prepare predictive tables. It is divided into vertical columns: the left one for predictions, the one on the right for what happened.

After reviewing the title and any illustrations, students complete the table:

 "What do you think will really happen?"

Then discuss with the students, read the first fragment and fill in the right column with the answers to the question:

 " What really happened?"

After finishing the reading, we can return to the text that becomes something round, with themes, images and actions radiating from a center of meaning to which we send back.

In the proper use of these strategies, attention should be paid to the following:

• The method should be reserved for stories with a clear intrigue

• The teacher should be open to suggestions when making the questions

• Breaks in text reading should be carefully chosen

2. Interpretive reading

a) Discuss the reactions of the reader

Students can understand a deeper text if they are encouraged to explore their own feelings and associations. Questions for personal answers are:

• What did you notice in the text? What parts are left to your mind in particular? Why?

• What made you think about these parts?

• How did you feel these parts?

b) Writing notebooks

These are tools that encourage students to reflect on what they have read and to come up with ideas to discuss in class.

Thus, the notebook will be divided into two: on the left they will write the fragment of the text, and on the right the comment on the fragment.

c) Joint Investigation

It is a method designed to make students more in-depth discussing the issues raised by the text. The teacher has prepared a set of interpretive questions that he will use in the discussion. They can have at least two answers.

Discussions will be interesting if you take into account:

– the teacher has to choose a text that can really generate questions

– must resist the temptation to reach predetermined conclusions and expose its own wisdom

– must maintain a focused discussion on the text

Another method would be discovery, which is a heuristic method of heuristics and consists in creating the conditions for updating the experience and the individual capacities in order to discover new problem situations.

The discovery may be independent – the student being the lead actor, the teacher merely supervising and controlling this process – when the student is put in front of a text and has to discover some character traits alone or guided – the teacher leads the discovery through suggestions, support points, questions .

Another method, which consists of an oral discussion with the class that surprises the finding of the arguments and the appreciation of their effectiveness is the debate.

It must be real and contradictory, and the participation of the teacher must be "animation" – it launches the debate and gives the word to the students – or "structuring" – specifies the ideas and arguments proposed by the students.

Here pupils should be allowed to express themselves even if the situation can become chaotic, then the teacher's intervention occurs.

The criteria for the debate are:

• Identity of the theme (those involved discuss the same topic)

• the condition that people who are in dialogue have different opinions

• the condition of discovery of the truth; justifying opinions, fighting others through arguments

• The arguments contain authentic, truthful facts.

Because of the abstract nature of the ideas derived from the noun phrase, the exploitation of all the coordinates of the context will have a decisive role in the success of reading on this topic. Not all texts are able to capture the student's attention from the first rows, so it is necessary to open the rebuilt lesson about the questions: what do I know about the subject; what do I know about time, that age; who was the main character and last but not least why reading text is important.

In this respect, apart from the teacher's perspective, warm, nuanced, expressive, with an appropriate intonation, the rhetorical questions in the first hour, which focus attention on the message, psychologically prepare the pupils, have a special importance, so that in the last reading, interpretive, after they have understood the content, can make the transfer from the character to their own identity.

Thus, extratextual, open and interpretive questions will have this role of affective mobilization, training to allegorical, analogical, mystical meanings that are only accessible by initiation, so they should not be postponed until the last reading, but must be gradually prepared during the at least three rehearsals.

Another method is the character network – which is a graphical method of describing the characters and argumentation of the description.

Students write the name of the character in a circle in the middle of the page, then in satellite circles around the name circle, write the words that characterize that character. Finally, in satellite circles around those with character characteristics, they write examples of actions in the book that support their judgment.

Mapping characters is a graphical method for tracking relationships between characters.

In the corners of a sheet of paper, there are the names of two to four characters in the literary text. I then shoot two arrows between each of the two characters, and along each arrow I write what the character feels about the character facing the arrow or how it treats it. Then draw the arrow in the opposite direction, because differences may occur. Once two or three characters have been included in the scheme, with double arrows between them, complexity increases.

Even though they are not particularly symbolic, almost all literary works make us think about personal life as well as general human problems.

As we recall from happenings in our own life, a literary work can be linked to others on the same subject. Students understand more from what they read if they have cultivated their ability to grasp intertextuality, the ability to think of multiple texts simultaneously while exploring a particular literary issue / subject.

4.4 Evaluation of the activities performed within the framework of the application

Evaluation – a corrective and indicative function in determining the didactic methodology

The fundamental quality, the evaluation, of this method is its efficiency and effectiveness. This method, by its own application, favors the achievement of superior results, thus maximizing changes in the pupil's behavior in the minimum possible time after the obtained performance.

Thus, teaching-learning is to be systematically duplicated by an assessment and self-evaluation effort with as much rigor as possible. This means that teaching-learning methods are to be associated with a battery of control methods as best developed as possible, according to documi- mological criteria.

Thus, the more this evaluation will have "… as an objective not only the product or the content of the teaching, but also the process by which the child reaches or fails to reach the mastery of learning material …", the more will be appreciated the effectiveness of the didactic methodology.

The immediate knowledge of the obtained results and their just appreciation have a double pedagogical significance: one of correction and another orientative.

Emphasizing the idea that "… the whole method is inevitably a reflexive return to the already known operations", G. Berger in Man and his education reveals precisely this possibility of working together to review it simultaneously with its application in practice, to self-regulate on the go.

The longer the teacher will have the better possibilities of continuous information during the lesson on the reactions of the pupils with whom he works, at the right time and place, the more the reverse connection will allow him to realize the efficiency or the inefficiency of the methods and the procedures to which it has been applied.

The evaluation also performs an orientation function in that it provides information that serves as a guide in adopting a prospective methodological strategy in developing new assumptions about how to continue working.

Confirmation or invalidation of the anticipated effects, draw the teacher's attention to the possible unforeseen consequences and help him to make an appropriate decision whether or not to use the same method.

This keeps the teacher in an uninterrupted process of research and invites him even to new relief experiments.

Lessons of recapitulation and systematization of knowledge can be: introductory; periodicals and finals, and the dominant note is the appropriation of rules and definitions. These lessons are based on consciousness, the most important being storage. Here we combine transductive and abductive strategies, that is, we go to rules-definitions of exceptions.

The lesson for checking and assessing skills and abilities will insist on fixing, exercises and applications. There will be tests with closed and open questions both with simple choices, and thus there will be evaluation-critical learning.

Exercise is the fundamental method of teaching, learning, evaluating grammatical notions.

CONCLUSIONS

The grammar experience and the stimulation of the taste for noun phrase are just some of the necessary conditions in educating the reader. Once the reading technique is acquired, the child meets with different texts at school.

This diversity of texts requires a different methodological approach, appropriate, depending on the grammar genre.

The grammar genre generally presents an action-fact, the writing of the facts is done by the author, and the epic subject takes place in a sequence of moments.

The grammar texts, due to the presence of events and characters, concrete references in the orientation of children in the text issue, I like more.

Following the initial and final assessment, I can note the following:

• Enhancement of spelling, originality of the title, epic construction on the moments of the subject;

• Some stiffness in written expression in some students

• Fluency of expression, plasticity, well-metered and proportionate combination of the means of exposure

• reducing the number of mistakes of expression, the originality of ideas in composition; lack of expressiveness in the description in terms of the lack of style figures;

• Some fluidization of ideas, extra expansiveness;

• spelling mistakes and a poor layout appear on the page

• Fluency of ideas, originality, interesting title; the main painting is portrayed both physically and morally;

• Insufficient expressive vocabulary, repetition of words in speech (said, said)

• decrease in the number of mistakes and spelling mistakes;

• Poor imagination at certain pupils

• Insufficient consistency in expressing ideas

• Adapted curriculum – speech deficiencies, disadvantaged social environment

• Adapted curriculum – neuropsychiatric deficiencies

• Adapted curriculum – disadvantaged social environment

The plea for the use of specific methods in group activities is based on several obvious advantages, which correspond to both the cognitive and the socio-integrative objectives of the teaching-learning process:

• offers the possibility of different views;

• Provides an interactive climate, enhances communication;

• encourages the emergence of new relationships of mutual knowledge and mutual respect;

• Uses participants to accept different points of view, increases the degree of support of their own point of view;

• offers the chance to reflect on their own ideas, values ​​and attitudes and occasionally reconsiders them in the context of contact with individual differences;

• Attractiveness and pleasure due to the playfulness of interactive methods.

• form appropriate behavior for integration into social life.

• Better knowledge-based learning is required through additional reading and problem-reading through active-participatory strategies in teaching-learning-activity assessment.

Following the final evaluation test, where the average is clearly superior, it was demonstrated that:

– the students have mastered the notions of grammatical theory;

– students can understand the cognitive values, the moral attitudes of a literary work / literary character;

– students are able to make essay- type compositions and have critical analysis and critical thinking skills, including the noun phrase.

Beyond the props of the fiction of an invented or real reality, the short story can also be a good lesson for children.

On the other hand, some grammar prepare children for the understanding and interpretation of some human, flawed forms of the present society, through the symmetrical constructions highlighting the moralizing character of the works, in which the conflict reveals the violation of a moral norm that can not remain unpunished. Therefore, creations of this species contain and transmit knowledge from various fields.

Understanding the noun phrase at the age of expanding the knowledge horizon enriches the general culture of students with information and notions from the native or universal space.

On the other hand, the noun phrase has an undeniably ethical character. Through the reported events, they warn the little ones of the unfortunate consequences of parentless disapproval and blind trust in anyone. As some characters show them the way they have to go in order to be happy: having will and courage, determination and fairness, honesty and perseverance.

In other words, being short as a compositional structure, the noun phrase are accessible as reading and understanding, bearing a civic message. From this point of view, their formative role is obvious.

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