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4.1. Educational implications of communicative grammar.

Nowadays, grammatical competence is approached from an eclectic point of view, and currently applied to language teaching as part of our present educational system, L.O.G.S.E., based on communicative methods. It is the current perspective on commun icative approaches which drag our attention to grammar since it is one of the main sub-competences in students’ linguistic competence (the grammatical one), and helps establish a link between structure and meaning when communicating.

As stated before, in recent years, grammar and lexical items have been considered to play a more central role in second language learning than was traditionally assumed, since it helps students handle lexical phrases, sentence stems, prefabricated routines, and collocations. So far, the notion of grammar is envisaged in task-based teaching approaches as an appropriate classroom activity in order to derive output from input.

Yet, the development of approaches based on tasks (i.e. Task-Based Language Teaching) has favoured the introduction of grammar structures in curriculum plans as part of a broader set of educational planning decisions. In fact, current curriculums for E.S.O. and Bachillerato envisage the teaching of grammar through ‘blocks of contents’ (B.O.E., 2002), as for instance, Present Simple, Passive Voice, Modal verbs, and so on.

Tasks, then, are considered as useful vehicles for practicing these contents, considered as potential building blocks of second language acquisition, whose research focused on the strategies and cognitive processes employed by second language learners. This research has suggested a reassessment of the role of formal grammar instruction in language teaching.

So far, we have also reviewed the role of communicative grammar within our current educational system, in order to present future directions regarding communicative grammar.

4.2. Future directions regarding communicative grammar.

According to Hedge (2000), since the introduction of communicative approaches, the ability to communicate effectively in English has become one of the main goals in European Language Teaching. The Council of Europe (1998), in response to the need for international co-operation and professional mobility among European countries, has recently published a document, Modern languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European Framework of reference, in which the acquisition of communicative competence, and for our present purposes, of communicative grammar.

Similarly, the Spanish Educational System states (B.O.E., 2002) that there is a need for learning a foreign language in order to communicate with other European countries, and a need for emphasizing the role of a foreign language which gets relevance as a multilingual and multicultural identity. Within this context, getting a proficiency level in a foreign language implies educational and professional reasons which justify the presence of foreign languages in the curricula at different educational levels.

The European Council (1998) and, in particular, the Spanish Educational System within the framework of the Educational Reform, establishes a common reference framework for the teaching of foreign languages, and claims for a progressive development of communicative competence in a specific language. Students, then, are intended to be able to carry out several communication tasks with specific communicative goals within specific contexts. It is here that we find the notion of

communicative grammar within the grammatical competence, since these communication tasks involve the knowledge of grammar and the ability to use it in specific contexts.

Future directions in second language teaching reflect current trends of language curriculum development at the level of cognitive strategies, grammar, phonetics or technological innovative methods. The Internet Age anticipates the development of teaching and learning in instructional settings by means of an on-line collaboration system, perhaps via on-line computer networks or other technological resources by means of functional approaches to grammar.

The aim is for students to acquire a communicative competence, where their knowledge and ability in the foreign language will help them get the meaning of a sentence, even if the different functions of language make it difficult. Finally, students are provided with strategies and techniques to overcome their communicative problems in an attempt to make communication as real as possible in a formal setting, by means of chat, e-mail, and keeping in contact with friends in the European framework.

5. CONCLUSION.

As we have seen, this study has aimed to serve as the core of a survey on the concept of grammar, and in particular on its relationship to language and language learning. We have also examined history within the linguistic scene from its earliest beginnings to the current situation, or in other words, from normative grammar to a more communicative grammar system based on language use.

The conclusion here is not the old cliché, but rather the old saying of “There’s nothing new under the sun,” since tracing back in history proves successful in establishing amazing similarities between old theories of language and grammar, such as the Old Norse First Grammatical Treatise from the mid-twelfth century with nineteenth and twentieth century historical and structural linguists.

We have also examined the concept of grammar and language learning in an attempt to offer a relevant background to discuss the the phenomenon of language and its nexus between philosophical theories on human nature and human use of language. Within a broad historical overview, different cultures have been examined in order to offer a relevant chronological framework for the section which describes the main grammar systems ranging from traditional to present-day perspectives.

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