GRAMMAR AS A FUNCTION OF TEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING FROM THE COGNITIVE, COMMUNICATIVE AND SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH

GRAMMAR AS A FUNCTION OF TEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING FROM THE COGNITIVE, COMMUNICATIVE AND SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH

LA GRAMÁTICA EN FUNCIÓN DE LA COMPRENSIÓN TEXTUAL DESDE EL ENFOQUE COGNITIVO COMUNICATIVO Y SOCIOCULTURAL

Islen Pileta-Romero¹

E-mail: islenpiletaromero@gmail.com

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8567-3670

Ángel Agustín Rodríguez-Domínguez²

E-mail: aard@ucf.edu.cu

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6597-6595

¹Instituto Preuniversitario “Eduardo García Delgado”. Cienfuegos. Cuba.

²Universidad de Cienfuegos “Carlos Rafael Rodríguez”. Cuba.

ABSTRACT

When students reach pre-university level, they have difficulties with grammar, as one of the most important components of the subject of Literature and Language. This paper deals with the teaching of grammar based on textual comprehension according to the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach with 10th grade students. It shows the authors' reflections in relation to this topic, which has as its essential objective the development of the communicative competence of the students. This has opened a new horizon in terms of the study of grammatical structures to solve the inadequacies found in students of high school.

Keywords:

Difficulties, teaching, grammar, comprehension, approach.

RESUMEN

Los alumnos al llegar al preuniversitario presentan dificultades en la gramática, como uno de los componentes más importante de la asignatura Literatura y Lengua. El presente trabajo aborda sobre la enseñanza de la gramática en función de la comprensión textual según el enfoque cognitivo, comunicativo y sociocultural con alumnos de 10mo grado. Se muestra las reflexiones de los autores con relación a este tema, que tiene como objetivo esencial el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa de los estudiantes, este ha abierto un nuevo horizonte en cuanto al estudio de las estructuras gramaticales para darle solución a las insuficiencias encontradas en los educandos de la enseñanza media superior.

Palabras clave:

Dificultades, enseñanza, gramática, comprensión, enfoque.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years there have been transformations in linguistic conceptions and in the approach to grammatical contents. The strong and growing influence of the communicative approach in the didactics of languages, whose essential objective is the development of the communicative competence of pre-university students, has shown a new horizon to the study of grammatical structures.

Grammar occupies a prominent place, since it is grammar, used correctly, which allows the student to communicate coherently, to understand a given text. For this purpose, in addition to the different programs of the subject in each one of the schools, there are Master Programs of the Mother Tongue, which commit all teachers, regardless of the subject they teach, to contribute to the development of communicative skills, among them: writing. They consider grammar, its learning and constant practice to be indispensable for communication, whether in oral or written expression, in addition to allowing the appropriation of any information and its transmission.

Bello (1994) expressed that “grammar should not only teach how to speak correctly, but should also educate citizens about good manners of speaking”, for him grammar should be based on literary usage and the tradition of cultured speech, establishing an ideal of speaking well.

There are several authors who argue that the teaching of grammar should go beyond linguistic correctness, seeking to educate in the good use of language and thus develop the capacity for reflection.

Despite the efforts of many researchers and teachers, errors persist in the learning and practice of grammar. It has been detected that students present difficulties in grammar when they reach pre-university, which reflect low academic performance because it brings with it incorrect communication and incomprehension. That is the reality observed by a teacher, because the teacher of previous grades believes that, if the student has already received the grammatical content of the grade he/she teaches and has mastered it, he/she does not need to systematize what is already known or simply focuses on working on the one that corresponds to him/her; that is where the link is broken because it is not exercised, what is learned is not systematized and the student returns to the beginning of his/her learning, of his/her lack of knowledge. “The grammatical contents offered to students are usually excessively theoretical and far from their interests”, which prevents students from perceiving grammar as a fundamental part of the language system.

The didactic principle of systematization is then not fulfilled as every subject builds on previously learned material and creates, in turn, a basis for further teaching. This reflects the need for more integrated and reflective approaches to grammar teaching at the pre-university level.

DEVELOPMENT

Various methodologies have been proposed to teach grammar effectively, focusing on the understanding and application of language in real contexts where cognitive and sociocultural approaches are integrated to motivate students. This implies not only teaching the rules, but also relating them to affective communication.

It is considered necessary to analyze the functionality of learning grammatical structures in texts and their contribution to coherence, cohesion and intentionality. In this sense, the communicative approach enables the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic analysis of grammatical structures, which implies the study of the forms used in communication depending on the meaning transmitted and the context in which they are emitted.

On this topic Colás Téllez (2014), expresses that “this approach has as its essential purpose to contribute to the development of the student's communicative competence. It seeks that students learn to communicate effectively from an early age, integrating oral and written skills”.

Romeu (2007), mentions that the approach offers an appropriate theoretical-conceptual framework for the teaching-learning process, emphasizing that this approach interrelates education with the social context, allowing students to assimilate socially accepted linguistic patterns in order to develop their personality.

Padrón (2017), points out that “language teaching should be a function of the processes of comprehension, analysis and construction of discourse meanings”.

The authors of this article agree with the ideas expressed above considering that this approach provides a way of conceiving teaching in a meaningful way.

Grammar plays a fundamental role in the comprehension, analysis and construction of texts, providing us with a detailed description of the different grammatical structures of our language that serve as a foundation for the broader generalization of linguistic concepts.

The process of teaching grammar in the Hispanic world and, of course, in Cuban school classrooms has been influenced by several approaches that have allowed us to know, in a better way, the formal structure of the language; however, speech or the uses that the speaker makes of it in the different communicative spaces are not practically addressed.

In the process of teaching grammatical analysis, the communicative-functional description should be applied; that is, the analysis should integrate the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic aspects, so that students can discover the functionality of the structures, according to the environment, and taking into account the particularities of each utterance, each speaker, each speech situation and each community.

Grammar studies the phonemes and the rules in the arrangement of the sonorous matter, in addition to the form of the language. Its task is to look for different numbers of signs according to their forms; it is the art of speaking and writing correctly. One of the most important elements when learning grammar is that, it allows us to communicate correctly, to be understood. It is defined as a discipline that systematically studies the types of words, the possible combinations between them, as well as the meanings provided by such combinations.

The term grammar is often applied to the syntactic and morphological aspects of the language, but it is common that lexical, semantic and even phonetic-phonological elements are also involved. Each language has its own grammar, itself endowed with its own logic, i.e. its own way of organizing linguistic signs and thus of organizing reality. A good grasp of grammar makes it possible to handle the rules of language and to be able to express oneself with greater fluency, beauty or complexity. The study of grammar is part of a necessary general culture.

There are concerns about the teaching of Spanish grammar at the pre-university level. This is not a new issue because it has reached the expression of the contradiction between the actual state and the desired state for the subject. The difficulties exist independently of the fulfillment or not of what is regulated in the teaching of Literature and Language.

In the teaching-learning process of grammatical contents, one must start from texts of different typology to appreciate the regularities in the use of functional communicative means (syntax), which will depend on the content that the sender transmits (semantics), on the communicative intention of the sender, on how he perceives the receiver, in what communicative situation he finds himself (pragmatics). Thus, semantic, syntactic and pragmatic factors that correspond to the different categories are linked in the speech act.

In pre-university education, it is necessary the treatment of a discursive grammar that allows the formation of a more integral bachelor in search of good men, for this purpose the school plays an essential role and within this the class of Literature and Language.

Grammatical studies should contribute to the development of students' text comprehension and construction skills. Therefore, the long-term goal of teaching any linguistic discipline is the acquisition and development of the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural competence of each of the students attending school. This helps to reflect on language and human communication; if effective, they strain the processes of analysis, synthesis, generalization and abstraction. A good grasp of grammar makes it possible to handle the rules of language and to be able to express oneself with greater fluency, beauty or complexity. The study of grammar is part of a necessary general culture.

The teaching of grammar basically involves the selection of grammatical contents, advancing in the knowledge of learning processes and a teaching methodology that favors the students' metalinguistic activity, which allows them to relate form with meaning. The efforts made in this direction are making teachers aware of the need to change their approach.

It is the communicative approach to language, redefined by Roméu (2003) as the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach, which proposes the development of cognitive, communicative and sociocultural competence as an essential objective of language teaching.

This focuses attention on the teaching and learning of grammatical structures and their use in communication, so that students possess linguistic knowledge, as well as know-how with these structures, among other knowledge, essential for successful communication.

It is necessary for pre-university teachers to realize how valuable this approach is for the development of communicative skills. In addition, it is of vital importance to assume a scientific attitude towards the study of the teaching of grammatical contents.

The approach favors a language teaching oriented to the acquisition of competences and to the communicative development of the students so that they improve their usual skills in this field: speaking, reading, writing, listening and conversing.

According to Romeu (2007), the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach responds to this aspiration by revealing the link between cognitive and communicative processes that express the unity of noesis and semiosis; that is, of thought and language, and their dependence on the sociocultural context where these processes take place. This approach as a model demands the development of its cognitive, communicative and sociocultural competence.

González Labrada (2023), states that “the cognitive-communicative and sociocultural approach is based on the dialectical-materialist conception of language, which defines it as an essential means of cognition and communication”.

Grammar is closely related to coherence and, above all, to the cohesion of texts. When a text is understood, the process developed means to make present in a clear way the content of the text, that is, to understand the interconnections in the text, to make clear the structure of the relations present in it. These relations and interconnections are given by the elements of the language: pronouns, verbs, syntactic functions, etc.

From this point of view, grammar appears as a tool to support the processes of production and comprehension of texts and not as a knowledge to be developed in itself. Not working on it in this way impedes the development of communicative competence.

Communicative competence is the ability to express oneself correctly, taking into account a set of grammatical and linguistic rules, in the different contexts in which the communicative process may take place.

Understanding the grammar of a language helps to decode the information presented in a text, making it possible to understand the author's intention and the relationship between ideas.

Comprehension is the aptitude or astuteness to reach an understanding of things. Alonso Tapia (1993) defines text comprehension as the development of meaning through the acquisition of the most important ideas of a text and the possibility of establishing links between these and other previously acquired ideas.

For Vásquez-Taipe (2022), “the relationship between critical thinking and reading comprehension is varied, denoting the mutual influence between both skills”.

It is possible to understand a text literally (focusing on those data explicitly stated), critically (with informed judgments about the values of the text) or inferentially (reading and understanding between the lines).

All activities in a language class have as a fundamental objective the development of communicative processes. The mastery of grammatical structures and the reflection on them can undoubtedly favor this development if we start from the texts that are read and written in the classroom.

González Labrada (2023), states that “the cognitive-communicative and sociocultural approach is based on the dialectical-materialist conception of language, which defines it as an essential means of cognition and communication”.

Understanding the grammar of a language helps to decode the information presented in a text, making it possible to understand the author's intention and the relationship between ideas.

For Vásquez-Taipe (2022), “the relationship between critical thinking and reading comprehension is varied, denoting the mutual influence between both skills”.

CONCLUSIONS

The teaching-learning process assumed in this work has an integral vision, with a systemic character. This is also how the teaching-learning process of grammar is conceived, so that students are active in the assimilation of knowledge and the development of skills and abilities, contributing to the preparation of young people to apply them creatively in their working and social life.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Alonso Tapia, J. (1993). La comprensión lectora. McGraw-Hill.

Bello A (1994) Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos. Imprenta del progreso.

Colás-Téllez, O. (2016). La aplicación del enfoque cognitivo – comunicativo y sociocultural: una necesidad para el logro de la competencia comunicativa eficiente en los escolares primarios. Maestro Y Sociedad, 11(1), 61–68. https://maestroysociedad.uo.edu.cu/index.php/MyS/article/view/1649

Dorta, M., Rodríguez, Y., & Souto, M. (2020). La enseñanza- aprendizaje de la oración compuesta mediante un texto literario. Educación y Sociedad, 18(1). https://revistas.unica.cu/index.php/edusoc/article/download/1238/pdf/7586

González Labrada, (2023). El enfoque cognitivo, comunicativo y sociocultural en la enseñanza de la lengua. Redipe.

Padrón, O. (2017). La enseñanza de la lengua: un enfoque comunicativo. Redipe.

Roméu, A. (2003). Teoría y práctica del análisis del discurso. Su aplicación en la enseñanza. Pueblo y Educación.

Roméu, A. (2007). Metodología de la enseñanza del español. Editorial Pueblo y Educación.

Vásquez Sierra, A. J. (2022). Comprensión lectora: fundamentos teóricos y estrategias de acercamiento al texto. Ciencia Latina Revista Científica Multidisciplinar, 6(4), 618-633. https://doi.org/10.37811/cl_rcm.v6i4.2607