HOW GENERATIVE GRAMMAR HELPS BUILD SENTENCE SKILLS FOR THAI STUDENTS: A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING WRITING

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Somsak Kaewnuch

Abstract

Although the teaching of EFL writing in Thailand has mostly focused on the grammar and structure of the language, it may not have sufficiently demonstrated to students how the knowledge about sentence parts and sentence patterns explained by generative grammar (GG) may be useful in coping with the differences between Thai and English sentences.  Generative grammar is a structuralist and cognitivist approach to make students visualize not only how sentence parts are arranged together to form complete and grammatical sentences but also how modifying phrases or clauses are tied to core sentence parts to get rid of redundancies as well as to achieve clarity.  Cognitive theory supports generative grammar in that it helps students to imagine the locations of sentence parts and imprint them in their memory.  However, generative grammar and cognitive theory are only the first half of learning English in the country.  EFL writing teachers must incorporate the social aspect of learning, which in learning a language refers to the practice.

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How to Cite
Kaewnuch, S. (2018). HOW GENERATIVE GRAMMAR HELPS BUILD SENTENCE SKILLS FOR THAI STUDENTS: A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING WRITING. Journal of Education and Innovation, 20(2), 252–265. Retrieved from https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/edujournal_nu/article/view/77473
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Academic Articles

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