From Sentence to Discourse: Discourse Grammar and English Language Teaching

In this article we argue that there are very good reasons for developing discourse grammars for L2 teaching and exemplify the criteria for moving from sentence-based grammar to the discourse level. The criteria are based on pedagogical and descriptive problems in grammar that sentence-based approaches cannot adequately deal with. We identify key areas in which a discourse grammar might make significant contributions. These include discourse paradigms (in contrast to traditional ones), the solution of problems brought about by post facto rules that fail to generate appropriate choices, different distributions of forms in spoken and written texts, items that make little sense if dealt with in stand-alone sentences, and unresolved grammatical puzzles. We conclude by considering the problems and prospects for L2 teaching in the kind of probabilistic grammar that emerges from a discourse-based approach.