(: My Book Review :)

Process Modeling Grammar through Structured Grammar-Focused Tasks

Reviewer has read 2 books. The first book talk about teaching grammar in second language classrooms, the author of the book is Hossein Nassaji and Sandra Fotos and he published this book in 2011. The second books talk about evaluations of process modeling grammar, the author of the book is Jan Recker and he published this book in 2011. From those book I can get a small idea from both materials that I conclude in one title. The title is process modeling grammar through structured grammar- focused tasks. Base on the title there are two main points these are process modeling grammar and focus grammar in task. So, the focus on my review book is process modeling grammar by using tasks.

there are three evaluations of Process Modeling Grammars these are Ontological Analysis, Qualitative Analysis, Quantitative Analysis. The first one is ontological analysis, this theory is based on the observation that models of business domains and information systems are essentially models of real world systems. Real world systems can be explained and described using ontology – the study of the nature of the world and what exists in reality – in terms of the properties of the structure and the interactions between real-world things. Ontological constructs to describe all types of real-world phenomena that a modeling grammar user may desire to have represented in a conceptual model of an information systems domain. This representation model can serve as  a  benchmark for  the  evaluation of  the  capabilities of  modeling grammars to develop models of information systems that are complete and clear. The procedure in this section is performed to demonstrate how propositions can be established where this grammar has quality deficiencies for process modeling. An ontological analysis concerns the directional mapping of process modeling grammar constructs to the ontological constructs specified in the ontological representation model.

Base on that analysis, we can use that theory in the classroom. Moreover, Tasks are not only considered to be instructional activities in the classroom but also as units for planning and organizing the curriculum or syllabus (R. Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 2004; Samuda & Bygate, 2008), especially by encouraging learner empowerment and individualized learning. A distinction has been made between convergent tasks, where learners agree on a task solution through information exchange (e.g., Samuda & Bygate, 2008; Skehan, 1996a) and divergent tasks, where learners take a stand on an issue and present their argument. This particular task type leads to syntactic complexity and longer turns, more output and, thus, more comprehensible input for the listener. Task-based instruction has been traditionally based on the idea that if learners are to learn the target language successfully, they must engage in activities that provide opportunities for naturalistic or real-life language use rather than activities that focus only on language forms (R. Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 2004; Samuda & Bygate, 2008). In other words, the focus must be on communicating a message rather than on a particular form (R. Ellis, 1982).

            The second is qualitative analysis, in this theory I describe how propositions about the quality of a process modeling grammar can be subjected to qualitative analysis through semi-structured inter- views. We also found interesting usage patterns relating to a number of support modeling constructs, such as text annotations and grouping constructs, which are used in organizations to further enhance the process specifications on an informal level. To that end, our study mostly confirmed the theoretical arguments advanced by Wand and Weber regarding the implications of construct deficit and construct overload on the quality of a modeling grammar. In contrast, the arguments regarding the issue of construct redundancy remained largely disconfirmed in our empirical study. Support for the arguments related to construct excess is inconclusive and require further investigation.

            Base on that analysis, we can use that theory in the classroom. The task is like the teacher explain the meaning with a clear explanation about the students’ writing. the students addressing these problems in a book on task-based instruction,  made a distinction between focused and unfocused communicative tasks. Unfocused tasks deal with meaning, and are not intended to elicit target structures. Focused tasks, however, are designed to have a particular flinguistic focus. They are aimed at making grammar forms salient to learners by using the forms in such a way that learners’ attention is drawn to their use in context.

            The third is quantitative analysis, this theory is concerned with describing how quantitative data analysis techniques can be used to assess the quality of a process modeling grammar. Specifically, this chapter reports on the use of the survey method to measure theoretical quality properties of the popular process modeling grammar, and to examine  the  relationships of  these  properties to  important  usage  beliefs  modelers develop when working with the grammar.

This chapter details how quantitative approaches can be used in grammar task in the classroom. This category may also include grammar tasks that require learners to practice certain target structures through various forms of production exercises. Comprehension tasks are designed so that learners must notice then process the target form in carefully designed input, usually a stimulus that requires a learner response containing the target item.

According to R. Ellis (1995, p. 94), such tasks have the following goals: to enable learners to identify the meaning(s) realized by a specific grammatical feature (i.e., to help them carry out a form-function mapping). In this case, the goal is grammar comprehension, to be distinguished from what might be termed message comprehension, which can take place without the learner having to attend to the grammatical form. For example, on hearing the sentence, “I’d like two bottles please,” a learner may be able to understand that bottles is plural in meaning without noticing the morpheme or understanding its function. Then, To enhance input (Sharwood Smith, 1993) in such a way that learners are induced to notice a grammatical feature that they otherwise might ignore. In other words, interpretation tasks are designed to facilitate noticing. Next,  to enable learners to carry out the kind of cognitive comparison that has been hypothesized to be important for interlanguage development. Learners need to be encouraged to notice the gap between the way a particular form works to convey meaning in the input and how they are using the same form or, alternatively, how they convey the meaning realized by the form when they communicate. One way of fostering this is to draw learners’ attention to the kinds of errors that they typically make. Grammar task research has provided a variety of formats to integrate grammar instruction and task-based instruction, giving methods to combine form-focused and meaning-focused activities that would suit various pedagogical positions, instructional styles or teaching situations.

In  focused tasks, once learners become conscious of a grammar point, they often tend to notice it in subsequent communicative input. Such noticing appears to initiate the restructuring of the implicit system of linguistic knowledge. When a language point is noticed frequently, learners unconsciously compare the new input with their existing L2 system, construct new hypotheses and test them by attending to further input and by getting feedback on their own output using the new form. In this way, acquisition has occurred, and noticing has been a trigger.

            In conclusion, ontological analysis was concerned with identifying a measure for the intrinsic quality characteristics of process modeling grammars. Then, qualitative analysis described the design and conduct of semi-structured interviews that allows researchers to gather empirical insights on propositions about process modeling grammar quality generated through an analytical evaluation of a a grammar on basis of ontological theory (as described in Chapter three of this book) and quantitative analysis detailed how to conduct a quantitative analysis of a process modeling grammar. Moreover, by those analysis very important to use in the tasks. The use of communicative tasks with target grammar structure as content presented implicitly or explicitly has been shown to successfully raise learner awareness of the target form. The studies of implicit and explicit structured grammar-focused task performance reviewed.