A CORPUS-BASED APPROACH TO THE PROTOTYPE MODEL OF EFL GRAMMAR TEACHING

Abstract

This paper draws on the argument that prototype theory provides a more efficient EFL grammar tutorial for Serbian students. In line with R. W. Langacker (1991) and G. Leech (1994, 2000), if corpus linguistics and data driven learning are embraced by the theory, it will significantly enhance the understanding of English verb tenses for students. The major advantages of the novel EFL teaching methodology, namely the prototype driven approach to teaching English verb tenses, are (i) its potential to offer a new view of the verb tense system by mapping out a number of interwoven strands common to different tenses and, (ii) the complete abandonment of the narrowness of the traditional (classical) approach which asserts that tenses should be established by temporal adverbials.