An Integrated Approach to Structure and Meanlng Diagramming as a Grammatical Model and the Importance of Idiom in the ESL Classroom

The method of diagramming has long been a part of many traditional grammatical approaches to language teaching. Through the years, it has essentially been used as a visual aid for illustrating the dynamics of sentence structure, and has thus been readily associated with structuralist, traditional, or deductive methods of language teaching. In this article, however, we would suggest that the method of diagramming need not be considered a tool solely for use by the strict grammarian, but can also be a valuable component in an integrated Ianguage course.