Tools for Teaching
English Grammar to
Spanish-Speaking
Students Who Know
Almost Nothing About It
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What We’ll Discuss…
• Gramática del inglés: Paso a paso At last: a
grammar book written in Spanish that
assumes no prior knowledge of English or
Spanish grammar
• Winning strategies for teaching grammar to
Spanish-speakers who know very little about
grammar in English or Spanish
2
Introducing:
Gramática del inglés: Paso a Paso
• Written in readers’ native language:
Spanish (with English addition
available)
• Explicitly teaches punctuation and parts
of speech in addition to teaching
grammar
• Assumes no prior knowledge of Spanish
or English grammar or punctuation
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Topics Covered
• Identifying nouns, pronouns, and adjectives
• Using capital letters, periods, and question
marks
• Distinguishing between singular and plural
nouns
• Using a, an, and the
• Conjugating the verbs to be and to have
• Possessive adjectives, his, her, etc.
• Contractions
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Pace
• Presents concepts in small,
manageable steps
• For example
– Section 1: my
– Section 2: his, her
– Section 3: your, our
– Section 4: its, their
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Format
• Employs consistent,
easy to use layout
• Each page of
explanation is
followed by a page
of practice exercises
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Focus on Error Correction
• Calls out differences between Spanish
and English grammar
• Includes exercises in which students
choose between the correct and
incorrect grammatical structure:
I no tired.
I’m not tired
She hair
Her hair
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Practice Makes (almost)
Perfect
• About a thousand exercises
• Answers to all exercises included
• All vocabulary is defined before it is
used
• Bilingual dictionary includes all words
used in exercises
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How to Use This Book:
• As a class text
• As an optional text that students
purchase themselves for use at
home
• In one-on-one tutoring programs
• In Study at Home programs
• As a resource for teachers with
Spanish-speaking students
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And please…
Purchase, don’t copy, these books!
• It’s cheaper for you.
• It’s better for your students.
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Almost hot off the press…
• Gramática del inglés: Paso a paso 2 will
be available early next year, if not
sooner. It covers
– Simple present
– Do and does
-- Present Progressive
-- and LOTS more
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Goals for today
• Make teaching
grammar more fun
and effective
• Make learning
grammar more fun
and productive
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Grammar Conundrum #1
• The Audio-lingual Method produced students who
knew a lot about specific language structures but
couldn’t apply what they knew to spontaneous
conversation.
• The Communicative Approach produces students
who communicate well but lack grammatical
competency.
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Grammar Conundrum #2
• Explicit knowledge: conscious knowledge of
grammar rules learned through formal
classroom instruction
• Implicit knowledge: unconscious,
internalized knowledge of a language that is
available for spontaneous speech
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Resolving the Grammar
Conundrum: Goals
• Enable students to develop grammatical
competency even in spontaneous
speech.
• Make correct grammar automatic.
• Avoid the inert knowledge problem,
inability to activate knowledge or
transfer knowledge when you need it.
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CASE STUDY
Short Answer, present tense,
with to be
• Students answer these questions:
– Are you tired?
– Are your parents in the United
States?
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CASE STUDY
Short Answer, present tense,
with to be
• Prior knowledge required to answer
these questions:
– Statements vs. questions
– Conjugating the verb to be
– Parts of speech (you vs. your)
– Singular vs. plural
– Contractions (or not)
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How do you do it?*
• Explain
• Experience
• Explore
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EXPLAIN grammar forms
•
•
•
•
Be brief
Be organized
Be repetitive
Be authentic
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For every grammar form…
• Focus on error detection
–1. I’m not tired.
I no tired.
–2. It is empty.
Is empty.
–3. I have an old car. I have car old.
–4. The cars are new The cars is
new.
• Can you identify the root of each
grammar error?
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For every grammar form…
• Test for understanding often!
– Assignment: Write a sentence that includes the
word “cleans.”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
She is a cleans the house.
Maria’s cleans her house.
He clean his house.
She has cleans her house.
Maria is clean her house.
Louisa is a housecleaner.
She cleans the her house.
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Teach parts of speech from
Day 1
Teach them in this order:
• nouns (person, place, animal, thing)
• subject pronouns (replace nouns)
• adjectives
• verbs (start with to be)
• prepositions
• adverbs
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Teach parts of speech from
Day 1
Use a variety of techniques
•
Contests
•
Four corners
•
Fill the form
•
Identification exercises
•
Analylze texts
Practice parts of speech often!
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EXPERICNE grammar using
these strategies:
•
•
•
•
Make grammar a stand-up activity.
Make grammar a cooperative activity.
Make grammar a kinesthetic activity.
Make grammar a joyous activity!
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Make grammar a stand-up
activity
1. Four Corners
2. Gertie’s Grammar Cards
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Make grammar a stand-up
activity
3. Student
Interviews
• Writing
• Speaking
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Make grammar a stand-up
activity
4. Find three
people who…
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Make grammar a
cooperative activity
1. Picture
Q and A
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Make grammar a
cooperative activity
2. Dictation Part 1:
Listening and
writing
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Make grammar a
cooperative activity
2. Dictation: Part 2:
Speaking
(including
pronunciation)
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Make grammar a kinesthetic
activity
1. Scrambled
sentences
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Make grammar a kinesthetic
activity
2. Fill the form
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Make grammar a joyous
activity: Sing!
• Sing! (And explore grammar too!)
• Do You Want to Dance? (Beach
Boys): asking questions
• I Can’t Smile Without You (Barry
Manilow): can and can’t
• Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton):
simple present
• Email me for more examples
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Make grammar a joyous
activity: Sing!
• How to do it…
• Select a song based on the grammar
structure you want to teach.
• Use iTunes to download the song.
• Print the lyrics from the Internet.
• Develop lessons based on the lyrics and
one grammar point.
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Make grammar a joyous
activity: Sing!
• Day 1:
– Play the song.
– Talk about what it
means
– Note grammar
form
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Make grammar a joyous
activity: Sing!
• Day 2 and 3: Focus
on vocabulary
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Make grammar a joyous
activity: Sing!
• Day 4: Practice the
grammar form using
vocabulary from the
song.
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Make grammar a joyous
activity: Sing!
• Day 5:
– Do a cloze activity.
– Students listen to the
song and fill in the
missing words.
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Make grammar a joyous
activity: Sing!
• Sing every day!
• Make a Class CD with lyrics
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EXPLORE: Let students
“discover” grammar forms
• The goal of “discovering grammar forms” is for
students to develop awareness of rather than
production of target forms.
• This awareness helps learners notice target forms in
future input and facilitates the eventual acquisition of
these forms as implicit.
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EXPLORE: Let students
“discover” grammar forms
Five part lesson plan:
1. Listening to comprehend
2. Listening to notice
3. Discovery
4. Checking
5. Trying it
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CASE STUDY
Short Answer, present tense,
with to be
• Explanation:
Present information in small,
manageable chunks:
Day 1: Are you talkative?
Day 2: Is your sister talkative?
Day 3: Are your classmates talkative?
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CASE STUDY
Short Answer, present tense,
with to be
• Explanation:
– Provide one reference sheet that
students refer to whenever this topic
is discussed
– Repeat the grammar explanation prior
to each activity
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CASE STUDY
Short Answer, present tense,
with to be
• Exploration: Worksheets plus…
– Four Corners
– Gertie’s grammar cards
– Class interviews
– Scrambled sentences
– Find 3 People Who….
– Dictation
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In sum…
• Even though
English grammar is
excruciatingly
difficult…
• You can make it
fun!
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