Teaching Grammar
Agenda
• Explaining and guided discovery
• Other ways of exploring grammar
• Practice
• Production
Arguments for Grammar Instruction:
• Without explicit instruction learners’ interlanguage often
fossilizes.
• Grammar instruction may help learners to notice features of
language when they are ready.
• Learning finite rules can help to simplify an otherwise
complex langauge by organizing it into neat categories.
• Older students’ expectation about language learning often
includes grammar instruction.
(Lightbown & Spada, 1990, pp. 429-448)
What should be taught?
How is it formed?
form/structure
What does it mean?
meaning/semantics
use/pragmatics
When/Why is it used?
Larsen-Freeman (2001)
Explaining Grammar
• When explaining grammar, you need to…Discuss
and fix these. Talk about why you think so.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Talk a lot
Talk fast
Use technical language
Give E_________
Don’t ask questions
Use V_________
Don’t c________ understanding
Guided Discovery
• Activities that allow learners to find their own
discoveries and explanations.
• Prompts that help learners to see the key
points.
• Your role here is to:
– Choose helpful tasks
– Give clear instructions, explanations and feedback
– Keep learners engaged
Examples of Guided Discovery Ideas
• Questions about form
– What word goes in this space? How do you spell that?
• Questions about function
– Is this formal or informal?
• Sentence analysis
– Mark all of the prepositions
• Reflection on use
– Why did you use that tense?
• Hypothesizing rules
– Why is that wrong?
• Problems and puzzles
– Put the words in the right order. Change this to past tense.
GRAMMAR PRACTICE
Grammar practice: what is it?
• The learner manipulates and tries out the new language by
producing different examples
• The focus is on using the language correctly. This is where you will
correct errors.
• The teacher begins by exercising a lot of control which is gradually
relaxed
• Learning is consolidated by committing new material to the
learner's long-term memory
• For example: various drills, gap fills, sentence correction, sentence
completion, dialogue practice etc.
Focus on
meaning, but
controlled form
Find someone
who...
Choose the Dialogue
A: How are you doing today?
A: What can I help you with today?
B: I need to check out this book.
B: Great. Thanks.
A: What can I help you with?
A: Do you have your library card?
B: I would like to open a bank account.
B: I don't have one.
A: What kind would you like to open?
A: Would you like to apply for one right
now?
B: I need a checking account.
B: That's fine.
A: Would you also like to open a savings
account?
A: I'm going to need you to fill out the
application.
A: In order to open these accounts, you
need to deposit a minimum of $50.
A: All right, now please sign the back of the
card.
B: All right. All done.
B: That's fine.
Try this
B: Okay. I've signed it.
B: I want to deposit $300.
B: Great. Now can I check out this book?
B: Make sure to put $150 in each account.
Practice: Guessing Jobs
What does he/she
do?
She may/ might/
could be a …
Table for S1
Names
Favourite
subjects
Lily
Favourite
sports
Favourit
e food
basketball
Susan
Chinese
David
English
Hobbies
music
eggs
reading
Favourit
e food
Hobbies
football
Table for S2
Names
Favourite
subjects
Lily
Math
Susan
David
Favourite
sports
pork
Ping-pong
icecream
collecting
stamps
GAMES TO PRACTICE STRUCTURES
Games
• Board Races
• With flyswatter
• Write sentences and fill in gaps or make corrections
• Rock/ scissors/ paper board race
• Hot seat
• Try to get your team member to say the funny phrase
but don’t use any of the words in the phrase.
• More fun ideas at:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzX1j3h7X4k
How’s the weather?
It’s…
Hot seat
• One morning I sang to an elephant in my pajamas.
Hot seat
• Yesterday I saw a zombie shake hands with a lizard.
Hot seat
• My Mom tries to be cool like me.
Hot seat
• A shiny gem is not enough.
Communicative Activities (Production)
• Freer activities that focus on communicative aims
rather than specific language items.
• Focus on fluency (no correction).
• Try to personalize the language.
– What sports do you like to play?
• Students use the language in a realistic way.
• Students have the chance to interact and communicate
more.
Today is picture B.
What has happened
since yesterday
(picture A)?
24
Today is picture B.
What has happened
since yesterday
(picture A)?
25
A: Remember the details of these pictures. You
can make a sketch (don’t show B)
B: Remember the details of these pictures.
You can make a sketch (don’t show A)
Accuracy/ fluency continuum
Practice
Production
form-focused
--------------------------------------
meaning-focused
‘make sure
it’s correct’
--------------------------------------
‘make sure you
communicate’
controlled
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
free
decontextualized
contextualized