Teaching
Grammar
• Carolina Peña.
• Javiera Iturra.
• Ximena Cáceres.
• Laura Roa.
• Rodolfo Sáez.
• Michael Henríquez.
What is Grammar?
• Grammar is the system of rules governing
the conventional arrangement and
relationship of words in a sentence.
• Technically, grammar refers to sentencelevel rules, only.
• According to Larsen – Freeman (2003)
To teach or not teach grammar
• For adults, the question is not so much whether to
teach grammar, but rather, what the optimal
conditions for the teaching of grammar are.
• According to Celce- Murcia (1991), there are
different variants. We’ll look at six of them.
 1. Age
 2. Proficiency level
 3. Educational background
 4. Language Skills
 5. Style (Register)
 6. Needs and Goals
THE PLACE OF GRAMMAR
• Grammar is the system of rules governing
the
conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a
sentence. Technically, it refers to sentence-level rule only.
• Communicative competence: "Communication
competence is the degree to which a communicator’s
goals are achieved through effective and appropriate
interaction.”
• In
communicative
competence,
grammatical
competence occupies the place as the mayor component
of it.
• Organizational competence: intricate and complex array
of rules.
sentence (grammar)
Some govern
sentences together (discourse)
• Organizational
competence
is
NECESSARY
for
communication but not sufficient for both production and
reception in language.
• Dianne Larsen_Freeman: grammar is one of the 3 dimensions
of language that are interconnected. Grammar give us only the
FORM (structures).
Grammar (structure)
3 dimensions
of language
Semantics (meaning)
Pragmatics (context)
• NO ONE DIMENSION is sufficient.
speaker/audience
register
Considerations
•
•
•
•
Controversial (intuitive/rules)
It is helpful when is not an end in it itself.
Grammar is better studied inside the classroom.
T has to produce interesting and purposeful
meanings within the context of real life.
• Grammar has to be interesting. (against
traditional prescriptive rule teaching)
ISSUES ABOUT HOW TO
TEACH GRAMMAR
• 1. Should grammar be presented inductively
or deductively?
• 2. Should we use grammatical explanations
and technical terminology in a CLT
classroom?
• 3. Should grammar be taught in separate
“Grammar only” classes?
• 4. Should teachers correct grammatical
errors?
PRESENTING AND
EXPLAINING GRAMMAR
Classroom or peer-teaching
•
•
•
•
•
Stage 1: Presentation.
Stage 2: Feedback.
Stage 3: Guidelines.
Stage 4: Comparison.
Stage 5: Repeat.
Questions on Grammar
Presentations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. The structure itself.
2. Examples.
3. Terminology.
4. Language.
5. Explanation.
6. Delivery.
7. Rules.
GRAMMAR TECHNIQUES
Following are some samples techniques for
teaching grammar, using Sandra McKay’s (1985)
classifications that have withstood the test of time.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
CHARTS
OBJECTS
MAPS AND DRAWINGS
DIALOGUES
OTHER WRITTEN TEXTS
CHART
OBJECTS
MAPS AND DRAWING
DIALOGUES
OTHER WRITTEN TEXT
GRAMMAR PRACTICE
ACTIVITIES
• The aim of grammar practice is to get students
to learn the structure so thoroughly that they will
be able to produce them correctly on their own.
• One of our jobs as teachers is to help our
students make the ‘leap’ from form-focused
accuracy work to fluent.
• Our lessons should include a fairly
representative selection of activities that provide
both form-focused and meaning-focused
practice.
TYPES OF GRAMMAR PRACTICE:
FROM ACCURACY TO FLUENCY
• Type 1. Awareness
example: Learners are given extracts from
newspaper articles and they are asked to
underline all the examples of the past tense
that they can find.
• Type 2 : Controlled Drills
example: Write or say statements about John.
John drinks tea but he doesn’t drink coffee
• a) like: ice cream / cake
• Type 3 : Meaningful Drill
example: Choose someone you know very well, and
write down his/her name. Now compose true
statements about them according to the following
model:
He/she likes ice cream; or she/he doesn’t like ice
cream.
• Type 4: Guided, meaningful practice.
example: Practicing conditional clauses, learners are
given the cue If I had a million dollars, and suggest, in
speech or writing, what they would do.
• Type 5: (Structured-based) free sentences
composition
example: a picture showing a number of people doing
different things is shown to the class; they describe it
using the appropriate tense.
• Type 6: (Structured-based) discourse
composition.
example: the class is given a dilemma situation (you
have seen a good friend cheating in an important test)
and asked to recommend a solution. They are directed
to include modals
• Type 7: Free discourse
example: As in type 6, but without the final direction.
GRAMMAR MISTAKES
Mistakes within the learning process
- Mistakes may be seen as an integral and natural part of
learning.
- Some would say that it is not necessary to correct at all.
- It is important to relate to grammar mistakes not as a
sign of inadequacy.
Why do students make mistakes?
- “False friends”.
- Grammatical considerations.
- “Developmental” errors.
How should teachers correct students?
• Inquiry task: - Stage 1: Gathering samples.
- Stage 2: Classifying.
- Stage 3: Ordering.
- Stage 4: Reordering.
• Using the information:
1. As a guide for the presentation and practice of new
structures.
2. As a guide for correction.
3. As a guide for remedial work.
References
• Brown, D (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive
approach to language pedagogy. (pp. 419 - 442).
Pearson Longman.
• Harmer, J. (2001). How to teach English. (pp. 52 - 67).
Longman.
• Ur, P. (2006). A Course in Language Teaching. (pp. 75 89). Cambridge University Press.
• Communication Competence Perspective. (2000,
January 29). Communication Competence Defined!.
Retrieved July 1, 2010, from
http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/commcomp.htm