Teacher FAQs – Grammar
FAQ # 1
How do I know which grammar competences learners typically acquire at the
different CEFR levels?
FAQ # 2
How can teachers and students access ECOSTAR's grammar resources?
FAQ # 3
Where do ECOSTAR's grammar resources come from?
FAQ # 4
How can ECOSTAR Resource Bank's grammar resources help students?
FAQ # 5
How can ECOSTAR Resource Bank's grammar resources help teachers?
FAQ # 6
OK we understand that the CEFR focuses mainly on
(1) developing communicative competence.
(2) integrating a range of language skills.
So does this mean we no longer use classroom time to teach grammar?
FAQ #1
How do I know which grammar competences learners typically acquire
at the different CEFR levels?
Two websites clearly describe typical grammar profiles of learners worldwide
at each CEFR level:
1. English Grammar Profile - very comprehensive list
http://www.englishprofile.org/english-grammar-profile
Cambridge University Press, together with leading researchers and the British
Council, used the multi-million word Cambridge English Corpus to compile a
comprehensive list of grammar features that learners typically know at the
6 CEFR levels. List provides examples and details of verb tenses, articles,
major word classes, modal and auxiliary verbs, word order, reported speech
etc.
The above site offers also offers a 'download as spreadsheet' option, which
you can then sort according to specific CEFR levels.
For a much shorter list, more user-friendly list of grammar topics required for
CEFR levels, go to:
2. examenglish.com
http://www.examenglish.com/CEFR/cefr_grammar.htm
This site provides:
 practice tests (with feedback) for self-assessment of CEFR levels.
 free resources for independent study.
 equivalences between CEFR levels and international placement exams
(http://www.examenglish.com/examscomparison.php).
FAQ # 2
How can teachers and students access ECOSTAR's grammar resources?
The ECOSTAR Resource Bank [EMBED LINK WHEN READY] contains a
curated collection of over 100 instructional resources that cover grammar
topics required for CEFR levels. Interactive exercises contain feedback, teaching
points and hints to facilitate flipped classroom models or independent study.
FAQ # 3
Where do ECOSTAR's grammar resources come from?
(IF IDC HAS ALSO DEVELOPED GRAMMAR LOs, we will have to
ADD HERE as a source.)
1. Sites recommended by ECOSTAR's European partners, who
have taught CEFR English courses for many years. (Special
thanks to our Italian partners Lil Ercole and Fatima Bassi)
2. Resource banks created by leading academic institutions such
as Purdue University's OWL and Wisconsin's Wisc-online .
3. Well-known content providers such as BBC and British Council.
4. Free resources on reliable commercial sites that prepare for
international placement exams such as Cambridge's flo-joe
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/teachers/resources/index.htm.
Equivalences between CEFR levels and international placement
exams enabled us to select high quality resources from these
sites and link them to the ECOSTAR Resource Bank.
FAQ # 4
How can ECOSTAR Resource Bank's grammar resources help students?
ECOSTAR's grammar resources enable students to 'level the playing field' by:
 identifying grammar competences that most learners already have in
place before they start specific CEFR-aligned courses.

self-assessing their own levels to identify possible gaps.
 using interactive resources with teaching points and feedback for
independent study to close gaps on their own.
ECOSTAR's curated collection of resources can also be searched according
to language competences assessed by Online Linguistic Support (OLS).
This allows students who want to participate in an Erasmus+ program to
prepare for the mandatory OLS language assessment.
FAQ # 5
How can ECOSTAR Resource Bank's grammar resources help teachers?
No more re-inventing the wheel
Overwhelming numbers of grammar exercises are already out there, freely
available on the Internet. The Open University's ECOSTAR team has
ploughed through a whole stack of websites to find and select resources that
provide clear explanations and well-constructed exercises with feedback that
facilitate independent study on CEFR-related grammar topics.
This curated collection now contains over a hundred interactive grammar
resources, organized according to CEFR levels.
Flipped classroom model
Interactive grammar exercises in the ECOSTAR Resource Bank provide
teaching points, hints and feedback. This facilitates assigning "drill and
practice" to independent study, freeing up classroom time for applying newlyacquired knowledge.
Dealing with diverse levels of prior knowledge
There is never enough classroom time to help weaker students 'catch up'.
Teachers who diagnose specific gaps in students' prior knowledge of
grammar can assign specific ECOSTAR grammar resources for independent
study to provide additional explanations and practice.
FAQ # 6
OK we understand that the CEFR focuses mainly on
(1) developing communicative competence.
(2) integrating a range of language skills.
So does this mean we no longer use classroom time to teach grammar?
According to the CEFR, communicative pedagogic tasks can often be used
instead of exercises that focus specifically on decontextualized practice of
forms.
Communicative pedagogic tasks
 aim to actively involve learners in meaningful communication.
 are relevant.
 are challenging but feasible.
 have identifiable outcomes.
(p.157, Common European Framework of References for Languages:
Learning, Teaching, Assessment, Cambridge University Press).
Example of a communicative pedagogic task:
NOT SURE ABOUT THIS AS AN EXAMPLE, MAYBE GET A BETTER ONE
FROM IDC
Instead of using only decontextualized 'drill and practice' exercises to teach
present continuous tense, students print out and listen to Rod Stewart's 'I am
sailing' http://esl-bits.net/Songs.for.English.Language.Learning/Rod.Stewart/Sailing/default.html
before class. Students are asked to follow the text of the lyrics while they
listen to the song, and underline different examples of present continuous
tense.
During class, students work in pairs to use present continuous tense in order
to write 4 additional lines to the song, which they present to the class for
ranking.