Module 6 "Teaching Grammar"
Task1. What is grammar?
Grammar - doesn’t only effects how units of language are combined in order to look write it also
effects they are meaning.
Task2. Read box "Opinions about the teaching of grammar" and say how far do you agree
with them?
I think that teaching grammar at school is the most necessary point because if learners should
know the form and meaning for use language as freely as they can.
Task3. Read box "Questions on grammar presentations". Is it difficult to present any
grammatical structure? What happens in an effective presentation? What is the aim of
presentation? What are the stages of grammar presentation part of the lesson? What does the
teacher do at each of these stages?
I think is difficult to present any grammatical structure because:
1. How to present of meaning;
2. How to explain grammatical structure;
3. How to present examples of grammatical structure;
4. How to realize what is difficult for learners;
5. How to understand yourself what is involved is “knowing” the structure;
6. How to present the form;
7. Should I use a lot of terminology;
8. Which language we are use?
9. Should my presentation and explanation be too detailed?
10. Should I explain all rules myself or ilised rules from my learners.
According to the level of my learners, if I’m explaining all rules myself it’s very boring.
Aim of presentation: to get the learners to perceive the structure.
Task4. Read text "Teaching Grammar" by Donald Sargeant and find approaches which can
help you and your learners to teach and learn grammar better. Name them and characterize.
TEACHING GRAMMAR
1. Inductive versus Deductive teaching.
 when you teach grammar inductively you present students with a set of examples of a
grammar rule in practice and then you ask them to formulate the rule.
 when you teach grammar deductively you present an explicit rule and then you ask
students to put it into practice.
2. The advantages and disadvantages of inductive grammar teaching.
a) advantages
 by involving the student"s reasoning processes we make sure they are using their
cognitive powers. This should make the learning more enjoyable and one that is likely to
be more effective.
 it is more student centred discover the information for themselves.
b) disadvantages
 it takes more time than deductive teaching


inductive techniques may be confusing unless they are carefully thought out by the
teacher
they are not suitable for all students
3. The advantages and disadvantages of deductive grammar teaching.
a) advantages
 it requires less effort on the part of both the teachers and the students
 the students are less likely to be exposed to critical remarks on the part of either the
teacher or other students and therefore some students may feel more secure with this
approach
 it may provide the students with just what they need, especially if they are preparing for
formal exams
b) disadvantages
 students may misunderstand the terminology used in grammar rules
 it is a boring approach and therefore less likely to attract students" attention and so be
less effective.
Deductive approach (means the teacher explain rules himself) and inductive (approach means the
teacher ilisets rules from my learners) approaches can help you and your learners to teach and
learn grammar better.
Task5. What is more difficult to present the Form or the Use? Discuss it in pairs.
Task6. Make a list of what you think are effective grammar presentation techniques.
-Using a song text
-Reading
-Personalizing
- Using realia
Task7. Is it difficult to practise any grammatical structure? What is the aim of practice?
What does the teacher do and what do learners do during practice part of the lesson? Fill in
this table.
The Teacher
The Learner
To offer the task with sentences,
which haven’t connection with text.
Do the task
Task with sentences, which have connection
with text or new text.
Do the task
Task, where learners speak about different
things, but not about themselves.
Do the task
Task8. Read text "Practice" by Scott Thorbury and find characteristics of a good practice
activity.
"...- Attention to form: the practice activity should motivate learners to want to be accurate, and
the should not be so focused on what they are saying that they have no left-over attention to
allocate to how they are saying it.
- Familiarity: learners need to be familiar with the language that they are trying to get right.
- Thinking time: monitoring for accuracy is easier and therefore more successful if there is
sufficient time available to think and reflect
- Feedback: learners need unambiguous messages as to how accurate they are - this traditionally
takes the form of correction.
- Chunking: at least some of the language the learners are practising should be in the form of
short memorisable chunks which can be automised.
- Repetition: for automisation to occur, the practice activity should have an element of built-in
repetition, so that learners produce a high volume of the target forms."
Task9. Read a jumbled grammar lesson and re-organise a mixed-up grammar practice.
Practising how much / how many? using a sequence of oral drills (Elementary)
STEP
The teacher repeats step 2, but this time uses pictures (of meat rather than word prompts).
STEP
The teacher says the following sentence two or three times:
How much milk have we got?
At a given signal, the class repeats this in chorus. Then the teacher indicates to individual
students to repeat it. He corrects pronunciation where necessary.
STEP
The teacher distributes pictures to the students, who in pairs tests each other.
STEP
The teacher then supplies prompts that are a mixture of countable and uncountable nouns, first
words and then pictures. For example:
TEACHER: eggs
STUDENT 1: How many eggs have we got?
TEACHER: meat
STUDENT 2: How much meat have we got?
TEACHER: coffee
STUDENT 3; How much coffee have we got?
TEACHER: apples
STUDENT 4: How many apples have we got?
STEP
The teacher repeats the sentence and the class choruses it again. Then the teacher supplies the
prompt:
rice
and indicates to a student to supply the response:
How much rice have we got?
The teacher supplies further prompts, such as meat, juice, sugar, spaghetti etc, and individual
students provide the correct response. Note that all the examples (meat, juice, sugar, spaghetti )
are uncountable - do not normally have a plural form.
STEP
The teacher repeats Step 1, but this time with the sentence:
How many bananas have we got?
The teacher then supplies prompts that are countable nouns, such as potatoes, eggs, tomatoes.
Initially the prompts are words and then pictures.
Task10. Read text "Practice" by Scott Thorbury and find characteristics of a good production
activity.
"... - Attention to meaning: the practice activity should encourage learners to pay attention less
to the form of what they are saying and more to the meaning.
- Authenticity: the activity should attempt to stimulate the psychological conditions of real-life
language use. That is, the learner should be producing and interpreting language under real-time
constrains, and with a measure of unpredictability.
- Communicative purpose: to help meet these last two conditions, the activity should have a
communicative purpose. That is, there should be a built-in need to interact"
Task11. How to test grammar?
I think teacher should test gramma in dialogs with learners.
Task12. Read box "Types of grammar practice: from accuracy to fluency" and answer the
following questions:
- how many types does the lesson of grammar consist of? Name these types.
- match these types to the stages of a grammar lesson.
1. Awareness means formal drill
2. Controlled drill means functional drill
3. Meaningful drill means functional drill
4. Guided, meaningful practise means functional drill
5. Free sentence composition means functional drill
6. Discourse composition means meaningful drill
7. Free discourse means meaningful drill
Match these types to the stages of a grammar lesson.
Practice consists of:
 Formal drill
 Functional drill
 Meaningful drill