1
Teaching Grammar
Definition
Grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines
words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning.
There is a set of rules which govern how units of meaning may be constructed in any
language: we may say that a learner who ‘knows grammar’ is one who has mastered and
can apply these rules to express him or herself in what would be considered acceptable
language forms.
Approaches to teaching grammar
1. Deductive approach
The deductive presentation of grammar follows this general pattern:
(a) Statement of the rule or pattern
(b) Sample of sentences that students repeat
(c) Ample opportunity for student to practice the new pattern
2. Inductive approach
In an inductive approach, the teacher first gives the students examples of the
grammatical structure to be learned. After the examples have been practiced, the
students are guided in forming a generalization about the grammatical principle
they have been working with. This approach works best with regular grammatical
patterns.
The place of grammar in language teaching
There is no doubt that a knowledge - implicit or explicit – of grammatical rules is
essential for the master of a language: you cannot use words unless you know how they
should be put together. But there has been some discussion in recent years of the
question:
DISCUSS
Do we have to have ‘grammar exercises’? Isn’t it better for learners to absorb the rules
intuitively through ‘communicative’ activities than to be taught through special exercises
explicitly aimed at teaching grammar?
In ‘natural learning’ – such as the learning of a first language by a chilled – the amount
of time and motivation devoted to learning is so great that there is no necessity for
conscious planning of the learning process: sooner or later the material is absorbed.
However, in a formal course of study, there is very much less time available, and often
less motivation, which means that learning time has to be organized for optimum
efficiency. This means preparing a programme of study – a syllabus – so that bits of the
total corpus of knowledge are presented one after the other for gradual, systematic
acquisition, rather than all at once. And it also means preparing on organized, balanced
plan of classroom teaching / learning procedures through which the learners will be
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous
2
enabled to spend some of their time concentrating on mastering one or more of the
components of the target language on their way to acquiring it as a whole. These
components may be things like spelling or pronunciation or vocabulary – or grammar.
Grammar, then, may furnish the basis for a set of classroom activities during which it
becomes temporarily the main learning objective. But the key word here is temporarily.
The learning of grammar should be seen in the long term as one of the means of
acquiring a thorough master of the language as a whole, not as an end in itself. Thus,
although at an early stage we may as our students to learn a certain structure through
exercises that concentrate on virtually meaningless manipulations of language, we should
quickly progress to activities that use it meaningfully. And even theses activities will be
superseded eventually by general fluency practice, where the emphasis is on successful
communication, and any learning of grammar takes place only as incidental to this main
objective.
What does learning grammar involve?
What sorts of things are included under the heading grammar, and what is involved in
‘knowing’ a structure?
Different grammatical structures:
1. Some have exact parallels in the native language and are easily mastered;
2. Others have no such parallels but are fairly simple in themselves;
3. Others are totally alien and very difficult to grasp. Some have fairly simple
forms, but it may be difficult to learn where to use them and where not (the
definite article, for example;
4. Others have relatively easy meanings, but very varied or difficult forms (the past
simple tense). Some involve single-word choices (a/an/some), other entire
sentences (conditionals).
When we teach any one of these types of structures, we are - or should be – getting our
students to learn quite a large number of different, though related, bits of knowledge and
skills: how to recognize the examples of the structure when spoken, how to identify its
written form, how to produce both its spoken and written form, how to understand its
meaning in context, and produce meaningful sentences using it themselves. All these
‘bits’ may be presented in the form of a table thus:
ASPECTS OF THE TEACHING/LEARNING OF STRUCTURES
Form
Meaning
Perception and recognition of the
Comprehension of what the
Listening
spoken form of the structure
spoken structure means in context
Production of well-formed
Use of structure to convey
Speaking
examples in speech
meanings in speech
Perception and recognition of the
Comprehension of what the
Reading
written form
written structure means in context
Production of well-formed
Use of the structure to convey
Writing
examples in writing
meanings in writing
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous
3
Some teachers, and0or the course books they use, have a tendency to concentrate on
some of theses and neglect others: they may spend a lot of time on getting the forms right
and neglect to give practice in using the structure to convey meanings: or they may focus
on written exercises and fail to cover the oral aspects satisfactorily. It is important to
keep a balance, taking into account, of course, the needs of the particular class being
taught.
The organization of grammar teaching
Any generalization about the ‘best’ way to teach grammar – what kinds of teaching
procedures should be used, and in what order – will have to take into account both the
wide range of knowledge and skills that need to be taught, and the variety of different
kinds of structures subsumed under the heading ‘grammar’. Thus the organization
suggested here represents only a general framework into which a very wide variety of
teaching techniques will fit: Penny Ur suggests the following four stages:
(a) Presentation
(b) Isolation and explanation
(c) Practice (slot-fillers, transformation, translation, multiple-choice, slot-filling with
choice of answers not provided, matching)
(d) Test
Practice
What makes a language practice – or more specifically, a grammar practice – procedure
effective? There is, of course no one generalization that will answer this question, but
some of the factors that definitely contribute to successful practice are the following:
1. Pre-learning: before practice, the material has to be sufficiently perceived and
taken into short-term memory by the learners
2. Volume (sheer amount of comprehensible language that is spoken, heard, read, or
written in the course of the activity) and repetition – use of the language
3. Success-orientation: have plenty of experience of ‘doing it right’. Development
of positive self-image
4. Heterogeneity: ‘heterogeneous’ exercise may be done at various different levels.
5. Teacher assistance during practice: not correcting, not teaching the item but
supporting and assisting students in their production of acceptable responses
rather than assessing and correcting: give extra time to reread or think; repeat or
simplify a text; approve the beginning of an utterance in order to encourage
production of the whole; suggest, hint, prompt.
6. Interest: extrinsic motivation (credit points, starts, for promotion at work);
Intrinsic interest of the activity itself: topic and task.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous
4
Activities
1. The task: clear objective, active language use
2. Interest: topic, visual focus, open-endedness, information gaps, personalization,
pleasurable tension (games), entertainment, play-acting (role-play, simulation, dialogues)
3. Learner activation: reception with no overt response, reception with minimal
response, teacher-student exchanges, student-teacher exchanges, brainstorm,
chain, fluid pairs, semi-controlled small group transactions (provision of a
‘skeleton dialogue, or idea for a conversation), free group discussion
In the classroom
1.
Practical hints:
(a) long-term planning
(b) short-term preparation
(c) introduction
(d) timing
(e) pace
(f) extending activities (repeating in a different mode; repeating selectively;
recalling; editing; composing; varying)
(g) homework
(h) records (of ideas for grammar practice that have worked)
2. Getting the most out of course book exercises
Examples of activities:
1. Comparison of adjectives
a) Looking and making advertisements
b) Comparing pictures
c) Ranking
d) Preferences
2. Countable / uncountable, singular / plural nouns
(a) Remembering pairs
(b) Kim’s game
(c) Shopping (list)
3. Future tenses
(a) What will you do with it?
(b) Diaries
(c) Finding a time to meet
(d) Future of a picture
(e) Future of a film
(f) Plans for a trip
(g) How will the story end?
(h) Horoscopes
(i) The world tomorrow
(j) Predicting achievements
4. Imperatives
(a) Simon says
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous
5
(b) Directions
(c) Dos and don’ts
(d) Recipes
(e) Stances (gymnastics)
(f) Imperative symbols
(g) Proverbs
5. Is/are, there is/there are
(a) Describing pictures
(b) Finding a twin picture
6. Numbers
(a) Telephoning
(b) Address book
(c) Numbers that are important to me (dates, etc.)
(d) Exam results
(e) Getting in order
7. Past simple
(a) Listening to stories
(b) Chain story
(c) Pictures into story
(d) Putting stories in order
(e) Changes in one’s life
(f) Story behind a photo
(g) What really happened
(h) Cooperative story
What about grammatical terminology
Grammatical terminology has long been the bugbear of foreign language teachers. Even
switching from traditional terms to those used by any of the several competing systems of
contemporary grammatically study does not seem to solve the problem. Students learn
new terms and a schematic apparatus readily enough without coming to grips with the
concepts they represent.
Ultimately, foreign language teachers must take the responsibility themselves for
teaching the student as much, or as little, abstract grammar as seems to be needed by each
particular group for the specific language they are learning. Teachers must feel free to
adapt or invent terminology which they find helps their students grasp the concepts and
use the language effectively.
Notes based on:
Ur Penny (1994). Grammar Practice Activities: A practical guide for teachers
Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers
Rivers W. M. (1975). A Practical Guide to the teaching of English Oxford University
Press
Allen, E. D. and Vallette, R. M.(1977). Classroom Techniques: Foreign languages and
English as a Second Language. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous