Teaching English Grammar
Education 453:10
How much do you remember?
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Were you ever taught
the rules of grammar?
(Rate yourself using a
Likert scale from one to
ten on your knowledge
of English grammar.)
Learning/teaching grammar in context….
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“Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I
know about grammar is its power.”
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Joan Didion
“Second language learners want to learn
language as it is really used – in both formal
and informal settings, and in speech and
writing – by native speakers of English.”
- Coelho
Why is it important to know grammar?
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“I never made a mistake in grammar but one
in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.”
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Carl Sandburg
1) to assess and remediate the errors and error
patterns of second-language learners.
2) the points of grammar can be used as the
basis for teaching sentence structure and
vocabulary.
What is grammar?
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“It is well to remember that grammar is
common speech formulated”
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Somerset Maugham
Grammar refers to the language patterns that
indicate relationships among words in sentences.
Grammar includes….
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Grammar is not a time of waste”
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Nancy Cartwright
Morphology – the study of word structure
Syntax – the study of word combinations or
sentence structure
The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that
catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he
sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey
wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and
through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!‘
He chortled in his joy.
Repeat first verse.
Morphology explained
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Derivational
morphemes – prefixes
or suffixes that are
added to root words to
form new words
Inflectional
morphemes – provide
grammatical
information about
gender, number,
person, case, degree,
and verb form
Aspects of morphology that cause second
language learner’s difficulty (pages 69-73)
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Gender
Number (plurals, count and non-count
nouns)
Person (subject-verb agreement)
Case (subjective, objective, possessive)
Degree (comparative, superlative)
Verb forms (tense, active/passive)
Syntax explained
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Syntax refers to the
way words are
organized in sentences
to create meaning
OR to sound like an
educated and intelligent
speaker in any
language
Some aspects of syntax that cause second
language learners difficulty (pages 73-86)
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Word order (rigid, important in English)
Determiners (articles, this, that, these, those, my,
your, his, her, its, our, their, some, any)
Verb system (lexical/main, auxiliary, modal)
Linking verbs (transitive/intransitve)
Passive voice
Questions/tag questions/negative questions
Negative statements
Phrasal verbs
Infinitives and gerunds
Some aspects of syntax that cause second
language learners difficulty (pages 73-86)
Sentence Types: simple, compound, complex..
Parts of Speech
 Indirect speech
 Pronoun reference
 Literary style
 Embedding
 Subordination (coordinate conjunctions)
 Conditional sentences
 Long noun groups
 Condensed syntax
How can we teach grammar?
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Research indicates teaching grammar in
isolation does not transfer into real
communication
Grammar is best taught/practiced in
communicative contexts
Supportive feedback is more helpful than
overt correction
Students may need many opportunities to
hear, read, practice a new structure before
they internalize or produce it– months, years
Specific strategies to use
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Use materials and plan activities that feature
repeated language patterns
Use the content of lessons to introduce
grammar concepts
Provide learners with the tools they need to
talk about language
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Sentence Building
Take a long-term view