Teaching Grammar

Communicatively

Marla Yoshida

htt teachesl.bworks.co
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-3’ Teaching Grammar
Review: What does CLT mean?
In CLT, we teach lessons that are

student-centered.
b. teacher-centered.
 In a CLT lesson, the teacher should
a. create opportunities for students to use English
actively to express their own ideas.
b. create context for language use put language
into situations where it might be used.
use scaffolding techniques actions, gestures,
pictures, etc. to help students understand.
d. not worry too much if students
sometimes make mistakes, as long as
they’re learning.
e. all of the above.
Doesn’t CLT mean that we
shouldn’t teach grammar?
• No! Grammar and CLT can go hand-in-
hand. We can teach grammar effectively
using a common-sense communicative
framework.
How do students learn
grammar? They need:

Explanations
Demonstrations Practice:
Examples Quantity
Quality
To teach grammar well, we have to:

• Get students to notice and understand

the new grammar and how it works.
(Input)
° Give students lots of high-quality practice
until they can use the grammar well. (Output).
 Teaching grammar is like teaching
someone to play tennis.
• It’s not enough to learn the rules.
It’s not enough to watch how-to
videos.
• It’s not enough to practice hitting the
ball
against a wall.
• You have to really play
the game, even if you
make lots of mistakes at
first.
Practice step by step.

Your students’ first

tennis game should
not be against this
opponent....
An effective sequence for teaching
grammar:
1. Introduce the new grammar:
• Show the meaning and use of the form.
• Keep explanations simple, clear, and brief.

2. Practice the new grammar:

Group guided practice as a class
Guided practice activities (lots of these!) leading from more
controlled to more independent activities
Independent practice activities
• Games with a learning purpose
1. Introducing a new grammar
point: You can do it in English!
• When you explain grammar in English,
it should not be just a translation of what
you would say in your native language.
° Use less metalanguage.
° Show, don’ I just tell.
Don’t explain too much at one time.
Explain
Explain Explain
B. Explain Explain Explain E
Explain
Practice
Explain

Practice
produces more effective learning than...

Explain

Practice
Practice
Cognitive
overload!
A good motto for introducing
grammar:

K.I . S. S.
Keep itshort and simple.
Some ways to introduce grammar...
• Explain the rule simply, clearly, and briefly.
• Listen and do, act it out, mime, show the
meaning. If you canyt do something easily
in class, use pictures or videos.
• Use dialogs, tell stories, or talk about
an imaginary situation.
Explain: Yes/no questions, present tense

If the verb is “be”:

Find the subject and verb. Switch.

Subjec† Verb

Deductive: Rule -3’ Examples

Practice: Yes/no questions, present tense

Make yes/no questions:

° Candy is sweet.
• Dogs are intelligent.
• We are brilliant.
Explain: Yes/no questions, present tense

If the verb is “be,” how do we make

questions?
• Candy is sweet. -3’ Is candy sweet?
° Dogs are intelligent.4 Are dogs intelligent?
° We are brilliant.4 Are we brilliant?
Inductive: Examples -3’ Rule
 Listen and do, act it out, or mime.
Linguam Latinam studemus.
Puer

Elephantus — ,g

Pila

Ambulas? Ambulo Elephantus ambulat? Ambulat.

Pila ambulat? Non
ambulat.
Non ambulo. Puer ambulat? Non ambulat.
Dialogs and stories
A: I’m so hungry! And it’s only 10:00.
B: Why are you so hungry? What did you have for
breakfast? A: Nothing. I didn’t eat breakfast this morning.
B: Oh, you should have eaten breakfast. Why didn’t
you? A: I didn’t have time! I got up too late.
B: Well, you should have gotten up earlier. Why didn’t
you? A: My alarm clock is broken.
B: You should have used your cell phone to wake you
up. A: But I lost my cell phone yesterday.
B: Oh no! You shouldn’t have lost it. What
happened? A: I set it on the table at In-N-Out,
and I forgot it.
B: You shouldn’t have left it there!
A: Yes, I know. I should have done a lot of things, but it’s too late now.
Dialogs and stories
A: I’m so hungry! And it’s only 10:00.
B: Why are you so hungry? What did you have for
breakfast? A: Nothing. I didn’t eat breakfast this morning.
B: Oh, you should have eaten breakfast. Why didn’t
you? A: I didn’t have time! I got up too late.
B: Well, you should have gotten up earlier. Why didn’t
you? A: My alarm clock is broken.
B: You should have used your cell phone to wake you
up. A: But I lost my cell phone yesterday.
B: Oh no! You shouldn’t have lost it. What happened?
A: I forgot it at In-N-Out, and when I came back, it was
gone. B: You shouldn’t have left it there!
A: Yes, I know. I should have done a lot of things, but it’s too late now.
Use realia and pictures

Pictui’e fi’om Run with Grammar by Suzanne Woodward. Prentice Hall, l99fi.
A good grammar lesson is like a good
meal.
° Before you cook a meal for guests, you
have to do a lot of preparation.
° When it’s time to eat, the guests smell
the delicious food. They’re interested.
What’s for dinner?
° We need to keep the parts of the meal in
good proportion.
A good grammar lesson is like a good
meal.

Introduction of
the new grammar
ot to ch!)

Practice activities
What if the parts are not in good proportion?

(If you eat too many chips, you won’t have room for
your real meal and you might
still eat a lot of dessert!)
Practicing the new grammar
• Use plenty of practice activities!
• Emphasize productive practice. (Students
produce language on their own, they
don’t just listen to a lecture.)
• Create context. Make the language come
alive!
Fill in the blanks with words that make sense.

1. This is a We use it 1or

2. This is a

3. This is a My mother uses it for

4. This is a I use it for

5. This is a I’m going to use it for

6. This is a You can use it for

Guessing and problem solving
With a partner, look at two
objects. Guess what we use these
things for. Write sentences like
this:

I think we use it for ing.

Imagine that your students are about to
study comparative adjectives for the first
time. (Bill is older than Tom. Kittens are
cuter than spiders.)
Brainstorm about how you could
introduce and practice the use of these
forms.
Questions?
Some ways to practice grammar
Group guided practice as a class:
• Questions and answers
...between teacher and students
...between students and students
• Instructions using the grammar point
• Descriptions using the grammar point
• Chain questions
Some ways to practice grammar
Guided practice (very simple at first):
• Fill-in-the-blank exercises
• Change sentences from one form
to another
• Other very simple exercises spoken or
written
Some ways to practice grammar
Guided practice (becoming more challenging):
• Questions & answers about objects
• Writing sentences about pictures
• Changing a model dialog to fit students’
chosen meaning
• Information gaps or jigsaws
• Other activities requiring more thought
Some ways to practice grammar
Independent practice:
• Role plays
• Telling about pictures, other visual prompts
• Writing stories, dialogs, poems, etc.
• Discussions
• Problem solving
• Sequencing, ranking, classifying
Some ways to practice grammar
Independent practice:
• Creating games and puzzles for classmates
to try
• Other activities requiring creative,
independent language use
• Games that provide good, solid
language practice
 Linguam Latinam studemus.
Ambulo.
Ambulamus. pila
Puella ambulat.
Puer ambulat. puella puer
Non ambulo.
Pila non ambulat.

Puella pilam iactat.

Puer pilam iactat.
Pilam iacto.
Pilam iactamus.

ambulo iacto, iactare capto, captare porto studeo, studere ad puellam ad

puerum discipuIus/—um discipuIa/—am