TEACHING GRAMMAR

TRAN QUOC THAO, PHD

3.1 Background to teaching grammar
3.1.1 Importance of teaching grammar

• Communicate clearly, meaningfully and

appropriately.

• Use the language accurately.

• Avoid ambiguity in using grammar.

• Learn grammar more efficiently and

systematically.

• Master other language skills effectively.

• Self-correct and reduce their mistakes.

3.1 Background to teaching grammar
3.1.2 Factors affecting the grammar teaching
3.1 Background to teaching grammar
3.1.3 When to teach grammar
3.1 Background to teaching grammar
3.1.4 Aspects of teaching grammar
3.1 Background to teaching grammar
3.1.4 Aspects of teaching grammar
3.1 Background to teaching grammar
3.2 Principles of teaching grammar
1. Teach rules that are simple and that do not have too many
exceptions.

2. Do not spend too much time on grammar points that do not

appear very useful or important. Just make the students aware of
the special features.

3. Wherever possible, teach grammar in context.

4. When presenting grammar, try to use charts, tables, diagrams,

maps, drawing and realia to aid understanding.
3.2 Principles of Teaching Grammar
5. Avoid difficult grammatical terminology as much as
possible.

6. Allow enough opportunities for practice.

7. Do not be frustrated by the students’ mistakes and errors that

are inevitable in language learning.
3.3 Approaches to teaching grammar
Covert grammar teaching
Students get involved in using the
structure without paying attention
to grammatical rules.
Approaches: Students’ attention is on
the activity and not grammatical
rules but they have opportunities to
practice. (learn grammatical rules
through activities)
Activities: information gap; reading a
text in which new grammar is
introduced and practiced.
Overt grammar teaching
The teacher explicitly explains
the rules when presenting
new language (grammatical
rules are provided and
explained.
Approaches: Deductive vs.
inductive approaches.
Activities: choose correct words,
word transformation; use the
correct forms of verbs
3.3 Approaches to teaching grammar
Deductive grammar teaching approach
The teacher starts with the presentation of
the rules of a grammar point, and then s/he
gives examples in which the rules are used
(From rules to examples).
Inductive grammar teaching
approach
The teacher starts with examples
from which s/he can draw up the
rules of a grammar point (From
examples to rules).
3.3 Approaches to teaching grammar
Deductive grammar teaching approach
3.3 Approaches to teaching grammar
Types of English grammar
Prescriptive grammar
It is what speakers should or should not say. It prescribes a strict set of
rules for language.
E.g., The instructions are clear.
Descriptive grammar
It is what speakers say, and when, why and how they say it. It describes
spoken language used by native speakers.
E.g., I don’t have nothing.

I want to go to school. # I wanna go to school.

Fluency vs. Accuracy

Which should we focus on when teaching

grammar?
3.4 Procedure for teaching grammar
3.4 Procedure for teaching grammar
3.5 Techniques and activities for teaching grammar
3.5.1 Techniques and activities for presenting grammar

The common techniques and activities for presenting grammar are Using realia,
pictures, songs, Situation, Authentic text, Reading, Timeline, Direct explanation,
Tables and so on.
3.5.1 Techniques and activities for presenting grammar
 Reading
Description: This activity is to help learners to focus on
the grammar point from a given reading text.
Level: All levels
Instruction: The teacher can choose a piece of a reading
from a coursebook to present the grammar. Some steps
can be as follows:
 Step 1: The teacher asks learners to read the
conversation.
 Step 2: The teacher highlights the grammar point(s)
that s/he wants to present, then explains.
 Step 3: The teacher can give some examples using the
presented grammar point(s).
3.5.1 Techniques and activities for presenting grammar
 Pictures

Description: This activity is to help learners to visualize

the presented grammar point(s).

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher shows the pictures depicting

the grammar point(s). S/he can compare the differences
in the pictures, explaining the grammar, and give
examples using the presented grammar point(s).
3.5.1 Techniques and activities for presenting grammar
3.5.1 Techniques and activities for presenting grammar
 Using tables

Description: This activity is to help learners to see the

presented grammar point(s) in different forms.

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher shows the table depicting the

grammar point(s). S/he can highlight the differences,
explaining the grammar, and give examples using the
presented grammar point(s).
3.5.1 Techniques and activities for presenting grammar
3.5.1 Techniques and activities for presenting grammar
3.5.2 Techniques and activities for practicing grammar
 Gap fill

Description: This activity is to help learners to practice

the learned grammar point(s). Learner have to make
meaningful sentences by filling the blanks with an
appropriate word(s) or phrase(s).

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher explains how to do the exercise
and then asks learners to practice the exercise in
pairs/groups or individually.
3.5.2 Techniques and activities for practicing grammar
 Sentence building

Description: This activity is to help learners to practice

the learned grammar point(s). Learners have to make
meaningful sentences based on the prompts.

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher explains how to do the exercise

and then asks learners to practice the exercise in
pairs/groups or individually.
3.5.2 Techniques and activities for practicing grammar
 Sentence matching

Description: This activity is to help learners to practice the

learned grammar point(s). Learners have to make
meaningful sentences by matching two halves of a sentence
or learners have to match sentences to the correct pictures.

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher explains how to do the exercise

and then asks learners to practice the exercise in
pairs/groups or individually.
3.5.2 Techniques and activities for practicing grammar
3.5.2 Techniques and activities for producing grammar
 Picture differences

Description: This activity is to help learners to the

learned grammar point(s). Learners have to
describing the differences in different pictures.

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher explains how to do the

exercise and then asks learners to practice the
exercise in pairs or groups so that they can use the
grammar point(s) fluently.
3.5.2 Techniques and activities for producing grammar
 Information gaps

Description: This activity is to help learners to the

learned grammar point(s). Learners have to ask and
answer the questions to complete the information.

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher explains how to do the exercise
and then asks learners to practice the exercise in pairs
or groups.
3.5.2 Techniques and activities for producing grammar
 Haiku poem

Description: This activity is to help learners to use the

learned grammar point(s). Learners have to write a
three-line poem. The first and last lines of a Haiku have
5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. There is
one or more than one verse.

Level: All levels

Instruction: The teacher explains how to do the exercise
and then asks learners to practice the exercise in
pairs/groups or individually.
Demonstration
Discussion

What techniques do you often use to

introduce grammar to your students?
Actitivies for teaching grammar
• Slap the board  Timeline
• Flap books  Operate the sentences
• Hangman  Bingo
• Hotseat  Acrostics
• I went to the market,  Box of words
and I bought….  Spot the differences
• Run to the board
• Chair game
‘I Went to the Market and I Bought....’

Can be used as a category game, if you’ve been

learning clothes, or foods etc.
The first student starts off,
Then it goes round the class, with each student
having to remember all the others’ answers.
This can be varied. ‘I went to the zoo and I saw a ...’
or with verbs ‘I went on holiday and I ... played on
the beach.’ etc
Flap books
 They are useful to work grammatical structures such as Subject+ Verb+
Complement.
 It consists on an amount of strips stapled together that can be combined
between them.

Subject I He She It We

Verb play sings makes has make

Complement basketball a song a drawing a car a cake

Flap books
Hangman

It makes a great starter activity and can be used at

any level –
E.g. for beginners – classroom objects.
For more advanced students, key words in any
subject area.
Just write on the board, with students taking a turn,
or use a generator.
Hotseat

There are many variations on this activity.

 Put one student ‘in role’ – he has to be a character in a
book/film you’ve studied
 and the rest of the class prepare questions to ask.
 You could: Make question cards with the wh- question
words and give them out.
 The students have to make questions with the word they are
given.
 Or, allot ‘tense cards’ – past simple questions with did,
present with do or does and future with will.
Run to the board

Divide the board into two halves, and divide the class into two teams.
Call out a theme or category for learned vocabulary words and have
students run to the board and write as many related words as
possible.
For example, you might call out something like, “Irregular verbs” and
one student from each team must run up to the board and write as
many irregular verbs as possible. This game gets students thinking
quickly and creatively.
Chair game

Form a circle with chairs.

Number of chairs equal to students’ number.
All the students sit except the teacher.
He writes a sentence in the blackboard as an example:
Yesterday I watched TV. He explains the children to listen to
the sentences.
If they watched TV yesterday, they must change their chair.
If not, they must not move. The teacher plays with the
children, and then the after the teacher’s turn the students
begin to tell their sentences.
Timeline

 Draw three time zones on your line – Past / Now / Future.

 students take turns to come out.
 Read out a sentence, e.g. ‘He saw his friend last month.’
 The student has to position himself on the line /in the zone
he thinks appropriate.
 This is a great kinaesthetic way to practise tenses and
expressions of time
Operate the sentences
Bingo

 The teacher can give students the grid with the different
drawings or can give them the grid where students have to draw
six-nine pictures from some that the teacher shows them.
 The teacher puts the pictures in a box and mixes them. He or she
pulls out one and shows it to the children, saying: “This is a
bicycle”.
 Children who have the drawing cover the space with a counter.
The fist child to cover all the spaces on his/her grid wins and he
or she can become the caller.
Acrostics

 Students are given a topic, e.g., English.

 The students have to write down sentences as many words as they can
beginning with each letter that is relevant to the topic. The sentences must
contain at least one word about the grammar they are learning.

T-Tell your friends to read

O – Order your food
P
I
c
Box of words
 Get a bag or a box and put lots of words on pieces of paper in it.
 Go round the class – each student has to take a word and mak e a
sentence out of it.
 If you like, you can write each student’s sentence on the board.
 Then, the others can correct the sentences and/or make
suggestions for improvement.
 This can be used to practise basic English with beginners, or with
key words or new vocabulary for more advanced classes.
 Or, if you’ve been studying a reading or a peom, your words can
be based on that.

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Spot the differences

 Give two pictures and ask the students to make comparisons between

them.

 E.g. Harry Potter and Gandalph, Mona Lisa and Medusa, 2 famous

sportsmen or women, someone from the distant past and someone from

the present.
Word Jumble Race
• It is perfect for practicing tenses, word order, reading & writing
skills and grammar.
• Why use it? Grammar; Word Order; Spelling; Writing Skills

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• Who it's best for: Adaptable to all levels/ages
Word Jumble Race
• How to play:
• This game requires some planning before the lesson.
• Write out a number of sentences, using different colors for each

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sentence. I suggest having 3-5 sentences for each team.
• Cut up the sentences so you have a handful of words.
• Put each sentence into hats, cups or any objects you can find, keeping
each separate.
• Split your class into teams of 2, 3, or 4. You can have as many teams as
you want but remember to have enough sentences to go around.
• Teams must now put their sentences in the correct order.
• The winning team is the first team to have all sentences correctly
ordered.
Discussion
1. Should the learners learn grammar implicitly or explicitly? Why?

2. Under what circumstances should learners learn grammar best? Explain.

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3. What are the differences between cover grammar teaching and over grammar
teaching?

4. Which should the grammar teaching focus on? Accuracy, fluency or both?
Why?
Class observation
Homework
Read Unit 3

Prepare for Unit 4

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Practice teaching Grammar