What is the reaction of the students when they start dealing with any grammatical structure? Why is there a tedious sensation in the air when they just hear the name of any grammatical tense? Is it possible to teach grammar in a more captivating way? Can students deal with long and boring formulas ? Do teachers promote an inductive or deductive approach to teaching grammar?
When teachers think about dealing with certain grammatical tense or structure it is impossible not to think about formulas. In a teacher-fronted setting, teachers are likely to give learners ready-made rules.Thus,they provide students with grammatical terminology which is followed by examples and controlled practice.If we consider learning styles, the analytic students will be in their element. But what about the others? Let´s think of children who are not cognitively prepared to such an analysis or learners who feel demotivated , discouraged or simply tired. Making students involved in a “learning by doing” process can help them become less passive and more motivated in class. Let´s take a look at Stern´s explanation of deductive and inductive sequences:
deductive approach: General rule ? Specific examples ? Practice
inductive approach: Specific examples ? Practice ? General rule
Figure 1: The deductive and inductive approaches (modified after Stern 1992:150)
Grammar can be motivating and fun! The secret lies in the way it is approached.Let´s not forget that grammar has “meaning”.We can make it more meaningful by presenting structures combined with a series of short activities , by using internet , visuals or any ICT tool that might suit our teaching context.Thus, a boring “verb class” can turn out to be an interactive and motivating one.
Pros
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Students feel more motivated
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·Students can assimilate the most important aspects of the topic
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Students learn by elicitation and discovery
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Students are able to use and understand the structure immediately
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Students have an active participation in the class
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Students avoid memorizing unimportant formulas
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Students learn how to discriminate information
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Students have an immediate feedback of their learning with internet pages.
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·Students become more interested as internet offers a myriad of possibilities
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·Internet grammar exercises make students more responsible of their own learning
Cons
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Some students that prefer the formal and more lineal style of teaching grammar could feel shocked or simply isolated. But once they adapt to this new approach they will feel more connected with the class and the activities.
Some useful tips when teaching grammar
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First , consider the approach to deal with any grammatical structure.
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If you teach grammar implicitly, give varied authentic examples and clues about the topic(s).
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Present structures using life-like situations that can help accomplish this goal.
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Include technology to present the structure. The use of an introductory video,images or power point presentations to catch our students’ attention.
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Make students involved in consciousness-raising tasks that help them discover rules ,their importance and use.
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Focus on student-centered tasks
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Recycle the same pattern using different activities. Remember, learning styles are varied!
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The following video shows the parallel between induction and deduction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8xxtygm_xM
Power point presentations are also a good choice not only to introduce a grammatical topic but also to deal with it because they give the possibility of including videos, images and the inclusion of colours, shapes and animations can make a more attractive class.
Click on these links and you will find very useful power point presentations:
The second strong aspect of our proposal is the combination of short but catching activities combined with follow-up practice using web pages. Here you have some examples:
Ø Dealing with adjectives.
· Students and you suggest adjective-noun phrases. Write adjectives on the left hand side of the board & nouns on the right. The amount will depend on the level/time you have. Get the class to combine them. You can do it in groups or on the board.
· A black cat
· An expert doctor
· A brilliant student
· A rainy day
Ø Dealing with comparatives.
· Present the class with two nouns such as elephant & pencil, flower & teacher, etc.
· Elicit: A pencil is thinner than an elephant
· Or: an elephant is noisy and a pen is silent
· Or both: an elephant and a pen can be grey.
· If you have more time, elicit nouns from the students and put them on the board, ask them to pair them.
Ø Dealing with superlatives.
? Give or ask students to suggest a group of six or seven items linked to a common subject area.
? Example: famous people (singer, football player, film-star, musician, president, car racer)
? Brainstorm words related to each one of the items.
? In groups they try to define the .. Most… or …est…
Finally the use of web pages to solve short quizzes and play online. Grammar games can be perfect for the main corpus of the class instead of copying exercises on the white board or elaborating worksheets which is difficult in these times when the teaching activity is time consuming. Here you will find some web pages including power point presentations, exercises and grammar games:
http://www.marks-english-school.com/games.html
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-games
http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/
References
Ellis,R. (2002).”Grammar Teaching-Practice or Consciousness-Raising?” in Richards,J &Renandya,W. (2002) Methodology in Language Teaching.New York: Cambridge University Press ,chapter 15, pp167-174.
Walter, Catherine.Teaching grammar inductively.
Link to webpage:http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/planning-a-grammar-lesson
(Read: Sept 22 ,2011)
Authors: Paola Fanta
Rodrigo López Brassea