Teaching Grammar

Teaching Grammar Prepared by: Dr. Adel Abdulkhaliq

Teaching Grammar Aims of the Lecture: 1. What is grammar? 2. What is structure? 3. The role of grammar in ELT

Teaching Grammar Aims of the Lecture: 4. Grammar presentation methods a. Deductive method and b. Inductive method

Teaching Grammar Aims of the Lecture: 5. Presenting Structures By showing Meaning Form & Use 6. Grammar practice a. Mechanical Practice and b. Meaningful Practice

Teaching Grammar • What is grammar? Historically, grammar has been considered to be

Teaching Grammar Grammar is sometimes defined as ‘ the way words are put together to make correct sentences’. Structure is a specific instance of grammar. E.g.: Past tense, noun plurals, the comparison of adjectives

Teaching Grammar Teaching Grammar means enabling language students to use linguistic forms accurately, meaningfully, appropriately

7.1 The role of grammar in ELT • The value of grammar in foreign language teaching has been a focus of debate for decades, and no conclusion is in sight. • The answer to whether grammar should be taught and to what extent grammar should be taught depends on different insights of the ELT methods

It is generally believed that • Grammar teaching is less important for children than for adults; • Grammar teaching is less important in listening and reading than in writing.

Grammar teaching can be seen in most formal classroom language teaching.

Grammar Presentation Methods • The deductive method • The inductive method • The guided discovery method • Teaching grammar using listening as input • The synthesis approach

The deductive Method • The deductive method relies on reasoning, analysing and comparing. Presentation of an example → explanation (comparison may be done between the target language and the native language) → Students’ practice (producing sentences) with given prompts

The deductive Method • Deductive– teaching through rules (the rule is provided followed by the provision of examples in which the rule is applied).

The deductive method is criticized because: • Grammar is taught in an isolated way; • Little attention is paid to meaning; • The practice is often mechanical.

However, the deductive method is not without merits. • It could be very successful with selected and motivated students. • It could save time when students are confronted with a grammar rule which is complex but which has to be learned. • It may help to increase student’ confidence in those examinations which are written with accuracy as the main criterion of success.

The inductive method • In the inductive method, the teacher induces the learners to realise grammar rules without any form of explicit explanation. • It is believed that the rules will become evident if the students are given enough appropriate examples.

The inductive method • Inductive– teaching through examples (students are provided with several examples from which a rule is inferred).

Presenting Structure • WHEN we present structures we focus on: • Form How is it formed? • Meaning What does it mean? • Use When/why is it use?

Presenting Structure • Examples • Form of possessive 1. Forming possessive in English requires inflecting regular singular nouns (boy- boy’s) and irregular plural nouns not ending in s with s’ (man- men’s books) or by adding apostrophe after the s’ ending with regular singular nouns actress’s bag , Lois’s pen ( and singular noun ending in the sound /s/. Horse’s leg

Presenting Structure • Examples • This form of possessive has three allomorphs • Meaning of possessive S’ • Meaning of possession , relationship, part/ whole and origin

Presenting Structure English_Grammar_for_ESL_Learners.pdf –p. 95

Presenting Structure • Examples • Use of possessive • When the s’ is used to express possession as opposed to other structures that can be used to convey the same meaning e.ghis or her leg possessive determiner Or by periphrastic of the form

Presenting Structure Other Examples • Present perfect • Present progressive

Grammar practice • According to Ur, “practice may be defined as any kind of engaging with the language on the part of the learner, usually under the teacher supervision, whose primary objective is to consolidate learning” .(Ur, 1988, p.108)

Ur (1988) predicts that the following 6 factors contribute to successful practice: • Pre-learning. Learners benefit from clear perception and short-term memory of the new language. • Volume and repetition. The more exposureto or productionof language the learners have, the more likely they are to learn. • Success-orientation. Practice is most effective when based on successful practice.

In Practice, teacher should be able to elicit different sentencesand generate different levels of answersfrom different learners. • Teacher assistance. The teacher should providesuggestions, hints and prompts. • Interest : an essential feature that is closely related to concentration

Two categories of practice:Mechanical practice and meaningful practice

Mechanical practice Mechanical practice involves activities that are aimed at forming accuracy. E.g. • Repetition drills • Substitution drills : • Transformation drills:

Substitute the underlined part with the proper forms of the given words: green lawn clean house pretty garden nice flowers Mrs Green has the largest housein town.

Change the following sentences into the past tense. Use the adverbs given in the brackets. • Now he lives in London. (last year, Paris) • We have English and maths today. (yesterday, music and biology) • He usually gets up at seven. (this morning, eight)

Questions for discussion • What is the purpose of mechanical practice? • What are the advantages and disadvantage of mechanical practice?

Meaningful practice • In meaningful practice the focus is on the production, comprehension or exchange of meaning, though the students “keep an eye on”the way newly learned structures are used in the process. e.g. After the presentation and mechanical practice of adjective comparatives and superlatives:

Pair work: Look at the table below. Rank the items on the left column according to the criteria listed on the top.

The students may come up with: • I think beer is cheaper than fruit. • No, no, I think fruit is cheaper than beer.

Questions for discussion • What are the advantages of meaningful practice? • Does it have any possible disadvantages?

A teaching practice task for you • Suppose you have just presented the simple past tense to a group of students. Design a mechanical practice activity and a meaningful practice activity. Write out the steps and give a mini demonstration in your practice group.

Using prompts for practice Practice based on prompts isusually meaningful practice. • Usingpictureprompts • Usingmime or gesturesas prompts • Usinginformation sheetas prompts • Usingkey phrase or key wordsas prompts • Usingchained phrasesfor story telling • Usingcreated situations

Using information sheet as prompts Teacher:What about you? Tell your neighbour.

Adopted activity for using information sheet as prompts Table for S1 Table for S2

Using created situations • Your are a stranger in this town. You want to buy some fruit, you want to post a letter, and you also want to see a movie at night. Ask about the places.

There was a robbery yesterday in the neighbourhood. A policeman is asking some questions to three of the neighbours, A, B, and C. A: at work; came back at 6:30 p.m.; did not see anybody. B: a student; came back at 4:30 p.m.; saw a young man going upstairs… C: an old man; stayed at home; heard some strange noise at 5:00 p.m.; came out to find a tall young man…

Summary of Unit 7 • Perhaps there will never be a solution to the debate on the value of teaching grammar, because language teaching and learning contexts varyso greatly. • It should be noted that learning grammar itself is not the ultimate goalof learning English. • The understanding of how to teach grammaris as controversial as that of the value of teaching grammar. • We believe that both mechanical practicemeaningful practiceare necessary.and

Some suggestions about teaching grammar • Teach only those rules that are simple and typical. • Teachuseful and importantgrammar points. • Teach grammar in context. • Usevisible instrumentssuch as charts, tables, diagrams, maps, drawings, and realia (pl. of realis) to aid understanding; • Avoid difficult grammatical terminologies as much as possible. • Allow enough opportunitiesfor practice. • Live with the students’ mistakes and errors.

Grammar lesson • Marianne Celce-Murcia, Sharon Hilles - Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar.pdf p. 20

Homework • What are the major types of grammar presentation methods? • What are the major types of grammar practice activities?

Teaching Grammar