How to teach grammar?

1. How to teach grammarHow to teach grammar
Hamidreza Ghobadirad
Ph.D Candidate
2018

3. What should be taught?What should be taught?
A 3-D Grammar FrameworkA 3-D Grammar Framework
form/structure
use/pragmatics
meaning/semantics
From: Larsen-Freeman, D. (2001). Teaching Grammar. (pp. 251-266).
In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.
(3rd Edition). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
How is it formed? What does it mean?
When/Why is it used?

4.  Form: Each tense has a particular structure.
---- had + p.p. --------
 Ali had done his HW before he watched TV.
 Meaning: Each tense communicates an idea.
 Two things happened: Ali did his HW first, watched
TV second.
 Use: Each tense has a purpose.
 The past perfect clarifies chronological order.
 Context synthesizes form, meaning and use.

5. General format of teaching
grammar

10. How to correct the errors?
♪Correct all mistakes in practice phase
♪Correct some mistakes in production
phase
♪Write the common mistakes on the
board and highlight them

11. Ways to Provide feedback
 Giving explicit rules
 Recasting
 Self-correcting
 Peer-correcting
 Collecting students’ errors,
identifying the prototypical ones, &
dealing with them collectively in
class as an anonymous fashion.

12. Context in grammar
 Grammar can be introduced in a set of
stimulating, effective contexts.
 Some video clips, cartoons, songs,
etc. may be excellent examples of
introducing grammar in context.
 However, they may contain
inappropriate or cultural sensitive
images or notions. So be careful with
your choice.

13. Types of context
• Pictures / Charts / Graphs
• Video / Audio
 Stories / Personal Questions
 Problems / Situations
 Realia
 Real-life tasks Readings
 Dialogue / Role play

14. There are many approaches to teaching
grammar. The most common ones are:
A. Deductive Approach
B. Inductive Approach

16. DeductionDeductionDeductionD
eductionDeductionDeductionDed
uctionDeduction
 A deductive approach starts with the
presentation of a rule and is followed by
examples in which the rule is applied.
 The grammar rule is presented and the
learner engages with it through the
study and mechanical manipulation of
examples.

17. Effective Rule Presentation
Rules are short.
Rules are illustrated by examples.
Ss’ understanding should be checked.
Ss. should have an opportunity to
personalize the rule.

18.  In an inductive approach learners work
out the rules from the context.
 Rules are learnt implicitly.

19. What to do with grammar?

20. Teaching form
 20 questions (questions)
 family portraits (possessives)
 describing a person or a place by using
relative clauses
 information gap activity (practice
different forms/patterns)
 sentence-unscrambling task
(a problem-solving activity)

21. Teaching Meaning
Making association between form and meaning
 realia and pictures (comparative forms)
 actions
–TPR (imperative form)
–matching: phrase-meaning association
(phrasal verbs)
–story telling with action (phrasal verbs)

22. Teaching Use
 Role plays in different social contexts
– Example 1: giving advice
• Giving advice to friends
• Giving advice to young kids
– Example 2: past tense vs. present perfect
• Job interview
 Linguistic discourse context
– Teaching passive voices: focus on issues rather
than agents
• a text completion task

23. How should grammar be taught?
Accuracy vs. Fluency
Striking a Balance
from Cognitive Approach to
Communicative Approach
Important features
Sequencing
Providing Feedback
General Guidelines
Conclusion

24. Accuracy vs. Fluency
Form-focused Meaning-focused
Grammar translation Direct method
Features of patterns
and grammar points
Interactive/group work
(comprehension input)
Cognitive-code
approach
Communicative
approach
Develop explicit
knowledge (know what)
Develop implicit
knowledge (know how)
accuracy fluency

25. How to strike a balance
 Fluency requires practice in which students
use the target language point meaningfully
while keeping the declarative knowledge in
working memory.
 Meaningful practice of form:
– Students have to receive feedback on the
accuracy.
– Concentrate on one or two new forms at a time.
Repeated noticing and continued awareness
of the language feature is important.

26. From Cognitive Approach to
Communicative Practice
1. Explicit formal instruction
2. Structured-based communicative task
3. Practice and production exercises
4. Subsequent communicative exposure
to the grammar point

27. Important features
 consciousness raising
– either through teacher instruction (a
deductive method)
– or by their own discovery learning (an
inductive method)
 examples of the structure in
communicative input
 opportunities to produce correct
grammar points

28. Sequencing
 A grammar checklist
 Not following a prescribed sequence
rigidly
 Many structures would arise naturally in
the course working on the tasks and
content and would be dealt with then.

29. General Principles for Grammar
Teaching
 little and often (recycle and revisit)
 planned and systematic
 offering learners a range of opportunities
 Involving acceptance of classroom code
switching and mother tongue
 text-based, problem-solving grammar
activities
 active corrective feedback and elicitation
 supported in meaning-oriented activities and
tasks

30. Conclusion
 By thinking of grammar as a skill to be mastered,
rather than a set of rules to be memorized, we’ll be
helping students go a long way toward the goal of
being able to accurately convey meaning in an
appropriate manner.
 When the psychological conditions of learning
and application are matched, what has been
learned is more likely to be transfer. Therefore,
presenting rules and forms in the context of
communicative interaction is necessary.

31. Effective teaching grammar
Tips to be an effective grammar teacher:
Do some research to have a clear idea about
the grammar points you are teaching.
Use Guided discovery to show the patterns of
language. Teach from the context to the
grammar rule rather from the rule alone.
Extend the topic into Ss’ personal
experiences.