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Teaching Grammar

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8 views6 pages

Teaching Grammar

Uploaded by

Nguyen Nguyen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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TEACHING GRAMMAR

I. Principles in teaching grammar (Batsone and Ellis, 2008)

1. The given-to-new principle


WILL AND BE GOING TO

Shopping list:
Sugar
Tea
Coffee
Cheese
Biscuits
Cornflakes
Tins of beans
yogurt

Peter: I’m just going to the shops. Do you want anything?


Anne: No, I don’t think so. Oh hang on. We haven’t got any sugar left.
Peter: It’s all right. It’s on the list. I’m going to buy some.
Anne: What about bread?
Peter: Oh my goodness! I never thought about that. OK, yes, definitely, I’ll go to the
baker and I’ll buy a loaf.
(Soars and Soars, 1986, p. 24).

– Why does Peter say:


I’m going to buy some (sugar); but
I’ll go to the baker.
– What’s the difference between ‘will’ and ‘going to’ to express a future intention?

Discuss the following questions:

What is the ‘given’ and what is the ‘new’ in the above presentation stage?
What technique is used to present the new grammar feature?
What do you think learners will benefit from this activity?

2. The awareness-raising principle

DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES

a. Listen to a text about ‘a tamagtochi’ and answer questions like:


What is a tamagotchi?
What does an owner of a tamagotchi have to do?
b. The next activity is a listening cloze exercise that requires the students to listen to the
same text again, this time focusing on the use of ‘a’ and ‘the’. They are asked to complete
the text as they listen:
___ tamagochi is a computerized toy invented in Japan. The name means a cute little egg.
___ tamagochi has become very popular all around the world. The gadget hatches ___
chick. ___ chick makes a chirping sound every few minutes. ___ owner has to push
buttons to feed, play with, clean up and discipline ___ chick. If ___ owner stops caring
for the chick, it dies.

c. Read the complete story. Fill in the table.


a(n) + noun the + noun
a tamagochi the tamagochi

Answer the questions:


1. When is ‘a’ used? When is ‘the’ used?
2. Look through the story again. Study the other phrases with ‘a’ and ‘the’ (e.g. ‘a
computerized toy’; ‘the gadget’). Can you see why ‘a’ is used in some noun phrases and
‘the’ in others?

d. Read the following descriptions of other toys. Fill in the blanks with a(n) or the.
1. Tuggles is ____ cuddly pet with a leash. When you pull on ____ leash, ____ pet walks
by itself.

Answer these questions in your groups:

How is the new grammar point presented to the learners?


What is the role of activity c and d in teaching this grammar point?
What are the differences between activity c and d, in terms of purpose and learners’
awareness?

3. The real-operating conditions

Learners need the opportunity to practice language in the same conditions that apply in
real-life situations – in communication, where their primary focus is on message
conveyance rather than on linguistic accuracy
e.g., Teaching prepositions of time
Find three people you know:
- the year they were born
- the day they were born
- the time of the day they were born
Complete this table about three people
Name Year Day Time
1.
2.
3.
Tell the class about the three people you talked to.
4. Application
Study the lesson plan below and explain where you see the three-mentioned
principles in action:

MODAL VERBS TO EXPRESS DEGREES OF POSSIBILITY AND CERTAINTY

- Students are shown a picture of the contents of a mystery person’s bag

- Students work in groups and speculate about the person’s possible identity and write in
the following table

Your guess Less than 90% certain 100% Things in the bag you
50% certain certain find and reasons why
you are certain or not
certain about this
That person V There are matches in the
is a smoker bag but maybe these are
because from a friend.

- Once the group work was over, the teacher chaired a class discussion in which she
adopted the role of co-communicator but at the same time attempted to shift the students’
focus from meaning to form by interweaving the target forms into the interaction, as in
this exchange:

S: Look (opens matchbox). Many matches so maybe he just keep for friend, not for him.
T: Mmmm I-I guessit’s possible he might smoke. It’s hard to tell just from this.

- T initiated a more explicit focus on the target forms, for example,


T: 100% 100%? Then you can say he IS a business man (writes on board).
When you’re 100% certain, you can use must. OK? Not he is a business man but he must
be a businessman.

- T allows Ss to work in groups again and this time they use the target forms and explain
the reasons they are sure or not sure about their ideas.

II. Options in teaching grammar


Look back at the teaching of definite and indefinite articles and modality above. There
are two ways to teach the grammar here. Can you tell the differences?

Presentation-practice-production (PPP)

Task-based teaching (TBT)

Stages of a TBT lesson Activities


III. Techniques in teaching grammar (PPP)
1. Presenting
From the previous activities, how many techniques do you know now to present the new
grammar point? What aspects of grammar should be presented to students?

Suppose you are going to teach students how to use the structure “S + used to do smt”.
Think of different ways to present the form, meaning and use of this structure to your
students.

Techniques

Rules and
Examples

Visually

Situation

Listening/
reading

2. Practicing: (ref.textbook p.67)


- Controlled practice (mechanical practice): Teachers dictates and controls what Ss
say, usually through drills

- Guided (meaningful practice): T give Ss opportunities to practise the target grammar


in a meaningful way to get students to familarize themselves more with the new
language

Activity Example Controlled Guided


Repetition
Single word prompts
Substitution
Free substitution
Gap-fill
Error correction
Circle the best option

3. Producing

Fill in the following table

Practice stage Production stage


More control over language Free (little control over what and how to
say/write)
Teacher uses immediate correction (1)
T gives more cues Ss have to make their own sentences and think for
themselves more
Accuracy is the focus (2)
T’s role: T’s role: (3)
- Elicit accurate language from Ss -
- Give Ss lots of exercises so they
can memorize the new language
(4) Target items are added to other structures,
functions vocab that Ss already know

What is the role of error correction techniques (recast, clarification, question marks,
etc.) in teaching grammar? At what stage does the teacher correct?

Practice or production?

Activity Practice Production


Find someone who
Noughts and crosses
Mapped dialogues
Role play
Information gap
Information transfer

V. Technical terms: inductive vs deductive, prescriptive grammar vs descriptive


grammar, declarative knowledge vs procedural knowledge

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