How to teach grammar Alice Chiu

Main Menu 1. What is grammar? 2. What should be taught? 3. How should it be taught? 4. Examples of PPT slides 5. Online Resources

1. What is grammar? Grammar is not… –a discrete set of meaningless decontextualized or static structure –prescriptive rules about linguistic form What is grammar then?

2. What should be taught? A 3-D Grammar Framework form/structure use/pragmatics meaning/semantics From: Larsen-Freeman, D. (2001). Teaching Grammar. (pp ). 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?

The advantages of the framework form/structure use/pragmatics meaning/semantics It makes teachers understand the scope and multidimensionality of the structure. It helps teachers to identify the challenges.

2.1 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)

2.2 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)

2.3 Teaching Use Role plays in different social contexts –Example 1: giving advice Giving advice to friends Giving advice to young kids Advice columnist (speaking and writing) –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

3. How should grammar be taught? 3.1 Accuracy vs. Fluency 3.2 Striking a Balance 3.3 from Cognitive Approach to Communicative Approach 3.4 Important features 3.5 Sequencing 3.6 Providing Feedback 3.7 General Guidelines 3.8 Conclusion

3.1 Accuracy vs. Fluency Form-focusedMeaning-focused Grammar translationDirect 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) accuracyfluency

3.2 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.

3.3 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

3.4 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

3.5 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.

3.6 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.

3.7 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

3.8 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.

4. Examples of PPT Slides Integrating ppt into grammar teaching –Visual learners –Interesting stories Examples –….require that S V….….require that S V…. –Inversions ( 倒裝句 )Inversions ( 倒裝句 ) –as…as possibleas…as possible

5. Online resources for self-study Oxford University Press online practice –Natural GrammarNatural Grammar –Oxford Learner’s GrammarOxford Learner’s Grammar –The Good Grammar BookThe Good Grammar Book English works: grammar exercises English works Big Dog’s grammar

End of this Session References Larsen-Freeman, D. (2001). Teaching Grammar. (pp ). In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. (3rd Edition). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Fotos, S. (2001). Cognitive Approaches to Grammar Instruction. (pp ). In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. (3rd Edition). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.