How to teach grammarAlice Chiu0936-825423

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What is grammar?What should be taught?How should it be taught?Examples of PPT slidesOnline Resources

1. What is grammar?Grammar is nota discrete set of meaningless decontextualized or static structureprescriptive rules about linguistic formWhat is grammar then?

2. What should be taught?A 3-D Grammar Frameworkform/structureuse/pragmaticsmeaning/semanticsFrom: 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?

The advantages of the framework It makes teachers understand the scope and multidimensionality of the structure. It helps teachers to identify the challenges.

2.1 Teaching form20 questions (questions)family portraits (possessives)describing a person or a place by using relative clausesinformation gap activity (practice different forms/patterns)sentence-unscrambling task (a problem-solving activity)

2.2 Teaching Meaning Making association between form and meaningrealia 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 adviceGiving advice to friendsGiving advice to young kidsAdvice columnist (speaking and writing)Example 2: past tense vs. present perfect Job interviewLinguistic discourse context Teaching passive voices: focus on issues rather than agentsa text completion task

3. How should grammar be taught?3.1 Accuracy vs. Fluency3.2 Striking a Balance3.3 from Cognitive Approach to Communicative Approach3.4 Important features3.5 Sequencing3.6 Providing Feedback3.7 General Guidelines3.8 Conclusion

3.1 Accuracy vs. Fluency

3.2 How to strike a balanceFluency 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 PracticeExplicit formal instruction Structured-based communicative taskPractice and production exercisesSubsequent communicative exposure to the grammar point

3.4 Important featuresconsciousness raisingeither through teacher instruction (a deductive method) or by their own discovery learning (an inductive method)examples of the structure in communicative inputopportunities to produce correct grammar points

3.5 Sequencing A grammar checklistNot following a prescribed sequence rigidlyMany structures would arise naturally in the course working on the tasks and content and would be dealt with then.

3.6 Ways to Provide feedbackGiving explicit rulesRecastingSelf-correctingPeer-correctingCollecting students errors, identifying the prototypical ones, & dealing with them collectively in class as an anonymous fashion.

3.7 General Principles for Grammar Teachinglittle and often (recycle and revisit)planned and systematic offering learners a range of opportunitiesInvolving acceptance of classroom code switching and mother tonguetext-based, problem-solving grammar activitiesactive corrective feedback and elicitationsupported 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, well 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 SlidesIntegrating ppt into grammar teachingVisual learnersInteresting storiesExamples.require that S V.Inversions ()asas possible

5. Online resources for self-studyOxford University Press online practiceNatural GrammarOxford Learners GrammarThe Good Grammar BookEnglish works: grammar exercisesBig Dogs grammar

End of this SessionReferencesLarsen-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. Fotos, S. (2001). Cognitive Approaches to Grammar Instruction. (pp. 267-284). In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. (3rd Edition). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.