Teaching Grammar to Young Learners

Child-Friendly Grammar

Anissa Trisdianty

The Grammar itself…

Different meaning of GrammarDevelopment of Internal GrammarPrinciples for Learning-centered Grammar Teaching

1. The need for grammar 2. Potential conflict between meaning and grammar 3. Importance of attention in the learning process 4. Learning grammar as the development of internal grammar 5. The role of explicit teaching of grammar rule.

Grammar and Children

About grammar and young learners:• Grammar is necessary to express precise meaning in

discourse;• Grammar ties closely into vocabulary in learning and

using the foreign language;• Grammar learning can evolve from the learning of

chunks of language;• Talking about something meaningful with the child

can be useful way to introduce new grammar;• Grammar can be taught without technical labels.

The language development of typical English speaking child

• 6 weeks cooing• 6 months babbling• 8 months intonation

patterns• 12-15 months single

words• 18 months two-word

utterances, simple negatives, simple questions

• 21 months three-word utterances

• 2 years inflections (word endings)

• 3 years adult-type negatives adult-type questions

• 3.5 years adult-type inflections

• 10 years adult type grammar

Teaching Child – Friendly Grammar

There are typically three ways of teaching grammar namely:

1. Noticing such as listen and notice, presentation of new language with puppets.

2. Structuring such as questionnaires, survey and quizzes, information gap activities, helping hands, drills and chants.

3. Proceduralizing such as polar animal description re-visited, and dictogloss.

7 Techniques of teaching grammar in child-friendly grammar to young learners

1. Presenting the grammatical structure in a child's context with humor

2. Practicing the grammatical structure 3. Drawing and writing on the board 4. Story telling 5. Songs and chants 6. Rhymes and poems 7. Total Physical Response

Mary had a Little Lamb…

Mary had a little lamb…little lamb …little lamb… Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow,And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went…And everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one

dayIt followed her to school one day that was against the ruleIt made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh

and play..It made the children laugh and play to see the lamb at school“Why does the lamb love Mary so?” Mary so…Mary so…“Why does the lamb love Mary so?” the eager children cry,“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know” lamb you know, lamb

you know…Mary loves the lamb, you know…the teacher did reply..

NOW vs YESTERDAY

NOW• Mary is going

to school• The lamb is

following• It is against

the role• The teacher

is turning out

YESTERDAY• Mary went to

school• Followed her

to school • It was against

the role• The teacher

turned it out

Thanks for your attention…