Grammar presentation techniques

Teaching Grammar Communicatively

1. The role of grammar in language learning.

2. Aspects of teaching grammar.

3. Error correction involved in teaching grammar.

Practical assignments

1. The typology of grammar presentation techniques.

2. Ways to prevent grammar mistakes.

3. Comment on major stages of grammar lesson.

Grammar presentation techniques

The most basic classification of grammar presentation techniques is based on the difference in learning styles, for in grammar explanation there can prevail either visual or verbal element.

Visual techniques. These pertain to visual memory, which is considered especially helpful with the grammar retention. Learners remember better the material that has been presented by means of the visual aids. The visual techniques lend themselves well to presenting concrete items of grammar. They help students to associate the presented material in a meaningful way and incorporate it into their system of the language units.

Verbal explanation. This pertains to the use of illustrative situations connected with the grammar material studied. While presenting a foreign-language grammatical structure to a class a teacher should consider what is likely to cause difficulties to the learners; and second, how to present examples and formulate explanations that will clearly convey the necessary information.

Pertaining a type of reasoning, the deductive and inductive approaches to teaching grammar can be singled out.

The 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 manipulation of examples. One of the methods within deductive approach is called minimal sentence pairs.

Minimal sentence pairs.By presenting two sentences that are only different in one or two particulars, the teacher is better able to focus the students’ attention on exactly how the choice of form determines a difference in meaning. The sentences should be lexically simple and have fairly self-evident contexts.

In the inductive approach learners discover the rules for themselves. The mental effort involved ensures a greater degree of cognitive depth which ensures greater memorability. Students are more actively involved in the learning process, rather than being simply passive recipients. Although this approach can be time-consuming it had been proved to be rather effective.

Some approaches make emphasis on the pragmatic element of language which gives perspective on the use of language structures in communicative situations. These approaches aim at presenting communicative meanings that learners would need in order to express themselves and to understand effectively in a particular situation.

Functional-notional approachtakes into account how language could be categorised on the basis of notions such as quantity, location and time, and functions such as making requests, making offers and apologising.

Teaching grammar in situational contextshas also proven itself to be very effective. The teacher sets up a situation in order to “generate” several example sentences of a structure. This is called generative situation.

Teaching grammar through texts.The implication of this context-sensitive view of grammar teaching is that grammar is best taught and practised in context. This means using whole texts as contexts for grammar teaching.

Some teachers even preferteaching grammar through stories. They argue that grammar points can be contexualized in stories that are absorbing and just plain fun especially if they are selected with the interest of the class in mind and involve the students. Students can help create stories and impersonate characters in them.

While explaining grammar a teacher can use a wide range of methods including lesson demonstrations, explanation on the board, using realia, using a written text etc.

No single method of grammar presentation is going to be appropriate for all grammar items, nor for all learners, nor for all learning contexts. A lot will also depend on the kind of practice opportunities that the teacher provides.

2.Whether they are beginners, who are just starting to grasp the basics, or advanced students who can speak quite fluently, ESL learners make grammar mistakes.

Ways to help the students stop making grammar mistakes.

There are two essential steps when dealing with grammar mistakes: correction and practice. Let’s look at each individually.

Correction

Naturally, teachers correct students when they make mistakes. But in most cases, corrections are made quickly, while students are speaking and have their minds on what they are trying to say. In most cases, they simply don’t register the correction. That's why teachers need to really draw their attention to them.

The Comic Relief Strategy: For example, there are students who always say childrens instead of children. A teacher can try making an exaggerated face as soon as students say the offending word. Or shout out, “You saw what in the park?” with a shocked expression. The exaggeration and the over-the-top acting helps students zero in on the problem while at the same time relieving the tension from being corrected.

The Self-Correction Strategy helps to focus the student’s attention on the problem he/she has to solve. Teacher can write down the sentence on the board with a blank space for the mistake and have the students fill in the gap with the correct answer. Or write what the student says, and ask, “What’s wrong with this sentence?”

Practice

If a teacher identifies something that students seem to have real trouble with, like choosing the wrong tense, he should give them extended practice to help them overcome this particular difficulty. This can include games, drilling or worksheets. ESL teacher should realize that some mistakes must not be taken lightly. They must be conscientiously and purposefully corrected.

3. The stages of grammar lesson:

- Preparation;

- Presentation;

- Practice;

- Evaluation;

- Expansion.

Preparation. As the class begins, a teacher gives students a broad outline of the day’s goals and activites so they know what to expect. He helps them focus by eliciting their existing knowledge of the day’s topics. There can be a discussion or homework review to elicit knowledge related to some grammar points to be covered.

Presentation/Modeling. Presentation provides the language input that gives students the foundation for their knowledge of the language (from instructor and course textbooks).

Practice. Students work in pairs or small groups on a topic-based task with a specific outcome. They move from practice output to communicative output, in which the main purpose is to complete the communication task. The criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the message.

Evaluation.А teacher reconvenes the class as a group to recap the lesson. He asks students to give examples of how they used the linguistic content and communication strategies to carry out the communication task. Evaluation reinforces the material that was presented earlier in the lesson It provides an opportunity for students to raise questions of usage and style and enables the instructor to monitor individual students comprehension and learning.

Expansion.Expansion activities allow students to apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom to situations outside it. It includes out-of-class observation assignments, in which instructor asks students to find examples of something or to use a strategy and then report back.