Teaching Grammar Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar The goal of grammar instruction is to enable students to carry out their communication purposes. This goal has three implications: * Students need overt instruction that connects grammar points with larger communication contexts. * Students do not need to master every aspect of each grammar point, only those that are relevant to the immediate communication task. * Error correction is not always the instructor’s first responsibility. Overt Grammar Instruction
Adult students appreciate and benefit from direct instruction that allows them to apply critical thinking skills to language learning. Instructors can take advantage of this by providing explanations that give students a descriptive understanding (declarative knowledge) of each point of grammar. * Teach the grammar point in the target language or the students’ first language or both. The goal is to facilitate understanding. * Limit the time you devote to grammar explanations to 10 minutes, especially for lower level students whose ability to sustain attention can be limited. Present grammar points in written and oral ways to address the needs of students with different learning styles. An important part of grammar instruction is providing examples. Teachers need to plan their examples carefully around two basic principles: * Be sure the examples are accurate and appropriate. They must present the language appropriately, be culturally appropriate for the setting in which they are used, and be to the point of the lesson. * Use the examples as teaching tools.
Focus examples on a particular theme or topic so that students have more contact with specific information and vocabulary. Relevance of Grammar Instruction In the communicative competence model, the purpose of learning grammar is to learn the language of which the grammar is a part. Instructors therefore teach grammar forms and structures in relation to meaning and use for the specific communication tasks that students need to complete. Compare the traditional model and the communicative competence model for teaching the English past tense: Traditional: grammar for grammar’s sake Teach the regular -ed form with its two pronunciation variants * Teach the doubling rule for verbs that end in d (for example, wed-wedded) * Hand out a list of irregular verbs that students must memorize * Do pattern practice drills for -ed * Do substitution drills for irregular verbs Communicative competence: grammar for communication’s sake * Distribute two short narratives about recent experiences or events, each one to half of the class * Teach the regular -ed form, using verbs that occur in the texts as examples.
Teach the pronunciation and doubling rules if those forms occur in the texts. * Teach the irregular verbs that occur in the texts. * Students read the narratives, ask questions about points they don’t understand. * Students work in pairs in which one member has read Story A and the other Story B. Students interview one another; using the information from the interview, they then write up or orally repeat the story they have not read. Error Correction At all proficiency levels, learners produce language that is not exactly the language used by native speakers.
Some of the differences are grammatical, while others involve vocabulary selection and mistakes in the selection of language appropriate for different contexts. In responding to student communication, teachers need to be careful not to focus on error correction to the detriment of communication and confidence building. Teachers need to let students know when they are making errors so that they can work on improving. Teachers also need to build students’ confidence in their ability to use the language by focusing on the content of their communication rather than the grammatical form.
Teachers can use error correction to support language acquisition, and avoid using it in ways that undermine students’ desire to communicate in the language, by taking cues from context. * When students are doing structured output activities that focus on development of new language skills, use error correction to guide them. Example: Student (in class): I buy a new car yesterday. Teacher: You bought a new car yesterday. Remember, the past tense of buy is bought. * When students are engaged in communicative activities, correct errors only if they interfere with comprehensibility.
Respond using correct forms, but without stressing them. * Example: Student (greeting teacher) : I buy a new car yesterday! Teacher: You bought a new car? That’s exciting! What kind? http://www. nclrc. org/essentials/grammar/goalsgram. htm [12. 03. 2012] Inductive approach and Deductive approach in TESOL By International Teacher Training Organization In teaching, there are many theoretical approaches that have been developed to promote the students’ success in learning new information.
In TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages), there are two main theoretical approaches for the presentation of new English grammar structures or functions to ESL/EFL students: inductive approach and deductive approach. The more traditional of the two theories, is the deductive approach, while the emerging and more modern theory, is the inductive approach. The deductive approach represents a more traditional style of teaching in that the grammatical structures or rules are dictated to the students first (Rivers and Temperley 110).
Thus, the students learn the rule and apply it only after they have been introduced to the rule. For example, if the structure to be presented is present perfect, the teacher would begin the lesson by saying, “Today we are going to learn how to use the present perfect structure”. Then, the rules of the present perfect structure would be outlined and the students would complete exercises, in a number of ways, to practice using the structure. (Goner, Phillips, and Walters 135) In this approach, the teacher is the center of the class and is responsible for all of the presentation and explanation of the new material.
The inductive approach represents a more modern style of teaching where the new grammatical structures or rules are presented to the students in a real language context (Goner, Phillips, and Walters 135). The students learn the use of the structure through practice of the language in context, and later realize the rules from the practical examples. For example, if the structure to be presented is the comparative form, the teacher would begin the lesson by drawing a figure on the board and saying, “This is Jim. He is tall. ” Then, the teacher would draw another taller figure next to the first saying, “This is Bill. He is taller than Jim. The teacher would then provide many examples using students and items from the classroom, famous people, or anything within the normal daily life of the students, to create an understanding of the use of the structure. The students repeat after the teacher, after each of the different examples, and eventually practice the structures meaningfully in groups or pairs. (Goner, Phillips, and Walters 135-136) With this approach, the teacher’s role is to provide meaningful contexts to encourage demonstration of the rule, while the students evolve the rules from the examples of its use and continued practice (Rivers and Temperley 110).
In both approaches, the students practice and apply the use of the grammatical structure, yet, there are advantages and disadvantages to each in the EFL/ESL classroom (Rivers and Temperley 110). The deductive approach can be effective with students of a higher level, who already know the basic structures of the language, or with students who are accustomed to a very traditional syle of learning and expect grammatical presentations (Goner, Philips, and Walters 134).
The deductive approach however, is less suitable for lower level language students, for presenting grammatical structures that are complex in both form and meaning, and for classrooms that contain younger learners (Goner, Philips, and Walters 134). The advantages of the inductive approach are that students can focus on the use of the language without being held back by grammatical terminology and rules that can inhibit fluency. The inductive approach also promotes increased student participation and practice of the target language in the classroom, in meaningful contexts.
The use of the inductive approach has been noted for its success in EFL/ESL classrooms world-wide, but its disadvantage is that it is sometimes difficult for students who expect a more traditional style of teaching to induce the language rules from context. Understanding the disadvantages and advantages of both approaches, may help the teacher to vary and organize the EFL/ESL lesson, in order to keep classes interesting and motivating for the students (Goner, Philips, and Walters 129). References: Goner, Phillips, and Walters. Teaching Practice Handbook: Structures: Grammar and Function. Heinemann, 1995. 129-138. * Rivers, Wilga M. , Temperley, Mary S. A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Oxford University Press, 1978. 110. Inductive approach and deductive approach in TESOL: TEFL / TESOL certification in Mexico & Boston, USA. Click to visit our fees page! http://www. teflcertificatecourses. com/tefl-articles/tesol-inductive-deductive-approaches. php [13. 03. 2012]
