Jannette Hernandez Professor Betty Medina ENGL October 5, 2013 Strategies for Teaching Grammar: Annotated Bibliography

Ching-Huang, W., Chi-yen, C., Jenny, W., Chun-Fu, L., & Hui-hua, L. (2010). The Use of a Class Blog in an English Grammar Course. International Journal of Technology, Knowledge & Society, 6(1), 179-197.

In this study, a blog was used as part of an English grammar course. The purpose was to ascertain how the students will respond to a more open approach in terms of grammar correction. The blog served as a means for the students to practice sentence structure and sentence making. The instructor required the students to first use a book in sentence pattern and to use that when writing on the blog. He also encouraged them to use their own ideas when posting and used the blog to give them a modern and less structured resource for learning grammar. At the end of the study 103 of the 129 students that participated in the blog had a positive feedback towards it. They felt that the blog helped them improve their sentence making and sentence structure ability. Moreover, they liked the learning by doing approach. The blog provided them a less stressful approach where they were able to use their skills and share their knowledge, not only with the teacher, but also with other students.

The only setback could be the amount of time that the teacher would have to spend reading each entry and making sure he gives positive remarks to each student. This is a technique that could be used and adapted to use with different grammar and language areas. It is also a good way to introduce technology in the classroom.

Gray, Ronald (2004). Grammar Correction in ESL/EFL Writing Classes May Not Be Effective. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. X, No. 11

There is a preconceived idea that when a teacher corrects a grammatical mistake done by a student, he/she will automatically understand the mistake he made and try to correct it in the future. In this article Gray explores different researches that show that this is actually incorrect when you are to trying to encourage your students to write. It says that when a teacher focuses on form instead of meaning, the purpose of the writing workshop is lost and what this actually does is to discourage the students. Gray also explains three reasons why correcting grammar doesnt work, among them the fact that most of the times the teachers give arbitrary explanations about the mistakes the students make, so they cant prevent to make them again because they really never understood what the mistake was in the first place. The solution that Gray gives is to give short grammar lessons at the beginning of the class based on the most common mistakes found on the students works. This will actually help them before

they start writing. He emphasizes that when teaching the writing process the teacher needs to focus more on meaning that on form. I share Grays view on this matter. If a teacher is constantly focusing on grammatical errors and mistakes when teaching her students how to write, she could actually discourage them. That doesnt mean that grammar will be not taught, but that in that time the teacher should be concentrated on other areas such as content and how the student is able to put his/her ideas into words. Feng, Shoudong, Powers, Kathy (2005). The Short- And Long-Term Effect of Explicit Grammar Instruction on Fifth Graders' Writing. Reading Improvement. Summer2005, Vol. 42 Issue 2, p67-72. 6p.

Feng and Powers intention when doing this research was to find a model for grammar instruction that teachers could actually use, and for it to be based on the writing process. The model they suggest is the error- based approach. In this approach grammar is taught in the revising and editing stages of the writing process. The teacher will take the time to analyze the students works and familiarize herself with the common mistakes they made. Then she will plan mini-lessons in which she will address these issues. Feng and Powers study shows positive results after the mini-lessons, there was considerable improvement in the three writing areas: mechanical, sentence structure and usage. What calls my attention is that this approach pays no attention to the content area of the writing process. The teacher will use the writing process as a means to teach grammar and the meaning and content are left behind. It focuses on the grammar weaknesses of the students and not in a way that gives equal importance to content and form.

Damodare, Dipak Prabhakarrao, Effective Teaching of English Grammar At Rural Jr. Colleges Through Play-Way Method: Indian Streams Research Journal (March; 2012)

This is a study conducted in India with the purpose of ascertain an effective strategy for the teaching of grammar. Since the old traditional ways of teaching English grammar by drilling rules into students have long been proved to be ineffective, a play-way method was used in order to make the learning experience more fulfilling and fun. They faced lack of interest and an inappropriate environment for the students to learn, so they used a modern approach where the students were able to interact with each other and use different types of technology integrated with the study of grammar. Vast evidence was shown of the effectiveness of this approach when compared with traditional methods. Play-way is actually ideal not only for college students as shown in the study, but elementary and high school students could benefit as well from this approach. Not only does this study encourages teachers to find innovative and new ways to teach, but also to examine closely and leisurely the students works so they can plan ways to facilitate the learning experience and engage them in actual learning and implementation.

Van Zile, S. (2003). Grammar that'll Move You! .. Instructor, 112(5), 32.

Van Zile shows in this article of different brain based ideas that are ideal , specifically multimodal learning because it incorporates visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic element and it

that way they address different types of learning. Multi modal emphasizes movement to learn and since the cerebellum is responsible for learning and also for moving it makes sense to use activities that stimulates it. The use of centers proved to be effective and the fact that they had to move from one center to another and interact with their partner provided a more open approach to learning and practicing grammar. They also felt comfortable to be able to share their doubts and possible corrections with their peers. The use of centers is effective not only for English but for other areas as well. Is less boring that working with worksheet all the time and different skills can be alternated to study a particular area.