Teaching Grammar Over History

Starting from the grammar translation method, grammar used to be taught deductively on the basis of grammar rules and examples, students memorize the rules, then apply them to other examples. Moving to the direct method, the role of grammar is minimized, vocabulary and communication become more prominent, grammar rules are learned inductively-by generalizing from examples. In the Audio-Lingual method, over learning and habit formation are emphasized in order to communicate successfully. In the communicative approach of language teaching, functions are emphasized over forms where the main concern is to become communicatively competent, able to use the language appropriate for a given social context.

Teaching Grammar Inductively vs. Deductively

Teaching grammar can be an inductive experience for students. This means students are given the context and then are presented with the grammar rules afterwards. Some learners learn better this way while others need the rule in order to understand the rationale for the new grammatical structure. Teaching grammar inductively has favorable implications for communicative competence, which involves a selection of the right grammatical terms to that of the appropriate setting. Learners need to also know how to use language in context: When ,where and to whom to use these grammatically correct sentences. An example could be :

How to begin a conversation How to address people in different situations. How to respond to different speech acts involving requests, invitations ,compliments, and apologies. Whatever method for teaching grammar you ultimately choose ,each method provides a 'recipe' for various practical classroom ideas and procedures. Obviously a good method that stems from a good theory can produce a number of ideas.

Induction is the opposite of deduction .Deduction is learning a general rule and then making specific applications .For example ,you can give your child a list of auxiliaries and tell him that be ,have and do can also be used as main verbs: then he can underline all the auxiliaries in an exercise. Induction is examining specifics and creating a general rule .Teaching inductively ,you would give for students several example sentences with verbs and auxiliaries and let them generate a list of auxiliaries. Using this list, he would then determine which of these auxiliaries could also be used as main verbs. Through induction, he will discover concepts himself or least be curious and eager to learn more.

Declarative and Procedural Knowledge

Language teachers and language learners are often frustrated by the disconnect between knowing the rules of grammar and being able to apply those rules automatically in the four skills. This disconnect reflects the separation between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge: Knowledge about something, It enables students to describe a rule of grammar and apply it in pattern practice drills.

Is knowledge of how to do something. It enables students to apply a rule of grammar in communication. e.g., declarative is what you know about music theoretically. You can get a full mark in a pen and paper exam. Whereas procedural knowledge enables you to play music. Both types of knowledge dont translate automatically to each other. Many native speakers can use their language clearly and correctly without knowing any rule of grammar. Likewise, many students can correct all verbs between brackets in pen and paper tests but fail to apply the rule while speaking or writing.

Procedural Knowledge:

To bridge the gap between declarative and procedural knowledge, these ideas may help you: 1- Relate knowledge needs to learning goals. Students who plan to use the language for reading journal articles and to deal with formal situations, need to focus on the declarative knowledge of grammar. Whereas students who plan to use language informally need to focus on procedural knowledge. In a school environment, a teacher has to design activities that deal with both equally well.

2- Apply higher order thinking skills Teaching students how the language works and giving them opportunities to compare it with other languages they know allows them to draw on critical thinking and analytical skills.
3- Provide plentiful, appropriate language input. Such input requires students to pay attention to the relationship among form and meaning and to encounter the grammar rule in a variety of contexts.

4- Use predicting skills

Different communication types can be characterized by linguistic features that are common to those types. When we write or talk about a narrative, we expect that the past simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous- is going to be used. While describing, we expect that the present . is going to be used. Awareness of these features allows students to anticipate the forms and structure they will encounter in a given communication task.

INTEGRATIVE GRAMMAR TEACHING

Integrative grammar teaching combines form-based and meaning based teaching of grammar. A strategy that emphasizes integrative grammar teaching is the EEE method proposed by Sysoyev, Pavel. V. which consists of three equally important stages: exploration, explanation and expression. Exploration In this inductive way students are given sentences illustrating a certain grammar rule and are asked as a group to find the pattern and, with the help of the teacher, to formulate the rule. In this way, the knowledge students obtain becomes theirs and it is often much easier to remember. Excerpt 1

Explanation As students find sequences or patterns in the examples they use during the exploration stage, the teacher or the students can summarize what was previously discovered, now focusing on form. The explanation stage is quite important because students feel safer when they know the rules and have some source to go back to in case of confusion or for future reference.

Expression After discovering certain grammatical patterns in the exploration stage and getting to know the rules in the explanation stage, students start practicing the production of meaningful utterances with each other in communication and interactive tasks. The advantages of this stage are: * to provide students experience in applying their acquired knowledge in practice by making meaningful utterances. * motivate students, since they can actually see what they can do with what they have learned. * to practice communication under the teacher's supervision.

Teaching Tips for the Grammar Teacher: 1- Always try something new:
A teacher of grammar should try some different types of activities and tasks and vary his techniques from time to time especially if he is teaching in the elementary stage. This is due to the very limited attention span for such students.

2- Share your ideas:

If you try something in class and it works well, Dont keep it to yourself. Share your ideas with colleagues. In turn they will probably share their ideas with you.

3- Observe a colleague:
Observing other teachers or language assistants can be a great way to pick up tips and ideas for your own teaching. Make sure that this doesnt come across as threatening in any way. A two way observation can sometimes be the most fruitful, so you observe each other and then have a chat about it afterwards.

4- Keep a Teaching Journal:

Keep a record of what you do in your classes and how students react to different activities and techniques. This will help you to look back and see how you are developing as a teacher and to remind you of things that have worked.

5- Read bout the Subject you are Going to Teach:

When you read , you can refresh your memory about a certain topic and you can have ready examples to clarify your points.

6- Limit your explanation to 10 minutes especially for lower level students whose ability to sustain attention can be limited. 7- Present grammar points in written and oral ways to address the needs of students with different learning styles. ( involve as many senses as possible) 8- Your examples must be accurate and appropriate culturally and communicatively. values and ethics are
important.

9- 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.

10- Teach grammar for the sake of communication, emphasize meaning over form. Following is an example of how the past tense is taught traditionally and communicatively:
Why do we use the passive, the reported speech, the conditional sentences?

Traditional: for grammars sake: * Teach the regular ed form with its three pronunciation variants. * Teach the doubling rule for verbs that end in a consonant preceded by a vowel ( for example, stopped) *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 communications 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 text 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 dont 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.

11-In responding to students communication,

teachers need to be careful not to focus on error correction to the detriment of communication and confidence building. 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: I buy a new car yesterday. Teacher: You bought a new car yesterday. Remember, the past tense of buy is bought. Example: Student: I buy a new car yesterday! Teacher: You bought a new car? Thats exciting! What kind?

How can you teach grammar interactively?

Schiffman, Harold (2007) suggested an interactive way to teach the noun phrase in Indonesia.
He followed the steps below: 1- He elicited whatever knowledge students have of the grammar of the noun phrase and summarizes it on the board. 2-He asked volunteers to represent the constituents of an English Noun Phrase. He prepared large cards with nouns, adjectives , and other modifiers on them , and they have to organize themselves into an acceptable noun phrase. 3- He asked for volunteers to organize some noun phrases using cards I have prepared or to prepare their own cards. I asked for a volunteer to represent a noun, who is then expected to recruit some other modifiers to form a sentence. 4- As students realize what is going on, a teacher can go further suggesting other activities like: 5- Choose someone to represent another noun, have him or her recruit constituent and arrange them. 6- The teacher may divide the class into teams and give them scrambled noun phrases and students have a fixed time to unscramble them.

How is this method different from Chalk- Talks?

1- Attention: Students pay attention when this demo is going on. There is an element of tension and surprise. They dont know what will happen next. In the chalk talk grammar session, students feel bored. 2- Remembering: Students remember their part in the memo months afterwards. 3- Learning channels: Students remember the motion or the spatial relations. They might not remember what they got through the visual/ auditory channel. With motion there may be emotion. 4- Action: Children best learn by doing. They wont learn the verb jump without themselves jumping.

Testing Grammar
Multiple Choice Tests *To give testees a sentence with a blank and four or five choices of a word or phrase which completes the sentence correctly # Because my mother was sick, I to go home last week. (had, have, has, hadn't) * To give testees an utterance and have them decide which four or five utterances is an appropriate response. # " I think tuition is much too high here." a) I do so. B) Do I so. C) I so do. D) so do I * To give testees a sentence and ask them to choose which of five or four alternatives has the same meaning. " the school should have expelled him." a) The school didn't expel him. b) The school expelled him, because it was necessary. c) The school might have expelled him, if it had known. d) The school will probably expel him.

* The testees are given a sentence with an error. Four words or phrases in a sentence marked with letters, and the testee needs to decide which of the words or phrases has the error. a) Most of students b) believe that they c) should be getting better grades d) than they are. * To present the testees with four alternative word orders. I wonder how she knows a) how it costs much. b) how much it costs. c) it costs how much. d) it how much costs. * Completion Items The testees are asked to fill in blanks in sentences e. g, Give the book to .woman in the blue dress.

* Transformation Items 1- Jim hasn't been home in a long time. It has been a long time 2- It is difficult to study when it is so noisy. Studying .. * Word Changing Item I have never .to Australia. ( be) *Testees might be asked to combine pairs of sentences using a relative pronoun. I met a man The man went to the same high school I did.

In order to write a grammar exam you feel proud of, you must cover most of the levels of thinking including higher order thinking skills. Below is an example of
testing the

1- Choose the correct answer between brackets.

a-The current constitutional problem is ----------------by the top legal minds in the country. A- studying B- been studying C- being studied D-been studied b-The childs arm was swollen because he ---------------by a bee. A- stung B- had stung C-had been stung D- had being stung

passive voice:

B- Complete the sentences with the words in parentheses. Some of the sentences are active and some are passive. Use any appropriate text :
A- What a beautiful old house! B-It ------------(build) by my grandfather over fifty years ago . C-Most insects ------------(live) for less than a year . D-The common housefly (live) -------from 19 to 13 days.

C- Rewrite these sentences with the new beginning. Dont change the meanings. 1- Farmers dont grow rice in Jordan. Rice -----------------------------------2- The teachers in this school are going to suggest a new strategy for teaching . A new ------------------------------------------------------D- Complete the sentences with the appropriate forms of the verbs in the list . Use each verb only one time. Some of the sentences are active and some are passive ( revise scrub establish obtain)

Surgeons must --------------their hands thoroughly with disinfectant soap and hot water before they enter the operating room A drivers license can ------------from the licensing bureau at the corner of Pine Street and 5th Avenue .

F- Find and correct the errors in the following sentences:

Progress is been made everyday. It was late, and I was getting very worry about my son .

6- Use the passive voice to write a recipe for preparing any dish you know well.

While teaching grammar, there are a number of questions that need to be addressed for each class. 1- What are the objectives of this class? Are they preparing for a standard test like the TOEFL or they only need English for communication? Being test oriented, you have to decide what kind of output your are going to come up with. 2- What is your students background? Are they aware of the grammar terminology? What pre teaching you are going to do before achieving the objectives of your class. 3- What learning materials and resources are available? Do you have worksheets, a workbook, teaching aids, flash cards, pictures? The more learning resources you have the easier it will be for you to employ different strategies when teaching your students grammar.

4-What kind of learning style does each student have? Is the learner comfortable with standard right brain learning techniques (logical charts, study sheets)? Does the learner work better with listening and repeating exercises?