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Feaching

arammar

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Grammar teaching sometimes happens as a result of other work thc students are doing - for cxample, when they study language in a text they havc been reading or listening to, or when a grammar problem presents itsclf unexpectedly in the niiddle of a lcsson and we feel we have to deal with it on thc spot (see page 366). Grammar teaching may grow directiy from the tasks students are performing or have just petformed as part of a focus-on-form approach (sec pages 53-5‘i).

At other times, however, we rely 011 thc coursebooks we are using to help us teach grammar, or we plan in advance vvhat grammar we wish our students to be studying. Most teacliers have their own favourite grammar presentation and practice activities and wili often use thesc when they want students to study a particular piece of grammar.

Grammar can be introduced in a number of ways, or we can show students grammar evidence and ask them to work out for themselves how the language is constructed (see Chapter 3C). We will also want to provide opportunities for students to practise different grammar points, and we may want to use games to make such practice morę engaging.

In Chapter 12, A2 sve discussed the nced for effective activities to be both efficient and appropriate. The rangę of activities which we will look at in this chapter ail satisfy these two reąuirements in different ways. We will also discuss grammar books and their uses.

A introducing grammar

The foliowing activities represent a rangę of possibilities (some simple, sonie morę elaboratc) for introducing new grammar.

Exampie 1: The postman    Language. present simple

Age:    any

Levei:    beginner/elementary

In this grammar presentation (which follows a PPP or Straight arrows sequence in terms of HSA - see page 67), students iearn how to make sentences using the present simple in the third person singular. They have already learnt how to say affirmative and negatiye sentences in the first and second person (e.g. I like coffee, you dorit like bananas).

The teacher holas up a number of flashcards (see Figurę 1) and elicits the words ciogs,get up, doorbell, car, uniform, a lot of nioney. The students say them choraliy (see page 206) and individually before doing a quick cue-response drill using the different pictures as prompts. if the pictures are not on flashcards, they may be on OHTs or shown through a data projeclor - or even drawn on the board.

Studenls now see the picture of Sarah (Figurę 2).

MGURS i: Sarah'$ pictures

The teachcr asks the students what they think Sarah’s job is, but does not confirm or deny their suggestions.    eiguiu; 1: Sarah

The teachcr explains that she is going to tell them what Sarah does every day. She says the following sentences and the students have to choose which flasheard or picture is heing talked about.

She doesnt like dogs.

She gets up early.

She doesn’t drivc a car.

She riugs doorhells.

She doesrit earn a lot oftnoney. She wears a uniform.

When the students have guessed (confirmed their guesses) that Sarah is a postwoman, the tcacher holds up the cards individuai!y and tries to elicit the sentences about each one. She models the sentences and probably gets chorał and individual repetition before moving on, in the accurate reproduction stage (see page 206), to conduct a cue-response drill by holding up, say, card C so that the students have to say She rings doorbells.

Once students are reasonably conlident with these sentences, the tcacher asks them to think of a real person (or invent their own) and what their job is. They are asked to come up with three affirmative and three negative sentences about what that person does or docsn’t do every day. Wliile they are doing this, the teachcr goes round monitoring their work (offering help or correcting where necessary).

The pairs now read out their sentences and the rest of the class have to guess what profession is bcing described.

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