Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
How to Teach Grammar
Preliminaries
Before we start to try to deal with grammar we need to get a fix on what we think grammar is
and how we think its functions. Because grammar is often equated with language, how we
approach the issue of grammar is of central importance to our teaching and our students’
learning.
Let’s take a simple survey to see how you think about grammar.
Thoughts on Grammar
1. What is the main goal of English instruction?
Grammar
Fluency
Receptive skills
Productive skills Testing skills
2. How important do you think grammar is in understanding a language?
Extremely Very A bit A ton Not much Somewhat
3. How important do you think grammar is in producing a language?
Extremely Very
A bit A ton Not much Somewhat
4. What aspects of language does grammar affect?
Words Sentences Between words Paragraphs
5. How many types of grammars are there?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Between paragraphs
10
6. Which type of grammar were you exposed to as a student of English language?
Descriptive Pedagogical Prescriptive Reference Theoretical Traditional
7. How effective do you think this was in making you fluent in the English language?
Some A little Not very Very much Extremely Not at all
8. Which type of grammar do you use in your own teaching?
Descriptive Pedagogical Prescriptive Reference Theoretical
Traditional
9. How was grammar used in relation to actual language when you were a student?
Speaking in context In reading Lectures Spoken pattern drills Written pattern drills
10. How do you use grammar when you teach?
Speaking in context In reading Lectures Spoken pattern drills
11. Do you teach grammar overtly or covertly?
Overtly
Covertly
12. Is grammar your friend or your enemy?
Friend
Enemy
Written pattern drills
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
The important thing to realize is that grammar is EVERYWHERE. Any piece
of language we expose our students to is going to be infused with grammar
of one type or another. Based on this it might be better to start with the idea
of interest and build a grammar focus from there. The purpose of doing
grammar is to try to get the students to actively engage some of the
structural aspects of the language which they will need to fine-tune their
managing of meanings.
The Nature of Grammar
Here are a few points to consider about the nature of grammar.
-Spoken and written language differ from each other considerably.
-Grammar rules do not exist - There are only tendencies.
-Grammar is not separate from other areas of language or skill areas.
-Grammar is best taught from the point of view of meaning and use.
-Context is indispensable in the understanding of such meaning and use.
Reading and Listening-based Approaches
Reading and listening are often used as the first step in exposing students to a particular
grammatical structure. As far as acquisitional sequences go they are both good for developing
awareness.
Awareness raising
The chief ways of raising awareness are overtly through presentations or covertly through
reading or listening.
Read the text below. Take notice of the highlighted words in the text. What role do they play
in supplying meaning in the text?
My family likes different kinds of food. To start with, dad is a
meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. How much meat does he eat every
week? A lot! His favorite dinner is steak with a lot of gravy and a
baked potato with some cheese on it. But mom makes him a little
fish and a few vegetables now and then.
Mom is a vegetarian. She’ll eat anything that comes from
plants. Our refrigerator is full of oranges, bananas, apples, tofu, and
green leafy vegetables.
My older brother is a junk-food king. He loves doughnuts,
burgers, and french fries. But mom doesn’t buy any fast food
because it contains a lot of fat. My brother doesn’t care. He works at
Big Burger after school. There he can have as many burgers and as
much cola as he wants after work. As for me, I’m easy to please.
(From: Brown et al. (1999). Voyages 1. Prentice Hall Regents, p.77)
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
Read the following story. As you read, put a circle around the word in front of all the nouns
you read.
We had a wonderful day at the zoo yesterday, but of course the day was not all perfect. A few very interesting things happened. At first everything was normal, like the zoo usually is. The animals were all in their enclosures and we walked around visiting them. First, we saw the flamingos. From there we went to see my favorite pygmy hippo. I have loved that hippo since I first saw it. It looks so cuddly. The trouble started when we got to the South America house. It is in the back of the zoo and hard to find, so there are very few people there. It was early in the morning and no one was there. Right at the entrance we were greeted by a sloth. The sloth was sitting in a tree, doing nothing. We were very shocked but the sloth was not moving so we decided that it must not be real. We went inside. What a joy, a delight, a mistake! The animals had all escaped from their cages and were running about the building. It was chaos. The birds were squawking. Monkeys were swinging in all the trees. Turtles were playing in a water fountain. All the crocodiles sleeping, which was good. One armadillo was digging a hole in the floor with its sharp claws. At first I wanted to run, but they all looked so happy we went inside. We approached a giant turtle and even managed to ride on its back. It was so huge and strong but so gentle. After we had some fun, we left the building and closed the door behind us. It was only after we talked to some zoo keepers that we realized what we had done was really dangerous. It was fun at the time, but it makes me a bit scared to think about it now. Some Partial Control
There are eight extra definite articles in the text below. Try to find them as you read through
the text.
Rosalyn Clark, bus driver
I’ve always loved the driving. For some reason I find it relaxing, so driving a bus is ideal.
Some of the male bus drivers were a bit funny at first and I think it took them a while to get
used to the fact that I was a woman. I could see it in their faces that they were a the bit
shocked. Bus driving is very male dominated which did make me a but nervous at the first.
When passengers get on the bus, they sometimes look at me as if to say, “Oh my
God, it’s a girl, what’s she doing?” but when they get off they usually say thank you. My
friends and family think it’s weird that I’m a bus driver conductor - and sometimes they get
on as I live locally.
I like being in control of a big vehicle, perhaps it’s the power. I don’t find London
traffic stressful, and I don’t let anyone get to me. I’ve learned to switch off when people start
being abusive.
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
I think I’m quite a good driver, although the some days are better than others.
Switching back to driving cars when I’m not working was a bit difficult at first - I kept
forgetting how wide the car was, but I’m used to it now. I don’t know too much about the
mechanics of the bus. We don’t mess about with the engines or anything. It’s not much fun
when it breaks down and I have to tell the everyone how to get off.
I’ve had a couple of accidents, but fortunately nothing too serious. I’ve never taken
the roof off the bus or anything. I clipped a BMW recently, as he was overtaking, but that
was his fault.
I don’t work through the night, but we have to do the shift-work, so I might start at
4am and finish at 2am. They don’t make any special allowances for the females, so
sometimes I’m on my own at night. But we have radios which go straight through to the
police so I’ve never felt too threatened. People try and get away without paying, and I
sometimes get abused, but I’ve got the assault alarm, which usually gets rid of them.
I get the letters sometimes from a bloke called Alan, but then he writes to everyone,
specially the girls. He bought everyone the Easter eggs and Christmas presents.
Accuracy-based Practice
Fill in the blanks below with the correct form of the word in bold print above it.
Receive
(a) She works as a ____________________ in a hotel in Scotland.
(b) Ask for a ____________ when you buy something, in case you need to return it.
(c) I made several suggestions to improve production, but the management was not very
________ to my ideas.
Comfort
(a) In that tense situation I found the good news very ________________.
(b) I felt rather___________, so I put a soft cushion behind me.
(c) She sat in terrible _____________ on the hard chair for over an hour.
Friend
(a) The _____________ between the two soon developed into love.
(b) In London she was ____________ by a rich woman who looked after her and helped her.
(c) The desert is a dangerous ___________ place.
Question Words and Phrases
Complete the questions. Put in these words and phrases: who, what, whose, where, when,
what time, what color, what kind, how often, how far, how long, and how many.
______________ is Melbourne? - in Australia
______________ is the Greek flag? - blue and white
______________ was the first President of the USA? - George Washington
______________ did the second world war end? - in 1945
______________ inches are there in a foot? - twelve
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
______________ do banks open in England? - half past nine
______________ is a foal? - a young horse
______________ is it from San Francisco to Los Angeles? - about 400 miles
______________ home is in 10 Downing street? - the Prime Minister’s
______________ are the Olympics held? - every four years
______________ of food is cheddar? - cheese
______________ is a game of rugby? - 80 minutes
Speaking-based Approaches
There are many different ways of getting sleepy, shy, or unmotivated students to speak up in
class. With a partner, or in small groups, discuss the different ways listed below. Speak what
is good or bad about each of them.
1. Direct Question and Answer
The teacher picks out students at random and asks them to answer questions in front of the
entire class.
2. Presentation
The teacher has each student prepare some sort of oral presentation on a topic. Students will
have to research and write about a topic and give a report on their topic in front of class.
3. Pair/Group Work
Students are put into pairs or small groups and try to solve some sort of problem or complete
an exercise. The idea is that they must only speak in English and use their own words in
communicating to solve a problem.
4. Dialogues
The students have to either write their own dialogues or fill in some missing words in a
model dialogue and then act them out in front of class.
5. Games
The teacher divides the class in half or into several groups and has the groups compete
against each other. The teacher can have the students draw pictures or act something out and
the team members have to call out the correct answers. Or there can be sentences with blanks
and the teams must decide which word best fits. This must be done only in English.
6. Role-Play
The teacher assigns certain students roles to play in a certain situation. The situations need
not be complex or lengthy, but the students have to use their own words when playing their
role.
7. Information Gaps
This is usually done in pairs or in groups. The students all have some information about a
certain topic, but not enough to figure out what it is. Think of it as a kind of puzzle. They
have to ask each other the right questions to get the information they need to complete the
scenario in their minds.
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
Spoken Sentence Completion
This is a sentence completion test. You will hear the beginning of 10 different sentences. The
sentences are not complete. Use your knowledge of English to finish each sentences as best
as you can, paying close attention to the grammaticality of the sentence you create. Now,
let’s try an example.
Example
John is ____________________________________________.
1. The plant stood ____________________________________________.
2. John gave _________________________________________________.
3. I promised _______________________________________________.
4. The weather bureau predicted ________________________________.
5. The police can easily be blamed ____________________________.
6. We wondered _______________________________________________.
7. James met the beautiful ________________________________________.
8. Me in school was _____________________________________________.
9. What did you _______________________________________________?
10. I got an A ________________________________________________.
Free Oral Practice
Ask the students to talk about one of these topics.
T
T
T
What are you going to do over the weekend? How about your family and friends?
Choose one person in the class. Imagine it is her/his birthday soon. Everyone is going
to give a present. Say to the class which present you are going to give and why.
Look at the picture below. Try to say who the old man is and what he does.
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
Use the following graphic to get students to compare and contrast different places across
different times.
World Weather Guide
Average
July
Day Night
Athens
33
23
Buenas Aires 14
6
Cairo
36 21
London
22
4
New York
28
19
Tokyo
28
21
temperature
January
Day Night
13 6
29 17
18
8
6
2
3
-4
8
-2
Average number of rainy days
July
January
2
7
0
12
12
10
16
8
1
15
12
5
Here is another graphic that can be used for a more complex comparison and contrast.
Using Drawings
Here are some pictures one can use for practicing conditionals.
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
Writing Based Approaches
Using Controlled Writing
For beginning students, it is probably better to start off with a lot of controlled writing
exercises. Controlled writing, however, does not have to be easy. Here are a few simple
examples.
Gap Filling
Listen to the teacher, then write out the complete sentences.
Cats__________________________
_______________.
dogs.
This
often
__________
people
Re-ordering Words
Unscramble the words and write the sentences correctly.
1. the/chased/the/dog/tree/around/cat/the.
2. John/sponge/angry/a/sorry/with/hit/Mary.
3. day/the/over/sleeping/a/boy/one/young/tripped/man.
Substitution
Ex: Ji-eun enjoys listening to rock music and eating rice and kimchee.
Now, write a true sentence about yourself.
Correct the facts
Rewrite the sentences so that they match the picture.
In my school I saw a light haired man standing by a desk.
He looked happy as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
On his desk were a typewriter and a cactus as well as many
books.
Revise details
You work for a newspaper and you have written this story when suddenly you hear that
Sandy is now believed by the police to be a woman. You have to change your story so that it
can be printed.
Police are looking for someone known only as Sandy. On Friday morning a man walked into a New York bank. He was wearing a black jacket and a cap. Customers who saw him said he had a thin face and he looked about twenty. The man said he had a gun and demanded money. As he was running out, the alarm went off and surprised him and his cap fell off. Inside his cap, the name `Sandy` was written.
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
Rewriting
Below you will find 10 sentences under each sentence are two incomplete sentences. Use
your knowledge of English to finish each sentences as best as you can, paying close attention
to the grammaticality of the sentence you create. You may add some function words if
necessary, but make sure you do not change the meaning from the sentence above. Below
you will find an example.
Example
John is my best friend.
It is ___________________________________________.
My best friend ___________________________________________.
1. He should bake a cake.
Should ___________________________________________?
A cake ___________________________________________.
2. Tell me where the concert is this evening.
Where ___________________________________________?
The concert ___________________________________________.
3. The story was believed by the villagers
The villagers ___________________________________________.
Was the story ___________________________________________?
4. It is likely that John will go.
That John ___________________________________________.
Likely that ___________________________________________.
5. There lived an old woman in the house.
An old woman ___________________________________________.
In the house ___________________________________________.
6. Does he have any ice cream?
He ___________________________________________.
Is it ___________________________________________?
7. A lot of people saw the accident.
The accident _____________________________________________.
Was the accident _______________________________________________?
8. The president will invite me to his house.
Will ___________________________________________?
His house ___________________________________________.
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
9. You’re thinking of taking a trip with whom?
Who ___________________________________________?
A trip ___________________________________________?
10. He doesn’t want it to continue to be windy.
To continue to be windy ___________________________________________.
What he doesn’t want is ______________________________________.
Writing Based on a Text
Read the text below.
Bartica is a small town in the north of Guyana, a small English-speaking country in
South America. It is located on the Essequibo River, not far from the capital, Georgetown.
The town has a wide main street, with a run-down stone church, the town hall, and a bar.
There is a large market in the town center, and many little shops and cafes. Most people in
Bartica work as sugar cane farmers, which is very hard work, indeed.
Now write a paragraph about another town in Guyana, Isherton. Use these notes.
Isherton - small town - southern mountains
Winding, narrow streets - two churches - many bars
Most people - miners - look for gold, silver, minerals
Now, write another paragraph about your own hometown.
What difficulties do you think your students might have in writing such a paragraph? Is there
anything you could prepare to make things easier for them?
Writing Complete the Sentence
Below you will find sentences that have been begun but not finished. Please finish the
sentences as best you can, paying close attention to the grammaticality of the sentence you
create. Below you will find an example.
Example
John was sure..________________________________.
1. The man wanted to ..________________________________.
2. Bob was walking toward Y.._____________________________.
3. The porcupine bit ..________________________________.
4. John was pulled ..________________________________.
5. Biff tried ..________________________________.
6. The student was hoping that her brother ..__________________.
7. John wanted to know ..________________________________.
8. It was the horrible dog ..________________________________.
Stephen van Vlack – How to Teach Grammar
9. Who do you think ..________________________________?
10. John ate the pizza in one .._____________________________.
11. Mary wondered ..________________________________.
12. She believed ..________________________________.
13. Mrs. Jones ate ..________________________________.
14. She is very ..________________________________.
15. The teacher believed the door .._________________________.
16. Who’s the guy ..________________________________?
17. Was the accident seen ..______________________________?
18. For him to lie ..________________________________.
19. Mr. Smith believed that ..______________________________.
20. That was what the man had ..__________________________.
Sentences are taken from Rutherford (1998).
From Presentation to Practice
Here is part of a teacher’s lesson plan.
Aim: To teach students to make suggestions using ”Let’s.........”
Presentation
1. Give a situation and example:
You’re sitting at home with a friend. You can’t decide what to do.
You suggest different things. For example, you want to watch television so you say, ”Let’s watch television.”
2. Chorus repetition
Let’s watch television.
3. Write the sentences on the board.
?
What’s next? What should the teacher do next? Think about the different possibilities and
what the good and bad points of each might be.
Repetition
T: Let’s play football.
Ss: Let’s play football.
T: Let’s go swimming.
Ss: Let’s go swimming.
etc
Substitution
T: You want to play football?
Ss: Let’s play football?
T: You want to go swimming?
Ss: Let’s go swimming.
Picture
Prompts
Meaningful Practice
Do each pair of exercises. How are exercises A and B different?
1A
Ann likes tea but she doesn't like coffee.
a) rock music/classical music
b) walking/swimming
c) cats/dogs
1B
Say true sentences about yourself.
I like tea
or
I don’t like tea
What about: a) coffee
b) cats
etc.
2A
You are a stranger.
Ask about places in town.
2B
You are a stranger.
Ask about places in town.
A café:
You want to see a film?
Is there a cinema near here?
a) You want to buy some ice cream.
Is there a café near here?
a) a grocer’s shop
b) a cinema
c) a fruit stall
etc.
b) You want to post a letter.
c) You want to spend the night.
etc.
3A
Where are you going?
I’m going to a gas station.
3B
Where are you going?
I’m going to the station.
Why?
Because I want to buy a ticket.
a) cinema
b) zoo
c) river
etc.
a) cinema
b) zoo
c) river
etc.
Organizing Practice in Class
Below is an exercise practicing questions and answers with can.
Can you.......
Fly
sing
swim?
drive a car?
ride a horse?
speak English
stand on your head?
Yes, I can.
No, I can’t.
Here is a possible idea for how to deal with this material.
What do you think about it?
With a partner, decide how it might be improved.
1. Ask the students to close their books. Read out the questions and answers, and ask
the students to repeat them.
2. Ask the questions, and the students reply, “Yes, I can.” or “No, I can’t.”
3. Then, the students open their books. Student read out questions in turn and other
students answer.
Can you use any of these activities in your class? If you were to use any of them, how
would you organize them?
Follow-up
Now, answer the following questions:
What is the perfect number of students to have in class?
What is the hardest thing to get the students to do in your class?
What is the best way to teach speaking?
Do you have much time to work on speaking in your classes?
Do you feel you should make time to work on speaking?
Lesson Preparation
- Choose a lesson which you will be teaching soon or find a lesson in a book which
includes structure practice.
- Look at the exercises in the textbook. Do they give enough practice? Is the practice
meaningful? Is it interesting? Do you need to improve on it or add to it in any
way?
- Plan part of a lesson in which you will be teaching structure.
Make sure that:
- at least some of the practice is meaningful.
- at the end of the practice, the students have the chance to use the structure in
their own sentences.