The debate of how to teach grammar for EFL students has great implications for second and foreign language learning. The silent learners in the EFL classroom who are quietly absorbing a language may indicate deep learning of grammatical rules and structure, but when required to apply their knowledge and understanding, the signs might paint a different picture of where they are in terms of their language learning abilities.
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.
Here are some last minute tips to help you with preparing those final touches on your grammar lessons.
- Make sure you make use of the mother tongue. Many students have what is known as language interference between two language as the new language the learner learns is constantly changing.
- The turning point of second language acquisition is when students feel comfortable not having to resort to exact meanings in their native tongues so allow for a certain level of mother tongue interference.
- Do not overdo the teaching of too many tenses in one grammar lesson. Actually, it's best to keep it to just one.
