Strategies for Teaching Grammar

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.

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. These 'recipes' can be found in various Internet sites for ESL and EFL grammar teaching.


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.

Now over to you: What kind of grammar method do you prefer using? What method have you already experimented with? What problems have you already encountered in your teaching? Feel free to start a discussion.

http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-eflesl-students-grammar-a31850