ELT

WORKSHOP
Teaching Grammar

ELT TRAINER: Daniel Chivala

What is Grammar?
Sambeny and Gonzalles (2011:33)
Scrivener (2005: 156)
• Grammar is a set of • Grammar is sometimes defined
as the way words are put
rules about sentence together to make correct and
meaningful sentences. Grammar
formation, tenses, is also defined as the system
verb patterns, etc. or which describes the structure of
a language and the way in
our internal database which linguistic units such as
as to what are words and phrases are
combined to produce sentences
possible or in the language… Grammar is
impossible sentences. essentially the combination of
words and phrases to make
sentences and allow
communication among people.
 STAGES OF A GRAMMAR LESSON

• Three (3) stages need to be considered on

a lesson plan based on teaching grammar
just as with other skills:
➢PRESENTATION
➢PRACTICE
➢PRODUCTION
PRESENTATION
Deductive approach Inductive approach
The teacher provides The teacher goes
students with the other way
grammar rules and round by
explanations and providing students
later ask them to with examples
make new phrases leading the rules
and sentences using of grammar to be
the new language learnt.
 ADVANTAGES
Deductive approach Inductive approach
• It gets straight to the point, and can therefore be • Rules that learners discover for themselves are more
time-saving. Many rules- especially rules of form likely to fit their existing mental structures than rules they
– can be more simply and quickly explained have been presented with. This in turn will make the rules
more meaningful, memorable, and serviceable.
than elicited from examples. This will allow more
time for practice and application.
• The mental effort involved ensures a greater degree of
cognitive depth which, again, ensures greater
• It respects the intelligence and maturity of many- memorability.
especially adult- students, and acknowledges
the role of cognitive process in language • Students are more actively involved in the learning
acquisition. process, rather than being simply passive recipients: they
are therefore likely to be more attentive and more
motivated.
• It confirms many students´ expectations about
classroom learning, particularly for those • It is an approach which favour pattern-recognition and
learners who have an analytical learning style. problem-solving abilities which suggests that it is
particularly suitable for learners who like this kind of
challenge.
• It allows the teacher to deal with language
points as they come up, rather than having to • If the problem-solving is done collaboratively, and in the
anticipate them and prepare for them in target language, learners get the opportunity for extra
advance. language practice.

• Working things out for themselves prepares students for

greater self-reliance and is therefore conductive to
learner autonomy.
 DISADVANTAGES
Deductive approach Inductive approach
• Starting the lesson with a grammar presentation • The time and energy spent in working out rules
may be off-putting for some students, especially may mislead students into believing that rules
younger ones. They may not have sufficient are objective of language learning, rather than
metalanguage. (i.e. language used to talk about means.
language such as grammar terminology). Or
they may not be able to understand the • The time taken to work out rule may be at
concepts involved. expense of time spent in putting the rule to
some sort of productive practice.
• Grammar explanation encourages a teacher-
fronted, transmission style classroom; teacher • Students may hypothesize the wrong rule, or
explanation is often at the expense of student their version of the rule may be either too broad
involvement and interaction. or too narrow in its application. This is especially
• Explanation is seldom as memorable as other a danger where there is no overt testing of their
forms of presentation, such as demonstration. hypotheses, either through practice examples,
or by eliciting an explicit statement of the rule.
• Such an approach encourages the belief that
learning a language is simply a case of knowing • It can place heavy demands on teachers in
rules. planning a lesson. They need to select and
• Miximize TTT organize the data carefully to guide learners to
an accurate formulation of the rule, while also
ensuring the data is intelligible.
 Harmer (2001:75)
Things we discover for ourselves are
absorbed more effectively than things we
are taught… One powerful reason for
encouraging language students to discover
things for themselves is the complex
nature of language itself.
 PRACTICE
Students practice the grammar items
correctly. You can ask them to find examples
of the learnt structure in a text for example.
PRACTISING STRUCTURES: FROM CONTROLLED PRACTICE TO FREE
PRACTICE

Oral practice Written practice.

Speaking using the target Writing sentences with the

language. target language.
We can practise through:
• Oral drills: the main purpose of the oral drills is to allow students to
practise saying the new structure accurately. Drills do not give very
meaningful practice but they help the students to pronounce the new
words correctly and gain confidence in saying them.

• Question and answer drills

• Do you like….? Yes I do.

• Gap filling
• Complete the gaps with the verbs in brackets in past simple:
• John ___________ to play football. (like)

• Transformation drills – used to practise different forms of the same

structure.
• They have a big house (She) ……… She has a big house
INTERACTIVE ORAL PRACTICE
• Information gap filling
• Students have to ask questions in order to find the missing information.

• Charts
• Students complete a chart with the missing information by asking questions to
their classmates.

• Games
• Asking questions using a specific tense, preposition, etc…

• Quizzes
• Asking using superlatives for instance: What is the highest mountain in Africa?
What is the longest river in Africa?

• Talking about themselves

• When I was younger I used to…….
• When I was in grade 4 I used to ……
PRODUCTION
• Students use the new grammar point in a meaningful but
free way.
 PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES
• Using pictures (from a picture students can produce sentences
using the language they have learned. The picture can be about
finding the differences, comparing two pictures, asking questions
to get information and so on)

• Role – play (teachers can ask students to role – play a specific

structure they have learned but they must use their own words to
perform the task)

• Story reconstruction (using a set of pictures we can ask

students to tell the story)
SOME GOOD HINTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR

• Try to provide a small library. One of the fastest ways of learning a

language is through reading. Books should match the students’
level and they should not be too thick.

• Fill the walls with leaflets, posters, students’ stories, and other
writing postcards, magazines pictures, interesting words or saying
in capital letter, etc.

• Whenever possible, chat with your students in English, in order to

expose them to more natural language. Do not think you are
wasting time.