Teacher in Development

Hat tip to the TEFLtastic blog  and a post about a TESOL revolution underway.

There’s not a single doubt in my mind about Grammar and my classroom: They should be together. Actively.

In my own experience learning Spanish as a second language, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity - and curse - of being immersed in the target language 24/7, 365 - for a grand total of almost 9 years.
The wonderful result: I’m pretty near fluent in Spanish. I can read, speak, and listen to most Spanish content at a native speaker’s level without much effort.

The curse: I never took a single Spanish class, nor learned about the grammar. In fact, if you were to offer me some Spanish grammar lessons, I’d likely turn you down…scared off by the potential for brain numbing boredom that is often associated with this content.

But I know deep down somewhere, that I need to learn how to properly construct my sentences. I need to learn some rules. I sense their lack, and know that - my writing especially - is suffering because I don’t know how everything works.

This is true for most everyone. Grammar needs to be in our classes, as Case underlines in his post. It’s a bad move to solely rely on exposing students to English, and over time expecting them to pick it up. Children, perhaps, would best respond to this method for fluency development, but at some point they will need grammar to help them organize and structure, adults even more so. 

Where I think teachers need to be careful is to not swing too far to the right in grammar instruction. Classes that are 100% grammar, are 100% boring. Even if you manage to keep your grammar work down to respectable doses, you still need to be careful about how you present and serve up your content.

It’s kind of ironic: the very thing we know we need to teach, and the very thing many students know they need in order to improve, is the very thing that can shut our brain off, and kill enthusiasm if served the wrong way.

So DO teach the grammar. Do make it a part of your class. But DO pay careful attention to keeping it interesting. Remember, cognitive science tells us that: