Grammar and Your Classroom
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:
Brains love the unusual, the strange, and the unexpected. And they love emotions as well: Surprise. Curiosity, and Fun.
But the real trick is to employ the above with your next grammar lesson…
Nice to see you posting again.
Your post really resonates with me. I still struggle, as a teacher of Spanish as a second language, what the balance of grammar and language is. I would caution, however, that I do and always have found grammar fascinating - never boring. I do realize that many of my students vary in degrees of mental energy, memory retrieval and attention/focus. So, for all of these reasons, an over-zealous emphasis on grammar is counter-productive, and, counter-intuitive.
Comment by Miss Profe — March 9, 2008 @ 6:29 pm
My name is CJ miyake and I teach English in Japan. I created a website for ESL and EFl teachers to share teaching ideas. I was hoping you would stop by and share some of yours! If you do get a chance, please let me know what you think. If you have any questions or suggestions, I would love those as well.
feedback@oshieroo.com
Comment by CJ — March 11, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
I feel a bit guilty about following up a thank you for one mention with a request for another, but that’s life I guess- the more you give the more people take. Anyhow, any help in spreading the word on my adventures with a certain UK-based TEFL course provider would be worth several Brownie points in the TEFL afterlife
Thanks
Alex
Comment by Alex Case — March 13, 2008 @ 8:54 am
You’re absolutely right about grammar, as a balance needs to be maintained in the classroom. Too much grammar, and the class is just really boring. No grammar, and students lack the building blocks to understand more difficult sentence constructions later in their studies.
Students best remember the target language when they get to use it. Present the grammar, drill the grammar, and then provide increasingly free activities for the class to use the language naturally. They also get to tie the target language into past lessons, and to talk about what interests them.
Good post!
Comment by Chris Cotter — May 26, 2008 @ 8:27 pm