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Fondul Social European PROGRAMUL OPERAIONAL SECTORIAL DEZVOLTAREA RESURSELOR UMANE 2007-2013
POSDRU/87/1.3/S/62665

Formarea continu a cadrelor didactice pentru utilizarea resurselor informatice moderne n predarea eficient a limbii engleze i evaluarea la nivel european a competenelor lingvistice

Module 4:
TYPES OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR

Activity 1: Goals and Techniques for

Teaching Grammar Activity 2: Developing Grammar Activities Activity 3: Teaching Grammar Inductively vs. Deductively Activity 4: Tips for teaching grammar Activity 5: Educational links

Activity 1: Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar

Grammar should be taught in order to enable students to

communicate properly, that is to use with accuracy different grammar structures in their everyday interactions. Overt Grammar Instruction This technique focuses on rules, explanations and instructions given to the students upon different language forms.. The goal is for students to acquire grammatical competence by following the set of the target language rules It is a formal instruction that learners follow in order to attain accuracy.

Relevance of Grammar Instruction This issue relates to the Communicative Approach which focuses on language functions, not language as a set of rules. The activities are centered on learners ability to use language to communicate, to produce and understand sentences that are appropriate to a particular situation.

 Error Correction When it comes to this issue, teachers need to be careful not

to focus on error correction to the detriment of communication, as this will shake the students' confidence in their ability to use the language, and will probably determine students not to communicate any more for fear they will make mistakes There is disagreement among teachers about what, when, and how to correct, although error correction needs to be done in order to improve language acquisition. However, teachers can help their students by using error correction when students are doing activities that focus on development of new language skills but not when they are engaged in communicative activities.

 Task 1 - Comment on the following The goal of studying grammar is to make students aware not only of the typical constructions in a language, but also of the context in which the language forms are used.

 HOMEWORK Plan an activity teaching past tense

simple, using the following picture and sentences http://www.thephotoargus.com

 There (be) ..a great fire last night in an apartment

building near London. The fire (trap)..five people in their apartments. The firefighters (try).. to rescue them. Unfortunately, the five people (die) ..because the flames (be).too big. The fire last night also (kill)..a firefighter. His colleagues (not be able to)..save him. The police (come)..and (collect).evidence. The man in the picture (be).devastated. His brothers (live)..in that building too. Fortunately, they (leave)for Cairo two days ago. But the man (not know)about their leaving.

Activity 2: Developing Grammar Activities

For those courses that focus on grammatical forms in a

specified sequence, teachers need to develop activities that relate form to meaning and use: Describe the grammar structure, talking about form, meaning, and use, and give examples; Ask students to practice the grammar structure in communicative drills; Involve students in communicative tasks, providing opportunities to use the grammar structure;

 For those courses that follow a sequence of topics,

teachers need to develop activities that relate different topics to meaning and form. Language structures should be shown in authentic contexts so that they will cater for the learners different needs. Teachers need to provide oral or written materials (audiotape, reading selection) that relate to the topic: Review the grammar structure, using examples from the materials; Ask students to practice the grammar structure in communicative drills keeping to the topic; Ask students do a communicative task on the topic.

Teachers should keep in mind the three types of drills: Mechanical drills that focus on patterns or rules; they are not very useful as they do not resemble a real communication situation. Learners do not need to understand or communicate anything so such lessons are boring; Meaningful drills that focus on the correlation between form and meaning; from this point of view such drills can help students understand the grammar rules, but the impediment is that they have only one correct answer, so their resemblance to real communication is limited; Communicative drills that focus on the relationships among form, meaning, and use. In such drills students become aware of the mentioned relationship and develop their ability to use language for communicative purposes. Another advantage is that multiple correct responses are possible and students use the grammar point under consideration focusing on their own content and experience

 Task 1 Design a mechanical drill for Past

Perfect Simple.

 (an example of mechanical drills) Put the verbs

into Present Perfect Simple; use affirmative form: They (do)..their homework. Mary (wash)..the dishes. Mum (feed)..the cat. The teacher (come)into the classroom. I (guess).the correct answer. Mr. Jones (arrive).home from work. We (read).a contemporary novel. They (meet)..her at the station. I (have).dinner.

 Task 2 - Design a meaningful drill

for Present Simple.

 (an example of meaningful drill) Choose the correct

answer in each sentence: You dont / arent listening to me. Ana and Tom are / is waiting for us. The girls in our classroom didnt / arent enjoying the film. Whats that noise? The cat is / are mewing in the garden. Im not / amnt drinking pizza. It isnt / arent snowing heavily. You isnt / arent watching the film. The boys are / does swimming in the lake. Tommy is / am sleeping in the car.

 Task 3 - Consider another photograph and set tasks for

communicative drills

 (an example of communicative drill) What are

the children in this picture doing? http://learngoodenglish.com Use present continuous to make sentences referring to this image:

Activity 3: Teaching Grammar Inductively vs. Deductively Deductive grammar or rule-driven teaching
The learners are given the grammatical rule and they are

supposed to apply the rule to new sentences. They are typically expected to memorise the rule. The advantages of this kind of teaching are: -It is time-saving, as it focuses on a specific grammar point; -It involves a cognitive process in language acquisition; -This type of teaching can be related to the traditional way of teaching.

Inductive grammar teaching or rulediscovery teaching

It rejects the idea of giving the learners a ready-made

rule. The learners learn from discovering, from trying different things Through experimenting they figure out the grammatical rules all by themselves. The elicited students rules will then, if necessary, be corrected by the teacher, and the language structure practised.

 Teaching grammar inductively is favorable to

communicative acquisition and enables the learner acquire communicative competence. Learners need to know how to use language in context, when, where and how to use a grammatically correct sentence. An example could be: how to ask for directions; how to address people in different real life situations; how to respond to different requests, invitations, or apologies. Discovery techniques can make grammar lessons enjoyable

 Task 1 Design ONE activity for a grammar point

which is appropriate for deductive grammar teaching

 Here are two model sentences (e. g. focusing on countable and

uncountable nouns). Using a set of rules for this particular grammar structure, practice the presented grammar point; complete the blanks with SOME or AN: Model I drank SOME milk. I ate AN apple.

He asked for.information. The children played with stick. They decided to give meadvice. I recognized..old man in the street. The students have.American car. I have.appointment this evening. The Chinese people at our table ate .rice and vegetables. I read.paper on the bus. Mary got on the car. She didnt have.ticket.

 Task 2 - Design an activity for a certain grammar

structure which should be appropriate for inductive grammar teaching ; consider this photograph. http://www.gettyimages.com/EditorialImages/Sport

 EXAMPLE: Seven black-and-white photographs of the Beatles will be sold

next week.

Shakira will be awaited by her fans at the airport. The arrested man will be interrogated in two weeks time. They will be persuaded to go to that fancy party. How is this structure formed? What moment does this structure refer to? (present, past or

future) What does this structure mean?

Activity 4: Tips for teaching grammar

When teaching grammar, a teacher needs to take into consideration a

bound between examples and form, meaning, and context; Make sure you make use of the mother tongue while explaining; Explanations must be simple and clear; Provide students with plenty of examples of the grammatical structure; Make sure the learners understand when and how to use the presented grammatical point; Explanations must cover the majority of instances because students are sure to encounter exceptions along the way; Give the learners the opportunities to compare the grammar point to the same grammar structure in their mother tongue; Do not overdo the teaching of too many grammatical structures in one grammar lesson; it will be confusing for the students; Give students the chance of practicing by playing with the sentences so they can get a feel for the language; Language games can be fun and give students the opportunity to use a grammatical structure practically.

Activity 5: Educational links http://www.ego4u.com/en/cramup/grammar; http://www.englischhilfen.de/en/exercises_list/alle_grammar.ht m http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com http://www.englishclub.com http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk http://www.eslgold.com/grammar/teaching .html

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