Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình A GOOD GRAMMAR PRESENTATION For Teachers Of English As A Foreign Language Is a surprise As strange as it might seem, a disbelieving look, a "No, really??" or most of the class getting what you are trying to elicit wrong are all good signs in a grammar explanation- signs that you have really got their attention, that you are teaching them something they don't know yet, and that it is something they are likely to be something they are still thinking about when they leave class and so remember for a longer time than usual Ways to achieve this sense of surprise include contradicting their previous teacher or lower level textbook, contrasting with L1, contrasting spoken and written English grammar, and contrasting prescriptive grammar and how the language is really used nowadays Something turning out to be much easier than they originally thought is also a nice surprise! Is interactive Ways of getting students involved in the grammar explanation stage include: getting them to give you example sentences from their imaginations, previous conversations or the textbook; eliciting the names of grammatical forms; getting them to match grammatical names, example sentences and meanings; getting students to prepare grammar presentations for the class for homework; using guided discovery tasks they work through in pairs; and deliberately making mistakes they can correct you on Is copied down After a student has understood your grammar explanation, the next stage should be copying it down You can ensure that everyone has a chance to copy it down accurately by having the pause for copying written into your lesson plan, making sure nobody copies before you want them to so that they join in the eliciting and don't make others feel guilty for copying down later, and putting your OHP sheets etc somewhere students can see them after class to compare their own versions to Is easy to copy down You can make this easier by putting all the text on the board into a table (e.g columns for tense, example sentence and meaning, and three rows for the three past tenses), using very simple time lines and sketches, limiting the amount of text, and giving them a gapped version of the grammar presentation to copy the important things off the board into Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình Can be easily referred to As well as something that is easy to understand and easy to copy down, you will want to make sure that the grammar explanation is something that the students and teacher can easily refer to during later grammar practice and error correction stages To achieve this you will need to make sure that the grammar explained is exactly the same as is used later in the lesson You can also make it easy to refer to by keeping it up on the board (in which case you will need to make sure when you write it that there is room around it to write other things that come up), saving it as an OHP slide you can put up when you need it, or by making students write it in a separate grammar part of their notebooks Is actually referred to The easiest way of making sure that students actually refer to the grammar presentation later in the lesson is to make some of the answers to the exercises you have given them exactly the same words as you used in the grammar explanation The same thing can also be done with useful phrases for communicative activities, or for sentences from the homework You can also encourage its use by getting students to refer back to it every time you error correction on that grammar point in future lessons Stays up on the board This point is mainly just one aspect of the points above, but you will also need to make sure that at least part of the grammar presentation can stay up on the board without giving too much away- for example by erasing key words from the example sentences so they can't copy the whole of the next grammar exercise straight from the board or by briefly making it unavailable with paper stuck over it with magnets or sellotape or by turning off the OHP Is at the right time in the lesson There are two parts to thinking about this- making sure the students are alert enough when the grammar explanation comes to understand it and remember it, and making sure that it fits in with the rest of the lesson You can make sure they are alert by making the grammar explanation near the beginning of the lesson, perhaps after a quick warmer The end of the lesson is the second most alert period, with the middle being the worst You can add to this alertness by making them need the grammar by getting them used to a lesson structure where practice always follows a grammar explanation, or by asking them to a task where the language could be useful first as in TTT and some versions of TBA Is at the right stage of the lesson Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình This depends very much on what your teaching approach is and on the specific grammar point For example, you want to introduce the grammar point after the students have had a chance to use a task or text where it could be used and so know why they need the language, or will they feel "safer" if you introduce it from the start? Do you want to tackle it after revising the most recent or most similar grammar point, or is there the chance you will get bogged down in that and not be able to concentrate on the new point? Which stage of the lesson grammar explanations come in can often be a compromise with the timing of the lesson in other ways For example, lots of revision and seeing the language in context might put the grammar explanation right in the middle of the class when students are least alert 10 Is at the right point in the day Similar to being at the right point in the lesson, students are usually most alert first thing in the morning, with the second most alert time being in other parts of the morning, the next being late in the evening and the least alert period being in the hour or two after lunch 11 Is at the right point in the week Similar to the points above, for a particularly difficult or important grammar point the beginning and end are good and the middle is bad in terms of alertness, but you will also need to take into account having a chance to practice it enough before they forget it all over the weekend 12 Is at the right point in the course Ditto A particularly big, difficult or important grammar point should be dealt with near the beginning of a course when the students are still keen and unconfused by other input, and if possible the same thing should be revised right at the end of the course after the rest of the less troublesome points This approach of putting the most important grammar first often doesn't match with a step by step approach to grammar, and how you compromise between the two can depend on things like how likely the students are to actually use that grammar outside the classroom, how possible it is to explain the grammar without studying more "basic" forms first, and how much they will need their confidence boosted with easier points before tackling something big 13 Is at the right point in their language development The difficulty of choosing to tackle a grammar point just by when the students are most alert is that their brains still might not be ready to take that particular grammar point in This is often connected to the idea of Natural Order (the theory that both L1 and L2 language learners make progress with grammar points in a predictable fashion), but sometimes is more just simple logic of whether it is easier to explain the use of will for predictions before or after teaching the use of will for conditionals Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình 14 Comes at the right interval since the last connected grammar explanation Another factor worth bearing in mind when putting grammar into a syllabus is how long it will take students to really absorb a grammar point and therefore be ready for the next step with it This factor can both shorten and lengthen the amount of time you wait For example, students might be able to produce the first conditional at the end of the lesson but for them to really get a subconscious feeling for what it means and how it is used they will probably need at least another couple of weeks of chances to mull on it, use it in conversation and/ or see it in context before they will benefit from more conscious examination of this or a related grammar point (e.g will for predictions or the second conditional) At the same time, the theory of Natural Order suggests that however much time and help we give students, they will still make errors with the Present Simple, so we shouldn't get stalled on that before we move onto forms we can contrast it with like the Simple Past or Present Continuous just because they are still making mistakes 15 Comes at the right interval since the last unconnected grammar explanation As well as needing time to absorb the last connected or contrasting grammar point, students might just need a bit of a rest for their brains after even a totally unrelated grammar or even vocabulary explanation in order to make sure they have a clear space in their heads and the energy for the next grammar explanation Ways of giving them a rest whilst still improving their English include mechanical tasks like drilling, skills development like reading and listening, fluency tasks where they can use the language they already know, and other kinds of revision 16 Is for the most useful language at that point As well as looking at what language students are mentally ready to learn, we also need to look at what language they need This can be defined by what they need for their work or studies, what they need for an EFL or other exam, what they need in order to cope with the next class they are going to go into, what they need to catch up with the better students in this class, what they need in order to boost their motivation, what they need to be able to understand classroom instructions, what they need in order to be ready for the next grammar point, what they need in order to understand important functional language (e.g Can for ability leading onto Can for requests), what they need in order to use a particular communicative skill (e.g relative clauses for talking your way around a word you don't know), or what they need in order to benefit from English that is all around them (e.g popular songs or station announcements in English) 17 Is something students understand the need for Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình A teacher who has decided a particular grammar point is what students need will also need to make sure that students identify that need This can be achieved by some explanation from the teacher ("With this grammar you will be able to "), by doing a communicative activity where that grammar would be useful before you present it, or, even better, something that is obvious to students straightaway as something they can use inside or outside the classroom 18 Is the right length This usually means short, so that they can write it all down in their notebooks and there is plenty of time for practice Sometimes, however, grammar presentations can be too short You might need to plan for extra example sentences if they don't understand the ones you have chosen and/ or an extra little tricky bit of that grammar if they knew all the rest of it before you started the presentation 19 Includes revision This could be revision of the form you are contrasting it with (e.g Going to when presenting Will), revision of the grammatical forms it is similar to (e.g Present Continuous or Past Continuous when presenting Future Continuous), or revision of a different meaning of the same form (Present Continuous for Present and Future) 20 Gives the students something new One of the biggest criticisms of PPP is that the teacher often ends up presenting language that the students already know You can make sure that you are adding something new by gauging what students know as you elicit from them and then add one of the extra back up points you have prepared just in case Possible back up points include exceptions (e.g state verbs when presenting the continuous) and extra meanings (e.g Present Simple when the word makes something true in "I name this ship" or "I solemnly swear) 21 Gives the students a sense of anticipation From your own experience of being taught grammar at school, it might seem unrealistic that a class of students could be on the edge of their seats waiting to see how a grammar explanation turns out There are, however, plenty of techniques to ensure that One is to make sure that something about the grammar explanation is completely new to them (see other points) Another is to give them a spoken or written task they cannot achieve properly without the grammar and let them try it again after your explanation In a similar way, starting a grammar presentation with a collection of real student mistakes from that class is great for getting their attention, Perhaps the most effective is to start with a statement that what they thought about the grammar before is (at least in part) wrong Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình 22 Is asked for by the students This is an example of the point above The important thing to aim for is the letter ‘s', i.e students asking (or at least wanting to know) rather than just one student If more than one student asks for the same grammar explanation, then that is the ultimate sign that you have planned the lesson perfectly Again, the best way of achieving this is to give them a task where certain grammar is necessary to complete it Please note that many tasks in textbooks and communication games books are perfectly doable with much lower level language than the level of the book, and research suggests that at least some of your students will be perfectly happy with having dealt with such a task in pidgin English and so will be unlikely to listen carefully to any further explanation The secret, then, is to design an activity where it comes to an end without a successful outcome without the language you are about to present, which as mentioned in a point above should be something that is in at least part new to them It is very difficult to design a free communication task where particular language is absolutely vital, so this is generally easier with a comprehension question that most people will get wrong because of grammatical reasons (sometimes available in EFL exams like IELTS and TOEIC), or pairwork tasks where students try to achieve a language-based task together Examples of the latter include grammar auctions and pairwork grammar correction tasks where one student has the correct version for each pair of sentences 23 Is something the students want to use straightaway Another advantage of giving students a task that stops half way through or comes to an unsuccessful end until they get the grammar is that they are likely to want to turn straight back to the task at hand and finish it off successfully with their new knowledge As with anything students unguided by a teacher, this is likely to increase how much they learn 24 Uses a familiar format In order to make sure that students can concentrate on the grammar being explained rather than the explanation itself, it is good to develop a familiar format of grammar explanations so that students instantly understand (consciously or unconsciously) what each part of your explanation means Things to standardize include the colours of pens (red= name of tense etc), the layout of board (you always use tables and the right column is always the meaning of the grammar etc), the use of names and symbols (writing out "noun" or "subject verb" in full or just using first letters etc.), and gestures (hand over the shoulder to illustrate "past", always exactly the same hand positions to illustrate each preposition etc.) 25 Breaks the format Once you have set up a format, it becomes time to break it This can be done systematically in steps so that they gain the ability to understand Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình more and more difficult grammar explanations (moving from labelling just SVO to labelling the adverb, noun, pronoun etc.) or just to add a bit of variety to get their attention (the use of amusing pictures, new technology etc.) 26 Is visual This makes a grammar explanation catch the eye more, cuts down on the amount of difficult language you need to explain the grammar, caters well to students who have a visual learning style, allows you to approach the same grammar for several different directions, and can be easier to copy down and recall than the part of the grammar explanation that has words Probably the most effective way of using pictures is to have a striking and memorable image such as a famous TV commercial or painting that the whole lesson is built around and students can use to recall the grammar point by picturing the image Other techniques involving a visual element include the use of different colour pens to mean different things, time lines, simple stick man drawings and using flashcards 27 Is active This can partly be a case of getting the students involved by asking you questions or joining in when you are eliciting, and partly a case of making sure the physical movement and noise you can easily build into a warmer doesn't die to be replaced by still bodies staring blankly at the board when this stage comes This can be achieved by using gestures to illustrate grammatical forms (e.g pointing forward = future), example sentences ("I was jumping when you shouted stop"), word and sentence stress, and right and wrong answers 28 Is personalized As with many things in language learning, making sure the example sentences used in grammar explanations are personalised to the students can really help them understand more easily, and make the language more memorable and obviously useful Ways of personalising the language include statements about individuals in the class ("William is next to John"), statements about the teacher ("He is wearing a pink tie"), or statements about the class as a whole ("Most people live in a flat") Another way of looking at personalisation is telling students that the language covered is aimed particularly at their weaknesses, most common mistakes, upcoming test, jobs or studies 29 Is topical Another way to make any language stick in the mind is to make it connected to the particular time and day it is being explained on In a similar way to using a striking picture, many people find they can then help recall the relevant grammar point by bring back to mind the time it Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình was explained Ways of making it topical include using recent news, celebrity gossip, weather, seasonal changes, natural events, national holiday etc as an example sentence 30 Is memorable The tips about being visual, physical, personalised and topical above can all really help with making a grammar explanation and therefore the grammar you are explaining more memorable Other tips relevant to this dealt with elsewhere include making sure students are awake and ready to take it in The use of humour and making sure you connect the grammar to things the students already know can also help a lot Teaching grammar in context is also important 31 Is true Although this one is very obvious, how difficult it is to achieve in practice is quite complex The first problem is that the most accurate grammatical explanation is probably not the easiest to understand, easiest to remember or easiest to copy down, for example because it will need to include lots of exceptions It might also be the case that the theory that students are mentally prepared to learn and that covers the most important uses for them is not the same as the most strictly correct definition of a grammar point You may also find that the grammatical explanation that explains the language you are going to cover in the most generalizable way contradicts something you said in a previous lesson It is also possible that grammar experts don't even agree on what the truest explanation is, or that there is still a gap between what most people say and what most people think you should say A practical way of working your way through this minefield is to choose lots of grammar explanations for the point you are going to teach and then to put them in order of how generally true they are You can then reject or change the explanations by how well they fit in with the level and needs of your students until there is only the one or two best compromise explanations left 32 Is easy to understand Ways of ensuring this include the use of gestures and visuals, but you will need to make sure that you introduce even these simple techniques for the first time during easy grammar explanations and that you use the same ones consistently The same is true of grammatical terminology such as the names of types of words and the names of tenses You can also simplify this point by using grammatical jargon that is most similar to Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình that used in the students' first language, school system or dictionaries For example, many students know SVO without knowing the words Subject Verb Object, and the same is true of dictionary abbreviations such as (n) for noun and (adj) for adjective 33 Is easy to reproduce As well as being easy to copy down, a grammatical explanation should be something that students can easily repeat back to you when it comes to eliciting an explanation of the same grammar point for revision or to contrast it with another grammatical form For example, you can make the grammatical terminology more memorable by explaining why an adverb is called an adverb and what the Simple in Present Simple means, so they can use those words the same way you next time you ask them to correct their own or their partner's mistakes 34 Is linked in theme to the rest of the class For example, you could make the character names and place names of your example sentences the same as in the textbook, use example sentences straight out of a listening or reading text, use student mistakes from a previous speaking exercise, or give sentences that could be useful in a future speaking exercise This not only makes how the language links to the rest of the lesson clear, but can make everything dealt with in that lesson sit together as one memory in students' heads and so make recall easier You can consciously use this effect in future classes by eliciting error correction with comments like "What was happening when the Italian waiter Paolo came into the room? Can you remember?" 35 Is relevant to the tasks in the rest of the lesson/ course The most well-known ways of tying in with the course is by choosing suitable practice tasks and (if you are using PPP) making free speaking tasks ones students could use that same language in Other things you might want to look at is tying the grammar in with a present or future class graded reader, end of term student presentations, project work, a production (free speaking) task a couple of weeks later when they have had a chance to really get to know the language, a future reading or listening, or GTKY (getting to know you) tasks at the beginning of the course at the next level up 36 Helps the next grammar explanation For example, explaining "going to" as "a plan i.e something in your head" in today's lesson can help explain Present Continuous as "something in your diary" when you introduce it in next week's lesson 37 Stretches the teacher Ways of making sure you are as interested in the grammar explanation as the students are and therefore pass on some of your passion include Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình introducing new technology such as a video extract, teaching an exception to the rule that you have always tried to avoid before, dealing with the stages of a grammar lesson in a different way (e.g TTT instead of PPP), teaching the same grammar but to a different level (all the uses of Present Simple to an Advanced class or Simple Past before Present Continuous to a Beginner class), using an explanation from a different book, finding the best explanation from all the possible books, adding phonemic symbols to the drilling of the grammar, and copying the grammar presentation of another teacher you have observed 38 Looks at the grammar in a different way As well as adding a little something to the understanding of the students each time they see the same point, looking at the same grammar in a totally different way in the hope that is suddenly clicks in a different part of their brain is always worth a try to maintain interest and boost learning Methods include combining grammar points in unusual ways (e.g a lesson on all the Continuous tenses to cover Future Continuous instead of a future tenses review) and teaching grammar just as sentence stems ("If I were you I'd ") 39 Looks at grammar in a different way Even better than the point above is if you have manage it is to get the students to reconsider grammar in general, e.g by looking at the different uses in spoken and written English, looking at the point where collocations merge with grammar, or looking at how quickly grammar has changed In some classes you can also get the same effect with the much simpler techniques of making grammar interesting and explaining it without the use of translation 40 Is a myth buster This is another way of stating a couple of the points elsewhere If you can choose a common language myth such as something that is usually badly taught or that is different in old fashioned prescriptive grammar books, that will make sure that all the students in your class are learning something new and that you will really get their attention 41 Takes into account common student difficulties For example, is designed with difficulties in mind such as commonly confused grammar, common misconceptions, common mistakes in EFL exams, or common mistakes in academic writing 42 Takes into account L1 For example, deals with grammatical forms that look the same in English and L1 but have different meanings or uses, and is designed in such as way as to subtly point out the differences- also possible without using L1 if you have an English-only policy Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình 43 Takes into account how that grammar is usually taught If 90% percent of the grammar books around the world teach that you must always say "If I were you ", you'll need to know that before deciding whether to give them a jolt with the expression "I was you " or just to go with the flow on that point so you can teach something more important such as Second Conditionals in general 44 Takes into account the education the students have already had This includes taking into account the grammar explanations they have probably already had as a basis for you to build on, a source of your myth-busting surprise, or just a warning to yourself on possible problems Knowing about how grammar is dealt with in their country can also give you some information on how much grammar terminology they are likely to know, their attitude to the conscious teaching of grammar, the use of L1 in grammar teaching, and their attitudes to prescriptive and descriptive grammar How they were taught their own language can sometimes be as relevant to these points as how they were taught English Please note, however, that many people will go into an English class they have chosen precisely because they expect the opposite approach to grammar to the one they had at school 45 Isn't contradicted by what you are going to in the book Despite the suggestions above on giving students the truest grammatical explanation from the best of all possible sources and one that contradicts common misconceptions, if you then go onto a grammar practice exercise in the book that is based on a much more simplified or old- fashioned view of the language, you are in for trouble Ways of combining your best practice with the textbook's less than best practice is to use the exercise before the grammar presentation TTT-style so you can then correct the book to get their attention and then carry on with a better grammar practice exercise you have written or found elsewhere Another possibility is to get students to just skip controversial questions in the book, perhaps by giving it to them as a photocopied page with the dodgy bits Tippexed out 46 Is in context You can make the language easier to understand and more memorable by making sure the sentence on the board has as much context as possible This can be achieved by basing it on a previous book listening or reading or a previous communication activity, or by the tips above on personalisation, making it topical, using character names etc 47 Is not swamped by other grammar This includes making sure they have had a good break since the last grammar point as mentioned above, but also making sure small but Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình important grammar points seem more important than they small This can be achieved by making it the only grammar point of that lesson or week, or by linking it together with several other related grammar points 48 Is adaptable For example, is adaptable if students ask you questions half way through by leaving space on the board to add extra stuff 49 Involves everyone in the class If there is one student who is too shy to speak out in whole class activities like eliciting grammar or one student who dominates all grammar presentations due to level or personality, you can tackle this by using guided grammar discovery tasks in their books or on worksheets and helping out each group individually Alternatively, you can give parts for the grammar presentation like the example sentences and names of sentences to different people or groups, and ask them to cooperate to put it all together 50 Is the right level for everyone in the class This means the right level in terms of which grammar point you present, which of the possible uses of and exceptions to that grammar point you deal with, what language you use to describe it, what approach you use to presenting the language first or not, and what texts and practice activities you use before and after 51 Uses the learning styles of everyone in the class This can generally be achieved by using the visual and active techniques described above, but how much you use of each of those techniques and others such as setting grammar up like a logic puzzle will depend on individual students and classes 52 Ties in with the teaching philosophy of the school This could be a case of thinking about how to tie it in with the use or not of L1, not letting grammar explanations interfere with student talking time, following a school syllabus, sticking to the textbook, cutting down on photocopies, getting through as much grammar as possible, or providing lots of student correction Some of these can be difficult to tie in with the points I have made elsewhere, but most of them are possible 53 Ties in with the teaching philosophy of the textbook To make life easier on yourself when you first start using a textbook, it is best to look at what its approach to grammar is (prescriptive, descriptive, discovery, TTT, PPP, (over) simplified, based on a particular native speaker model, mainly spoken grammar, mainly written grammar, taught in context, taught in isolation, taught consciously, taught unconsciously, Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình building up grammar terminology, avoiding grammar terminology, step by step, and/ or needs based) and try to teach the first few lessons that way, maybe by following the teachers' book as closely as you can bear to Otherwise you might have problems with practice exercises that not fit in with the explanation you have just given, discovery exercises in the book that reproduce what you have just done on the board, or even a grammar explanation that contradicts yours Students might also believe the book more than you until they have learnt to trust you 54 Stretches the teaching philosophy of the textbook Once you have worked out what the textbook is trying to with grammar and how much you are happy with it, it is time to throw some adaptation into the mix Easy techniques include getting photocopiable communication games from elsewhere to use as practice or production tasks, mixing up the stages, replacing the grammar explanation there with one on the board, using a different warmer, and using a different prompt (e.g a picture) to get the grammar presentation started 55 Ties in with your preferred teaching style For example, if you have a very dynamic classroom personality, trying to subtly guide groups of students through a textbook grammar discovery task might not work when they are looking up from their books all the time to see which of your jokes the other groups are laughing about- in which case a whiteboard presentation might be better 56 Stretches your teaching style When you and a new class have got used to you teaching them the way you like, it's time to make a change or two This can sometimes be as simple as trying to follow the book more closely Other possibilities include using different supplementary materials, planning the language to cover less and responding more to student needs on the spot, and letting the students give the grammar presentations 57 Doesn't overload the brain As even a good grammar explanation can take a lot of mental power to understand, remember and use in future activities, any parts of the brain that are being used to work out other things that are going on will sap that vital energy away Possible distracters include names of unfamiliar or difficult to pronounce people and places in the example sentences (e.g "Jose went to Gdansk" for the Simple Past), needing some logical power to transfer the situations in the text into example sentences (e.g because the text is a murder mystery), grammar terminology, trying to remember previous grammar points that are used elsewhere in the example sentences, unfamiliar vocabulary, pronunciation difficulties, the teacher's handwriting, new or only half remembered phonemic symbols, difficult timelines or timelines used for the first time, difficult or unfamiliar Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình gestures meant to illustrate the grammar, and jokes and other examples of going off topic 58 Shows similarities If you can show that the Present Continuous, Past Continuous and Future Continuous are all basically the same thing shifted along in time a little, that can mean the class is both a new grammar point and revision, that the explanation will be easier, that you can reuse timelines etc that they already know and so reduce the mental load, and hopefully that the grammar will stick together in their brains and so be easier to recall and to use 59 Shows differences The human mind seems to respond well to oversimplified dualities like "good and evil" and "black and white", so contrasting two tenses, "make and do", "in and on" etc should easily stick in their minds 60 Is not replacing something more useful This not only means not interfering with another more important grammar point such as a little point that is usually left out or revision that would be more important than something new, but also on whether more vocabulary, skills development or functional language might be what your students need for their daily lives, to pass an exam or to get up to the next level rather than tacking more grammar at all 61 Teaches students how to pick up other grammar they come across/ makes students self-sufficient language learners To justify the conscious teaching of grammar to those who still think that it is better picked up the way a child does in L1, we need to show not only that students learn each grammar point we teach better than just by reading examples of it in a text, but also that they will have more chance of picking up other grammar points that they see in texts because of the skills they have developed through talking about grammar Techniques to achieve this include encouraging student questions, taking a discovery approach to grammar, and teaching them to use self-study grammar resources such as the grammar summary section at the back of their textbooks to homework with a grammar point you haven't tackled in class yet 62 Combines prescriptive and descriptive grammar Students will need to know not only what things native speakers don't say, but also the things native speakers say but others don't approve of and so could get them in trouble in a language test, academic paper or translation of a company brochure 63 Doesn't take too much preparation Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình Ways of cutting down on preparation include: keeping the OHPs for previous grammar presentations; keeping laminated picture resources to elicit example sentences; having files of supplementary materials arranged by grammar point; and having lots of reference books to refer to for timelines, grammar explanations and simple drawings 64 Is given with you facing the students This can be difficult to achieve when giving a whiteboard presentation, but techniques include using an OHP, guiding them through a discovery task in their books or on a worksheet, and explaining each point once orally facing them and again (maybe with different example sentences or just a summary of what you said) on the board 65 Boosts their confidence This can be achieved by eliciting things they knew already but making a grammar explanation they didn't know they knew out of it, by tackling something that seems difficult but making it very simple, by emphasizing how simple it is, and by emphasizing how well they have done to understand it and to contribute when you are eliciting 66 Reminds them of something One of the easiest ways of making a grammar explanation stick in students' memories is to make it stick to something they already knew before the class started, e.g a song they know the lyrics to, maybe even one they did in kindergarten, or a famous quote or film line 67 Explains something they have always wondered This could also be the explanation of grammar in a line they already know, or an explanation of something they have always been taught as a collocation, sentence stem or functional language for use in restaurants etc that doesn't fit in with the other grammar they have been taught 68 Takes into account what nationalities students will be speaking to/ EIL This could mean whether they will be encountering more British English or American English, or which non-native speakers they are likely to communicate with through the immigrant communities or business dealings When taking into account which non-native speakers they will be speaking to, that gives you the option of telling them what mistakes people from that country usually make so that they notice the grammar each time they hear the mistake- meaning they not only don't copy the mistake but actually learn that grammar point more easily Alternatively, you might want to avoid a grammar point as something that only native speakers use and therefore of little use to students who only communicate with other non-native speakers Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình 69 Talks about real usage For example, by saying "this grammar also exists, but 95% percent of the time we use this form" This can help make the distinction between two forms that seem interchangeable, help students concentrate on the most useful language, and be a way of introducing grammar that is different to what other teachers have shown them without being too aggressive about it 70 Is fun Hopefully the sixty nine points above haven't made grammar presentations as daunting for the teacher as it was for the students before these kinds of things were taken into account As with all parts of teaching, having a good atmosphere in class with smiling, joking and feeling like a group working together is at least as important as any more easily analysable technique like the ones described here Copyright © 2008 Alex Case Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com Why your students still make mistakes with grammar they know well Whether your approach to grammar is to drill it incessantly, explain it thoroughly and/ or hope students will pick it up through exposure to the language, unless you know a magic method that is not explained in any of the popular TEFL books you must have had at least one student who after years of English study still occasionally says "My father have " and makes you wonder briefly if you know what you are doing in the classroom at all The bad news is that I don't have that magic formula either, but the good news is that I have found that examining why students continue to make the same errors despite our best efforts can help you make little steps in the right direction and give a sense of perspective Possible reasons why students keep on making the same mistakes They are not ready yet There is a lot of evidence to suggest that language learners, like native speaker children, pick up grammar points and stop making mistakes with them in a very predetermined order For example, third person s mistakes (I do/ he does) tend to persist in both If this is the problem (if indeed you think of it as a problem), the only solution is patience! They don't realise it's the same grammar Although you may be surprised when students who have finally stopped saying "He has to goes" still say "He must goes" because both should be infinitives, it may be that the students consciously or subconsciously don't put the two pieces of grammar together as one The best solution Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình would be to work on making the points as closely associated in students' heads as possible, e.g doing a lesson on all uses of infinitives, teaching a very general rule, or even pairing questions up where they have to fill the gaps in pairs of sentences with the same word They are overloaded If the students are making elementary errors with something they usually don't, it could be because their brains are busier than usual with other things, e.g coping with the rules of the language game, digesting the latest language point, sorting out a logic or problem solving puzzle, or concentrating on another point like their pronunciation Learning to cope with many different demands on the brain at the same time is a good thing, as it is what you need to with the language in real life, but make sure all language input and correction are left to a time when they can concentrate on the language more They are overusing one point for good reasons In both native and non-native speakers, the process of learning a new grammar point seems to often include a period of overextending its use For example, even people who know the Simple Past well will start using the Past Perfect in situations they would have used (correctly) the Simple Past until the day they studied the new tense Apart from understanding that this is part of the process and being patient, ways to tackle this could be to give them lots of controlled practice of the new grammar point, come back to the original grammar point they confuse it with a few weeks or months later, and concentrate on correcting one area of confusion at a time They are having a bad day Anyone who has ever lived in a foreign country can tell you there are days when all your language skills seem to disappear Again, this is something they will need to be able to cope with eventually Apart from trying to take away their tiredness and take their minds of their troubles by giving them something easy to or doing a physical warmer, maybe the best approach is just to be less demanding on that day This is also a good opportunity to practice your skills in spotting the difference between little slip ups they would usually get right and are probably best ignored on "one of those days", and things they really don't know that are more worth some correction and explanation They don't think that grammar point is important Consciously or subconsciously, native and non-native speakers tend to put a low priority on stopping mistakes with language that does not convey a lot of information- i.e if they can make that mistake and still be understood putting more effort into it can wait until later This natural reaction can actually be a sign that they are right and you should move quickly on from the Present Simple to giving them the stacks of Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình vocabulary they will need to reach the next level There is a chance, though, that they are just missing the way in which they could be misunderstood The general principle here is to include possible misunderstandings in all error correction If you can't so, maybe that is a sign that grammar point can wait until later That point is more difficult for them than it seems The reason why students pick up some grammar points more quickly than the teacher expects and others more slowly is often connected to their first language, e.g confusions between different uses of similar forms or grammatical forms that don't have an equivalent in L1 Even teachers who know the language the students speak can be miss out on particular aspects of this, such as students who speak a particular dialect or different language at home, or grammatical forms that only educated speakers of that language would be familiar with Responses to this include rearranging the syllabus to leave more difficult points for particular students until later, concentrating on the particular areas of difficulty they have when the time comes, and approaching the same grammar point several different ways with gaps in between to let their subconscious get to work It's an attempt to be informal It may be that in the student's native language grammatical forms are dropped when they are speaking informally, in a similar way to "No way!" or "Long time no see" in English Common examples that students sometimes reproduce in English include dropping the subject or using a different tense Although this is usually subconscious, it can be reinforced by the language they hear in English pop music and in certain English dialects Depending on their level, you might be able to a lesson on substituting these with informal forms we really use or even doing a whole lesson on the more general grammatical changes between informal speech and formal speech or writing Accuracy is not their priority Again, there is a chance they are right on this one and teaching them how to express something they couldn't at all with a new grammatical form, new vocabulary, or new functional language might be better than spending more time trying to root out basic errors If, however, you think lack of accuracy is the main reason they are not being understood, are not ready for the next level, cannot transfer speaking skills into writing skills or will badly on a test, it is worth letting them know Clearly showing what effect mistakes can have on communication with dialogues with communication breakdowns etc can also help 10 They just have that kind of personality Just as it is no surprise when some perfectionists become obsessive about getting their sentences right, there are some people whose outgoing Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình nature, slapdash character or hyperactive speaking style just seems to make it difficult for them to stop for a minute and pay attention to what they are saying Although this is not the only example of a situation when students' language skills could be best improved by them changing their personality, this is no easier to here than in any other case! Ways to get them to concentrate on accuracy more include making error correction fun with grammar auctions etc, giving them an easy speaking task they only need simple language for and can't get distracted from, and forcing them to slow down to speak to someone who is a lower level (either in reality or by their partner playing that role) Why your students don't want to pairwork Perhaps the most common cultural clash in the English as a second or foreign language classroom is between teachers who want to get the amount of pairwork up to the maximum possible and students who want it to be less or even zero By looking at why those feelings sometimes (or even often) occur I hope to be able to give some tips on how to reduce that resistance and prompt some discussion on whether the students may not sometimes be right Here is a list of possible reasons (in no particular order) with some tips on how to deal with those points Reasons why students might be resistant to pairwork They are afraid of picking up mistakes from their partner This is one of the most common concerns and, quite frankly, sometimes a justified one Ways to avoid this complaint include providing lots of error correction during and after pairwork, making sure the highest and lowest students don't (often) work together and providing a model for language they can use during the pairwork They think they won't get enough correction This one is another common fear Ways of including enough error correction for those that want lots without interfering with your lesson plan include spending time with their group during the pairwork, giving written feedback on errors at the end of the class and offering extra homework or suggested self-study practice on the most common error of the day They want practice of speaking out in front of a group of people I've never come across this one as far as I know, but it could happen Reactions include using pairwork as preparation for a whole class speaking activity such as a debate, presentation or meeting They want to speak to and find out about the teacher Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh Trương Trọng Bình This is fairly common when the teacher is a native speaker and the students haven't met many native speakers before Ways to indulge this interest without the teacher becoming the centre of the whole class include getting them to work in pairs to write questions to ask you, getting one of the pair to pretend they are you and then check if the things they said are correct, doing a reading on the teacher's hometown, or the teacher joining a different group for each activity They just don't like speaking Although students won't often say they don't want to speak in class, many students understandably find it difficult and uncomfortable This can manifest itself in a protest against pairwork Ways round it include also using pairwork for non-speaking tasks such as comparing answers together, starting all pairwork with very controlled speaking such as reading out a script, and using pairs to help each other in group speaking work, e.g working as a tag team or preparing what they are going to say together There are personality clashes between partners Ways round this include using threes instead of pairs to take away some of the tension, changing pairs after each activity, working with one of the clashing students as a pair if there are an odd number of students in the classroom, and using roleplays so they are in effect working with someone who has taken on a different and less annoying personality They feel more shy in pairs than speaking out in front of the class This is usually the other way round, but can happen if there are differences in gender, age, status level, language level, personality or approach to the language (e.g one student correcting the grammar of another), or if one of the students is flirting with the other Again, careful selection or shuffling of pairs and groups can help in larger classes, as can roleplays and games They feel the teacher is being lazy and not doing their job This is another unspoken concern, but it does exist- either because the teacher is not doing what the students think should be their job such as modelling or error correction, or because you seem to be inactive while the students are doing all the work whilst speaking As well as busying yourself with closely monitoring groups, writing down the language they use, some selective correction etc while the pairwork is going on, make sure you all the other things they think you should such as error correction in other parts of the lesson They are a class clown, teacher's pet or other show off that wants the teacher's or everyone's attention ... haven''t made grammar presentations as daunting for the teacher as it was for the students before these kinds of things were taken into account As with all parts of teaching, having a good atmosphere... approach the same grammar for several different directions, and can be easier to copy down and recall than the part of the grammar explanation that has words Probably the most effective way of. .. Object, and the same is true of dictionary abbreviations such as (n) for noun and (adj) for adjective 33 Is easy to reproduce As well as being easy to copy down, a grammatical explanation should