GRAMMAR TEACHING

TEACHING GRAMMAR FROM RULES

Teaching grammar from rules means teaching in a deductive approach. The teacher starts the class usually with some examples which are used to explain a rule, if it is necessary in the mother tongue. In such a lesson we can include all the skills, and the fact that we explain the rules in the student’s mother tongue does not mean that we continue the rest of the class speaking it. We can and should use the target language (English) to give the students further practice and a necessary input of the language. In fact many students books that actually use the deductive approach have all their explanations and exercises in English.

We have learned so far that teaching in a deductive approach has its advantages and disadvantages, however we as teachers should use what we know and our experience to decide what approach we are going to use. This decision is not to be taken recklessly but under a deep analysis of our teaching situation, this means our students’ needs, background, age, level and preferences as well as the kind of rule we want them to learn. Some are easily pick up from contexts while some other need more detailed explanation.

In order to analyze rules we can follow Michael Swans’ criteria to diagnose them. These criteria involves if the rules is true, if it has limitation it means that it should show when to use it; clarity, simplicity, familiarity and relevance.

Any rules explanation may be divided in two parts: the rules of form and the rule of use. Teachers usually use in their procedure to teach some techniques to check students’ understanding.

There are also some approaches to teach grammar in a deductive way. These are:

· Using a rule explanation: In the lesson analyzed we can see that in the step 1 the teacher seeks to create familiarity of the terms introduced: subject, verb and object. That is a good start. The teacher started with an example that will be relevant in the followed rules explanations. The example which is in past tense is simple and clear. In the second step the examples are displayed on the differences of how to elaborate questions from subject and object but this is not explained deductively to students in a first instance, the teacher elaborate the two kind of questions and ask students to think about the rule. In step three the teacher explains the difference. With this students are aware of the limitation of the rule to make questions and when the word order change and when it does not.

Although the effectiveness of a lesson is difficult to measure, I can perceive that this lesson is effective because it entails a simple and well organized explanation. The teacher does not give exceptions just deal with the rule, he illustrates it to a better comprehension, make the students practice the rule introduced and gives further practice.

On the other hand I think it is a very controlled practice since they develop the activities with the same sentence they just do a substitution; to avoid bareness I think it is a good idea to insert the alternative questions the teacher suggests in step 5. This lesson is not very specific on how the teacher corrects mistakes; I would do it by mirroring repeating the students’ utterance correctly as this is oral practice.

Regarding to the appropriate factor, we need to see what kind of students this lesson is directed to. As it is developed in a deductive way it is more appropriate for adult learners who can deal more with the rules and grammar terminology. It is also important to distinguish what kind of learning style the students have and which are their interests.

In conclusion, this lesson is suitable for adult learners who are accustomed to grammar rules explanations. This way this lesson might be effective if the teacher explanation is clear enough as it seems. Finally, the explanation of the rule fulfills with the criteria proposed by Michael Swan.

· Using translation

· Using grammar worksheets: In the sample plan given I can see that it is not a deductive lesson because the rules are not explain at the beginning of the class nor it is an inductive lesson because students are not exposed with examples in which they need to deduce the rule. They instead are asked to answer a worksheet but later they are given the rules which they need to read and apply.

This lesson is very interesting taking into consideration the information gap activity that is developed in which students need to explain other students. I think this is really effective because it is not the same to understand something for us that to understand to explain to others, it absolutely reinforces what they learned. Besides it encourages students to self correction when they compare and share their answers they can have the chance to correct themselves based on the rules.

The appropriacy factor definitely belongs here for young learners who need to communicate and teach themselves. Of course, the teacher must be attentive if they need something or misunderstood a rule to give immediate help. He must monitor all the time and acts as a resource to any learner’s questions or doubts.

Analyzing deeply the lesson is relevant because they get their questions answered, most importantly only those questions they need to carry out with the task. If they were given a great quantity of exemptions they might get overwhelmed and the effectiveness would not be the same.

This lesson plan does not provide how the rules were written and explained, that is why it is difficult to say if they are clear and simple.

In the third step the teacher check the answers and make the students to explain why, this is really relevant to a deep understanding and notice the limitation of the rule since they explain why they used one article or the other.

In conclusion, this lesson integrates a learner’s responsibility to their learning with a grammar awareness of rules to make learners analyze and apply the grammar rules.

· Using self-study grammar

These approaches can be evaluated in the light of the E-factor to know its effectiveness and the A-factor to know its appropriacy.

With all the previous criteria in order to wide our knowledge about teaching grammar we now will be able to select an approach which fits with our reality to make a profit of it.

REFERENCES

· Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar. Longman. 2002. pp. 25-28, 32-33, 34-36, 41-42.