How to Teach
Grammar
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
• Text and contexts
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
• Language is context
sensitive
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
It’s a drink.
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
A: ‘Are you going to that Hodders party?’
B: I said that I didn’t know anything about it.
A: ‘It’s for that boring woman who writes picture
books about Nash terraces.
B: Every twit in London will be there:
A: ‘So are, you going?’
B: ‘It’s a drink,’ Musprat said, meaning yes.
(from Theroux, P. Lady Max, Granta 40)
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
• As decontextualized words and
decontextualized sentences lose
their meaning, so too
decontextualized text.
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
Kinds of context
• Co-text – the rest of the text that surrounds and
provides meaning to the individual language items
in the text
• Context of situation- consider the roles and
relationships of the speakers and the mode of
communication.
• Context of culture- understanding the culture
and be familiar with its features.
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
• Taking individual grammar
structures out of context is
equally perilous.
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
‘He’s playing tennis.’
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
• Questions of correctness are often unresolvable in
the absence of context .
• The confusions that occupy us arise when language
is like an engine idling, not when it is doing work.
• Text-based approach involves looking at language
when it is ‘doing work’.
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
Sources of Text
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
Four Possible
Sources of Texts
Teaching Grammar Through
Texts
1. Coursebook
2. Authentic Sources
3. Teacher
4. Students
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Songs
• offer a change from routine classroom activities.
• can also be used to teach a variety of language items
• non-threatening atmosphere for students
• Songs also have Prosodic features
• inspire creativity and use of imagination
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Songs can be used with several
techniques:
• Gap fills or close texts
• Focus questions
• Put these lines into the correct sequence
• Circle the antonyms/synonyms of the given words
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Basic preparations in teaching
grammar through songs:
1. Discuss the theme, the title, or the history of the song
2. Pictures may also be used to introduce the theme of the
song.
3. Opinion questions may lead the learner to write about
his own thoughts or reflections.
4. Exploitation of songs for grammatical structures
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Grammar point: Present
and past tense
Example:
present tense 'Let It Be'
by the Beatles
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Grammar point: Present
and past tense
Example:
past tense 'Yesterday' by
the Beatles
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
• Poems, like songs, contextualize a
grammar lesson effectively.
• Through repeating and considering
the poem, the grammatical structures
become more deeply internalized.
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
There are 3 main barriers/difficulties for
literature including poetry.
• Linguistic
• Cultural
• Intellectual
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
• Linguistic difficulties- problems caused
by the syntax or the lexicon of the poem.
• Cultural difficulties- includes imagery,
tone, and allusion.
• Intellectual level- students should be
intellectual and mature enough to
understand the theme of the poem.
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Selection of poem:
Consider the grammatical structure to be
presented, practiced, or reviewed.
Level and the age of the students
The theme and the length of the poem
Appropriateness in the classroom objectives.
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Teaching Procedure:
At the teaching stage of a poem, it is not advisable to talk about
the meaning of the poem in advance.
At the pre-reading stage, students might be motivated
through some enthusiastic talks about poetry or the poet.
At the reading stage, in order to create images and stress the
prosodic features, the teacher may want the students to close
their eyes while he/she is reading the poem.
After distributing the poem to students, students may be
asked to read it either loudly or silently.
Teaching Grammar Through
Songs and Rhymes
Teaching Procedure:
Asking questions about context may follow the
reading.
As a follow-up activity a discussion may be held.
As being a facilitator, a teacher should always avoid
telling the meaning.
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!
