teaching grammar

Presented by:Dr. Mamdoah M. Subahi

How to teach Grammar?

What is Grammar?

Grammar is :………………………- partly the study of what forms (or structure) are possible in a language.- a description of rules that govern how language sentences are formed.- the study of syntax and morphology of sentences. Syntax is the system of rules that cover the order of words in a sentence. Morphology is the system of rules that cover the formation of words. The pioneer Definition Grammar is a description of the rules for forming sentences, including an account of the meaning that these forms convey.

Why teach Grammar?

The reasons for teaching grammar…………………… Grammar is highly valuable as an important part of the study of language, and of writing.Grammar reflects the power and order of the human mind and it also helps us to understand the diversity of human culture. 

Kinds ( approaches) of Grammar

 What are some of the kinds (approaches) of

Grammar?

Kinds of Grammar:1- Nomative or Perscriptive Grammar.2- Historical Grammar.3- Comparative Grammar.4- Functional Grammar.5- Descriptive Grammar.6- Traditional Grammar.

2 -Historical Grammar Changes in word and sentence constructions in a language over the years, e.g. how old English, middle English and modern English differ from one another .

1- Nomative or Prescriptive GrammarThe study of a language in schools. It defines the rote of the various parts of speech and purports to tell what is the norm, or rule “correct” usage. Perscriptive grammars state how words and sentences are to be put together in a language so that the speaker will be perceived as having good grammar.  

3- Comparative GrammarThis kind of grammar studies sounds and meanings correspondence among languages to determine their relationship to one another.

 4- Functional GrammarThis Grammar investigates how words and word order are used in social contexts to get messages across. 

6 -Grammar translation As its name suggests, took grammar as the starting point for instruction. Grammar –Translation courses followed a grammar syllabus and lessons typically began with an explicit translation into and out of the mother tongue.

5- Descriptive grammar = The Immediate constituent grammarIt describes how the meaningful arrangement of the basic word-building unit (morphemes) and sentence-building units (constituents) can be described. It also contains the actual speech forms recoded from native speakers of a particular language and represented by means or written symbols.   

What are the most common Grammar

theories?

1 -Traditional Grammar.2- Immediate constituent Grammar.3- Tagmemic Grammar.4- Transformational Grammar

There are four common grammatical theories which are:

It had the tendency to plan for language instead of just reporting how it actually goes.Traditional grammars established the famous”8” parts of speech: Verb, Adverb, Noun, pronoun, adjective, Preposition, conjunction and interjection.It also categorizes the words within a certain sentence into subject, verb, direct object, indirect object and complement

1- Traditional Grammar “Perscriptive”

2 -Immediate Constituent Grammar. “Descriptive”

It assumes that every English sentence can be divided into two units; each unit can be divided into further two, and so on till the word level is reached.

3 -Tagmemic GrammarAccording to the tagmemic grammar there are two bases for classification: inflectional and functional.Inflectional or”morphological”: A word is a noun if it can talk the plural morpheme. A word is a verb if it can take (ing) or the past morpheme. A word is an adjective if it can take (er or est). Functional or “syntactic” classes are determined by the function of a word performs in a specific sentence.

4 -Transformational grammarThis grammar is the modern linguistic theory. It is represented as a reaction to all previous grammar theories. Its main notions are: A- Every sentence has a deep structure and a surface structure. B- The deep structure is turned into a surface one through optional and obligatory transformational rules. C- Grammar accounts for all linguistic facts explicity without leaving some facts to the reader’s intelligence. D- This grammar is supposed to be formal, e.g. symbolized and quasi mathematical because it uses symbols, abbreviations, formula- like descriptions, numbers and so on.  

How to teach grammar

1 -Deductively: Here you start with the presentation of a rule and followed by examples in which the rule applied. 2- Inductively: Here you start with some examples from which a rule is inferred

If you have a grammar lesson how will you present this lesson?Grammar can be taught:

3 steps for an easy grammar lessonStep 1: The Grammar Structure:

(a) Start with examples of the structure. Elicit a few sentences in which it appears, or tell a story or act out a telephone conversation. At this point, you are showing the structure and your students are perceiving it.(b) Isolate the structure and explain it. Write it up on the board and explain the rules that govern. Leave this on the board for the whole class and write it on the board again in future sessions if necessary. Make it clear, concise and short. An alternative to this is to get students to work out the rule for themselves. 

Step 2: Practice the structure

(a) There are many types of practice activities to fix the structure in students' short-term memory: play with questions and answers, or let students devise (create) parallel examples.

(b) Extend to an activity that permits the students to use the form in a fun situation, e.g. games, role-plays, interviews, to put the grammar into use in active communication.(c) If necessary, go back to the explanation - this time in a more detailed way, now that students have seen and used the form. 

Step 3a) Give time for students to take notes and understand the structure.(b) Practice to consolidate and fix the language in their longer-term memory. Repetition is fine - but keeps it light and varied with fun activities.

How to deal with grammatical errors

What are errors?

Language learners make mistakes. Most teachers believe that to ignore these mistakes might put at risk the learner’s linguistic development.As a teacher you should know the well known kinds of grammar errors.Think what are (some of) these grammar errors.  

1 -Lexical errors2- Grammar errors3- Discourse errors 4- Pronunciation errors (in spoken language)

Kinds of grammatical errors:

2- Grammar errors:Mistakes in verb form and tense. E.g. The door bell rangs. We speaked.Or mistakes in sentence structure.E.g. was four o’clock, where is the subject of the clause (It) has been left out.

1- Lexical errors:Choosing the wrong word for the meaning they want to express.E.g. my brother was stopping at the door. Instead of standing.Or choosing the wrong form of the word.E.g. Lower instead of lawyer. Thinks instead of things. 

4- Pronunciation errors (in spoken language)

3- Discourse errors:These errors relate to the way sentences are organized and linked in order to make whole texts. 

There are some grammatical drills that help pupils to be familiar with grammar and develop there accuracy and fluency.  

What are some of the grammatical drills?

2-Meaningful drills:Pupils cannot perform these drills without knowing the meaning of the new language because they focus on content instead of the form. Such as, restatement drill, rejoined drill, question and answer drill and situation drill.

1- Mechanical drills:Once the structure has been presented, the teacher gives the class some manipulative drills to DEVELOP accuracy , such as:Repetition drill, transformation drills, multiple substitution drill, chain drill, transformation drill, integrative drill and expansion drill. 

3- Communicative drills:Pupils feel free to express themselves using their own ideas and experience. It DEVELOPS fluency. Such as, Interviews, role playing, problem-solving, group discussion, picture discussion and press conference. 

What are tests?

How to test grammar:

What are the two most famous grammar tests?

Tests are: means of providing both teacher and learner with feed back.There are many types of grammar testing:

1- Discrete – item test:That is individual components of the learner’s knowledge. E.g. Irregular past tense verb forms such as (bought (2) – went (1) – saw – did… etc) are tested using such as GAP- FILL: Yesterday we ____ to the market and _____ some fruit. (1) (2)  2- Multiple choice tests:Yesterday we (go – went- goes) to the market and (buy - buys – bought) some fruit.3- Correct the mistake I like read. ( I like reading)