Should we be planning to teach grammar? If so, how? - Catherine Walker, 19th April 2011

Eric Baber, the new IATEFL president, introduced the speaker. Listening to him, one got really impressed by her list of achievements. Well, she is indeed a qualified speaker and kept her whole audience hooked on her words and ideas.

She started by saying that grammar is not the most important part of a lesson or that teachers should spend most classtime teaching it. She agreed with the idea that vocabulary is many times more important than grammar, but what is to be done with vocabulary if it cannot be inserted in coherent sentences, for which grammar is needed?

Recent research has given credit to the use of grammar in the classroom because it helps to learn the language. Evidence shows that explicit grammar teaching prove s to be better than implicit grammar teaching to aid learning. Yes, grammar rules should be taught, but not to those students who are on ‘survival’ courses, young children or adults whose background hasn´t prepared them for analysis at this level. This is because these people will often be confused by grammar or will not be able to fully understand it, thus being a barrier to learning. Also, it’s not worth going through all the categories of rules – according to Catherine, there should be a balance when deciding which rules to teach: we should think of the

· Scope – how much of the language does the rule apply to?

· Frequency – how often is this rule used in the language students need?

Catherine went on to say that teaching inductively (students figure out the rule out of examples) is probably one of the best ways to teach, for learners ‘discover’ the path, rather than being shown, and this makes it much more meaningful. It also takes work from the teacher, and in monolingual classes some L1 discussion of the rule may in fact be worth it and help understand what is being taught. Inductive grammar teaching is a way of making grammar more appealing and memorable in some ways. She shared with the audience a brief how-to for inductive grammar learning:

- Before beginning: choose appropriate pedagogic grammar rules, avoiding the fuzzy categories

- Start with the rule that you want the learners to finish with (you should know it in your mind)

- Guide learners towards the rules (don’t throw them in a sea of sentences.

A few ways of guiding learners were shown:

1. Students complete rule based on deduction (complete a sentence, for example)

2. Give students examples and let them sort them out

3. Match 2 sides of a rule

4. Ask students guided questions.

In conclusion, she stated that there’s a place for grammar, but it isn’t everything. Grammar is arguably more important to second language users, and planning to teach grammar makes sense.

As I see it, the speaker is very right, and grammar is really important if you want to learn a language. However, if you can make it more interesting than a mere list of do’s and dont’s in a grammar book, why don’t you? I bet you’ll enjoy teaching your lesson as much as the students will enjoy attending it.