How to teach grammar

Teachers enjoy teaching a lot of activities from a book for example listening, reading, etc. But, what happen when the book say "Grammar"? A lot of students are scared about that word, but not only them because teachers are scared too. In this post we are going to learn about grammar a you will get some tips about how to teach and not die trying. I know that Grammar is not the most exciting subject in the world, but it's important.

What is grammar?

Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language but in fact any language has rules. If we use the word "rules", it's like somebody had created the rules first and then people had spoken the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. On the other hand, others consider that grammar is the mental system of rules and categories that allows humans to form and interpret the words and sentences of their language.

P1. Grammar is present everywhere.

Tips to Teach Grammar

Teaching Grammar in Situational Contexts

The generative Situation is a situation which the teacher sets up in the lesson in order to “generate” several example sentences of a structure.

P2. Examples of Situational Context.

Teaching grammar through texts

In this case you have to use a coursebook where you can obtain information in order to check with your students. Coursebook texts tend to be specially tailored for ease of understanding and so as to display

specific features of grammar.

P3. Book.

Teaching grammar through stories

Everyone loves a story. Stories can be used for both eliciting and illustrating grammar points.Grammar points can be contexualized in stories that are absorbing and just plain fun if they are selected with the interest of the class in mind, are told with a high degree of energy, and involve the students. Students can help create stories and impersonate characters in them.

Video 1. Learn grammar through stories.

Teaching grammar through song and rhymes

Songs are one of the most enchanting and culturally rich resources that can easily be used in language classrooms. Songs offer a change from routine classroom activities. They are precious resources to develop students abilities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They can also be used to teach a variety of language items such as sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, adjectives, and adverbs.

Video 2. Singing

I consider that grammar should be an opportunity to apply our tools to teach. As you can see we have a lot. To be honest, I enjoy listening songs, so I think that I can use a lot of song in order to teach on a funny way. Grammar is important, for that reason we should be prepared to develop a great class.