Teaching Grammar and Writing - Week 1 - Why (not) Teach Grammar?

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 1 of the course Teaching Grammar and Writing for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT in term IC 2023. In this class we will discuss the structure, content, evaluation activties and major due dates of the course. In addition, we will consider traditional reasons for teaching grammar in English class and evaluate whether all of these reasons can still be justified.

Today's Goals:

• Review the course content, evaluation structure, and important dates from the syllabus.
• Analyze traditional reasons given for teaching grammar, list their consequences, and evaluate whether or not these reasons can be justified. 
• Generate a list of controversies, unresolved issues, questions and areas of curiosity related to the teaching of grammar that you would like to explore during the course.

Guiding Questions:

• What are some of the key issues in the area of grammar teaching for English language learners?
• What are good reasons and bad reasons to teach grammar?
• What are the features of grammar drills?
• What do I hope to learn in this course?

Task 1: Initial Thoughts on Grammar Teaching

Click play on the video timer. Then discuss the following questions with your partners. When the time is over, go to Task 2.

• What is your "common sense" definition of the word grammar?
• Do you agree or disagree with the following statements. Say why.

• Grammar is the most important aspect of language to teach in a class.
• Students should master one grammar structure at a time before being introduced to another.
• My students think grammar is boring.
• I think grammar is boring.
• I have wonderful memories of the English grammar lessons I received in high school.
• Most commercial ELT textbooks don't focus enough on grammar. 
• I am familiar with a wide variety of strategies and activity types to teach grammar.
• Explicit correction of students' grammar errors is necessary to avoid fossilization.
• The best way for students to learn a new grammar structure is for the teacher to "give them the formula".
• I feel confident in my abilities to answer students' questions about grammar, even the unexpected questions.
• Advanced grammar in English involves structures like 3rd conditional and passive voice.
• It is absolutely necessary that students learn the future perfect continuous. 
• Even though I'm a teacher, I sometimes get confused with grammar terminology.

• On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, how do you rate your current ability to teach grammar? Why do you give yourself that rating?

Task 2: Why Teach Grammar?

Click your group link below to analyze different reasons that have been used to justify the role of grammar in ELT and follow the instructions in the document.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 3: Drills: The Typical Grammar Practice Exercises

Structure based drills are the most common form of grammar practice exercise in ELT. Although there are many variations of drills, they all share some common characteristics, strengths, and challenges. Click your group link below to explore this activity type in more detail.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

References:

Swan, M. (2002). Seven Bad Reasons for Teaching Grammar - and Two Good Ones. In J. Richards & W. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice (pp. 148-152). Cambridge University Press.

Ur, P. (2012). A Course in English Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.