Teaching grammar to young learners

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Teaching grammar to young learners

• Hans Mol and Ma Xin
• ???? and ? ?

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Your trainers

• Hans Mol

• Ma Xin

• MA
• Teacher, trainer, writer, producer
• IATEFLs YL SIG committee
• Young learner materials
• Real English Early Start (Holland), Take Shape
  (Mexico, Macmillan, 2010), Tricks (Eastern
  Europe), Rokus Klett, 2010 Onestopenglish Next
  Stop (Mexico and Latin America, Macmillan)
  English Campus Grammar for Young Learners (OUP)
  Supasongs (FracasEnglish)
• Materials for teenagers, young adults and adults
• Link-up (Klett) Tourism and Hospitality English
  (Garnet), Attitude (Macmillan), New outlook

• MA, PhD Candidate
• English teacher and teacher trainer at School of
  Foreign Languages and Literatures, Beijing Normal
  University
• research interests include
• in-service and pre-service teacher training
• teacher change
• ELT methodology
• materials development.
• In recent years, she has participated in a number
  of projects related to teacher development and
  textbook writing.

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What is grammar? is the kind of question that
seems easy to answer until somebody asks it.
Michael Swan
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What is grammar?

• A a system of rules and tools
• B a process that lets you communicate with other
  people
• C an important professional skill for teachers

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What is grammar for?

• A the learn about the system of English
• B to communicate in English
• C to give me status as a teacher / to tell my
  students how English works

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Whats the right grammar?

• Would you mind turning that down?
• A Sure
• B No
• C Yes

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Grammar is emotion

• Grammar is such a waste of time, lets get rid of
  it.
• ? ?

• Grammar is very, very important for the children.
• ? ?

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• With the rise of communicative methodology in
  the late 1970s, the role of grammar instruction
  in second language leaning was downplayed, and it
  was even suggested that teaching grammar was not
  only unhelpful but might actually be detrimental.
  However, recent research has demonstrated the
  need for formal instruction for learners to
  attain high levels of accuracy.

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Is there any grammar in this?

• A Coffee?
• B Please.
• A Milk? Sugar?
• B No milk. One sugar. Thanks.
• A Toast?
• B No thanks.
• A Juice?
• B Mmm.
• Scott Thornbury, 2001

• A Would you like some coffee?
• B Yes, I would like some of that coffee, please.
• A Do you take milk?
• B I dont take milk. But I will take one sugar,
  please. Thanks.
• A Would you like some of this toast?
• B Id prefer not to have any of that toast,
  thanks. ()

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Grammatical complexity

• Do you think you could open the door?
• Open the door.
• Would you mind opening the door?
• I wonder if you would be so kind as to open the
  door?
• Can you open the door?
• The door!

• I wonder if you would be so kind as to open the
  door?
• Would you mind opening the door?
• Do you think you could open the door?
• Can you open the door?
• Open the door.
• The door!

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So

• Is grammar less important for children than it is
  for adults?
• Is grammar only important for speaking and
  writing?
• Is grammar a thing or is it
• something that happens?
• Scott Thornbury

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Form and function process and product
practice strategy - skill
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Krashens viewpoint

• to abandon grammar teaching
• teaching grammar results in learned
  knowledge, only available for monitoring
  utterances that learners produce using their
  acquired knowledge (limited value)
• teachers should concentrate on providing lots
  of comprehensible input so that learners can
  acquire a second language naturally like children
  acquiring their mother language.

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Ellis viewpoint

• To adapt grammar instruction to learners
• students are often convinced that learning
  grammar is of value to them and, therefore,
  expect the teachers to teach grammar
• Krashens claim that learners acquire grammar
  naturally is not entirely correct for second or
  foreign language learners.
• we should find a way of teaching grammar that
  is compatible with how learners learn grammar.

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Some research shows

• Learners do not seem to master the grammar of a
  second language even when they get plenty of
  comprehensible input. Studies of learners in
  immersion classroom have shown that even after
  ample exposure to the target language learners
  continue to make a lot of grammatical errors.

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What was said this morning

• Richard Johnstone
• Explicit transfer of language concepts from L1 to
  T a supportive factor attention to form in ways
  that go beyond recasts (Richard Johnstone)
• Tom Scovel
• We must prioritize and not attempt to teach all
  of the grammar
• E.g. past perfect tense infrequent in speaking or
  writing or science writing (except fiction)
• What is easy to hear, and easy to see, is easy to
  remember, is easy to learn. Listen for grammar.

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Aims of grammar in EFL

• strengthen grammatical accuracy in a fun and
  purposeful way
• teach learners to express themselves as clearly
  as possible with confidence
• increase grammar awareness among young learners
• meet learning styles wherever possible
• (Gordon Lewis, Hans Mol, 2009)

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Ideally

• we should find a way of teaching grammar that
  is compatible with how learners learn grammar.

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Grammar presentation methods

• The deductive method
• The inductive method
• The guided discovery method

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The deductive method

• Reasoning
• Analysing
• Comparing

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How is it done?

• The teacher
• Draws attention to an example on the board or in
  the textbook.
• Explains the underlying rules regarding the forms
  and positions of certain structural words
• explanations often in students native language
  using grammatical terms.
• comparisons can be made between the native
  language and the target language or between the
  newly presented structure and previously learned
  structures.
• The students
• Practise applying the rule to produce sentences
  with given prompts

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Pros and cons of the deductive method

• It can save time if the students have the
  reasoning ability
• It can be useful if the aim is exam preparation
• It can make students have a sense of achievement.

• It often teaches grammar in an isolated way
• Little attention is paid to meaning
• Practice is often mechanical

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The inductive method

• Observing
• Reasoning
• Learning

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How does it work?

• The teacher
• provides learners with authentic language in
  meaningful context
• ensures learners can realise what the rules are
  without explicit explanation
• believes that the rules will become evident if
  the students are given enough appropriate
  examples
• The students
• study examples of language in use and draw
  their own conclusions about what is happening

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The guided discovery method
Observing Reasoning Analysing
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How does it work?

• The students
• are stimulated to discover rules by themselves
• The teacher
• carefully guides the process of discovery and
  assists
• elicits the rules
• teaches the rules explicitly

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• Work in groups of four. Discuss the advantages
  and disadvantages of the three methods of
  teaching grammar.

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Meaningful input meaningful practise

• Requirements
• Pre-learning (noticed short term memory)
• Volume and repetition
• Success orientation
• Heterogeneity
• Teacher assistance
• Interest

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Grammar practice
Mechanical practice Meaningful practice
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Mechanical practice Substitution drills

• Substitute the underlined part with the proper
  forms of the given words
• green lawn/clean house/pretty garden/nice flowers
• Mrs. Green has the largest house in town.

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Mechanical practice Transformation drills

• Change the following sentences into the past
  tense. Use the adverbs given in the brackets.
• Now he lives in London. (last year, Paris)
• We have English and math today. ( yesterday,
  music and P.E.)
• He usually gets up at seven. ( this morning,
  eight)

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Work in groups of four and discuss (1) What is
the purpose of mechanical drills?(2) What are
the advantages and disadvantages?
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Meaningful practiceUsing prompts for practice

• Using pictures prompts
• Using gesture prompts
• Using information sheets prompts
• Using key phrases or word prompts
• Using chained phrases for story telling
• Using created situations

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Meaningful practiceUsing an information sheet as
prompt
Look at the table below. Rank the items on the
left column according to the criteria listed on
the top.
Cheap Healthy Tasty Fattening Important
Beer
Water
Fruit
Cigarette
Alcohol
Milk
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Meaningful practiceUsing transformation drills
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Work in groups of four and discuss(1) What is
the purpose of meaningful practice? (2) What are
its advantages and disadvantages?
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Task types

• Input tasks seeing or hearing examples
• Noticing tasks focusing
• Awareness tasks analysing examples or looking
  for differences
• Check-up tasks questions or mini-tasks
• Game tasks playing with grammar
• Experimentation tasks trying it out

• Listening or reading to comprehend
• Listen or reading to notice
• Understanding
• Checking
• Trying
• Rod Ellis, 2002

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Input tasks
Grammar Time 1, Sandie Jervis, 2000

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Volume
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Interest

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Input task

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Volume
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Interest

All Aboard, Paul Davies, 2004
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Noticing tasks
frequency, with variation

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Volume
• Repetition
• Success
• Interest

Picture Grammar for Children, David Vale, 1998
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Awareness task
Whos got a dog? is a song from

• A song

• A worksheet

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Assistance
• Interest

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Check-up tasks
Grumpy Grammar, Louis Fidge, 2003

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Assistance
• Interest

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Check-up tasks

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Assistance
• Interest

Grammar Time, Sandie Jervis, 2003
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Game tasks

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Assistance
• Interest

Early Start, Hans Mol, 2005
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Game tasks

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Assistance
• Interest

Grammar for Young Learners, Gordon Lewis and Hans
Mol, 2010
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Experimentation tasks

• All Aboard 6, Paul Davies, Katharine Mendelsohn,
  2005

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Experimentation tasks

• Input
• Practise
• Noticing
• Repetition
• Success
• Heterogeneity
• Assistance
• Interest

• All Aboard 6, Paul Davies, Katharine Mendelsohn,
  2005

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• Employers dont attach great value to grammar

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Lets have a break

• The family questionnaire

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Conclusion

• The understanding of how to teach grammar is just
  as controversial as what people feel about the
  value of grammar in language teaching.
• We believe that teaching grammar is necessary for
  foreign language learners and the three ways of
  teaching we introduced all have their merits and
  drawbacks.
• The best way is to vary methods according to our
  specific teaching objectives, teaching contents,
  students ages and needs, and our teaching and
  learning context.

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We shouldn't lose sight of the one thing children
do best have fun. Kenna Bourke
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Session reflections

• What is your opinion on the value of teaching and
  learning grammar?
• What have you learned from this session?