Story-based Approach to Teaching Grammar

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Story-based Approach to Teaching Grammar

• Implicit Explanations
• Guided Participation
• Explicit Explanations

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Implicit Explanations

• Learners analyze the grammar explanation for
  themselves

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Guided Participation

• Teachers and learners collaborate on and
  co-construct the grammar explanation

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Explicit Explanations

• Teacher provides explanation for learners

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PACE A Story-based and Guided Participatory
Approach

• Presentation
• Attention
• Co-construction
• Extension

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Presentation

• Teacher foreshadows the grammar explanation
  through the use of integrated discourse (stories,
  poems, taped listening selection, etc.) emphasis
  is on comprehension and meaning.

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Attention

• Teacher uses multiple passes and recycles the
  story line through pictures, TPR activities, and
  role playing, which deepens comprehension and
  increases learner participation. Again, emphasis
  is on meaning.

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Co-construction

• Once comprehension is achieved and meaning
  understood, the teacher turns the learners
  attention to focus on form. Both teacher and
  learner co-construct the grammar explanation.

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Extension

• Through extension activities (i.e., integrative
  activities that relate to the story theme), the
  learners need to use the grammatical structure(s)
  in order to carry out a particular function or
  task.
• (Shrum/Glisan, 2000)

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Steps for Designing a Contextualized Story-based
Lesson (Shrum/Glisan, 2000)

1. Select an appropriate text for students and
   instructional purposes
2. Do you like the text and find it appealing?
3. Does the story lend itself to stageable
   actions?
4. Does the story suggest connections to academic
   content?

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1. Does the story represent some aspect of the
   target culture that you will address?
2. Does the story present stereotypes or reasonable
   and fair depictions of the target language
   culture?
3. Is the language accessible or can it be made
   accessible through story-telling simplifications?

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1. Is the theme of the story one that can be
   expanded upon and extended into various
   activities?
2. Does the story adequately represent a grammatical
   structure on which you will later focus?
3. Does the story lend itself to addressing some of
   the national/state/local standards?