Making Grammar Lessons Fun

with examples from Grammar Tour and Grammar Goals

Magdalena Panova

BETA Conference, May 2008, Sofia

Main Points

Identifying the problematic areas

Ideas on how to deal with specific aspects of teaching grammar

Making grammar lessons more interesting

Conclusions

Make Learning Load Lighter

Draw students’ attention to helpful patterns. Help them discover those patterns for

themselves. The ability to recognise items which are

similar will make it easier for the student to learn.

Rules

Rules should be descriptive and clear.

They should say how the language is used, not how it should be used.

Explanation, example, practice.

Involve both oral and written practice

Oral Practice

Develop the ability to understand and respond quickly.

Written Practice

Students have time to pause, think and consciously construct.

First oral practice Then written practice Finally further oral free practice

Move from controlled to free practice

Controlled practice – the first step Free practice – teacher has least control,

students have the chance to make mistakes (show what they have not learned)

Free practice (situations, dialogue building, information gap-based pair work, discussion, writing/talking about student’s own interest) essential part of learning

Different Games

Beehive practice

Hangman

Who am I?

Illustrations

Create more friendly and relaxed atmosphere

Help learn better

Lots of fun

Conclusions

Grammar practice can be lively and amusing – it should be done frequently, briskly and with a touch of humour.

The teaching of structure can be made fun if students can be encouraged to explore and discover for themselves.

Emphasis should be on the student exploring rather than on the teacher explaining.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!