How to Teach English Grammar: Your Approach (Part 1)
Summary
TLDRChris Westergard from the Language House addresses the common apprehensions English teachers face when teaching grammar. He outlines a three-part video series to demystify the process, starting with the right mindset and understanding of grammar's purpose in communication. The series will cover preparing for a grammar lesson, effectively presenting grammar, and culminating in a demo lesson integrating ESA/PPP structures. Westergard emphasizes the importance of focusing on real-life usage over rote memorization of rules, providing practical steps for teachers to prepare engaging and effective grammar lessons.
Takeaways
- 📚 Chris Westergard from the Language House is releasing three videos focused on teaching grammar, a common challenge for new English teachers.
- 🔑 The primary reason for grammar lessons is to enable effective communication, not just to memorize rules and structures.
- 🎯 The first step in preparing a grammar lesson is to fully understand the grammar point, including its structures, uses, and why it's used.
- 📝 Teachers should focus on teaching one or two main functions of a grammar point to ensure clarity and practical usage in the lesson.
- 🏁 Plan the end of the lesson first, focusing on how students will use the grammar in a realistic, authentic situation (activation).
- 📉 Consider the level of the students when planning the lesson to ensure the grammar point is neither too simple nor too complex.
- 🎨 Use visuals and boardwork to aid in the presentation of the grammar point, making it more engaging for students.
- 📚 Select materials that support the presentation of the grammar point effectively, enhancing understanding and retention.
- 📉 Adjust the lesson based on whether the students have seen the grammar point before, adding nuance for more advanced students.
- 🌐 The topic of the lesson should not be the grammar itself but a subject that allows students to use the grammar in context.
- 🔄 Follow the ESA (Engage, Study, Activate) or PPP (Present, Practice, Produce) structure to organize the grammar lesson effectively.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Chris Westergard's video series?
-The main topic of Chris Westergard's video series is teaching grammar to English language learners, focusing on the mindset and understanding necessary for a successful grammar lesson.
How many videos does Chris Westergard plan to release on this topic?
-Chris Westergard plans to release three videos covering different aspects of teaching grammar.
What is the main focus of the first video in the series?
-The first video focuses on the overall approach to teaching a grammar lesson, including preparation and mindset before presenting the grammar point.
What will be covered in the second video of the series?
-The second video will provide a complete rundown of how to present grammar, including elicitation techniques, materials to use, and the duration and goals of the presentation.
What can viewers expect from the third video in the series?
-The third video will be a demo lesson, showing how to create and conduct a grammar lesson from start to finish, incorporating ESA or PPP structures for successful learning outcomes.
Why does Chris emphasize that grammar lessons should be about usage rather than memorization of rules?
-Chris emphasizes usage because grammar is a tool for effective communication in real-life situations, and learning should focus on enabling students to apply grammar correctly in context rather than just knowing the rules.
What is the first fundamental step Chris suggests for preparing to teach a grammar lesson?
-The first fundamental step is to know the grammar point inside out, being comfortable with its structures, usage, and being able to give examples in various forms.
According to Chris, why should teachers avoid trying to teach every aspect of a grammar point in a single lesson?
-Teachers should avoid this because it leads to confusion and an overly long presentation. Focusing on one or two functions and exploiting them ensures clarity and practical usage in the lesson.
What is the term used for the stage in the ESA or PPP structure where students use the language in an authentic situation?
-The term used for this stage is 'Activation' in ESA or 'P' for the production phase in PPP.
Why is it important to plan the activation or production stage of a lesson before the presentation of the grammar point?
-Planning the activation stage first is important because it helps define the end goal of the lesson, ensuring that the grammar point taught is directly applicable to a realistic communication scenario.
What should a teacher consider when deciding on the level of difficulty for a grammar lesson?
-A teacher should consider whether the grammar point is new or familiar to the students, and adjust the complexity and nuance of the lesson accordingly to ensure it is neither too easy nor too difficult.
Why does Chris advise against making the grammar point the main topic of the lesson?
-Chris advises against this because grammar itself is not inherently interesting; it should serve as a tool to communicate about a specific topic or situation, making the lesson more engaging.
What is the acronym ESA stand for, and how does it relate to the PPP model?
-ESA stands for Engage, Study, Activate, which is similar to the PPP model (Present, Practice, Produce), both focusing on introducing a topic, practicing it, and then applying it in a real-life context.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Grammar Teaching Series
Chris Westergard from the Language House introduces a three-part video series aimed at demystifying grammar teaching for English teachers. He acknowledges the common fear associated with teaching grammar and outlines the series' goal to provide a comprehensive approach to grammar lessons. The first video will focus on the overall teaching approach and preparation for a grammar lesson. The second will delve into the presentation of grammar, including elicitation techniques and materials. The final video will offer a demo lesson, illustrating how grammar fits into ESA or PPP structures for maximum effectiveness. Chris also promotes the TEFL certification course in Prague offered by the Language House.
🤔 The Purpose and Preparation for Grammar Teaching
This paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding the purpose of teaching grammar, which is to enable students to use it as a communication tool rather than just learning rules. It stresses the need for teachers to have a deep understanding of the grammar point they are teaching, including its structures and usage. The paragraph also advises teachers to focus on one or two functions of the grammar point to avoid overwhelming students and to plan the activation or production stage first, ensuring the lesson culminates in practical usage. Additionally, it touches on considering the students' level and prior knowledge, and the importance of selecting appropriate materials and a topic that facilitates communication, not just grammar rules.
🎨 Structuring the Grammar Lesson for Effective Learning
The final paragraph of the script discusses the structure of an effective grammar lesson using the ESA (Engage, Study, Activate) model, which parallels the PPP (Present, Practice, Produce) model. It outlines the importance of introducing a relevant topic to engage students, not the grammar point itself. The lesson should include a lead-in with questions, a clear presentation of the grammar point, and two stages of study: one in a controlled setting and the other allowing more freedom for students to use the language. The ultimate goal is the activation phase, where students apply the grammar in a realistic scenario. The paragraph concludes with a reminder of the importance of the activation stage and a teaser for the second video, which will cover how to effectively present grammar points.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Grammar
💡English Teachers
💡Mindset
💡Grammar Lesson
💡Presentation
💡ESA/PPP Structure
💡Usage
💡Preparation
💡Activation
💡Lecture Style
💡Teaching Point
💡Materials
💡Topic
Highlights
Chris Westergard introduces a series of three videos aimed at demystifying grammar teaching for English language teachers.
The first video focuses on the overall approach to teaching a grammar lesson and preparation strategies.
The second video will provide a detailed guide on presenting grammar, including elicitation techniques and materials to use.
The third video is a demo lesson showcasing how grammar fits into an ESA or PPP structure for successful teaching.
Teaching grammar should prioritize real-life usage over rote memorization of rules.
Understanding the purpose of grammar teaching is crucial for developing effective lessons.
Teachers must have a deep understanding of the grammar point they are teaching to ensure clarity in lessons.
Selecting one or two functions of a grammar point to focus on can make teaching more practical and less overwhelming.
Planning the activation or production stage of the lesson first helps in structuring the lesson towards real-life usage.
The grammar point should support communication about a specific topic, not be the topic itself.
Teachers should adjust the complexity of the grammar lesson based on the students' language level and prior knowledge.
Materials used in grammar presentation should include visuals and a clear color scheme to aid understanding.
Grammar should not be the main topic of the lesson to avoid boredom and to engage students more effectively.
The ESA model (Engage, Study, Activate) is a recommended structure for grammar lessons, paralleling the PPP model.
The intro phase of a lesson should introduce the topic, not the grammar point, to set the context for learning.
Study phases in the ESA model involve presenting and practicing the grammar point in controlled and then open settings.
The activation phase is the culmination of the lesson where students apply the grammar in an authentic context.
Transcripts
hello everybody it's chris westergard
from the language house it's been a
while it's been a long time since my
last video
to make up for it i've got three videos
for you all covering the topic of
teaching grammar which is usually the
fear
and the terror of new english teachers
and part of the reason for that is that
oftentimes new teachers and even
experienced teachers don't have the
right mindset and the right
understanding of what makes a successful
grammar lesson so
three videos for you this first video is
going to be about your overall approach
how should you approach teaching a
grammar lesson and what are some things
that you can do to prepare
beforehand for the grammar point
or the grammar lesson the next video
video number two is going to be about
the presentation itself so we're going
to go through a complete rundown of how
to present grammar how to elicit it what
type of materials to use how much should
you be speaking or explaining and
generally like how long all of this
should last and what should the goals be
for this part of the lesson in the final
video video number three we're going to
do a demo lesson so we'll create a
lesson together
and we'll go through it start to finish
that you can keep so you'll see kind of
how grammar fits into an esa or a ppp
structure and how to make them as
successful as possible because that's
the point to be as successful as you
possibly can
in the classroom if you like this
content and if you like this channel
please do hit the subscribe button it
means a lot and if you have any thoughts
or if you want to let me know something
just drop a comment below so let's get
started with video number one your
approach to grammar and how you can prep
for it but before going into the video
do check out our tefl certification
course in prague the language house it's
um it's a great program for anyone who's
interested in learning how to teach
abroad with yours truly and the rest of
the language house staff so let's start
with video number one when most
non-teachers and even some experienced
english teachers think of teaching a
grammar point they probably imagine
themselves up in front of a group of
students in front of the board
lecturing their way through all of the
different rules functions examples
concepts nuances
of a specific grammatical point it's not
too difficult to imagine this i think we
can all think of the teacher up in front
of a class with lots of notes on the
board and
basically just going through everything
in a lecture style mode maybe some of
the other students are taking notes
maybe there's a little bit of questions
going back and forth but a lot of people
would imagine this kind of lecture style
approach to teaching a grammar point and
if you think this way you're you're
thinking about it wrong part of the
reason for this is before we start
thinking of what makes a successful
grammar lesson we have to really come to
some sort of conclusion as to why we
teach grammar in the first place do we
teach grammar so that our students can
come away
from the lesson knowing all of the
different rules and functions and
structures or do we teach grammar
because in real life our students need
grammar as a tool to effectively
communicate with one another
if you pick the if you if you pick the
latter you're correct
learning all of the rules and functions
in a lecture-style way doesn't really do
much our lesson should be about usage
case in point um
if i want my students to be able to talk
about their life experiences or
a character that they're playing in
fictional life experiences
the grammar that i'm going to be using
is present perfect i'm teaching the
grammar so that they can effectively
talk about these things if i want
students to compare different types of
cars or bond characters or movies or
authors or
you know and decide who is better than
this person and the best and who is more
talented
the grammar that i'm teaching
is going to be comparative and
superlative if i want students to talk
about how their lives would be different
if they won a million dollars and the
things that they would buy and the
things that they would change
the grammar that they need for that is
the second conditional so there's not
really it's not really useful to just
teach rules and guidelines and
examples and structures it should always
be about usage and that's the main point
of this first video and as we go through
the other videos remember that teaching
a successful grammar lesson is always
going to be about usage in a real life
situation with actual language with
people making decisions on what they're
saying and what they're not saying and
it's less about all of the specific
rules the rules are important but it
leads up to this real life usage
all right before you teach an effective
grammar lesson it's important to do a
few fundamental things uh point number
one is you have to know your grammar
point inside out you really need to be
comfortable with it you need to know
about the different structures of how
the grammar is used you need to know and
be able to give examples in both the
question and the negative form
and most importantly it's important for
you to have a deep and solid
understanding of when we use it so many
times when teachers start
when teachers start teaching grammar
they really don't know
what they're teaching and why we use
this grammar and why we don't and the
lesson becomes a mess also it's very
difficult to plan a grammar lesson if
you don't have a fundamental
understanding of it and if you do if you
do that work if you do a little bit of
study in advance the whole planning
process becomes easier so grab some sort
of a grammar book do actual grammar
exercises read up on the grammar point
until you really understand it and for
the most part you should be able to do
your presentation later on without too
many notes because you know it already
that's the goal
once you understand your grammar point
what you should do at this point is pull
out one or two functions and only teach
those functions meaning what the grammar
is is used for a lot of times when new
teachers start teaching grammar they
want to teach everything about the
grammar point and that is not practical
because again it's about usage and in a
lesson you're not going to be able to
use every single
use for a specific tense you want to
pick out one or two and really exploit
those and have it where that is the
focus of your actual lesson if you try
to teach everything your presentation is
going to become extremely confusing and
extremely long and you really won't get
anywhere once you've thought of a few
functions that you'd like to teach you
need to jump to the very end of your
lesson
and start planning your activation your
activation if you're not familiar with
is the a stage in esa or the p stage in
ppp they're all p's so that would be the
production stage and this is where you
have students use the language in a
situation that is authentic as possible
and it's important to jump to the end of
your lesson and start thinking of that
because that is essentially your goal
you're not interested in having students
just do worksheets and take a bunch of
notes we are interested in usage so you
really need to think of that
end goal how are students going to be
using your grammar point as mentioned a
little bit earlier in the video you
could do something like comparative and
superlatives and have people compare a
variety of different family members or
you could have students talk about their
life experiences and all the places that
they have been and places that they
would like to go in the future based on
their past experiences
but the usage is important because that
again is the goal now that i have an
activation and i have an idea of where
the lesson is heading i can then look
back at my grammar point and i can think
and pull out the specific elements that
i need to teach so what exactly do i
need to teach to help my students get to
their activation there's going to be a
lot of elements in the grammar point
that i don't need to bring up and i
don't have to because they're not going
to be utilized later on in the lesson
again remember teaching grammar is not
about going over every single rule or
usage it's about making sure that the
students can eventually communicate
better at the end of their lesson in a
real life situation once this is done i
can now begin to think a little bit
about levels um you probably should have
thought about that already but i can
really begin to think is this
appropriate for the level that i'm
teaching is it going to be too easy or
too difficult have the students seen
this grammar point before am i adding
something onto it a lot of times what
teachers think is that they're teaching
a grammar point for the first time but
most of your students probably have seen
some version of the grammar point before
and that is important to think about in
advance because if i am teaching say the
present perfect to a group of a2
students this might be the first time
that they've seen this tense thus it's
going to take me a little bit more time
to get through it and i'll want to make
sure that my end goal is a little bit
simpler for them if i have a group of b1
or b2 students i can assume that they've
probably seen this before and i can add
a little bit more nuance to it some
extra concepts that maybe they haven't
seen before that we can use again
in the activation part of the lesson
this point of the pre-work i have a
grammar point i understand it really
well because i did a bunch of research
on it
i know what my final goal is my speaking
activity my role play my activation my
production part blah blah blah
i've thought about the level a little
bit and if it will be easy for them or
difficult and how can i adjust it to
make it more appropriate now what i want
to do is think about the materials that
i'm going to use in my presentation
there's a variety of different ways to
make this work but it is good to add
some sort of visuals or some sort of
boardwork or some sort of color scheme
and we'll talk about this when we go
over the presentation part in video
number two lastly i want to come up with
a topic for the entire lesson now you
might be asking yourself isn't the
grammar the topic of the lesson and the
answer is no it's not the grammar again
helps students communicate about a
specific topic or about a specific
situation but the grammar point itself
should never be
the actual topic of the lesson you
should never lead in with your grammar
point and the reason for this is that
that's kind of boring we don't sit
around talking about grammar why would
you lead in to your students doing that
so going back to some of the examples
that i gave you if i'm doing a lesson on
comparative and superlatives where
students are comparing various different
family members and potentially setting
up different family members for a date
um
the topic of a lesson could be family or
could be dating or it could be something
you never want to have your grammar be
the main focus or the main topical
element of your lesson because grammar's
boring so let's go over a quick recap of
the structure that we're going to be
using in this video so it's all clear
and there's no misconceptions
we use at the language house the esa
model so you're engaged study activate
it is very similar to the ppp
present practice produce
and these two are very similar to
basically any type of teaching scenario
which involves with teaching something
having students practice it and then
having students use it in a real life
setting so to break it down in the esa
structure we have our intro where we
introduce our topic again not our
grammar point but our topic
lead in we have questions where students
speak about their topic
target language this is where we present
the actual new grammar point
study one and study two
this is practice of the grammar point
study one being in a closed setting
study two being in more open where
there's a little bit more freedom and
what the students can say and use and
then lastly we get to our goal the
activation which is the most important
part of the lesson where students use
the grammar point in a real life
scenario that's it for video number one
check out video number two where we go
over how to effectively present your
grammar point stay tuned
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
How to Teach Beginners English: 13 Fundamentals You Need to Use
Teaching Grammar to Beginners: Tips and Structure for a Perfect Lesson
How to Teach English to Beginners: Creating a Full Lesson
Introduction to Grammar | Grammar | Khan Academy
sentence connectors । sentence connectors rules । sentence connectors SSC। sentence connectors HSC
How to Use the Whiteboard Effectively
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)