Teaching Grammar to Beginners: Tips and Structure for a Perfect Lesson
Summary
TLDRIn this instructional video, Chris Westergard from the Language House demonstrates a methodology called 'The Five Points' for teaching grammar to beginners. The approach focuses on limiting vocabulary, eliciting responses, extensive drilling, slow-paced presentation, and minimal language use to avoid confusion. The video specifically showcases teaching the present continuous tense through various stages, emphasizing mastery and real-time application over mere memorization. Westergard's tips include using an economy of language, eliciting everything, and ensuring students can ask and answer questions authentically.
Takeaways
- 📚 Focus on a few grammatical variables to simplify the learning process for beginners.
- 🗣️ Elicit everything from students to encourage active participation and understanding.
- 🔄 Drill a lot to reinforce new grammar concepts through repetition.
- 🔍 Move slowly through the presentation to ensure comprehension without overwhelming students.
- 💬 Use an economy of language to avoid confusion and maintain clarity.
- ❓ Focus on questions and negatives to build conversational skills.
- 👕 Keep the vocabulary pool minimal, using familiar or very basic words to avoid confusion.
- 👉 Demonstrate grammar points using mime, visuals, or comparison with known tenses for better understanding.
- 📈 Practice in chunks to gradually build up to mastering the full structure of sentences.
- 🔄 Gradually remove prompts and notes to transition students to free practice.
- 🎯 Aim for mastery by providing multiple reps and variations to make the language come naturally to students.
Q & A
What is the main challenge of teaching grammar to beginners who do not speak English?
-The main challenge is explaining or lecturing through a lesson without using translation, as it's not effective, and ensuring they can understand and use the language with limited language understanding.
What is the 'Five Points' methodology mentioned in the script?
-The 'Five Points' is a teaching methodology that focuses on a few grammatical variables, eliciting everything, drilling a lot, moving slowly through the presentation, using an economy of language, focusing on questions and negatives, and keeping the vocabulary pool to a minimum.
Why is it important to limit vocabulary when teaching grammar to beginners?
-Limiting vocabulary prevents confusion and allows students to focus on the grammatical point itself, rather than getting overwhelmed with new words.
What is the purpose of focusing on questions and negatives in grammar lessons for beginners?
-Focusing on questions and negatives helps beginners to understand and use the language in different contexts, promoting a more natural and authentic use of the language.
How does the script suggest eliciting the correct form of a verb from beginners?
-The script suggests using examples, miming or demonstrating the action, using visuals like a timeline, and comparing the new tense to a known tense to elicit the correct verb form.
What does the script recommend for the initial vocabulary introduction in a grammar lesson?
-The script recommends keeping the vocabulary introduction limited to a few items that the students already know or very basic words to avoid confusion.
Why is drilling important when teaching grammar to beginners?
-Drilling is important because it helps beginners to say the sentences correctly and fluently, which can lead to natural usage of the language when they are comfortable with the structure.
How should teachers handle the teaching of grammar structures to beginners?
-Teachers should introduce one structural variable at a time and gradually introduce more examples that cover different structures, testing students with variations to ensure understanding.
What is the significance of using visuals and context in teaching grammar to beginners?
-Visuals and context help clarify the meaning of the grammar point, making it easier for beginners to understand without the need for extensive explanation or translation.
How does the script suggest moving from guided practice to free practice in grammar lessons?
-The script suggests starting with all questions on the board, allowing students to use notes, and gradually removing prompts and questions until students can ask and answer questions in real time without any notes.
What is the final goal of teaching grammar to beginners as outlined in the script?
-The final goal is for students to have a solid understanding of the grammar point and be able to ask and answer questions in real time with authenticity and mastery, regardless of their level.
Outlines
📚 Teaching Grammar to Beginners
This paragraph introduces the challenge of teaching grammar to beginners who do not speak English and the importance of avoiding translation. It emphasizes the need for a methodology to effectively convey grammatical concepts. The speaker, Chris Westergard from the Language House, introduces 'The Five Points' as a teaching strategy and encourages viewers to subscribe for more content. The focus is on limiting vocabulary, eliciting responses, extensive drilling, slow presentation, minimal language use, emphasis on questions and negatives, and maintaining a small lexicon pool. The demonstration will concentrate on the present continuous tense, assuming students have some basic knowledge, and aims to enable students to use the language freely in practice.
👕 Introducing Vocabulary and Grammar
The speaker discusses the initial steps in teaching a grammar lesson to beginners, which includes limiting new vocabulary to prevent confusion and focusing on essential items like clothing. The approach involves eliciting the verb 'to wear' and using examples that students are already familiar with. The paragraph also covers different methods to convey the meaning of grammar points, such as miming, using visuals, and comparing with known tenses. The goal is to teach the structure of the present continuous tense in a clear and concise manner, using an economy of language to avoid overwhelming the students.
🔄 Drilling and Practicing Questions
This section details the process of drilling and practicing questions with beginners to ensure they can ask and answer in real time without notes. The speaker explains the importance of breaking down the lesson into small chunks and gradually building up to more complex structures. The method involves eliciting questions and answers, practicing them in pairs and groups, and highlighting structural differences. The paragraph emphasizes the need for repetition and mastery, suggesting the use of visual aids like pictures to introduce variations and maintain student engagement.
🎓 Mastery and Real-time Application
The final paragraph outlines the transition from guided practice to free practice, where students apply their knowledge independently. It stresses the importance of gradual progression and mastery at each stage before moving on. The speaker suggests using notes and prompts during the initial stages of free practice to scaffold learning. The goal is for students to be able to ask and answer questions naturally and fluently. If students struggle, the speaker advises revisiting previous points for additional practice. The paragraph concludes with tips on maintaining an economy of language, slow and clear presentation, elicitation, extensive drilling, and focusing on actual usage for effective learning.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Beginner Class
💡Grammar
💡Elicit
💡Drill
💡Economy of Language
💡Lexis Pool
💡Present Continuous
💡Free Practice
💡Authentic Language
💡Guided Practice
💡Mastery
Highlights
Teaching grammar to beginners without using their native language or translation.
Introduction of the Five Points methodology for teaching grammar to beginners.
Focusing on a few grammatical variables to simplify the learning process.
Eliciting information from students to encourage active participation.
Drilling extensively to help students internalize new grammar structures.
Moving slowly through the presentation to ensure comprehension.
Using an economy of language to prevent overwhelming beginners.
Focusing on questions and negatives to enhance language use.
Minimizing the use of new vocabulary to avoid confusion.
Demonstration of teaching the present continuous tense to beginners.
Using visuals and miming to convey grammar points without language.
Comparing new grammar points to known tenses for easier understanding.
Teaching the structure of grammar points incrementally.
Using CCQ (Concept Checking Questions) to ensure students grasp the concept.
Practicing grammar points in chunks to facilitate mastery.
Transitioning from guided practice to free practice gradually.
Utilizing pictures and varied scenarios for more dynamic practice.
Encouraging mastery through repetition and varied practice.
Adjusting the difficulty level based on student performance.
Final tips for effective grammar teaching with beginners.
Transcripts
oh boy you've got a beginner class
coming up do you know how to teach them
grammar they don't speak English so
you're not going to be able to explain
or lecture your way through this lesson
and you don't want to use translation
because that's not really good either
how are you going to teach grammatical
Concepts to students if you don't speak
their language and their understanding
of language is really limited and more
importantly how are you going to get
them to be able to use use this language
in free practice you want to learn let's
get started the people have spoken and
by popular demand a video completely
dedicated to teaching grammar to
beginners what's going on teachers it's
Chris westergard from the language house
let me show you how to teach grammar to
beginners using a great methodology
called The Five Points this is
essentially video number four in the
series so if you missed the other videos
do check them out because the content
really good you can find them all in the
description of this video below for you
and one last thing do me a solid and
leave me a like And subscribe I'm at the
school on a Sunday all right nobody is
here my wife and my little baby are at
home waiting for me I've left them so
that you can get this free content do
the right thing and subscribe the trick
to teaching beginners is to one focus on
just a few grammatical variables two
elicit everything three drill a lot four
move slowly through the
presentation five use an economy of
language so don't speak too much six
focus on questions and negatives and
seven keep your Lexus pool to a minimum
in other words if you're teaching a
grammar lesson don't teach a lot of
vocab it will just confuse them ideally
you'll want to stick with language that
they've already seen before or language
that is really B basic instead of using
a lot of vocab we want to focus on the
grammar Point itself this could be
things like comparing tenses or how to
conjugate a specific tense it could be
using different prepositions it could be
word order or sentence structures
whatever it is try to think of the
different variables in the grammar point
and focus on those for this video
demonstration we're going to be focusing
on the present continuous for things
happening now specifically what everyone
is wearing now now obviously guys this
is not the first lesson with beginners
this is the assumption that you've
taught them for a couple weeks or maybe
even a month or so if you want my tips
on your first lesson with beginners I'll
make a video on that but this video
assumes that they know at least
something for time we're going to be
moving through these stages pretty
quickly if you find yourself a little
bit confused do check out my full video
on the Five Points right here for
pre-work I'm going to need to think
about three to five questions that use
the grammar point and showcase some of
the different variables the goal is that
by the end of the lesson students will
be able to ask and answer these
questions to each other in real time
without the use of notes and we want it
to sound as authentic as we can okay
let's get these questions
up as you can see we're not just working
on I am wearing that would be too easy
we're going to be working on all of the
different perspectives I'm also going to
be teaching them the question and the
negative forms so in total we have a lot
of variation with this grammar point and
that's what we want all right so point
one in the five points is I'm going to
start with my vocab and for the most
part with a grammar lesson you want to
keep it limited again or use language
that they already know so in this case I
don't want to teach a whole bunch of
clothing because that's just going to
confuse them we can just do a couple so
it would be like a
shirt shorts
pants a sweater shoes something like
that if you want a full rundown on how
to teach vocab to beginners check out
this video over here it covers
everything I know some of you are
thinking like why not teach a bunch of
vocab if they're going to be talking
about clothing that they're wearing why
not teach 12 different items of clothing
like socks for example and the answer is
the more variables you have them use the
more complicated this whole process gets
and if they feel overwhelmed beginners
just shut down with a grammar lesson we
are mostly focusing on the conjugation
the questions and the negatives of the
verb the most important word to teach
here is the verb to wear as long as I
teach that and they have a couple
different variables in terms of clothing
the lesson's going to go fine if you
move into the grammar before going over
your Lexus it's going going to be
literally impossible for them to
understand what you're trying to
communicate we got the vocab done great
let's teach some grammar grammar to
beginners will follow similar steps to
this video here check it out if you
haven't watched it before but there are
some differences you have a fair amount
of options when it comes to the first
thing to do with a beginner grammar
lesson one is you can always introduce
the actual name of the grammar point and
start from there but I usually tend to
like to begin with my examples and I can
start with
eliciting I so I'll point to myself and
I'll write down I and then I'll point to
an article of clothing that I know they
already know so maybe like jeans or
pants and I'll put that at the end of
the sentence and then I have to elicit
the verb to wear in the correct form so
I can point to that word because it's on
the board and they'll probably say where
but then I'll correct them and I'll
eventually pull out and am wearing often
times having that sentence in the right
context is more than enough to bring
that meaning across but there's a few
other things that I can do one I can
obviously try to mime or demonstrate
what the grammar point is doing two I
can use a timeline or some other visuals
and finally three I can always compare
the grammar point to a known tense I
could compare the present continuous
with the present simple if they already
had exposure to that tense I could say I
wear shorts I am wearing jeans now and
that contrast should be enough to hit
that meaning hone once I'm pretty clear
that the meaning is across I can then
teach them the grammar Point itself I
should try to elicit them that this is
the present
continous then we can go over the
structure so subject plus the form of to
be plus verbing when it comes to
structures a lot of teachers want to put
everything up at one time I generally
find that overwhelming for my students
so I tend to stick with one structural
variable and as I introduce more
examples that cover different structures
I can always kind of like test them with
that right most teachers fumble here
because they simply speak too much they
want to come into the class and in their
head they have a preconceived notion of
what it is to teach and they want to
explain things they want to lecture
about the grammar point they want to
talk about all the different details
related to the grammar point and that
simply doesn't work with this level
beginner specifically the more you speak
the more you use your voice the more
confused they're going to get so we're
looking at a real tight economy of
language like really don't speak at all
let your examples and your visuals do
the work for you throughout this whole
time I'm going to be CC Qing but CC Qing
with beginners is really really really
basic so it could be something like I am
to wear jeans and they would say no no I
am wearing jeans basic things like that
will help check the meaning guys this
whole presentation should take about 5
to 10 minutes anything more than that
you're probably overwhelming them with
extra information so this first sentence
is boarded and what I can do now is have
the students individually talk about
things that they are wearing so one
student might go I am wearing a sweater
jeans shoes or I'm wearing a t-shirt or
I am wearing a jacket whatever the words
that we've taught they can begin to
substitute those in once I felt that the
students can do this first perspective
with relative ease we can then move on
to eliciting the question I'll start by
putting a question mark at the end of
the board and from there I'll try to
elicit out the question to the answer
just like we did with the statement so
what are
are
you wearing like that once again people
are going to be saying ah it's not going
to work they're never going to be able
to get it how are they supposed to know
the question if we haven't even gone
over it yet and blah blah blah blah blah
blah you'll be surprised Again by
eliciting slowly that they will be able
to fill in a lot of these blanks and if
they don't fill in the blanks it's okay
you can give it to them but remember I'm
not explaining I'm not talking my way
through this I'm only using the language
that is necessary to get this question
up on the board the questions up on the
board and now I'm just going to practice
saying it with them and this is going to
look like this what are you wearing what
are you wearing what are you wearing
what are you wearing with beginners I
drill a tremendous amount because I
found that when the language is new to
students they have a hard time just even
saying it correctly they fumble up on
the words and on the sentence structure
and all these other variables and if we
can just get them to say it correctly
and get them to say it fast they'll
naturally start doing it when they can
ask the question with relative ease I'm
going to put them into Pairs and groups
and they will practice asking each other
the question and the answer for question
number one I'm going to do this with all
of my questions we're going to start off
with the statement for question number
two practice that a little bit we're
going to move on to the question for
question number two practice that and
then put them in pairs and have them
practice the question and answer we're
going to do this for all of them with
each new example that I put up there I'm
going to highlight the structural
differences so I am she is we are they
are and remember we're doing this in
chunks because it's better to have
students practice one and get good at it
than overwhelm them with all of these
different variations at this stage if I
feel like it's sinking in I can now
begin to teach some of the negative so
are you wearing a jacket I am not
wearing a jacket I am wearing a sweater
however if I feel that there's
struggling with the material that we've
already taught I can save the negatives
for later on during the lesson or maybe
even a follow-up lesson later on only
you will know how much your students can
handle my philosophy is that I generally
don't teach more information if the
students haven't mastered what I've
already taught all of the questions have
been practiced in little chunks and now
it's time to move to point four with
teaching grammar and as you can imagine
it's doing the whole thing I'm going to
have all of the questions back up on the
board I'm going to put people into Pairs
and groups and they're going to be doing
all of it on their own however we're
still not at actual free practice yet
because I'm still going to have these
boarded questions up and I'm going to
allow students to use their notes and
this stage here this guided practice is
really important if I remove all of the
notes now and say role playay and ask it
and answer all of these questions
they're not going to be able to do it
because they've only practiced one
question at a time give them the
structures that they need give them some
help and as they start to ask and answer
these questions you can begin to remove
some of these questions and some of
these promps point 4 is over and now
we're at the final stage five this is
where the students are going to be doing
it completely on their own can they do
it can they ask and answer these
questions in real time and include some
authentic language and the answer is yes
because you've taken them through every
single step and you haven't moved to a
different point until they've mastered
any of the previous points and what I
can do to keep things fresh and keep the
variables new is I can give each student
a piece of paper that has pictures of
different people wearing different
articles of clothing this way they can
run through it once exchange the paper
and they have a bunch of new variables
to use I don't want people just saying
the same answers over and over again so
something like this will make it really
work you are going to be doing a lot of
variations of this you're going to do it
about five times because with beginners
it's not just about saying it once we
want to work on Mastery we want it to be
that when our students leave our
classroom these questions almost come
naturally to them so the more versions
and the more reps you do the better it
is if you get to your final stage and
your students aren't able to do it
without the use of notes or it's really
choppy or there's a lot of mistakes or
there's a lot of pauses you can always
jump back to a previous Point practice
there a bit and then skip back into five
again likewise if it's too easy I can
always add more language and more
variables to make it more difficult and
that is basically it I'm going to have
all of the different steps that we went
over in written form in the description
here so do click on that if the video is
a little confusing remember to watch the
other beginner videos because that stuff
is important too but now students have a
solid understanding of the present
continuous and the next lesson that I
teach can focus more on language we can
teach a lot of cool verbs and a lot of
cool nouns to really bring out that
natural communication but whenever I'm
teaching a grammar point for the first
time I just stick with the basics and I
try to keep the Lexus pool low so final
tips guys remember keep your TT and use
an economy of language that's number one
number two go slowly through the
presentation number three elicit
everything number four drill a lot drill
to death and then drill once more and
number five remember that it's all about
actual usage it's not just teaching some
rules you want we want our students to
be able to ask and answer questions in
real time regardless of their level
thanks so much for watching I hope you
enjoyed the video take care
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