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From
the Trenches: What Grammar Teachers Are Talking About
John Brezinsky, Higher
Education
Marketing Manager
Conversations about grammar and grammar
teaching never seem to go away. How much grammatical information do
students need? Should grammar even be taught at all? This article
summarizes discussions on ESL email lists and conversations
I’ve had with teachers over the course of the fall of
2008—about the line between talking about grammar and using
it.
Teaching
Grammar
Periodically, on the TESL-L discussion list,
someone brings up the topic of teaching grammar. One side argues that
there is no point in teaching grammar to students because they simply
won't acquire it. Other people say that, on the contrary,
students want and need to learn explicit grammatical structures. There
is plenty of research to back up the position for teaching grammar, but
a knee-jerk reaction against it persists. Interestingly, the arguments
against teaching grammar are often a reaction against the old
methodology of Grammar Translation. Since we've learned how
important communicative fluency is, some teachers are only too happy to
say that any explicit focus on form is bad.
Using
Grammar
No teacher wants to ignore fluency, but most teachers now accept that
we can’t ignore accuracy either. We don’t want to
spend all of class talking about grammar, but students need to use
grammar in their own speaking and writing. This leads to a more
balanced approach to language instruction in which grammar is taught
explicitly but as only one component of English. Students become more
proficient when they are able to study and practice all aspects of
their target language.
Resources
Focus on Grammar and the Azar Grammar Series
both offer teachers opportunities to teach grammar explicitly. They
also strike a balance between studying grammar and using it.
For an active discussion of language teaching methodology including
grammar, subscribe to the TESL-L list.
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