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How
to Be Sure Your
Students Get Enough Grammar Practice
John Brezinsky, Higher
Education
Marketing Manager
Research
shows
that students need to practice grammar repeatedly in order to
internalize it. Unfortunately, most students don’t get enough
practice. This article describes the problem and suggests
automatically graded online software (for as little as $11.50 when
purchased with the Student Book) as a
solution.
How
Grammar Is Learned
Researchers from Ellis to Ur to Swan disagree on many points, but they
do agree that grammar is learned only after significant amounts of
practice. Being able to repeat a rule is nice, but students must
practice understanding and using the grammar if they want to be able to
function in the English-speaking world.
How
Grammar Is Not Learned
If students only practice grammar for a few hours a week in a
face-to-face classroom, they are at a significant disadvantage. They
may improve their fluency in interactions outside of class, but without
enough opportunities to explicitly practice grammar, their accuracy
will not improve.
Add
Practice without Adding to the Teaching Load
The key, of course, is finding ways for students to get more practice
without forcing teachers to add more hours to their already overloaded
schedules. Online "workbooks" with automatically graded exercises are a
perfect solution. Students receive personalized feedback immediately
and come to class better prepared. Teachers simply track the grades and
monitor progress, adding mere minutes to their week.
Get
More Practice Now
Both Focus on
Grammar and the Azar-Hagen
Grammar Series are available
with online workbooks, Focus on
Grammar Interactive and Azar
Interactive. (And at the Interactive websites,
you can set up a 30-day free trial.)
You can add the online workbooks to the student books for
as little as $11.50. Ask your local ELL Specialist for more
information.
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