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THE GRAMMAR ISSUE

When language teaching was a matter of translation (one of the oldest language teaching approaches), grammar was the center of attention. Learning a new language required a knowledge of vocabulary and an application of grammar: verb tenses and declinations; ordering parts of speech; reading and analysis.

As with so many tools, in the past few years, grammar teaching was dismissed, along with the reading-translation method, which went out of vogue. Recently, scholars have reinserted grammar by putting dozens of texts on the market on how to teach grammar in context or how to teach grammar without the student's awareness of the process.

Here's my take - teach grammar when it is helpful; don't teach grammar out of context, and never make grammar the center of your lesson plan...unless you feel like it. After all, I won't be there to point my finger at you, and even if I were, I wouldn't. There are times when we simply break our most sacred rules to get something across.

Following are some of my beliefs to support some introduction of grammar into a lesson plan:

• Most adults think they need grammar knowledge, so they accept it readily if you don't overwhelm them with your wisdom.
• Most adults can benefit from grammar knowledge, particularly if it matches aspects of their own language.
• Grammar provides a stable structure from which to add new dimensions.
• Convoluted grammar lessons are frustrating. Don't teach all of the exceptions to a rule until students learn the rule well.
• Inductive grammar instruction works better than deductive teaching. Induction is a logical , process of reasoning from the particular to the general. Induction is based on the assumption that if something is true in a number of observed instances, then it is also true in similar, but unobserved, instances. The probability of accuracy depends on the number of instances observed.
• Adults don't need to understand grammar right away. Once they know a little language, then they appreciate how things work. Teach grammar to more advanced students.

This last assumption does not require that you wait for a student to reach the intermediate level before teaching him rules. It does mean that you don't focus on grammar as much early in the game; rules can just sort of drop into the lesson for beginners. Intermediate students, however, can start applying rules, making up rules, and testing rules as part of their daily practice. Advanced students will need a strong grammar base if they are to learn to control and expand their essay writing and other more sophisticated conversational skills.

And that's my take on the subject. Argue with me in class.

Grammar Resources

Where do you learn the grammar that can most benefit ESL students? Learn with them. When you perceive students making a mistake, examine it. What is the mistake? How can you help the student consciously correct the mistake? Remember that the independent learner is a happy learner...

One of the greatest resources for ESL grammar is the Azar English grammar series. Her books have more explanations and exercises than any teacher or student could ever want or need. I would never recommend her books as texts, but they make excellent student and teacher resources. I understand that she also has a new CD-ROM, which sounds good. Go to  http://vig.prenhall.com/ and check out the Prentice Hall materials and price lists on grammar or any other topic. The price list will show up in Acrobat Reader. 

There are many grammar sections in ESL sites on the web. For example, click on http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/grammar.htm and check out the topics. I also recommend that you browse our ESL Resources links in these materials and find grammar exercises and explanations that fit your needs. Students love working with structure if it is well presented. You can get them on-line, occasionally, and have them take their own self-graded tests while you work with students who need individualized attention.

Grammar in Context of CA Life Skills Instruction

Let's take a verification item from the CA, ESL level II, and work some grammar exercises into the plan: Competency 2CE 14: Compare similar products for value by interpreting ads, labels and charts to select goods.

Compare the following items and suggest reasons why someone should buy one or the other computer.

Computer Ad 1 $699 Compaq Deskpro EP 500 MHZ Pentium III 10.0 GB Hard Drive 64 MB RAM 32X Max CD Windows 95 (Monitor sold separately) Add 6% shipping and handling; taxes where applicable)

Computer Ad 2 Starting at $809 IBM PC330GL 550 MHz Pentium III processor 32-64 MB RAM upgradable 4.2 to 13.5 GB S3 Trio3D AGP graphics 2-4MB VRAM Windows 98 (Monitor sold separately)

Preparing

1. What steps would you take before presenting this exercise to your intermediate students?
2. What additional information would someone need to compare the value of each machine?
3. What oral/conversational practice could you give students to along with this activity? (Hint: Check your fieldwork below)
4. What are some life skills would a student learn from this exercise?
5. What "realia" might support this learning activity?
6. What sentences would this exercise generate? Make a short list and bring it to the next session.

Two Grammar Activities

After your students have played around with the vocabulary, dialogues, and reading for this activity, a grammar/structure exercise would be appropriate.

Comparative Terms in English

A.  Develop comparative sentences using the adjectives given below. State a rule that covers the patterns you develop. Let's compare cars.

Examples: expensive cheap big fast comfortable interesting large small long complicated stylish __________ good bad __________ pretty ugly

Donna's car is more expensive than Raul's. Raul's car is cheaper than Donna's.

B.  Develop sentences about your own life, following the models.

Model 1:  "IF" with First Conditionals (Real Possibilities)

• If the IBM doesn't charge shipping, it is probably a better buy.
• If I add an equal graphics card to the Compaq, it will perform equally.

Model 2:  "IF" with Second Conditionals (Unreal Conditionals)

• If I had the money, I would buy the IBM.
• If the Compaq had Window's 98, it would be more attractive.

Remember to always bring the activity into the student's field of knowledge and interest, whenever possible. Figure out the rule, copy the models, apply the models, and finally, expand the models into other situations.

Transformation Drills

In Session 2, we practiced Substitution Drills. As students become more grammatically competent, transformation drills can be a lot of fun. In a transformation drill, the response is not automatic; students must think and apply grammar concepts. The procedure is the same as you practiced earlier for substitution drills. However, the cue word will change position or time in the sentence.

Model Sentence: If I buy a car, I will celebrate.

Cue Word/s house tell everyone Sara

Transformed sentence If I buy a house, I will celebrate. If I buy a house, I will tell everyone. If Sara buys a house, she will tell everyone.

As with substitution drills, keep the activity short. This is a great activity for pairs or groups as well, even if they are multi-level.

Helping Students Grow and Correct their Own Mistakes

Whenever possible, let the student find the correction or improvement to be made and come up with the solution.

I find that in writing, intermediate students make lots of mistakes because they are getting bolder. Students who get corrected over and over and who get papers back filled with red marks think that they are making oodles of mistakes, and they get discouraged. In fact, most students make only a few mistakes, which are repeated over and over. Good instructors pick up on what those tendencies are and point them out to students. Some teachers give students lists of possible error categories (word order, verb tense, meaning, part of speech, pronoun, sentence structure, etc...) and have students keep a log of where they need to strengthen their skills. They can also recognize where their strengths lie.

Good tests help students recognize their grammatical strengths and weaknesses. Self-graded or peer-graded tests that "don't count" are great ways of getting students to become more independent. Send students to the web and have them take bunches of little exercises/tests that are graded on-line and give immediate feedback. Have students develop their own tests, and watch the instructor come out in them!

Encourage students to make mistakes by pushing harder, and reward them for analyzing their output and using their mistakes as a measure of growth. Encourage them to ask, "Am I making new mistakes? Great!"

Exercise

Analyze the following sentences. How would you deal with the corrections in each one?

• In Mexico, are beautiful beaches.
• He leave and come back three hours later.
• Kim return after he finish school on the fall.
• Is early but I very tired.
• Much persons attended the class on the afternoon.
• We went to the movies after, we went to the home.
• I like some ice-cream.
• My father he live in Quito.

When you start working with ESL grammar, you'll find out things about your own language that you will forever appreciate. Enjoy the journey. It never ends.

IS GENDER AN ISSUE?

Gender is an issue in many ways in the ESL classroom. It affects how students relate to each other. It affects what they think of themselves. It is also a grammar issue.

If you are developing exercises for students, make every attempt to balance your references to men and women. Also, refer to men and women in unexpected situations. A doctor can be "she," and a nurse a "he."  You might give them the Indian riddle. In that tale, a big Indian is standing next to a little Indian, both of whom are fishing at along a river. The little Indian is the big Indian's son, but the big Indian is not the little Indian's father."

Depending on the culture, women and men might not feel comfortable working in pairs. Be sensitive to those issues and always ask when in doubt.

When selecting readings for intermediate and advanced students, choose reading that discuss gender issues in a positive way and help students become more open-minded about people of the other gender. There are famous women politicians and men who are famous cooks.

Brainstorming for Class Discussion

1. What would be helpful for students to discuss about gender issues?
2. What exercises would help erase cultural gender perceptions in the classroom?
3. How can humor be used to discuss gender issues?

The Learning-Disabled Student Issue

What is a learning disability? - Probably not what you think! The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada (formerly the Canadian Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities - CACLD) adopted the following definition for the term:

• Learning disabilities is a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders due to identifiable or inferred central nervous system dysfunction. Such disorders may be manifested by delays in early development and/or difficulties in any of the following areas: attention, memory, reasoning, coordination, communicating, reading, writing, spelling, calculation, social competence and emotional maturation.

• Learning disabilities are intrinsic to the individual, and may affect learning and behavior in any individual, including those with potentially average, average, or above average intelligence.

• Learning disabilities are not due primarily to visual, hearing, or motor handicaps; to mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental disadvantage; although they may occur concurrently with any of these.

• Learning disabilities may arise from genetic variations, biochemical factors, events in the pre-to perinatal period, or any other subsequent events resulting in neurological impairment.

In the United States, the series "Bridges to Practice: A Research Guide for Literacy Practitioners Serving Adults with Learning Disabilities" (Project of the National Institute for Literacy) contains a number of valuable guidelines for applying instructional methods that specifically address the learning disabled adult. In Colorado, a team of adult educators has been trained in this material, which is available in all resource centers for check out. This group will be presenting the essence of what it learned during an all-day sessions at the upcoming CAEPA conference in Colorado Springs, in October 1999. One of the presenters will be covering techniques for working with ESL students with learning disabilities. Therefore, this section of our materials will be developed more fully in our next session, using some of her insights, along with our progression into working with advanced ESL students.

The next session will be devoted to this issue.

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FIELD PRACTICE IV - TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE CLASS

Generate a dialogue where a student would call the Compaq/IBM companies to get more information in order to compare the characteristics of both machines. E-mail me your dialogues.

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http://www.edunet.com/english/grammar/toc.cfm - general grammar links

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslstudent.html- Good variety of links to grammar and other ESL resources. Check it out. Also great additional items on other language issues.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/4882/intro.html - grammar explanations

http://www.burza.sk/testy/index.html - grammar exercises/quizzes. This is a Slovakian site, so don't be thrown by the language.