Teaching grammar to young learners

TEACHING GRAMMAR TO YOUNG LEARNERS
Plan:

1. 
   The role of grammar on language lessons
   
2. 
   The advantages of using grammar
   
3. 
   Pecularities of learning grammar through grammar
   
4. 
   Learning grammar through grammar
   
5. 
   Grammar with prepositions, conditionals and wishes
   

Grammar offer students a fun-filled and relaxing learning atmosphere. After learning and practicing new vocabulary, students have the opportunity to use language in a non-stressful way. While playing grammar, the learners' attention is on the message, not on the language. Rather than pay attention to the correctness of linguistic forms, most participants will do all they can to win. This eases the fear of negative evaluation, the concern of being negatively judged in public, and which is one of the main factors inhibiting language learners from using the target language in front of other people. In a game-oriented context, anxiety is reduced and speech fluency is generated--thus communicative competence is achieved . Grammar are also motivating. Grammar introduce an element of competition into language-building activities. This provides valuable impetus to a purposeful use of language . In other words, these activities create a meaningful context for language use. The competitive ambiance also makes learners concentrate and think intensively during the learning process, which enhances unconscious acquisition of inputs. Most students who have experienced game-oriented activities hold positive attitudes towards them. An action research conducted by Huyen and Nga (2003), students said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness, and the motivation that grammar brought to the classroom. On the effectiveness of grammar, teachers in Huyenreported that action research reported that their students seem to learn more quickly and retain the learned materials better in a stress-free and comfortable environment. The benefits of using grammar in language-learning can be summed up in nine points. Grammar: are learner centered.

promote communicative competence.
create a meaningful context for language use.
increase learning motivation.
reduce learning anxiety.
integrate various linguistic skills.
encourage creative and spontaneous use of language.
construct a cooperative learning environment.
foster participatory attitudes of the students.
The findings of the present study demonstrate that grammar are effective as energizers and educational tools that can provide enjoyment, pleasure, passionate involvement, structure, and motivation among other benefits; the researchers supported the trend towards using them as short warm-ups.
When learning exercises are held alongside grammar, instruction is assisted, and increases foreign languages students’ achievement. Moreover, if English language is practiced with the help of grammar, the achievement of the learners can be higher than that from traditional education. This is a strong invitation for teachers to refer to grammar while teaching difficult tasks so as to maintain an interesting teaching environment. Grammar should be perceived as elements of the process of teaching, learners should benefit from grammar connected with English learning in the process of teaching-learning at the right time and the right place. The overall results of this study reflect the fact it does not matter what grammar are played; we cannot deny the importance of grammar. If students learn with grammar, have fun, and feel happy and free, it means that you have reached your goals. Grammar strengthen language skills, in addition to allowing learners to develop social skills and good relationships while they interact with each other.
Based on all of the information above it seems clear that grammar can and should be used as a teaching method when teaching languages. One reason why grammar could work well as a teaching method is because of the change that has occurred in teaching, where students have become much more active in the learning process. Besides giving students a chance to be more active, grammar usually place the teacher in a background role, and therefore allow the students to take on more responsibility.
When we consider the positive effects of language grammar, such as lowering learners’ anxiety and providing meaningful use of a language in the classroom, this result is striking and should be investigated in detail. Since the perspectives of learners and teachers might vary, even about the specific issue such as learning English through grammar, teachers and researchers should conduct studies or action research to examine learners’ views on several points to take into consideration when teaching a language and planning their lessons in a way that meets their individual learners’ needs. If learners are children, language teachers should not ignore their natural instincts for grammar, and they should seek ways to turn education into edutainment.
It has also been made clear that grammar help create diversity and can be very helpful in sustaining interest amongst students in school. We have also learned that by creating diversity, teachers are reaching out to a broader group of students and that is very important because students are individuals that differ from each other in so many ways.
The advantages of using grammar
Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that grammar are not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value. W. R. Lee holds that most language grammar make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms. He also says that grammar should be treated as central not peripheral to the foreign language teaching programme. A similar opinion is expressed by Richard-Amato, who believes grammar to be fun but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value, particularly in foreign language teaching . There are many advantages of using grammar. "Grammar can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely" (Richard-Amato). They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings (Hansen). They also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson. Furthermore, to quote Richard-Amato, they, "add diversion to the regular classroom activities," break the ice, "[but also] they are used to introduce new ideas". In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using grammar, students remember things faster and better (Wierus and Wierus). Further support comes from Zdybiewska, who believes grammar to be a good way of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future.Grammar encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems. There are many factors to consider while discussing grammar, one of which is appropriacy. Teachers should be very careful about choosing grammar if they want to make them profitable for the learning process. If grammar are to bring desired results, they must correspond to either the student's level, or age, or to the material that is to be introduced or practiced. Not all grammar are appropriate for all students irrespective of their age. Different age groups require various topics, materials, and modes of grammar. For example, children benefit most from grammar which require moving around, imitating a model, competing between groups and the like. Furthermore, structural grammar that practice or reinforce a certain grammatical aspect of language have to relate to students' abilities and prior knowledge. Grammar become difficult when the task or the topic is unsuitable or outside the student's experience
Another factor influencing the choice of a game is its length and the time necessary for its completion. Many grammar have a time limit, but the teacher can either allocate more or less time depending on the students' level, the number of people in a group, or the knowledge of the rules of a game etc. Grammar are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left at the end of a lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game "should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do". Grammar ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that grammar be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen. At different stages of the lesson, the teacher's aims connected with a game may vary: Grammar also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way. All authors referred to in this article agree that even if grammar resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency. However, can they be more successful for presentation and revision than other techniques? The following part of this article is an attempt at finding the answer to this question.
Learning grammar through grammar
The collection of word grammar is a valuable resource for the teacher of young through adult learners of English as a second or foreign language. Focusing primarily on language development through the use of high frequency vocabulary and structures, they reinforce classroom lessons and provide additional spelling, conversation, listening and speaking practice. The most instructive language learning grammar are those that emphasize specific structures. They do not only practice the basic pattern but also do so in a pleasant, easy way that allows the students to forget they are drilling grammar and concentrate on having fun. The following grammar are concerned with Yes/No questions, Wh-questions, tag questions, comparative and superlative, adverbs, modals, demonstratives, etc. Most learners somehow accept that the sounds of a foreign language are going to be different from those of their mother tongue. What is more difficult to accept is that the grammar of the new language is also spectacularly different from the way the mother tongue works . At a subconscious, semiconscious and conscious level it is very hard to want to switch to “to be” (‘I’m 23’, ‘I’m hungry’, ‘and I’m cold’) if it is “have” in Italian. Grammar is perhaps so serious and central in learning another language that all ways should be searched for which will focus student energy on the task of mastering and internalizing it. One way of focusing this energy is through the release offered by grammar. Teenagers are delighted to be asked to do something that feels like an out-class activity and in which they control what is going on in the classroom – they become the subjects, while for a lot of the 15,000 hours they spend in schools they are the objects of teaching. The point is that fun generates energy for the achievement of the serious goal.
Where exactly do such grammar fit into a teaching programme? Grammar grammar can be used in three ways: diagnostically before presenting a given structure area to find out how much knowledge of the area is already disjointedly present in the group;- after a grammar presentation to see how much the group have grasped;- as revision of a grammar area . One should not use grammar grammar as a Friday afternoon ‘reward’ activity. Using them as a central part of the students’ learning process would be a better idea. Thus, each game is proposed for a given level ranging from beginner to advanced. This refers simply to the grammar content of that particular game. But, as it has been already mentioned above, a lot of activities can be adapted to different classes with different grammar components. By changing the grammar content a teacher can, in many cases, use the game frame offered at a higher or lower level. Generally, any frame can be filled with any structures you want to work on with your students. The students have to take individual responsibility for what they think the grammar is about. The teacher is free to find out what the students actually know, without being the focus of their attention. Serious work is taking place in the context of a game. The dice throwing and arguing lightens and enlivens the classroom atmosphere in a way that most people do not associate with the grammar part of a course. The ‘game’ locomotive pulls the grammar train along. Everybody is working at once- the 15-30 minutes the average game lasts is a period of intense involvement.
Other reasons for including grammar in a language class are:
1. They focus student attention on specific structures, grammatical patterns.
2. They can function as reinforcement, review and enrichment.
3. They involve equal participation from both slow and fast learners.
4. They can be adjusted to suit the individual ages and language levels of the students
5. They contribute to an atmosphere of healthy competition, providing an outlet for the creative use of natural language in a non-stressful situation.
6. They can be used in any language-teaching situation and with any skill area whether reading, writing, speaking or listening.
7. They provide the immediate feedback for the teacher.
8. They ensure maximum student participation for a minimum of teacher preparation.
A game should be planned into the day’s lesson right along with exercises, dialogues and reading practice. It should not be an afterthought.
Grammar are a lively way of maintaining students’ interest in the language, they are fun but also part of the learning process, and students should be encouraged to take them seriously . They should also know how much time they have to play a game. It’s not useful to start a game five minutes before the end of the lesson. Students are usually given a ‘five-minute warning’ before the time is over so they can work towards the end.
The older the students are, the more selective a teacher should be in choosing a game activity. Little kids love movements, while older ones get excited with puddles, crosswords, word wheels, and poster competitions whatever.A teacher should bear in mind that it is the content, not the form, which is of interest to the child. A toddler does not learn to say,”Cookie, please”, in her native language because she is practicing the request form. “Cookie, please” is learned because the child wants a cookie.
So children learn with their whole beings. Whole-child involvement means that one should arrange for the child’s participation in the lesson with as many senses as possible. Seeing pictures of children performing actions and repeating, “The boy is running”, “The girl is hopping” is not at all as effective as when students do the actions themselves in response to commands and demonstrations from the teacher. All said above is fairly true to adult learners not only children, because of our common human nature to possess habits through experience. We all learned to understand and speak our first language by hearing and using it in natural situations, with people who cared for and about us. This is the most effective and interesting way to learn a second language as well. The experts now advise language teachers to spend most of the classroom time an activities that foster natural acquisition, rather than on formal vocabulary and structure explanations and drills.
Grammar with prepositions, Conditionals and Wishes
Modern language teaching requires a lot of work to make a lesson interesting for modern students who are on familiar terms with computers, Internet and electronic entertainment of any kind. Sympathetic relations must exist not only among students but between students and a teacher. It’s of special importance for junior students because very often they consider their teachers to be the subject itself, i.e. interesting and attractive or terrible and disgusting, necessary to know or useless and thus better to avoid
Magazine Search.Materials: Magazines to share in groups; Procedure: 1. On the board, write a list of prepositions of place that the students have studied. Divide the students into groups of three or four and give each group several magazines. You may want to ask students to bring in their own. If you are supplying them, be sure that they have full-page ads or other large pictures.
2. Give the groups a time limit and have them search through their magazines to find a picture that contains situations illustrating prepositions of place.
3. When the time is up, each group goes to the front of the class, holds up its picture, and explains (in sentences) the contents of the picture, using prepositions of place.
Example: The dog is under the table.The table is next to the man.The table is in front of the window.
4. The group that found a picture allowing them to correctly use the most prepositions of place from the list on the board wins. Note: With an intermediate group, choose a wider range of prepositions that they have already reviewed.
Scavenger Hunt. Materials: Worksheet, objects filled in various objects provided by instructor. Dynamic: Pairs. Time: 20 minutes
Procedure: 1. Before students come into the classroom, distribute various objects around the room, placing them in visible positions that students can describe using their prepositions of place. List the objects on the worksheet.
Error analysis.1. Divide the class into pairs. Give each pair a copy of the worksheet or other similar picture. NOTE: If you are using your own picture, also give the pairs several sentences you have written about the picture, as on the worksheet. Some sentences should be accurate, and others incorrect. 2. The pairs read the sentences about the picture and decide if they are correct or incorrect in their preposition usage. If they are incorrect, they must correct them. 3. When a pair is finished, check their work. If this is a competition, the first pair to finish the worksheet correctly wins. If using this activity as a review activity, go over the answers together when everyone has finished. Suggestion: As a follow-up activity, have each pair write 10 True/False sentences with which to challenge another pair.
Preposition Bee. Procedure: 1. Divide the class into two teams. Have them line up along opposite walls, or arrange their desks in two lines.
2. The first student from Team A steps to the front of the class. Read a sentence, omitting the preposition. The student must fill in the blank. Several answers will probably be possible; give the team a point for any appropriate answer.
3. Alternate students from the two teams until everyone has had a turn or you are out of time. The team with the most points wins. Suggestion: Instead of reading the sentences, use an overhead and reveal one sentence at a time. This avoids repetition and helps the students to focus on the sentence.
NOTE: You may want to make your own sentences based on the prepositions your class has covered. This activity could also be done at a higher level with sentences using phrasal verbs. Divide the class into groups of about five. Tell them that this is a memory game and no writing is allowed. Explain that they are looking for matches and will get a point for each match. They can confer as a team, but you will accept an answer only from the student whose turn it is. They can call out two numbers together the first time since no one knows where any of the words are. In subsequent turns, they should wait for you to write the first answer before they call out their second number . As the first student calls out numbers, write the words that correspond to these numbers in the blanks. Ask the class if it is a match. If not, erase the words. If so, leave them there and cross them out (see below).
Tic Tac Toe. Procedure: 1. Draw a tic tac toe grid on the board with the first word of the phrasal verbs written in. Divide the class into two groups.
2. A student from Team X comes to the board and writes in the corresponding particle for the verb he/she selects. If correct, he/she draws his/her mark in the square (an X). (You may choose to accept only combinations you have studied in class or that are listed in the students' books, or you may decide to accept any correct combination. Whichever you decide to accept, make your decision clear to the students before playing the game.)
3. A student from Team О then comes to the board and does the same. If an answer is incorrect, the student cannot draw his/her mark and erases the answer. The next player on the other team may choose that same square or another square.
4. The first team with three marks in a row wins.
NOTE: You will probably want to explain game strategy such as blocking, but often the student's choice is based on which verb he/she knows.
5. As a follow-up, divide the class into groups of three and use the worksheet. One student is X, one is 0, and the other is in charge and can have his/her book open to the verb page to judge whether an answer is correct. After the first game, the students should rotate roles so that the judge is now one of the players. Continue until all students have had a chance to be the judge. As you will see, some of the verbs on the handout take several different prepositions. As long as the students make an acceptable phrasal verb, the answer is correct.
Note: The items on the worksheet come from the list in Fundamentals of English Grammar. If this worksheet is not appropriate to your class, modify it.
Variation: On the grid on the board (or on a modified worksheet), fill in the squares with both parts of phrasal verbs. When a student selects a certain square, he/she must use the phrasal verb in a complete sentence which demonstrates understanding of the meaning. If the sentence is correct, the student puts his/her team's mark in that square. Example:ask out do over fill up; get off give up try on; turn off make up hang up
A student from Team X chooses "give up." The student then makes a sentence orally: I couldn't understand the assignment, so I gave up. The sentence must reflect the student's understanding of the meaning of the phrasal verb. A sentence such as I gave up or Don't give up is not acceptable. If a sentence is accepted as being correct, the student writes an X over the square. A student from Team О then chooses a square and makes a meaningful sentence using that phrasal verb. Alternate turns until one team has three in a row or the game is a draw.
Preposition bee. See the directions for the Preposition Bee on Worksheet 1.5 or a similar list of your own sentences.
Beat the clock. Materials: 3" x 5" cards (see sample); Time: 30 minutes Procedure: 1. Put a sentence using a phrasal verb on one side of as many index cards as you need. Review and discuss phrasal verbs. Have the students create sentences or dialogues and practice orally.
2. Divide the class into two teams, A and B. Arrange the teams so that Team A's desks are directly across from (and touching) Team B's desks. If using tables, have Team A sit on one side and Team В on the other side.
3. Show the students the front of a card. The first student {A or B) who answers with a phrasal verb that correctly replaces the verb on the card gets a point for his/her team. If that student can then use the phrasal verb in a sentence with the correct tense, his/her team gets an extra point.
"Up" Verbs.Materials: 3" x 5" cards. Procedure: Write one verb on each card. Choose some verbs that can also be phrasal verbs with up.
Examples: ask (can't be used with up)
check (can be used with up)
cross (can't be used with up)
get (can be used with up)
2. Divide theclass into pairs or groups of three or four. Give each group a stack of verb cards.3. Tell the students to divide the cards into two piles: verbs with up/verbs without up.4. When all the up verbs are found, have the students take turns explaining the meaning of each phrasal verb to the other students in the group.Variation: Make three identical sets of vocabulary cards. Divide the class into three teams. Tell the students to find the up verbs. The team that finds the most up verbs wins. Each correct up verb is worth one point. For each incorrect up verb, subtract one point from the total score. Use the same procedure for any phrasal verb pattern (for example, out, away, through, etc.).
6. Phrasal Challenge. Procedure: 1. Divide the class into pairs. Tell the pairs to write down eight phrasal verbs and their meanings that they think the rest of the class will not know.
2. After they are finished, join two pairs and have the first pair challenge the other pair. Each pair takes turns reading the phrasal verbs from their list and having their opponents state the meaning of each phrasal verb and use it in a sentence.
3. If the opponents answer correctly, they get a point. The pair with the most points wins.4. For homework, have the students use the phrasal verbs that they missed in correct sentences.
Story Time. Materials: 3" x 5" cards, writing paper, Dynamic: Small groups; Time: 40 minutes
Procedure: 1. Divide the class into groups of three, and give each group five 3"x 5" cards. Each group writes down a different phrasal verb on each of their index cards. You may want to let them use the lists in their books. Have them write the definition of each phrasal verb on the back.
True in the present/future
Superstitions.Procedure: 1. Write a few superstitions on the board. Here are some examples. If a black cat crosses your path, you'll have bad luck. If your palm itches, you're going to receive money. If you break a mirror, you'll have seven years bad luck. If you step on a crack, you'll break your mother's back.Look at the verb forms in the if-clause and result clause together. Ask students to generate a rule (if this is an introduction) or review the rule (if you have already introduced this form).
2. Break students into small groups and have them discuss superstitions from their countries. They should list three or four to share with the rest of the class.
3. As a whole group, share the superstitions and discuss which are universal and which seem to exist only in one or two cultures. Students often have similar superstitions in their countries and like to share them, and it is interesting to compare slight variations.
4. For further review of forms, you may want to write several of the students' superstitions on the board and analyze them (Were they written correctly?).
2. Superstitions match A, Materials: Dynamic: Whole class; Time: 15 minutes
Procedure: 1. Cut up the worksheet or make your own. Give each student half of a superstition, that is, one card.
2. The students circulate and try to find the missing half of their superstition. When students feel they have a match, they sit down. You will probably have to check student matches and advise them to sit down or find a different match. (In case you are unfamiliar with some of the superstitions in the worksheet, the //-clause on the left matches the result clause directly across from it.)
3. Go over the superstitions together, talking about meaning and form.
3. Superstitions Match В,Procedure: 1. Follow steps 1 and 2 for Superstitions.
2. Have the students write their superstitions on the cards or paper strips so that one half of the superstition is on one card and the other half is on a different card. (Each group should produce only half as many superstitions as there are members in their group, so that a group of four students will write two superstitions, a total of four cards. In step 2 of Activity 1, students may have generated many superstitions, so instruct them to choose the ones they like best.)
3. Collect and shuffle the cards. Hand one card to each student. Students circulate and try to find their match. (The student who wrote the superstition will have to be the judge of whether or not the match is good because you will probably be unfamiliar with several of the superstitions.)
4. As a class, go over the superstitions and check (as a group) to see if the correct grammar forms were used.