Scribd
Upload
224 views3 pages

Contextual Grammar Teaching

The document discusses contextualized grammar instruction and provides examples of activities to teach grammar through exploration rather than explicit explanation. Traditional grammar instruction that focuses on memorization and drills has been shown to have little effect on writing skills. Instead, the author recommends teaching grammar thematically using authentic materials like books, films, songs and incorporating all language skills. Specific examples provided include using a song to introduce past perfect, reading a short story and discussing how grammar is used, and watching a video clip and then discussing the grammar structures used. The goal is to present grammar as part of communication and help students discover rules themselves.

Uploaded by

Phước Đức Phan Trần
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
224 views3 pages

Contextual Grammar Teaching

The document discusses contextualized grammar instruction and provides examples of activities to teach grammar through exploration rather than explicit explanation. Traditional grammar instruction that focuses on memorization and drills has been shown to have little effect on writing skills. Instead, the author recommends teaching grammar thematically using authentic materials like books, films, songs and incorporating all language skills. Specific examples provided include using a song to introduce past perfect, reading a short story and discussing how grammar is used, and watching a video clip and then discussing the grammar structures used. The goal is to present grammar as part of communication and help students discover rules themselves.

Uploaded by

Phước Đức Phan Trần
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Milica Vukadin - Contextual Grammar

Teaching - Activities for Making Grammar


Meaningful to Your Students
How do we develop a learning environment where the grammar is learned
through exploration without burnout? Keep reading for example activities of
thematic contextual grammar activities that develop the four language skills
simultaneously.

Milica Vukadin, B.Ed.

What is contextualized grammar instruction?

The eternal debate of teaching grammar implicitly or explicitly will probably never
cease. This debate created the need for further research, and now almost all
researchers agree that grammar should not be taught explicitly. (Goode, 2000; Sams,
2003;). The rationale for teaching grammar in such a way is the early language
acquisition - children learn their native language through an authentic context, and they
can speak it perfectly without anyone explaining what is present simple or past simple.
So how can we use this to contextualize grammar instruction? We can start by
forgetting frontal teaching and drilling, and use authentic language in books, films,
newspapers, and even songs. 

Why should we avoid explicit grammar teaching?


Traditional grammar instruction requires the memorization of grammar rules and
terminology, along with drills and labeling of sentence parts in various textbooks. Even
older dated research has proven that this method has little or no effect on improving
student’s writing and language skills in general. (Meyer, 1986; Seliger, 1979).

How is grammar contextualized?

Exploration instead of explanation is a great starting point for all teachers who are
struggling to develop a contextually based approach to grammar. Your lesson planning
process may experience ups and downs, but ultimately, the positive results will
outnumber the negative ones. Here are three simple steps to develop an exploratory
grammar lesson:

 Teach thematically - Your student wants to travel and practice travel English
so there is no time for grammar? In this case, you can easily introduce modal verbs by
practicing ordering in a restaurant and discussing the menu with the waiter.

 Contextualize - Use authentic films, books, articles, and songs. By doing that,
we are presenting grammar as a part of language and communication, not just as a
tedious thing that has to be learned for the test.

 Incorporate all skills - By incorporating all language skills, the new grammar
is used immediately, and by recycling the same grammar form through all the four
language skills, the student will seamlessly acquire the grammar form.

Here are three contextual ways of introducing a new grammar


form:

Using music and songs - The ideas from a song, the rhythm, and for younger
children, even movement can easily captivate the attention of your student. By doing
this, students can discover the grammar by themselves, and the grammar becomes a
conversation topic. Remembering past perfect is much easier by connecting it with a
song. 

You can use MyEnglishPages while you learn how to develop a contextual grammar lesson
based on a song. You can start your lesson by speaking while using karaoke and
discussing the topic of the song. Then you can switch to listening by sharing a fill-in-
the-blanks worksheet for a specific grammar form, which will ultimately lead to
grammar discovery and writing, or rewriting sentences.
Short stories or books - For this occasion, you can select a short passage of a book
or a short story. If students provide you with their favorite reading material, that's even
better. Start by reading and discussing the content. You can then search for a specific
grammar form and discuss how is it used in that sentence. You can finish the reading
by paraphrasing or reporting the sentence. This kind of grammar discovery is proven to
deepen the understanding of the mother tongue and foreign language as well. 

To practice writing and speaking you can focus on a specific grammar form - for
example, write an essay and put the short story into the past tense, or do an oral
exercise where you will change the adverbs in the text to see how the meaning of the
sentence changes. There is no end to what you can do with a text - It all depends on
your syllabus and student's learning gaps.

Activities with films or video clips - Films and video clips are great tools for
students who do not enjoy reading. The instruction can start by watching a short
segment of the film, and then providing a transcript. After that, you can highlight the
grammar structures and watch it again to hear how are they used in authentic
communication. Speaking activities can include a role-play with a specific grammar
structure. Writing activities can include creating a storybook, blog post or even a vlog.

Contextualized grammar teaching develops analytical skills in our students, which helps
them comprehend and incorporate the language rules. By learning grammar
contextually and by using the grammar-discovery approach with our students, we
ultimately create autonomous, 21st-century learners.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy