Module 2, Task 5: The Role of Grammar Practice
The Role of Grammar Practice (40 minutes)
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Introduction
How many times have you heard teachers or parents say, “Practice makes perfect”? This saying can certainly be applied to many kinds of learning. However, not all practice leads to perfection. There is plenty of evidence that shows that only the right practice done at the right time improves performance and leads to success. In Task 5, we will examine different types of grammar practice activities and try to establish what role they may have in language learning. We will also explore how grammar practice activities can be structured so that their effect in maximized.
The Role of Grammar Practice
How does grammar practice help students? According to Scott Thornbury (1999), grammar practice helps students:
- Improve their accuracy (use correct grammar)
- Improve their fluency (speak and write without pauses and get their meaning across)
- Reorganize their knowledge, integrate new knowledge into old – that is, engage in restructuring.
Types of Grammar Practice Activities
Let's have a look at various grammar practice activities:
Controlled activities
- Repetition - students are asked to repeat what the teacher has said or what they have heard
- Drills - repeating structural patterns through oral practice
The role of drilling and repetition in communicative teaching has been discussed a lot. On one hand, the main focus of the communicative approach is on natural, authentic communication with others. On the other hand, a learner needs a 'bank' of language to refer to. This ‘bank’ is often formed by having a number of experiences, and/or by using specific language meaningfully and with 'fluent accuracy'. Experts say repetition plays a big role in this process, so let's look at some reasons why.
Drills can be useful teaching and learning material because they provide practice of small, manageable chunks of language. This helps to build confidence and gives learners an automatic use of structures and expressions that have been drilled. Repeating a communicative situation/task more than once gives a learner a chance to gain confidence, increase fluency and attempt more complex language structure or vocabulary (Thornburry: 2010).
Communicative language teaching often highlights the importance of spontaneous communication outside the classroom and reinforces the idea of making lessons as creative and engaging as possible. Adding repetition elements is sometimes associated with boredom. Because of this we ask, how can we balance both?
Scott Thornburry (2010) suggests the idea of modifying the task we ask the students to repeat, changing the amount of scaffolding, or visual support we provide to the students (having less and less text so that they could practice a dialogue independently); changing the mode, or the main skill we practice (from speaking to writing, for example); reducing the time allocated for the task in pairs, or asking students to do the same task in a new small group provides variety and spontaneity we seek in teaching communicatively.
How else can grammar be practiced in a meaningful, engaging way? Let's look at some examples:
- Repeat in the manner of the word. Ask students to repeat a sentence with the target grammar item softly, loudly, sadly or happily.
- Disappearing dialogue. Write a dialogue on the board and give students some time to practice it. After the students are comfortable with the dialogue, omit a word or phrase and ask students to perform it. This time they have less of a written record and are required to remember the dialogue. Repeat the above stage until all the dialogue has gone.
- Running dictation. Type or write a short text on a piece of paper and paste it on the wall. Ask students to work in groups. Each group sends their representatives to the front of the class to read the text, line by line. The representative then dictates the line back to their group. The representative travels back and forth, reading and dictating, until their group finishes. The group that finishes first is the winner.
- Jazz chants. One more way to work with the target grammar is by creating jazz chants. They work for English as a 'rhythmical' language and help to focus on accuracy in a fun way. Accompanied with clapping, and/or stomping, chanting does not need any equipment and can boost energy and bring laughter into a 'serious' grammar class.
Example: grammar chant for a beginner level class.
Where did you go
Where did you go
Where did you go last weekend?
I went shopping. What about you?
I went running. What about you?
I went running, just like you!
(Adapted from: Beare 2014)
- Dictogloss. The teacher reads a short text written to illustrate a particular language item once or twice at a normal speed. Students listen carefully and try to understand what they hear. While listening, they can write down some key words. After listening, they work individually or in pairs and try to reconstruct the text it as accurately as possible. Finally, students compare their text with the original. They see the differences and similarities.
Controlled practice
Teachers want students to think about and use specific language item(s) accurately as often as possible. In order to complete these activities, students have to use the target grammar structure, but also have freedom to somewhat personalize the language and contribute their own ideas. This maintains students’ interest but also challenges them.
Let’s look at some examples:
- Story chains. The students sit in a circle. The first student says: My name is Joan and in my free time I play the piano. The next student has to say: Her name is Joan and in her free time she plays the piano. My name is George and in my free time I read books. The third student has to say Her name is Joan and she plays the piano. His name is George and he reads books. My name is Peter and I … etc.
This activity can be used to practice different grammar structures. For example, the first student could say: My name is Peter and I have never travelled by plane. - Two truths and a lie. Tell the students to write down three sentences about themselves, two true sentences and one that is a lie. Each of the sentences should contain the target grammar structure (e.g. I have /haven’t done this; I’d like to...I wouldn’t like to, etc.). One student reads her/his sentences aloud. The others try to guess which statements are true and which is a lie.
- Guessing games. The students have to find out what a mystery object is or who a mystery person is by asking 20 YES/NO questions. Young learners can be asked to work on their own and prepare a description of an animal. Other students have to ask questions using the target structure (e.g. Does it have wings? or Can it fly?) in order to guess what animal the person described.
- Quizzes. The students have to write general knowledge questions about history (e.g. When did World War II begin? to practice the Past Simple Tense) or geography (e.g. What is the name of longest river in the world/in our country?) to practice superlatives. After they have prepared the questions, the students are divided in two teams and ask each other the prepared questions.
Free practice activities
Here the students have complete freedom in the language they produce. The teacher can't predict what will be said before the activity begins. Students have the greatest opportunity to personalize the language, experiment, and incorporate previously learned grammar and other language points.
- Information gap
An information gap is created when two (or more) students have different bits of information. They have to share these pieces if they want to understand the whole thing. They have to talk to each other to close the information gap.
We can make information-gap activities closed, the students can use only specific language items, or open, they can use a range of language items. - Other free practice activities include role plays, simulation, debates, discussions, composing and telling stories, etc.
Selecting and Structuring Grammar Practice Activities
"2014_AMISOM_CIMIC_Schools_Visit-11" by AMISOM Public Information
via Flickr is licensed under CC0 1.0
What should the teacher keep in mind when planning for grammar practice? What criteria should they use to select appropriate activities for their learners? The following excerpt can help us to answer these questions:
“From my readings in applied linguistics and in educational psychology, and from my experience, I would say that two essential criteria must be met when designing practice activities of the right sort. First, the activities should be meaningful and engaging. Second, they should be focused. More specifically, practice activities should be designed in such a way that the learning challenge is in focus.”
Larsen-Freeman (2003), Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring
(This content is copyrighted, and cannot be adapted in any way, or distributed after the end of this course. It is not Public Domain or Creative Commons-licensed, and therefore not for public use. Please do not save a copy for your personal use, and do not use it after the course ends.)
Meaningful activities require students to use grammar structure for some meaningful purpose. For example, if they need to practice using a preposition, a meaningful practice activity would be reading maps in order to give directions to someone. Asking students to write a list of examples using, say, the preposition on, that is, to produce decontextualized sentences, is not particularly meaningful or engaging.
Many teachers try to personalize grammar practice activities by creating a situation requiring students to use the target grammar structure to talk about themselves. In this way, students can relate the language to their own experiences, and express their ideas, thoughts and feelings.
When selecting grammar practice activities, teachers should be guided by the nature of the learning challenge.
- If the students’ learning challenge is form, meaningful repetition is useful (e.g. grammar jazz chants, or ‘Find someone who … ‘, or ‘Twenty questions game’).
- If the students’ learning challenge is meaning, they will need to practice linking form and meaning together (e.g. the game ‘What have I changed?’).
- If the students’ learning challenge is use, students will need to make a choice (e.g. role-play a job interview requiring them to use either the Present Perfect (to talk about their experiences) or the Past Simple Tense (specifying when they acquired these experiences).
Practice will help students, but they will not get everything perfect straight away. Remember the organic garden? Students' performance may follow a U-shaped curve: it will improve, then become worse, then improve again.
Conclusion
- Teachers should provide students with frequent practice in both understanding and producing the newly learned forms.
- Practice activities should be meaningful and engaging: students should use the target structure to engage in communication or express their own views.
- Practice activities should help the students overcome learning difficulties.
References
Beare, K.1. “Grammar Chants to Learn English”. Thought Co. December 30, 2014.https://www.thoughtco.com/grammar-chants-to-learn-english-1211063 accessed on November 1, 2016
DeCarrico2, J., D. Larsen-Freeman (2002) Grammar. In: Schmitt, N. (ed.) An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Arnold.
Larsen-Freeman, D.3 (2003) Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. Boston: Heinle.
Thornbury, S.4 (1999) How to Teach Grammar. Harlow: Pearson.
Thornbury, S.5 "R is for Repetition". An A-Z of ELT. December 5, 2010. https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/r-is-for-repetition/ Accessed on December 16, 2016.
1,2,3,4, 5 This content is copyrighted, and cannot be adapted in any way, or distributed after the end of this course. It is not Public Domain or Creative Commons-licensed, and therefore not for public use. Please do not save a copy for your personal use, and do not use it after the course ends.
To cite this page:
World Learning. (2019). The Role of Grammar Practice. In “Teaching Grammar Communicatively” [MOOC].
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