1. Teaching English Grammar
Education 453:10

2. How much do you remember?
Were you ever taught the rules of grammar?
(Rate yourself using a Likert scale from one to ten on your knowledge of English grammar.)

3. Learning/teaching grammar in context….
    “Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power.”
Joan Didion
“Second language learners want to learn language as it is really used – in both formal and informal settings, and in speech and writing – by native speakers of English.”
- Coelho

4. Why is it important to know grammar?
      “I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.”
Carl Sandburg
1) to assess and remediate the errors and error patterns of second-language learners.
2) the points of grammar can be used as the basis for teaching sentence structure and vocabulary.

5. What is grammar?
      “It is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated”
Somerset Maugham
Grammar refers to the language patterns that indicate relationships among words in sentences.

6. Grammar includes…. Grammar is not a time of waste”
Nancy Cartwright
Morphology – the study of word structure
Syntax – the study of word combinations or sentence structure

7. The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!‘
He chortled in his joy.
Repeat first verse.

8. Morphology explained
Derivational morphemes – prefixes or suffixes that are added to root words to form new words
Inflectional morphemes – provide grammatical information about gender, number, person, case, degree, and verb form

9. Aspects of morphology that cause second language learner’s difficulty (pages 69-73)
Gender
Number (plurals, count and non-count nouns)
Person (subject-verb agreement)
Case (subjective, objective, possessive)
Degree (comparative, superlative)
Verb forms (tense, active/passive)

10. Syntax explained
Syntax refers to the way words are organized in sentences to create meaning
OR to sound like an educated and intelligent speaker in any language

11. Some aspects of syntax that cause second language learners difficulty (pages 73-86)
Word order (rigid, important in English)
Determiners (articles, this, that, these, those, my, your, his, her, its, our, their, some, any)
Verb system (lexical/main, auxiliary, modal)
Linking verbs (transitive/intransitve)
Passive voice
Questions/tag questions/negative questions
Negative statements
Phrasal verbs
Infinitives and gerunds

12. Some aspects of syntax that cause second language learners difficulty (pages 73-86)
Sentence Types: simple, compound, complex..
Parts of Speech
Indirect speech
Pronoun reference
Literary style
Embedding
Subordination (coordinate conjunctions)
Conditional sentences
Long noun groups
Condensed syntax

13. How can we teach grammar?
Research indicates teaching grammar in isolation does not transfer into real communication
Grammar is best taught/practiced in communicative contexts
Supportive feedback is more helpful than overt correction
Students may need many opportunities to hear, read, practice a new structure before they internalize or produce it– months, years

14. Specific strategies to use
Use materials and plan activities that feature repeated language patterns
Use the content of lessons to introduce grammar concepts
Provide learners with the tools they need to talk about language
Sentence Building
Take a long-term view