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Communicative teaching (CLT), Grammar

TEACHING GRAMMAR THE OLD AND CLT STYLE, comparison

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They say 7 is a lucky, godly number. I am not supertitious but I have 7 reasons that speak in favour of the CLT approach to teaching grammar.

Benefits of teaching grammar in CLT style

  • The use of pre-tasks reduces anxiety around the new structure.
  • After the pre-task the structure feels familiar and easier to learn.
  • Using the inductive method activates the brains and enhances learning.
  • Practice is not limited to mechanical written exercises but taken further with versatile oral exercises.
  • Working and checking the tasks together in groups the students teach and help each other in a relaxed atmosphere.
  • The final aim is to have truly communicative activities such as role plays.
  • Grammar is seen as a tool, not as an aim of its own.

Grammar in the old daysCLT ideas on Grammar

PRE-TASK, very rarely used

PRE-TASK, commonly used

Frequent oral tasks before the rules of a new structure are introduced,
Students use the structure 15 -30 times in a few minutes.
They get a feeling they already know the structure.
No great possibility to make mistakes thanks to models or ready-made sentences.

INTRODUCING THE RULES Deductive method
Rules voiced by the teacher
Little student involvement
Comparison with mother tongue
Lexical approach with beginners

INTRODUCING THE RULES Inductive method
Teacher-guided process
A lot of student involvement
Comparison with mother tongue
Lexical approach with beginners

PRACTICE OF THE STRUCTURE
Mostly written exercises which get systematically more and more demanding.
Mechanical exercises, very seldom even semi-communicative
Everybody is doing the same exercises, no differentiation.
Oral exercises are limited to mechanical drills in class or language labs.
Exercises are mostly done alone or supervised by teacher, checked with the teacher too.

PRACTICE OF THE STRUCTURE
Both written and oral exercises which get systematically more and more demanding.
Written exercises which start from mechanical ones, turn semi-communicative and finally fully communicative.
Students can often decide which difficulty level they prefer.
Oral exercises follow the same logic, differentiation is used
Exercises are mostly done and checked in pairs or groups.

One has to be realistic and admit that in many classes this would be as far as many students are able to go. If they understand the rule and can apply it both in written and oral exercises of various kind, you as their teacher can be proud of them. Most importantly the students recognize the structurein all situations and can use it in speech as well.

Let’s think about the previous article and the way I used to teach the present tense passive voice once again. I will show you now how to turn the mechanical exercise to a communicative one. The example below combines written and oral communication and would be one way to end the teaching of the structure.

How can we turn the practice of the present tense passive voice more communicative?

  • First of all, the inductive formulation of the rule is best done slowly with the teacher in charge to give everyone time to think about the matters.
  • Secondly, exercises such as 1 – 4 in the previous article can be done in groups with a star student as the leader of the group and the others give the answers.
  • Thirdly, the teacher has to think in advance of a situation where natives would use the present tense passive voice structure. The most obvious situation is describing a process or a series of events where things happen but we do not need to know who does it.
  • Fourthly, the groups do an oral practice by taking turns in explaining a process: What happens to cars in their life time? How to make fashion clothes? How to make your greenhouse plants grow well? How to drive a car or plan a journey?
  • Fifth, the group decides on the process to be described in writing:

A couples of examples of the kind of sentences required are needed as models.

  • What is done in a local McDonald’s during an ordinary day to serve the customers well?



  • What is done before my day in the riding stable is done?

    • What is done?
  • Other topics: playing football or icehockey / at home or school
    • …    		The place is cleaned between 5 and 7 a.m.
    Kitchen preparations for the meals are done before opening.
    The doors are opened at 9.00.

    I am taken to the stables by my dad round four p.m and the horses are groomed before the lesson. We are given other chores too to do before we are allowed to saddle the horses. etc.

    • Models like above are needed to stir the students’ imagination and to give them an idea of what they are supposed to do.
    • Sixth, the descriptions are checked by the teacher while the writing process is going on. Finally the descriptions are read aloud in front of the class, each student reading at least one sentence. The ideas can be challenged by the other groups if they think something essential was ignored.

    Make coming in front of the class a habit. Yes, it is scary at first but not so much any more after twenty trials. After two and a half years a very shy IB-student of mine took all of us by surprise when she wanted to give a presentation on ballet. No-one knew she was a ballet dancer but when she got in the front and made us copy her movements explaining what is done in a ballet practice and why, she became a shining star in the very last lesson we had together. She finally found her confidence in doing what none of us was able to do. I will never forget the smile on her face and the courageous memory she left on all of us. And the brilliant example of using the present tense in the passive voice. Yes, I feel like a wet blanket now. Mixing grammar with brilliance. But grammar is important, right?