Many teachers feel guilty when their students rarely reach the stage of ‘real’ communication while learning grammar. Please, don’t! Just provide the opportunities for ‘real-life’ practice.

In fact, there is no actual communicative grammar. In CLT we teach grammar rules pretty much the same way we did before using mainly the inductive method and ocassionally deductive method as well.

Thanks to CLT we started to apply the rules differently: first with a lot of oral exercises in ‘real-life’ situations (role plays, task-based exercises etc.) and after that we applied the rules in writing as well.

• Don’t mind the grammatical errors, they will disappear later on. And even if they don’t, it is not the end of the world. No-one makes mistakes on purpose (unless they are joking).
• Don’t be pleased with mechanical written exercises and stop there, if your students can do better.

My greatest concerns with grammar at this point have always been:

• Which of the three methods of dealing with the rules should I choose?
• Can I go straight to communicative exercises or should I proceed in this particular order 1) mechanical, 2) semi-communicative or 3) communicative exercises.
• Is there a way to differentiate the learning of grammar?
• What else should I take into account when teaching grammar?

MY RECOMMENDED GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR

1 Start with a pre-task where the students use the new structure and become subconsciously aware of the structure, minimal chance for mistakes. Find someone who … is my favourite CLT pre-task: no chance to make mistakes but the students talk a lot and get a feeling of the new structure. See my example below.

2 Choose an appropriate ‘method’ of dealing with the rules.
a) the inductive method; it is in most cases the one I favour, the students work out the rules themselves using some examples, the effort and thinking result in the students remembering the rules better

b) the decuctive method; the teacher explains the rules and lets the students apply them in exercises; some rules are too complicated for the students to work out or it would simply take too much time

c) the lexical approach; rules are seldom given at all but they are learnt using fixed/set grammatical patterns as models for the structures; most appropriate for beginners and elementary class students whose conceptual thinking is not high enough to grasp abstract rules

THE TEACHER KNOWS HIS/HER CLASS BEST – AND HE/SHE IS THEREFORE ENTITLED TO CHOOSE a), b) or c) in each case.

3 Be prepared to differentiate the teaching of grammar. Low-achievers are able to recognize the structures and apply them in simple sentences with models. Advanced students can be very creative with the structures once they know the rule.
These methods and approaches are dealt with in more detail in the next articles.

Examples on each Task type

Let me demonstrate how to proceed from a pre-task to a mechanical exercise towards a communicative one. This is a written example but it could be carried out orally as well.

Pre-task, Find someone who

The pre-task is a combination or ‘indefinitive pronouns’ and ‘the perfect tense’ The students present the Yes/No-questions and write the name of those who answer ‘Yes’ in the box.

1 Have you seen any Tarzan films?	Michael
2 Has your dad used any vehicle this morning/afternoon?
3 Has somebody told you a joke today?
4 Have you done every school task for today?
5 Has you mum already gone to work or somewhere else this morning/afternoon?	Alison
6 Has anyone listened to the Beatles today?
Some of the questions are hard ones on purpose and the students have to repat the questions many times.

3 types of grammatical exercises

i) A mechanical task with no real-life context and communicative purpose. However, one must not underestimate these kind of tasks since they also require a lot of knowledge of the target language.

A: What have you done today?

B: I __________________ a letter? (write)

A: What has your mum done today?

B: She _______________________ the bathroom. (clean)

A: What have your classmates done this week?

B: They ______________________ swimming. (go)

A: What have you done this summer?

B: I ___________________ to drive a car and I ________________ a lot of French. (learn, speak)

The rule for the perfect tense ‘has/have + 3rd form of the verb’ has to be known and applied but we have only isolated sentences with no connection to real life. A very easy drill and a gap exercise. Still, some students get no further than this level.

ii) A semi-commmunicative task, the context and the conversation is more natural. Still, the problem is that there is no room for creativity and the students are tied to use the phrases and verbs given.

Let’s practice the past continous forms (was/were + -ing-form)

Jim: Hi, Brenda. I heard you were in an accident. What happened?

Brenda: Hi, Jim. Yes, but I’m ok. My dad ___________________ (drive) our Toyota near the beach and I ______________________ (sit) next to him when a lorry hit us from behind.

Jim: Oh, dear. _______ it _______________ (rain) or something or what was the reason for the accident?

Brenda: No, no. The sun _______________________ (shine) and the weather was fine.

Jim: What was it then? Maybe the lorry driver __________________ (talk) on the phone and didn’t see when you ____________________ (slow down).

Brenda: No, the police think that the breaks of the lorry ________________ (not, work) properly.

Jim: Well, thank God you are fine. My father ________________ (check) our car yesterday when I came home. But it seemed to be alright.

Advanced students do this exercise in two minutes and do not find it challenging and motivating. Yes, it resembles ordinary discussion but … So we need to give them a creative challenge.

iii) A true communicative task. The students are free to create a story of their own and also use other linguistic means than the grammar point referred to in the guidance part under the photos.

Task: Look at the photos and write a story in pairs or in a group of three on the basis of the photos. You do not have to use all photos and you can add other ideas too. The title: ‘Me as an eye-witness’

You are free to create your own story but you must include the following ideas in your story:

• What was the incident? What was the time when the incident happened? Where were you in New York?
• What were you and the people around you doing when the incident took place?
• You called home and your friends. What were your parents and your friends doing at that time?
• How did it all end?

How does differentiation work if these recommendations are followed?

Stage 1: The pre-task. It is a compulsory task for everybody.

Stage 2: The students are completely free to choose any of the three exercise types: 1) Mechanical exercises 2) Semi-communicative exercises or 3) Communicative exercises.

In other words, some students choose 1) or 2) or 3) only and ignore the rest. The others might take 1) and 2) or 2) and 3) etc. without the teacher telling them which one to choose. The best ones might take only 3) and expand that one even further.

Of course when you are introducing this idea to the students, you can tell them that this is the difficulty order as well but later on it is not necessary any more.

All three approaches how to cope with the grammatical rules will be dealt with in more detail in the following articles. The final grammar article is about the Dodson method, which is one methological option in teaching slow learners and beginners. The interesting thing in it is how the teacher makes use of the mother tongue in this method.