Brown lists several techniques for teaching grammar, including charts, objects,
maps and drawings, dialogues, and other written texts. Think of these (or other
effective) techniques that you have used or seen used for teaching grammar.
Discuss one particular technique that you think is highly effective, and
especially highlight in what ways it can be considered a communicative
technique.
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I think objects and drawing have always been beneficial in my more communicative language classrooms. Even though high school was a long time ago, when I took Spanish there, the teacher used notecards with pictures of the objects when learning vocabulary instead of the English word. That was such a communicative way to teach vocabulary because we learned to identify a Spanish word with the object rather than with the English word, thereby skipping this "translation" step. That is the way we learn L1 vocabulary. So, as a teacher, when I teach things that are tangible like objects or people or colors, I want my students to associate them with the L2 word rather than associate the L2 word to the L1 word and then the object. I think that way, the student begins to "think" in their L2.
ReplyDeleteI think charts and graphs are the effective way to teach grammar, especially teaching abstract vocabulary or verb tenses like in the textbook p.428-429, which makes students compare them and clearly see their specific relationships instead of imagining in their minds. And this technique can increase the interaction between teachers and students. And drawing such charts and graphs by students themselves can be a good experience to learn and remember the knowledge, which can be considered as a communicative method. First students are taught the grammar rules and then draw the charts or graphs by themselves based on the understanding, and then they can apply the abstract knowledge into their own sentences, dialogues and essays. Teachers can instruct students in each step until they can use them in real life situation.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I am a chart and graph person. I love to have information organized and clearly presented, something I can just memorize. That was exactly how I learned Latin. In my classes, however, charts and graphs are not very effective because many of my students have no educational background. Charts are not how they're used to organizing information, and they have trouble reading them. It's better to take a dialogue or compare sentences to inductively come to a conclusion about a grammar rule. Then we can use that information to build a chart together. By that point they already know the information and how to use it, so the chart makes more sense. This technique is communicative because students have to work together and with the teacher to talk out the solution. They aren't just spoon-fed the information; they play a role in discovering it.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't feel that charts and graphs are actually that functional on their own, if they aren't led up to and followed up by meaningful dialogues and example sentences or longer text. I much prefer to use meaningful interaction and inductive reasoning to introduce grammatical concepts, and then follow up that content with a minimal chart or a graph to give the students a way to organize what they've already been using. The combination of both elements is what has been most effective in my own language learning experiences, and I think they integrate well (as Debby said above) in particular when we're in community learning classrooms where students may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the more academic nature of charts.
ReplyDeleteThe way I was taught grammar in my French class was quite interesting. The teacher would go over the concept first, giving an example or two, and he would show us a chart (either on the wall or the board, that has the “formula”-by the way we had huge posters on the walls with grammar formulas). Then, he would pass out white boards with a marker and eraser for each person, and he would write the verb that for example we had to conjugate. Then we had to do that on our white board and raise it up when we’re done. He would check, and if you’re right usually he’d give you a nod, if not he’d tell you to think about it again, and then after a minute or two he’d tell the whole class the answer. We were allowed to “discuss with our peers” if we were stuck, or couldn’t get a form right etc., but of course it had to be done in French. I prefer this technique compared to just writing by myself, that I can do at home and practice later, but while doing it as class, and you have that “rush” of trying to get done first, it becomes fun and memorable (in addition to the help you can get from your classmates).
ReplyDeleteI personally think "Objects" is a highly effective technique. Not only could you bring in "real-life" objects to give your students something tangible to understand, but it could also be pictures in a book. I remember learning basic vocabulary in spanish, and our teacher would make us look up all the words, along with their pictures, in our workbook. This was very helpful to fully understand the vocabulary words we were learning. Then, we would combine that with some basic grammar lessons or techniques. I don't know if I can fully articulate why, but this was very helpful for me. I think it was the visual image that I could correlate with the particular grammar techniques. I felt like I wasn't exactly learning grammar when I was focusing on the objects at hand. For example, In Figure 22.3 in our textbook it gives several pictures of different objects on the page. Then, at the bottom of the page, it gets the students to begin asking questions about the objects. This not only teaches basic present tense, but also how to form a question without the students purely focusing on grammar. In my opinion, every student is excited to learn vocabulary. It something that each student can easily relate to and it doesn't require much technique to memorize a few words. Grammar is a lot more complex and may or may not be something students can relate to. If vocabulary, or objects in this case, is tied into it, I feel like it will be a much smoother process. It will also make the lesson more communicative because it brings it down to real-life situations, as long as the objects are useful common objects for the students.
ReplyDeleteI like objects. I’m a visual learner who really appreciates tactile objects. If I can pick it up or point to it, it will probably stick in my mind. I’m the type to touch things to remember vocabulary or actions associated with the objects. So, the more exposure to this early on is very helpful. An example of this is when we learned prepositions in relation to objects in my French class. Our teacher had us crouched under chairs, sitting on tables, and next to trash cans. It was hilarious, but that was the life-sized representation of the prepositions. The visuals stuck (and the experience of sitting under a table, too). But I also find the short paragraph on page 434 to be intriguing too. One has to make decisions on verb tenses, but also there is a still there that show what Lucy does. I think this is nice for more abstract concepts. I believe it’s more difficult to mime or use objects to represent tenses, so this may offer a good solution to that. We also use this in class for tenses and I personally find it very helpful.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think that objects brought into class can be good to make any lesson communicative if used in the right way. I liked how Debra brought in objects and had us come up with a story to go along with the objects. I think that goes along very well with a grammar lesson. Graphs and charts are good tools as well. Some students might not be familiar with using charts and graphs so I think it might make for a good lesson teaching grammar and practical real world skills.
ReplyDeleteI think that graphs and charts can be helpful, if your students know how to read them and are comfortable with them. Personally I like them. I had an instructor that had a big velcro chart. The students were asked to fill in the blanks with the correct conjugation or tense or whatever grammar concept we were working on from a stack of velcro flashcards. Our teacher combined this activity with the rules from "Who Wants To Be A Millonaire?" so if we were stuck we could "phone a friend" who had to use said grammar point in a sentence correctly. It was pretty fun and we learned the grammar points.
ReplyDelete"Objects" is the best technique for low-level learners as they are at the most limited point in their acquisition of English. In the pre-level 1 class I observed a few weeks ago I really enjoyed their textbook, which was basically an English picture dictionary. It's so difficult to have a communicative classroom at this level, but using objects or pictures of objects in the classroom at low levels can facilitate communication that would otherwise be impossible. For example, when I was observing I was working one on one with a student who was supposed to write 10 sentences about her husband. She would point to various objects and we would almost play a guessing game as to what she was talking about but we would eventually achieve communication and work out the sentence she wanted. I feel she got a lot more out of an interactional exercise like that than just having the vocabulary taught to her by writing it on the board and making her repeat it.
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ReplyDeleteFor written materials—including things written on the board for students to copy into their notes—anything visual is useful. I’m afraid I may be pulling a more ASL word here than an English one, so to clarify I mean anything that portrays something very clearly to the sight. Thus, anything that can be looked at quickly and the message conveyed. Tables, when kept simple, can be good for this sort of thing. When first teaching a concept, the table can be used to have the students fill in the concepts as you teach them, having them try to figure out what would go in the next box. This would be communicative in that the students would lead the learning process. Then, students can use the table as a quick reference tool as they are learning the concept. Finally, as students begin to feel more confident with the concept they should be able to picture the table in their mind, allowing them to quickly find the right form or idea they need for that situation.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the useful and effective techniques in teaching grammar is using charts or graphs. Usually, when EFL/ESL learners learn a grammar concept, they do not just learn one thing or a sole concept. I mean that most grammar rules are related to some very similar concepts or opposite concepts, so learners learn the target grammar by comparing with other related concepts. In this case, charts and graphs are really effective. For example, as we saw a chart of ‘frequency adverbs’ on page 427, because there is a kind of hierarchy of degree in frequency, learners easily acknowledge the different usage of various adverbs on this chart. In addition, ESL/EFL teachers frequently use a graph or a line of continuum to teach tense. When teachers teach tense, they rarely teach each tense separately but teach various tenses together comparing one another. In this case, a continuum of tenses can contain all tenses at the same time. On this continuum teacher can express not only the time of events but also the duration of events.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to grammar, charts are just priceless. They are in every language textbook and personally I find them one of the best ways to learn grammar conjugation. I have had several teachers use spanish grammar charts on tests as fill-in-the-blank questions and I'm sure that most people which have taken Spanish have also found them useful. I have also encountered a great communicative lesson using vocab cards with pictures. We had the vocabulary words on one side and drew a picture of the term on the other side. In class it was fun comparing our terrible drawings to each other, but I really learned those words in Spanish and still can remember my terrible drawings.
ReplyDeleteIn my time in the language learning classroom I have seen alot of charts and tables done because they can group them by 1st,2nd,3rd person and singular or plural. To me, these are very effective in organizing the idea of the grammar rules and are very effective in teaching the concept. I don't really see how this technique is communicative but I am sure that there are ways that you could make it communicative. For example, maybe you could put real world names/items instead of just me, you, her, etc. This is the only communicative twist that I can think of but I am sure that there are many more.
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