Issues in teaching grammar

1.10 Some issues in teaching grammar
In this final topic of unit 1 we will look at two main issues in teaching grammar. Teaching large multi-level classes and catering to different learning styles.

Teaching large multi-level classes
Unfortunately, we often deal with many classes that do not conform the pedagogical norm of 20-25 students per classroom. In many parts of the world teachers may have a class size range from 30 students to over 130.
This, of course brings benefits and challenges.

Activity
List what you anticipate might be three benefits and three challenges of teaching large multi-level classes. Share your list with a classmate.

The benefits
There are always enough students for interaction.
We tend to think small classes are ideal. However, when there are very few students in a class, they quickly get to know one another. Opportunities for personalization become rare as students have fewer new ideas to offer, and the classes themselves can become quite dull.

The benefits
2. We get a rich variety of human resources.
Depending on the age of our students, but normally we always have students from different backgrounds, that can contribute their experiences to the whole class and make the learning experience more significant and interesting.

The benefits
3. The teacher is not the only pedagogue.
“ Cooperation works better than competition in the large class: cross-ability grouping allows the more able learners to improve their language skills by honoring their ability to explain, to state clearly, and to give effective examples, while it provides the less able with considerable support” (Hess, 2001, p.3).

The benefits
In mixed-ability classes, we can deploy the more able students to play tutoring roles for their less linguistically able students and take some of the load of teachers. This can create a positive, collaborative climate. The biggest challenge in making students “tutors” is that they will feel that they are not learning anything. But with enough support and guidance from the instructor, peer-to-peer tutoring can be very beneficial for all involved.

The benefits
4. We are never bored.
This point reflects the richness and diversity of the large class. There are always multiple things going on, issues to attend and challenges to meet.
5. Professional development occurs naturally.
Although we prefer small classes, the techniques we have taught will have to be reinvented and refined with larger groups.

The challenges

The challenges
We often feel out of control.
Even the most experienced teacher can have trouble managing a large class. If we opt for pair or group work, simply getting students in and out of groups can pose a formidable challenge even before any teaching takes place. A chaotic environment can happen when all students talk at the same time, this will generate so much noise. It is often difficult to hear individual students or to make oneself heard.

The challenges
Hess (2001) suggests that a solution to a chaotic environment is organization.
Good organization, among other things, helps students to know what is expected of them and to get on task quickly and efficiently. Having a special place on the board where homework assignments are always placed or where directions for the first activity of the day are written, and a place where all the scheduled activities for the lesson are listed, help in establishing good control (Hess, 2001, p.4).

The challenges
2. In the larger class we may feel trapped in problems of management.
We are confronted with multiple tasks, some of which are performed simultaneously with numerous practical managerial decisions including taking attendance, collecting homework, and so on.

The challenges
In terms of grammar, we have to deal with the following questions:
How and when do we deal with errors when they occur in the course of a communicative activity?
How about if the error occurs during a form-focused drill or exercise?
How do we give feedback to students who are at different stages of grammar development, and for whom some explanations will either be irrelevant or incomprehensible?

The challenges
3. We are frustrated by the huge amount of written work.
Correcting the grammar errors in students’ written work is, for many teachers, the most time-consuming thing they do. Collaboration is key, getting students to act as peer reviewers of each other’s work can be helpful for the teacher when this is done in the classroom.

The challenges
4. It is difficult to provide for individual learning styles.
When we teach grammar, we need to use a range of different techniques that cater to those who favor the deductive learning of grammar as well as those who prefer to learn inductively.

The challenges
5. Activating the quiet student is difficult.
Even though some students can learn just as effectively by not participating as they can by participating. Giving them adequate time to prepare what they have to say, possibly by providing them with grammatical cues to improve accuracy, not requiring them to speak up in front of the whole class can actually improve participation rates.

Catering to different learning styles
A learning style refers to the learners’ preferred way of learning. It is “an individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred ways of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills” (Kinsella, 1995, p. 171). Some individuals are visual learners while other prefer to learn by listening to the target language.

Willing (1987) identified 4 different language learning styles.
Learning Style Definition Type 1: Concrete learners These learners tend to like games, pictures, films, video, using cassettes, talking in pairs, and practicing English outside class. Type 2: Analytical learners These learners like studying grammar, studying English books, reading newspapers, studying alone, finding their own mistakes, and working on problems set by the teacher. Type 3: Communicative learners These students like to learn by watching, listening to native speakers, talking to friends in English, watching television in English using English out of class in shops, learning new words by hearing them, and learning by conversation. Type 4: Authority-oriented learners These learners prefer the teacher to explain everything, like to have their own textbook, to write everything in a notebook, to study grammar, learn by reading, and learn new words by seeing them.

How do you imagine that the four different types of learners might prefer to study grammar?
Concrete learners like to encounter grammar in context. They are likely to respond well to tasks in which a grammar point is supported and explained by some kind of visual. Analytical learners, on the other hand, prefer to identify grammar rules and principles through the inductive study of language. Communicative learners also prefer learning inductively, and encountering grammar in context, where the relationship between form and function is clear. Authority-oriented learners favor a deductive approach in which the teacher provides a rule and then gives them opportunities to apply the rule.

What type of learner are you?
To relate to what type of learner our students are, it is important to know what type of learners we are ourselves.
Answer the survey and add up the subtotals. (No subtotal should exceed 24).

Type of learner survey

If the majority of your students are authority-oriented, they will probably be more satisfied with the fairly “traditional” exercises and tasks such as cloze, matching, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple choice. Analytical learners will probably be happy if you provide them with self-study resources, time in the self-access center or to practice grammar through internet. Communicative and concrete learners are more likely to prefer learning grammar through games, simulations, role-plays, information gaps, and projects.

Often teachers will subconsciously design lessons that favor their dominant learning style. Therefore it is important to remember to cater to an assortment of learning styles.

Issues in teaching grammar

par juliovangel

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