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Nice to see you again here at Teach English Now.
In this module, we've asked you to think about incorporating grammar into your
reading and writing instruction.
First we talked briefly about why grammar instruction is necessary.
We shared with you that language learners are not likely to use grammar accurately
unless we give grammar some special attention.
While there have been competing theories throughout the history of TESOL that
sometimes state otherwise, most specialists today believe that
grammar instruction is a necessary component of language education.
And that learners need to notice and
focus on grammar forms in order to eventually acquire them.
>> Well, there are a lot of things we could teach you then it comes to the topic
of grammar.
We introduced you mostly to the idea of noticing.
We introduce two initial tips for
helping learners when they notice and focus on grammar.
First, you as a teacher must notice two things.
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First, the individual grammatical errors your students make and
second, the collective or group errors that your students make.
Well we haven't spoken too much about strategies to to correct or
instruct on student errors.
We want you to now how important it is to pay attention to your learners themselves.
This is one way to ensure a student centered rather than a book
centered approach.
>> But let's not stop there.
Not only are you supposed to notice your student errors, but
part of grammar instruction involves helping students to notice their errors.
We introduce Schmidt's noticing hypothesis, which states that it is not
likely for students to improve certain grammatical features,
If they aren't made aware of them.
>> [LAUGH] And how do you help your students notice grammatical features?
We also mentioned Mike Sharwood Smith's idea of input enhancement.
Smith suggests that if noticing is a problem,
then one of the best things we can do as teachers is to make certain items
are more clear, more salient, more, more noticeable.
You want certain features, especially those that students are struggling with to
jump out at your learners.
And in a reading and writing class you can do this in a number of ways.
If you notice your student struggling with a grammatical principle,
you may wish to show that grammatical principle in your next reading by bolding,
underlining, or italicizing examples of that principle.
You might want to give instructions on that particular principle, and
give students time to practice it.
And certainly, you can give students feedback on writing assignments that
feature specific grammatical items that they need to start noticing.
>> Above all, remember that students are acquiring language on
their subconscious schedules, not on your curriculum calendar.
And don't get caught up, like the queen, on teaching elements of
grammar that are not truly useful, nor attainable, by students.
Acquisition and
grammatical items sometimes takes a longer time than we teachers want it to.
And often we teach tiny, difficult items,
peas if you will, that only a princess would be able to notice.
So, do you have explicit grammar and instruction in your own lesson plans?
As you consider each lesson plan you write, you may want to step back and
see if there are any grammatical items worth teaching.
While noticing your learners is a good idea,
one thing we didn't mention is that often the reading and writing assignments
you use in your classroom create demand for certain kinds of grammatical items.
As you create your own lesson plan,
one more thing to notice is the grammar items that jump out at you.
Is there a lot of present tense, future tense, phrasal verbs?
Well, then maybe that is an opportunity to stop reading,
stop writing and have a little grammar noticing activity.
>> That's a great idea Jessica.
Now, as usual it's your turn.
After completing the writing prompt and reviewing your peers' submissions,
it will be time for another checkpoint quiz.
Remember that you can go back and
review all the previous material in this module to make sure you are prepared.
You can also post in the discussion boards if there are any concepts you want to
discuss further with your fellow learners.
Good luck and we'll see you again soon.
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Jessica CincoInternational Educator
Dr. Shane DixonSenior International Educator
Dr. Justin ShewellSenior International Educator
