Five Misconceptions About Teaching Grammar
In this Episode…
Why most native speaking English teachers start out extremely unprepared to teach grammar
Some of the big mistakes we made in our first grammar lessons
Why grammar books don’t always help with grammar lessons
The difference between meaning and form
What you need to know to teach a successful grammar lesson
How to make sure a grammar lesson is engaging instead of boring
How to make the grammar you’re teaching relevant to your students’ experience
Why the way teachers often study grammar is the opposite of how it should be presented to students in class
Why time for students to practice grammar in a lesson is essential
How to set up effective grammar practice activities
An easier way to learn grammar: our grammar course
Show Notes
If you’re an ESL teacher, you might have some strong feelings about teaching grammar. Most native speakers think they know grammar…. until they start trying to teach it and realize that being able to use grammar correctly is not at all the same as knowing terminology and being able to explain and teach grammar effectively. In this episode, we’re talking about five common misconceptions that native speakers often have about teaching grammar when they first become teachers… and how to deal with each of them. We also recommend helpful grammar resources to make teaching those dreaded grammar lessons a breeze.
Resources mentioned in this episode…
Teaching Tenses by Rosemary Aitken
Understanding and Using English Grammar by Betty S. Azar
Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy
About Language by Scott Thornbury
Be Your Own Grammar Guru: complete online grammar course
“A lot of times teachers in training will go into it thinking that they know enough about the grammar, because they’re native speakers (. . .) and they think, ‘Oh, I’ve got this…’ but what we’ve seen over the years is that thinking that you know grammar doesn’t necessarily translate into being able to teach it. ”