What is 'grammar'?
Grammar - Wikipedia
What is Grammar? | Grammar | EnglishClub
Michael Lewis' book 'The Verb' provides an excellent overview of English grammar - how to understand it, to teach it, to learn it:
The English Verb by Michael Lewis: Book Review - YouTube
Amazon.com: The English Verb: An Exploration of Structure and Meaning (9780906717400): Michael Lewis: Books
Basically, Michael Lewis says that we English teachers have been teaching the verb tenses all wrong.
For one thing, we teach each tense as if it were a series of uses, each unconnected to each other, and then a series of exceptions to each of these uses. This has the effect of just confusing and discouraging our students.
As Michael Lewis says on page 13:
Most student grammars, and textbook syllabuses, are based on a catalogue approach to grammar. Different points are covered one by one in separate paragraphs or units. Each paragraph is independent of the others. There are two difficulties which result from this.
Firstly, students are given the impression that they are attempting an impossible task; as soon as they have finished one paragraph, or one use of a verb form, they are presented with another, and another, and another… . Rarely, if ever, do they see the parts they are learning as coming together to form a coherent whole. Not surprisingly, such a catalogue approach, giving an impression of impossibility, de-motivates students.
The second problem is that each paragraph is, in a way, an exception to the previous paragraph. Students may, for example, learn that the present continuous is used for an action going on at the moment of speaking (this is a dangerous half truth…), and then they learn that the present continuous can also be used for the future. Nobody take times to explain that there is a reason for this, and that indeed the two uses are fundamentally the same….
This “catalogue and exceptions” approach must depress students. Instead of encouraging a feeling of progress as they learn more language, it gives them a feeling that the task is becoming more and more impossible.
Random Book and Movie Reviews: The English Verb by Michael Lewis
SOME AND ANY:
Michael Lewis illustrates this at the beginning with a look at the 'rules' of some and any.
This dictionary simply gives a definition:
SOME | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
ANY | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
And it's a problem when it comes to translation - for example:
some | translate English to German: Cambridge Dictionary
any | translate English to German: Cambridge Dictionary
some | translate English to Spanish: Cambridge Dictionary
any | translate English to Spanish: Cambridge Dictionary
some pronoun, quantifier | translate English to Polish: Cambridge Dictionary
any pronoun, determiner | translate English to Polish: Cambridge Dictionary
Look at how this English-English dictionary features them and it's all about USE:
some_1 determiner - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com
any_1 determiner - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com
So, which activities would we do to learn 'some' and 'any'?
(1) Some and Any Fruit Game (How To Teach Some and Any) - YouTube
How to use Some and Any | Learn English
PREPOSITIONS AND ARTICLES:
It's all about chunks:
Following the pattern that most course books take, i.e., dealing with prepositions in manageable chunks, is not a bad way to go. Teaching prepositions of time, place and movement, for instance, at different times, will enable learners to build up their knowledge of prepositions slowly and steadily. Doing so will be much more effective than, say, trying to teach every use of 'in' at the same time.
How to help learners of English understand prepositions | British Council
Sure, we can give students rules to apply, such as; use on with days of the week; in for months and years; at for specific times and holidays, but as native English speakers we do not grow up learning these rules, or even thinking about what preposition to use. Ask an English speaking child, “Where is your mother?” They will know to say at home instead of in home or on home. This is not instinctive; it has been acquired through hearing and mimicking, which is not the same way that students learn the language. Children learn languages in chunks and phrases so English learners should do the same.
Learn prepositions easily
You can also say it's all about phrases:
Prepositional phrases (video) | Khan Academy
Or collocation:
Grammar and vocabulary: teaching students collocations | Onestopenglish
Fun classroom practice of collocations - UsingEnglish.com
DRILLING:
From 5 minutes into this BBC radio programme, we can see 'chunking' at work:
The Documentary - The Superlinguists - How to learn a language - BBC Sounds
Jay Doubleyou: how to learn a language from 'superlinguists'
It's the music which helps us to remember 'chunks', or complete phrases:
Jazz chants | Onestopenglish
For example:
> I've always cooked my pasta with the lid on
> She's never played the cello with her father
> They've normally done the washing by bed time
PERFECT ASPECT:
It's all very confusing:
timeline present perfect - Google Search
Michael Lewis shows it's about finding a defining principle:
Each verb tense represents a different subjective view of time, and all of the different uses of a particular verb tense can be connected back to this same view.
For example, the present perfect can be used in a number of different situations, as listed above, but all the usages have a unifying characteristic—each use indicates that the speaker is looking back at a past event from the perspective of the present.
Once this is understood, the series of “rules” which we English teachers give about the present perfect are not really “rules”, but simply hints to help the student identify in which situations the present perfect is likely to be used.
Random Book and Movie Reviews: The English Verb by Michael Lewis
You can see it being used here:
Jay Doubleyou: goldilocks and the three bears > a story to tell the difference between present perfect simple and continuous
And here:
Jay Doubleyou: present perfect for experiences
SENTENCE STRUCTURE:
Rinvolucri's Grammar Games is full of fun ways to deal with syntax:
Grammar Games : Mario Rinvolucri : 9780521277730
Grammar Games, Mario Rinvolucri
And:
More Grammar Games | Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis
4549394-English-Teaching-ResourcesMore-Grammar-Games.pdf
Whereas this is a little boring but useful:
(1) Learn English Grammar: The Sentence - YouTube
It's actually rather difficult:
Jay Doubleyou: word order
INDUCTIVE OR DEDUCTIVE:
A deductive approach involves the learners being given a general rule, which is then applied to specific language examples and honed through practice exercises. An inductive approach involves the learners detecting, or noticing, patterns and working out a 'rule' for themselves before they practise the language
Inductive and deductive grammar teaching: what is it, and does it work? - Oxford University Press
(1) How to Teach an Inductive Learning Lesson - YouTube
NOTICING:
Finally, we just need to see how it works:
How to get the most out of English texts | Antimoon
Is “pause and think” worth it? « The Antimoon Blog
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