the grammar discovery approach to learning langugages

How do we teach and learn the grammar of a language?

The EL Gazette looks at a method :

In this article, teacher Joanna Buckle delves into the grammar discovery approach. But what is it and does it work?

One nineties development in English language teaching was the ‘grammar discovery’ approach. It’s now been around long enough to have been incorporated into a number of textbooks. In this method, students are given a set of examples of a particular grammar point, such as the present simple tense, and asked to extrapolate the rules for its use from the context. But how much theoretical backing does this approach have?

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The grammar discovery approach - E L Gazette

Here's a good explanation, plus an example:

The idea is that students will ‘discover’ the grammar through a series of steps (these might be tasks, language awareness activities, pictures, questions, etc) and will deduce both the form and the meaning from the context(s).

Grammar teaching: The discovery technique | Article | Onestopenglish

Here's an excellent piece giving real insights:

It can be difficult for language teachers to make learning grammar in a language classroom interesting and engaging for students. After all, these rules and rubrics need to be learnt, understood, memorised and then put into repeated practice. So how can teachers make learning key grammar concepts more interesting? This blog post examines the two main approaches to learning grammar (i.e deductive and inductive) and then focuses on the inductive approach (also known as guided discovery) in further detail.

Deductive vs. inductive grammar teaching

It is widely acknowledged that there are two main approaches to teaching grammar in any language. As outlined above, these are known as deductive and inductive approaches.

• A deductive approach is when the grammar rule is presented by the teacher and the student produces language based on that rule.
• An inductive approach is when the rule is inferred by the student through some form of guided discovery. (i.e the teacher provides the students with a way to discover the rules for themselves.)

Notably the former approach is clearly more teacher-centred. But it does allow language teachers to deliberately highlight the item for attention and can also allow more time for actually practising it in spoken or written form. Given that inductive approaches are more learner-centred, we’ll make that the focus for this blog post, although it is worth pointing out that these approaches are usually most beneficial for students who have a base knowledge of the language. It’s clearly easier to work things out for yourself if you already have some knowledge in a subject.

What is Guided discovery in grammar teaching?

According to the British Council: “Guided discovery, also known as an inductive approach, is a technique where a teacher provides examples of a language item and helps the learners to find the rules themselves.”

In detail, guided discovery is a way for language educators to encourage students to make their own explanations for grammar / language rules with the support and guidance of their teacher. It’s a powerful alternative to the traditional “chalk and talk” approach and aims to mimic the way most people naturally learn a language i.e by picking up the rules as their learning and experience grows.

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How guided discovery could transform your grammar teaching

And here's a video showing how it can be done:

Work it out yourself - Helping students with grammar, with Chris Redston - YouTube

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