How Can Teachers Make Grammar Instruction Effective?

     Clearly, the reasons for teaching grammar are valid. We owe it to our students to provide them with all the tools we can in order to help them develop academically and intellectually; a solid foundation of grammar is such a tool that students can use for success. But, grammar is boring and difficult. It involves unfamiliar terminology, repetitive workbook exercises, and confusing directions asking students to circle, underline, label, and diagram a variety of different words, phrases, and clauses. Points are deducted on tests for misspelling the terms, not labeling exactly right, or drawing a straight line instead of a slanted one when diagraming sentences. And, to top it off English grammar is difficult; it lacks the clarity and consistency needed for easy comprehension. It's no surprise that teachers fail to spent sufficient time teaching grammar; it's hard to teach, hard to learn, and hard to grade. With all the great literature, discussions, and compositions, grammar is often put on the back burner. But, what if I told you that grammar could be the most fun and most anticipated aspect of your curriculum?

     The first strategy a teacher must employ when teaching grammar is to engage the students by helping them understand that having a good foundation of grammar has real world applications. As Broderick and Blewitt (2010) explain, the research in human development shows that adolescents are at a stage of development where they now have the formal thinking ability to construct abstract possibilities and to form powerful ideals, but they lack the experience to understand the limitations and consequences of the real world; they lack the pragmatism and foresight of adults. An ideal English course for an adolescent probably does not include what seems like a pointless grammar lesson. When this student is presented with the grammar, s/he becomes cynical and frustrated with the course and the material since it contradicts the teen's ideal that s/he has constructed for an English course. In this case, the student is going to be very resistant to learning; the lesson is doomed from the start. Broderick and Blewitt (2010) also describe how teens become intensely self-focused and gain a feeling of invincibility, which empowers them to ignore rules and conventions that do not support their ideals. Before presenting the grammar lesson, the teacher must make an effort to show how important the material is so that the students will be receptive.

Here are some possible strategies for helping students see the importance:

• Prepare two fictional letters proposing changes in school policy. One letter is written with common grammar mistakes that affect he clarity and effectiveness of the proposal, and one is written properly. Have the students pretend to be school administrators charges with deciding which proposal to accept based solely on the quality of the letters. Discuss how grammar affected their decisions.
• Ask a parent to come in and talk about the important of good writing / communicating in the workplace.
• Have former students or upperclassmen come in and discuss how grammar is important for standardized test and/or the writing expectations in college.
• Have them write letters to each other without using any punctuation then reading them and discussing the purpose of grammar
• Present the following sentence with a dangling modifier: While putting on my pajamas, an eagle flew by my bedroom window. Have them sketch the scene implied by the sentence and discuss how the sentence means that an eagle is putting on your pajamas while flying by your window.

These are just some ways to introduce grammar so that teens can see its real world application and be more engaged. The next task is to find lessons, activities, and assessments that teach essential, formal grammar but that are creative, fun, and meaningful. This is where using technology can really help. It turns out that research supports the incorporation of computer-based grammar instructional over conventional instruction as it relieves anxiety, improves critical thinking, and improves performance (AbuSeileek & Rababah, 2007). 

Reference:

AbuSeileek, A. and Rababah, G. (2007). The effect of computer-based grammar instruction on the          

          acquisition of verb tenses in an EFL context. Jalt CALL Journal, 3(12): 1–17. 

Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. (2010). The life span: Human development for helping

          professionals (3^rd  ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.