Video timeline
00:00 Introduction
00:54 Four factors
01:18 Complexity of form
02:03 Complexity of meaning
02:50 Frequency
04:00 Learners' needs
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Video transcript
Grammar! Should you teach it and if so, WHICH grammar should you teach? If you can answer these questions confidently, you can turn me off now but if you’re wondering what I might have to say on the subject, keep watching.
If this is the first time we’re meeting, I’m Jo Gakonga, I’ve been teaching for 35 years, and training teachers on CELTA and MA TESOL programmes for 25 of those. I’ve also got a website at ELT-Training.com where I make video-based material for teachers at all stages of their careers. Check it out and don’t forget to like and subscribe if you want to see more – I make a new video every week.
There’s plenty of research evidence to suggest that teaching grammar is helpful but it’s not a case of one-size-fits-all and some grammar is definitely more helpful than other grammar. Let’s look at four factors that might influence what you choose to focus on.
1. Complexity of form
Number one: How complicated is the form? Some structures, like question tags, might be really straightforward in other languages – ma? in Chinese; n’est ce pas? in French – really easy to pick up and use without any teaching. But in English, although the meaning is the same and easy, the form is a nightmare. It’s hard to see how learners can get it right without some focused teaching and practice. So areas of grammar where the form is complex, probably deserve some class time.
2. Complexity of meaning
Number two: How complicated is the meaning? Again, some parts of grammar are easy to understand. The simple past tense, for example isn’t conceptually difficult and it probably relates fairly well to something similar in the learners’ first language.
But if we look at something like the notoriously tricky present perfect, this one form has at least four common meanings (and a couple of other not so common ones too) depending on the context. So learners really do need you to walk them through it and have lots of exposure and practice before they’re going to understand the nuances of it.
3. Frequency
Number three – and this is perhaps the most important one and often the one that’s overlooked…. How frequent is this language in use? If we look at coursebook modules, we often see a different tense taught in each one and this gives the impression that they’re all as important as each other.
But if we look at corpus data like the British National Corpus (BNC) or the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), you might be quite surprised at the results:
The simple present tense is by far the most common in use, followed by the simple past, and tenses like the future continuous are really rare in use. So although it’s got a complicated structure and meaning, here’s the thing – your learners probably won’t see it very often and probably don’t need to use it, so, does it deserve a big chunk of your class time? Probably not.
4. Learners' needs
There’s one final criteria and it’s not related so much to the actual learning of the language, but more about what your learners are doing it FOR. If they have to pass exams, for example, that are heavily based on accuracy of use- like the Use of English paper in the Cambridge B1- then you’ll have to make sure that they can manipulate even those rather rare forms. Sometimes you do have to teach to the test.
So those are my ideas? What are YOUR criteria for which grammar to focus on?
And one other final thought before I go. If all of this has made you feel a little nervous, as a teacher, you DO need to know about grammar because if you don’t, how can you judge what’s important for your learners? So, if you’re feeling like this is an area you should know more about, check out my grammar teaching courses at ELT-Training.
