English
grammar is very important to teach the pupils who has English as a second
language. Many thinks of grammar as boring and unnecessary, and I must admit
that I too when I was little didn`t think very highly of grammar. Every time I
heard words like “Nouns”, “verbs”, “Adjectives” and so on I just zoomed out. It`s
important to know grammar because we use the English language so much, the
world has become multicultural. English is a lingua franca (a world language)
which means that wherever you travel there will be people who you can
communicate with( if you know English). LK06
requires that the students from year 7-10 works toward a goal that says: “use
central patterns for orthography, word inflection, sentence and text
construction to produce texts” (Udir.no LK06 upper secondary class). To
understand how to construct a sentence and a text you need grammar.
When is it
important to know proper English grammar?
- - When
you are studying abroad
- - When
you apply for a job abroad
- - When
you write letters to people who speak English
- - Maybe
when you have a blog where all entries is in English
- - When
you are chatting with people across the world
I I don`t have any experience in teaching
grammar, nor have I observed grammar teaching in my practiceperiod, but this
is one exercise I would like to try out.
One exercise you can do to make grammar more
fun, and make the pupils forget what they think of grammar is to make a
competition. We have a game in Norway we call “by og land”, City and country
in English. You divide the class into groups of four or five, and give each a
blank sheet and a pen. Each group has to write on the top of the sheet “Nouns,
Verbs, adjectives and adverbs”, the teacher gives the groups a letter they have
to find a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb, the first group to finish
has to yell out. Two points for each right answer, one point if someone else
has the same as you. You should do this for about five letters. I think this
kind of task is suitable for 6-7th graders, there is a prerequisite
that the pupils has gone through the different word classes. I would start the
class with a little reminder, and maybe an example on how to solve the task.
-Karita Hansen
I think the competition sounds really fun, great idea!
ReplyDeleteHelene Lundberg
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ReplyDeleteYes, I am sure the activity you describe here will bring out a lot of excitement and fun to the class. Good idea to first give them an example task before trying out the activity. I wasn´t quite convinced, though, how English being a lingua franca due to globalization has relevance to the importance of teaching grammar. If we look at any form of a language used as a lingua franca, its features are quite simplified and even similar to non-standard forms of English, so English being a lingua france may put less emphasis on correct/grammatical forms and patterns according to the "standard" norms of English. So, you may want to try to make your argument more explicit regarding why you think globalization is one of the important reasons for learning grammar. The list you give regarding "WHEN" one needs to know proper grammar might give you a better argument for learning grammar if you can elaborate further why these cases require better grammatical knowledge?
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