Enhance learner motivation Attend to communicative need and purpose

Place grammatical structures in real or realistic contexts

Make creative use of various sorts of everyday objects,

visuals and special purpose graphics

Incorporate humor or other highly motivating content

Provide challenge and interest through game-like features

Promote choice, independence, creativity, realism and

feedback through pair and small group work

Principles for intermediate learners

Begin to move learners along the continuum from

reproductive to creative use (mimic vs. flexibility and

imagination)

Where possible, personalize the content of practice

activities (bring their own ideas, feelings, attitudes,

and opinions)

Encourage learners to see grammar as a process as

much as a product (i.e. “grammaring” > grammar is

not just a thing, but something you do)

Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring

Tasks and materials Picture-based activities (*not in reading/text)

Information gaps (give learners practice with a particular structure in context)

Problem-solving (engages learners in practicing a range of structures)

Grammar dictation (promotes many skills simultaneously)

Surveys (emphasize meaning over form and fluency over accuracy)

Role-plays (allow for personalization and creativity)

Consciousness-raising (requires learners to solve a grammatical problem in groups)

Grammar charts (allow for a deductive approach and aid visual learners)

Oxford Basics (*not in reading/text)

Picture-based activities

“Lexicarry” (Pro Lingua Associates) + “Week in Pictures” (MSNBC)

1. What is happening (present continuous)?

2. What happened (simple past)?

3. What will happen (future)?

4. Add descriptions with adjectives and adverbs (any tense).

5. Use alternative words and expressions.

6. Make questions and negative statements.

7. Personalize it (communicative): What time do you usually go to bed?

What do you usually do before you go to bed? Is it easy for you to fall

asleep? Do you usually snore? What was the best or strangest dream

you’ve ever had? When was the last time you had a nightmare? Have

you ever walked in your sleep? Have you ever suffered from insomnia?

Information gaps

“English Firsthand 1” (Pearson)

Problem-solving

“Vocabulary Games and Activities for Teachers”

(Penguin)

1. Simple present

2. Simple past

3. Present continuous

4. Present perfect

5. Adjectives

6. Adverbs

Grammar dictation

“Grammar Dictation” (Oxford University Press)

The teacher is a cassette player

Surveys

“Atlas: Learner-Centered Communication” (Heinle &

Heinle)

Role-plays

“www.eslflow.com”

Consciousness-raising

“New Ways in Teaching Grammar”

Grammar charts

“Understanding English Grammar” (Longman)

Oxford Basics

“Teaching Grammar” (Oxford)