Instructor Information
Steve Cornwell, stevec@gol.com
Office Address: 2-1-31-1103 Chou, Joutou-ku, Osaka 536 Japan
Telephone Number: 81 6 6933 6786
Office Hours: Thursday evenings 8pm-10pm EST (New York time)

Reading Materials
Required

* Thornbury, S., How to teach Grammar, Essex, England: Longman, 1999, 0-582-33932-4

Recommended (one of the following)

A Communicative Grammar of English **
by Geoffrey Leech, Jan Svartvik

An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage *
by G. Leech, R. Cruickshank, R. Ivanic

Collins Cobuild English Grammar (Collins Cobuild Grammar) **
by John Sinclair (Editor)

The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course **
by Marianne Celce-Murcia, Diane Larsen-Freeman

Practical English Usage *
by Michael Swan

In my opinion...
* very user friendly and something students might be able to use as well
** very dense and something geared toward teachers and linguists

Course Description
Grammar for ESL Teachers is a requirement of the English Language Teaching Certificate and a prerequisite for Methods and Techniques of Teaching ESL/EFL II.

Grammar for ESL Teachers is designed for prospective and praticing ESL/EFL teachers. This course will have focus on two interrelated areas: how to teach grammar and how to analyze grammar points. Students will be expected to master a broad range of grammatical topics in this course, and will then apply this knowledge in subsequent courses in the Certificate Program.

From the Instructor . . .
Hi, I'm looking forward to working with you in this class. Grammar is like a foreign langauge; at first it can be daunting and inaccessible, but with practice and exposure great things are possible. Don't worry about past experiences with grammar-- One of my favorite jokes is "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer is "One bite at a time." That is how I hope we can approach this class...taking things one step at a time!

Course Outline
We will working on three areas simultaneously: the book chapters and assignments, grammar point analysis and lesson planning, and additional readings.

WEEK /DATES FOCUS

One 1/7-1/10 Welcome and Self-Introductions

MODULE ONE
Two 1/11-1/16 Myths and Webcast
Three 1/17-1/23 What is grammar? pp. 1-13
Four 1/24-1/30 Why teach grammar? pp. 14-28

MODULE TWO
Five 2/1-2/7 Chpt 3 How to teach grammar from rules pp. 27-48
Six 2/8-2/14 Chpt 4 How to teach grammar from examples pp. 49-68
Seven 2/15-2/21 Chpt 5 How to teach grammar through texts pp. 67-90

MODULE THREE
Eight 2/22-2/28 Chpt 6 How to practice grammar pp. 91-112
Nine 3/1-3/4 Chpt 7 How to deal with grammar errors pp. 113-127
Ten 3/5-3/11 Chpt 8 How to integrate grammar pp. 128-140

MODULE FOUR
Eleven 3/12-3/18 Chpt 9 How to test grammar pp. 141-150
Twelve 3/19-3/24* Chpt 10 How NOT to teach grammar pp. 151-156
*New School will turn off your access to the course at midnight on the 24th so save anything you need before then.

There is a TASK FILE (pp. 157-176) at the end of the book with assignments for each chapter. We will be doing most (if not all) of the assignments.

During MODULE ONE we will also begin working on how to analyze a grammar point.

During MODULE TWO we will begin working on how to make a lesson plan following what the book refers to as PPP (sometimes known as PPU). PPP=presentation, practice, and production; PPU= presentation, practice, and use

I will provide extra readings (sometimes optional, sometimes required) as we make our way through the modules to help round out the class.

I will try to always have the next week or two's assignments posted so you can work on them earlier if you need to. If you know you will be away or have extra demands on your time during part of our course, please let me know in advance.

I am very flexible in my approach to our class and in being sensitive to the demands of studying while working full-time and/or having other responsibilities. However, you MUST keep up with the course. It is extremely difficult to try to make up three or four week's worth of work at the end of the course and not fair to those who participated fully all along.

Course Goals
By the end of this course, each student will be able to:

* Identify basic parts of speech in English grammar
* Discuss different EFL/ESL approaches to teaching and learning grammar
* Analyze grammar points (with the use of a grammar reference book as needed) and identify the form, function and use of each grammar point
* Prepare lesson plans to teach grammar to beginning, intermediate, and advanced students
* Describe at least three techniques for presenting new grammar points to adult ESL/EFL students
* Describe at least three communicative grammar practice activities that can be used with adult ESL/EFL students
* Create at least one communicative lesson plan to present and provide adult ESL/EFL students with practice of a specific grammar point
* Have fun working with grammar.

Course Requirements
Log on to this course three times a week. Complete reading assignments on time (as much as possible). Post your responses to questions and comment on our classmates' responses. Prepare lesson plans (the exact number will be decided later. Analyze grammar points (the exact number will be decided later. Complete a mid-term exam

Submitting Assignments
Instructions for submitting assignments online will be explained at the beginning of the course.

Instructor's Biography
Steve Cornwell has taught in the US, Ecuador, China and Japan. He is currently teaching at Osaka Jogakuin College in Osaka, Japan. He is a graduate of the New School's certificate program, the School for International Training's MAT in TESOL program, and Temple University's Ed.D. in Curriculum Development program....and will soon have a certificate in Teaching Online fromTESOL, Inc.