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Teaching Grammar for ESL/EFL Teachers

The students are pre- and in-service teachers most of whom in a ESL/EFL TESL certificate program at the New School for Social Research in New York City. The certificate course offers classes at the site in Greenwich village and also online. The course uses Blackboard so students can post their responses, upload files, etc. That will be missing from this version of the lesson.

LESSON GOALS
This is part of the introductory "class." Participants will introduce themselves and then fill out a grammar diagnostic questionnire (it could be seen as following a test teach test framework with the diagnostic qquestionnaire "testing" what the students know and then the course teaching about grammar analysis and lesson planning after which I could "test" the participants again, but by them they will know all the items on the diagnostic.

    *Students will be made to feel welcome in the class.
    *Students will become aware of what they know and do not know about grammar (from an ESL/EFL teaching point of view).
    *Students will begin to research grammar points a a preliminary step to conducting a grammar analysis.

I have prepared a short video as an introduction to the course. That will be the first thing students see.

And you can see it here.

Part I – Students will introduce themselves telling a little about their backgrounds. Here is what they will respond to:

Welcome and Introductions

Hi there! Welcome to English Grammar for ESL (& EFL) Teachers. I am looking forward to working with you for the next 9 weeks. I think we will learn a lot about grammar and how to teach it. This week is for introductions.

Please read each other's postings AND respond to them. This is important in an online class to help create the atmosphere of an interactive classroom.

With that said, here is our first assignment:

    1. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself.
    2. Where are you at in the certificate program and what is your teaching background?
    3. What is your language learning background and experience with cultures not your own?
    4. What is something you really want to get out of this course?
    5. What is something that you are worried about as you enter this grammar course?

Next, participants will fill out the grammar diagnostic. NOTE: I have prepared this as a Hot Potato activity (I started working on this for another PP class and have modified/refined it here.) However, it does not work as well as a Hot Potato activity as it does as a word documents which students fill out twice: once without using any references and once again (in a different color) using a reference. After most students complete this activity, I provide my take on the diagnostic questionnaire. You can see all of this in the following links:

Hot Potato Version of Grammar Diagnostic

Word Version of Grammar Diagnostic

Sample of Completed Grammar Diagnositic

Grammar Diagnostic "Answers"

After this introductory work is over, we will continue the class by viewing a webcast with Diane Larsen Freeman on Grammaring and read an article by her on Grammar Myths. Students will also read a recent TESOL article by Rod Ellis on Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar and we will work on setting a foundation upon which the rest of the class will build. Links to these resources follow:

Webcast on Grammaring with Diane Larsen-Freeman

Grammar Myths Article

Ellis Article

This site was created on September 11, 2006.
© Steve Cornwell, 2006.