Topic 1: Grammar: Partly the study of what forms (/structures) are possible in a language.

[The study of grammar: looking at the way these forms are arranged & patterned.]
Grammar: A description of the rules that govern how a languages sentences are formed.
All language can be analysed into the forms at four levels; sound, word, sentence & text.
These rules tell speakers:
a) How to pronounce syllables (Phonology)
b) How to form words (Morphology) [Formation of words]
c) How to structure sentences (Syntax) [Order of words in a sentence]
d) What style of language to be used in a given context (Pragmatics)
Grammar convey two kinds of meanings:

Representation grammar enables us to use language to describe the world in terms of how, when
& where things happen

Interpersonal grammar facilitates the way we interact with other people

Fluency vs. Accuracy:
Communicative approach: enable pupils to use language to communicate efficiently & to seek information, give
information, solve a problem.
Accuracy-oriented activity
(e.g.: pattern drills)
- Used in teaching of new target item
- To help pupils achieving accurate perception &
production of a new target item (e.g.:sound,
sentence/ word)

Fluency-oriented activity
(e.g.: extensive reading & information gap)
- To develop the pupils spontaneous communication
skills in practising what they have learnt.
- To help pupils to practise language in L,S,R,W
activities so as to develop fluency in using the language
in spontaneous communication.

- Texts used are composed of separate items;

Target items are usually practised out of context
- Do not require meaningful communication
- Reflect classroom use of language
- Focus on the formation of correct examples of
language

- Texts used are whole pieces of discourses; (e.g.:

conversation, stories)
- Texts are authentic & used as they would be in real
life.
- Reflect natural use of language
- Focus on achieving communication
- Require meaningful use of language
- Require the use of communication strategies

- Pupils attention is focused on a particular target

item;
- Their output is usually predictable;
- Control choice of language
- Their performance is assessed on how few
language mistakes are made;
- Pupils errors are corrected;
- Tasks do not stimulate real-life situations.

- Pupils attention is focused on communicating

information & expressing ideas;
- Their output may not be predictable;
- Their performance is assessed on how well ideas are
expressed / understood;
- Pupils are not corrected unless it interferes with
communication; ( do not interrupt the communicative
flow)
- Tasks stimulate real-life situations.
- Link language use to context

Advantage:
Produce pupils who can reproduce sentences
learnt accurately
Disadvantage:
May not be effective in communicating the
language in real life situations
Explicit grammar teaching is more effective at the intermediate to advanced levels than beginning
levels:
This is because incidental focus on form is valuable as it treats errors that occur while
learners are engaged in meaningful communication.
Corrective feedback facilitate acquisition if it involves a mixture of implicit & explicit feedback.
KBSR Syllabus: aims to equip pupils with skills & provide a basic understanding of English language
so that they are able to communicate, both orally & in writing, in & out of school.
:; 2 sections of KBSR deal with grammar:a) One section categorizes grammar under specific grammar labels & provides sentence patterns
b) One section is whereby sentence patterns are placed under functions & topics.
KSSR Syllabus: aims to provide pupils with a strong foundation in English language. Teacher should
use Standard British English as a reference & model for teaching the language (spelling, grammar &
pronunciation).
Topic 2:
Descriptive Grammar:
- Refers to the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers & writers.
- Describe how people use spoken & written language & the knowledge that they use to decide
whether something is grammatically correct.
- Specialists in descriptive grammars (Linguists) : Study the rules that underlie our use of words,
phrases, clauses & sentences.
Prescriptive Grammar:
- Refers to a set of rules & examples dealing with the syntax & word structures of a language,
usually intended as an aid to the learning of that language.
- Refers to the structure of a language as certain people think it should be used
- Prescribe the rules of a language
- Prescriptive grammarians (Editors & teachers) : Layout rules about what they believe to be
correct or incorrect use of language
Covert Approach
Teacher uses the structure without drawing attention to grammatical rules.
Focus on the activity and not on the grammar rules
Errors should be tolerated during the activity but should be noted & dealt with at a later
session.

Overt Approach
Teacher explicitly explains the rules when presenting the new language.
Deductive Approach & Inductive Approach
- Deductive Approach
Teacher presents the rules & then goes on provide practice in the application of the rules.
- Inductive Approach
Known as discovery method.
Pupils are first given a number of sample sentences containing the target forms -> teacher
guides pupils into deriving the rule for themselves.
:; Deductive & Inductive approach should be complementary.
E.g.: A grammar rule presented covertly via communicative activity can be supported by an explicit
explanation so that pupils understand the rules.
A grammar rule presented overtly / explicitly should be supported by activities which encourage
pupils to use the structures for communicative purposes.
Grammar in Isolation:
Grammar is presented out of context
Pupils are given isolated sentences, which they are expected to internalize through exercises
involving repetition, manipulation & grammatical transformation
These exercises are designed to provide pupils with formal & declarative mastery of the
language in which they are able to explain rules of using the form of the language.
Grammar in Context:
Teaching grammar in relations to the context of the situation the utterances are usually used.
Grammar is contextualized in meaningful language use.
Pupils are given opportunities to explore grammar in context, this will enable pupils to see
how & why alternative forms exist to express different communicative meanings.
E.g.: Getting pupils to read set of sentences in the active voice -> Transform these into
passives following a model (to introduce the passive voice) -> tasks which give pupils
opportunities to explore when it is communicatively appropriate to use the passive rather than
the active voice (to show the relationship between grammatical items & the context in which
they occur).
Advantage: Effective communication which involves achieving harmony between functional
interpretation & formal appropriacy.
** Communicative tasks to shows the relationship between grammatical items & the context in which
they occur.
[This is because in genuine communication, grammar & context are closely related that appropriate
grammatical choices can only be made with reference to the context & the purpose of the
communication.]
Grammar need not be taught: It is acquired subconsciously when pupils learn the other language
skills. Pupils can learn & apply many grammatical concepts without learning to analyse the
grammatical constructions.

**Integration with the teaching of 4 Language Skills:

Grammar is the basis of all written & verbal communication.
- We cannot listen, speak, read / write without grammar as it present in any form of communication.
Meaning: Essential meaning of vocabulary in specific context [What meaning does the vocabulary,
functional expression or grammar structure have in the specific context?]:(What does it mean?)
1) What is the meaning of the word, functional expression or grammar structure?
2) What does it mean in the context its being used in?
Form: Refers to the visible & audible parts of vocabulary, functional expressions & grammar units.
[How is the vocabulary, functional expression or grammar structure formed?]
(How is it formed?/ How to construct the grammatical item?)
E.g.: spelling, phonemes, syllable stress, words in a phrase, prefixes/suffixes, syntax (word order)
Use: [When/ why is the vocabulary, functional expression/ grammar structure used?]
(When/ Why is it used?)
- The words, functional expression, grammar structures we choose to use are determined by the
situation we are in and/or what we want to communicate to our listener.
- Use is interconnected with meaning.
Topic 3: Working from discourse to grammar (Classroom discourse contexts & routines [occur
naturally] can be exploited to introduce new grammar)
a. The language of classroom management: (can be expanded, meaningful discourse context &
regularly used & help with building the internal grammar)
E.g. When organising practical activities, teacher may ask pupils to collect the scissors/ the books.
-> The range of verbs to use with the nouns can be gradually increased: collect/ keep away the
scissors/ the books. -> The noun phrases can be expanded to extend grammar development:
collect/keep away the small scissors/ the brown books.
b. Talking with children (Conversations)
When pupils talk L1 / try to speak L2 with you, respond in L2 & offer a more correct way of
saying it [Corrective feedback].
Corrective feedback used for expanding the talk E.g.: Teacher can respond with fuller
sentences that pick up pupils interest.
** To increase grammar awareness among pupils, incorporate grammar teaching through incidental
focusing on form that seizes on opportunities & operates in pupils space for growth.

Guided noticing activities: (lead to noticing of grammatical patterns in the language)

a. Listen & notice
- Pupils listen to sentences/ to a connected piece of talk (e.g. a story/ phone call) -> Pupils need to complete a
table using what they hear. -> In order to complete the table, pupils need to pay attention to the grammar
aspect being taught.
b. Presentation of new language with puppets
- Introducing new pattern: Construct a story with dialogue (story-dialogue) that uses repetition & contrast
pattern. -> tell the story using puppets -> Teacher recap the routine events by pointing to the calendar &
saying the key pattern phrases on their own: On Tuesdays, I visit my grandmother. -> To help input
processing, pupils asked to complete Crocodiles regular routine from listening on the given blank calendar,
making a distinction between routine events & non-routine events.
Language Practice Activities that Offer Structuring Opportunities
**Structuring activities help pupils to internalise the grammatical pattern so it becomes part of their internal
grammar.
** Focus of internal work is on accuracy in production.
a. Questionnaires, surveys & quizzes
- Pupils are asked to interview their friends to find out their friends favourite food.
* Preparation & rehearsal of the questions is necessary to ensure accuracy
* Activity needs to be managed so that the questions are asked in full each time
;; Once pupils collected information from several pupils, group work on compiling results can offer further
opportunities for structuring the grammar patterns. The structuring requires pupils to manipulate the
language so that they produce the form with attention & accurately.
b. Information Gap Activities
- Pupils in pairs; each has a note, but with different entries (this is the gap). -> ask each other questions to
obtain information -> practised using the language form (e.g.: Shall we meet on Friday? No, sorry. On
Fridays, I go to the library.)
c. Drills & Chants
- Offer language & involvement support to pupils when they are practising the new language
E.g.: Repetition drills : Pupils repeat what the teacher says, can help in familiarising a new form
Substitution drills : Offer more grammar structuring
` Teacher may use single words/ pictures as prompts for pupils to produce a sentence.
`*** When pupils are producing sentence in the drill, they are actually doing grammatical work in their minds, &
this may help structuring.
Proceduralising (To automatise pupils use of grammatical form & achieve task goals)
a. Dictogloss
- Teacher reads out a text several times -> pupils listen and make notes while listening -> reconstruct the text
in groups in order to be as accurate as possible to the original.
*During the collaborative work, pupils will learn to talk to each other about the language, as well as the content.
This enable them to make & form their internal grammatical knowledge.
* Collaborative work: Pupils may learn from each other about some aspect of grammar.
Topic 4:

1. Songs (Action songs, Childrens songs, Teaching structure songs)

- Motivating pupils (Interesting), Appropriate According to pupils level, Pronunciation is good & correct
- Sensor of listening: Sensitive to the sounds
- Authentic texts & provide good context for learning grammar
- Incorporate all 4 language skills (Reading: following lyrics ; Listening: identify words)

Gap filling:
- Listen to the song & have the lyrics with gaps for them to fill in as they listen.
- (Take out all the grammatical words such as prepositions / verbs)
- Tell pupils what they should be listening out for
**To make the task easier: Teacher could provide the missing words in a box at the side for the pupils to
select/ Number the gaps & provide clues for each number

Spot the mistakes:

- Change some of the words in the lyrics -> as pupils listen, they have to spot and correct the mistakes
** To make it challenging: Pupils correct the English of the lyrics by making it as proper English. (e.g.: gonna
change to going to)

Rearrange the verses:

** Low levels: chop up the lyrics of the song by verse and jumbled it up -> as they listen, they rearrange the
verse in order.

Chants:
- Use repetition to help pupils to learn problematic forms & helping them to improve their automatic use of
English.
- Teacher chants the lines in a rhythmical way & pupils repeat after teacher
E.g.: (Chant on preposition.)
At, on. At- with time. On- with days. We eat at eight. We meet on Mondays.
2. Stories:
- Create a deep interest & desire to continue learning (Provide contexts for real use of English)
- Listening to stories is a shared social experience; it provokes a shared response of laughter & sadness
- Provokes imagination interpret the characters & stories
Circle Story
- Focuses on accuracy of language
- The class create stories word by word.
Teacher may begin by saying: One Monday morning, Ali was -> The 1st pupil must repeat One Monday
morning, Ali was and then add a single word that makes sense & fits in grammatically. -> The 2nd pupil
repeats all the 1st pupil has said, adding one more word. -> All pupils take turn to play until a story develops
around the class.
** Teacher can choose whether the story is to be told in present tense or used to practise the past tense.
Retelling Stories

3. Nursery Rhymes & Poems

- Through repeating & considering the poem, the grammatical structures become more deeply internalized.
- To practice adjectives, imperative, verbs
4. Games (E.g.: Problem-solving activities)
- Allow pupils to practise & internalize vocabulary, grammar & structures extensively in challenging &
stimulating & meaningful & social context
* By repeated exposure to the target grammar
* By motivated in involving : pupils focused on the game & end up absorbing the grammar subconsciously
Tips to use Grammar Games:
a) Organization time & game & materials management
b) Variation vary the activities (appeal to all learning styles)
c) Rules of playing respect & obey
d) Routine pupils know what to expect next to ensure the class go smoothly
Examples: Board games (Go to Press!: compete to correct errors from the newspaper)
Crossword puzzle (Use clues to get pupils to practise critical thinking skills about the specific grammar items)
5. Puppets (Finger, glove, sock puppets)
- Act out various grammar concepts: (E.g.: learning verb tenses & prepositions)
6. Dialogues
a. Conversation-facilitation (encouraged to memorize short & useful phrases)
b. Grammar-demonstration dialogues (contain certain grammatical structures with contextualized examplesenable pupils to deduce generalization about certain grammatical structures).
7. Plays
- The play scripts allow pupils to read aloud, swap roles, repeat & understand grammar in context
- Pupils in groups can also be given the task of writing a play script.
;; Use natural language relevant experience & characters, dialogue-short & easy to be remembered

Types of activities:
a) Drills

Highly controlled oral practice in which pupils respond to a given cue.

Used at the controlled practice stage of language learning

To offer opportunities for the pupils to accurately try out what they have learned.

Help pupils to develop quick, automatic responses using a specific formulaic structure, such as
transformation or verb form.

Mode of drilling also can be changed from individual drill to chorus drill.
Common forms of Drills: Simple repetition, simple substitution, multiple substitution, simple correlation,
multiple correlations, transformation.
b) Substitution Tables
Used to teach/ practise more than one form.
c) Jazz chants

Involves using an element of rhythm.

Teaching Resources:
Exploiting materials from the newspaper
(pictorial & non-pictorial texts & cheap, easily available & exposes pupils to real-life language)
i) Scavenger Hunt: Pupils work in groups & given a list of items to look for in the newspaper -> they can either cut out whole
pictures, words / phrases & paste them on a piece of paper -> they compete in groups to locate the items
stated in the scavenger hunt list.
ii) Guided Writing: Teacher uses the advertisement from the newspaper -> pupils complete blanks/ dialogues with information
from the advertisement.
iii) Shopping List: Teacher creates a context whereby pupils are going shopping for birthday presents for themselves & their
friends. -> Pupils look through the newspaper and cut out the presents that they would buy. -> Pupils
explain their choices in written / verbal form.
Topic 6: Assessing Grammar
Achievement tests (Summative tests/ given after a semester/ years work)
Aims to see if pupils have acquired the language they have been studying.
Consideration when writing the tests:
a. Do not test what you havent taught.
(The purpose of achievement test is to find out how well pupils have achieved what they have been
studying.)
b. Do not test general knowledge
(Test pupils knowledge of English, not knowledge of the world).
c. Do not introduce new techniques in tests
(To ensure they have been exposed to that before & to ensure they have no difficulties in understanding
how to answer the questions)
d. Do not forget to test the test
(Review the questions by colleagues to spot problems complicated instructions/ test too difficult/too
easy)
Test Items: Discrete-item tests (Individual components of pupils knowledge for Grammar)
i. Multiple choice (Choose correct answer from a number of alternatives)
- Test pupils recognition of grammatical items
- Not tests of pupils productive ability.
(Adv): Easy to mark
(Disadv): Difficult to write distractors (the three wrong answers)
ii. Fill-ins (Fill in a blank with a word/words)
(Adv): Test pupils comprehension & pupils knowledge of individual grammatical items

(Disadv): Time-consuming for marking

iii. Sentence Completion
(Adv): Test pupils knowledge & use of English (using right vocabulary & grammar to complete the task)
iv. Sentence Reordering
E.g.: Rearrange the words in order to make correct sentences
(Adv): Explores pupils knowledge of syntax
v. Sentence Transformations
(Adv): Test pupils knowledge of syntax & structure
E.g.: Pupils have to rewrite sentences so that they have the same meaning but different grammatical
structures.
1. John is taller than Mary.
Mary isnt _________________.
vi. Sentence Writing
- Pupils practise sentence writing by describing a picture
(Adv): Test pupils ability to write correct sentences & their ability to use there with is & are correctly.
vii. Parallel Writing ( A sentence / a clause that has same grammatical structure )
- Pupils are asked to use their knowledge of grammar & vocabulary to imitate a piece of writing they have
read and understood.
(Adv): Test pupils understanding of paragraph, form & grammar.
Topic 7:
Enrichment:
- Work covered in more depth which promote a higher level of thinking skills
- A broadening of the learning experience (using the basic curriculum content with a wider context)
- A more challenging but stimulating task
- Learning satisfaction
- Further strengthen pupils language ability (Demanding tasks)
- Develop a greater understanding of certain grammatical concepts
E.g.: Problem-solving, creative thinking, discovery, critical thinking and making decisions.
**Enrichment enhances the curriculum & pupils general learning experience
Elements: Challenging, enjoyment, exposure to new knowledge & ideas, thinking skills, risk taking.
Examples of enrichment activities:
a) Think outside the box
b) Challenges box - Demanding task with higher level of difficulty and without any support
c) Real time simulations
Evaluation for Enrichment activities:
a) Peer feedback & evaluation on performance & observation based on pupils participation)
b) Evaluation on the effectiveness of materials used in enrichment activity (questionnaires)
Remedial
- Individualized teaching of pupils who are experiencing difficulties in specific subject areas.
- Allow pupils who have difficulties to learn at a more appropriate level

- Allow pupils to ask as many questions as necessary to understand a subject rather than feeling
pressured to learn everything immediately.
- Enable/ prepare pupils to catch up with their peers & to participate equally in class
- Overcome their difficulties as soon as problems are detected (Improve learning skill or rectify problem)
- To boost pupils self-confidence & self-esteem
**Grammar remedial classes: Emphasises that pupils need to acquire basic concepts before complicated
ideas can be introduced and applied.
1) Identification:
a) Through academic achievement
- Show poor performance consistently in tests, do not do homework/ copy friends, passive involvementmay be confused or give wrong answers to the questions asked.
b) Through behavioural aspect
i) Attitude towards academic activities disinterested (avoid interaction/ no contributions of ideas)
ii) Class escapism skip classes & give excuses for not attending lesson
2) Diagnosis of deficiencies:
a) Learning of concepts: He does not comprehend
b) Application of knowledge: He may be unable to apply the learned knowledge
3) Causes:
Memory, Understanding, Presentation, Medium of Instruction (language problem), Teacher based (does
not encourage participation, improper way of correction <feedback>, threatening environment), Individual
factors (not preferred skills)
4) Cures & Remedies:
i) Diagnosis of the specific difficulty of pupil by conducting a suitable diagnostic test
ii) Providing suitable remedial measures
iii) Providing ways for preventing them from reoccurring in the future