TESL 0110 Assignment 3: Grammar Activity
TESL 0110 Assignment 3: Grammar Activity
-Scenario 2-
You are teaching a course called English for Academic Purposes in a government-funded program in Manitoba. Your students are CLB 7-8 learners who hope to study at a post-secondary institution after completing this course. Students have been working on writing expository essays. In their writing, you notice that they are still confusing simple past (to report on generalities or truths) and present perfect (to report on aspects from the past which are relevant to the present). Much of the corrective feedback you have provided on their writing so far has been about essay structure. What would you do?
-What would you do? -
At the beginning of the class, I would let the class know that there seems to be confusion when writing in the simple past tense with the present perfect tense and vice versa. Thus, as to correct the errors occurring, we would look at the two tenses.
Warm-up Activity 1
I would arrange the students to work in pairs or in a small group of 3. Their warm-up task would consist of them analyzing a few paragraphs that will be presented to them on the projector screen.
Each group is given one paragraph to analyze. The students are to analyze what is ‘wrong’ with the paragraph’s tenses given to them.
When time is up, the paragraphs will be discussed and reviewed.
Activity 2 -
Consists of grammar exercises for the students in which they can practice what has been shown to them in class. They also have a sheet that explains each Tense if they need a reference to look back on. Within this handout exercise sheet, they students will have a table of verbs they need to fill out and conjugate accordingly. There is also fill-in the blank sentence structures in which students will need to conjugate the verbs given. Another exercise is to choose the correct answer for the sentence structure. Lastly, the students will need to look at a paragraph and edit it to the corresponding tenses asked (Simple Past or Present Perfect).
-Rational-
Seeing that the students are advanced and nearly fluent in the English language, much of the first Activity is Inductive in approach, and the second activity contains both the inductive and the deductive approach of teaching grammar.
The first activity is the warm-up activity and is in the Inductive approach. Where the students need to see and figure out what is ‘wrong’ with the paragraph’s verb tenses and see for themselves as to, why it is not exactly understood. They will need to remember some grammar rules in order for it to be understood.
The second Activity is a deductive approach, where the students are presented with the explanation of the two different tenses with examples. They are also given a handout with writing exercises to refresh their memories, with the reviewed Verb Tenses. I believe this activity is appropriate for this group of learners, due to the knowledge that it’s more ‘review’ than a lesson, and they are CLB 7-8 level learners, thus the process of teaching is a quick reminder of what was forgotten.
-Research-
The Deductive method is the oldest and most used approach in the classroom when teaching grammar. It is teacher-centered, and typically follows steps such steps as, Presenting the grammar rules, giving students controlled exercises like sentence structuring, and lastly having students apply learned the lesson in controlled activities that would elicit the target structures in real time. In this deductive approach, the rules guide them in applying the structure in a task that requires higher level processing (Conti, 2017, para.1). Some of the benefits of this approach are that it works for more traditional learners and those who lack the training to find the rules on their own (Admin, para 3). Another benefit to this approach is that it is not as time-consuming as that of the Inductive approach. Time is only spent on the language principle, and it encourages faster learning and encourages the value of accurate writing (ITTO, para 2).
On the other hand, the Inductive approach to grammar is more student-centered and is encouraged for more advanced English level learners. It has a more personal and deeper cognitive process that is stated to result in better information retention. But as stated above, it requires time and planning from the instructor, which most instructors sadly lack. However, as Conti (2017) states, it doesn’t matter which method brings about a better understanding or retention of the target language structure; what is important is rather what are we aiming for with this instruction, if we want more efficient and autonomous learners, he suggests then we use the Inductive approach (para. 11). Conti also states that the ‘deductive approach [ought to] be replaced by or integrated with an inductive approach which …promotes noticing and pattern recognition (para. 4).
Having spoken to one of my PLN’s who is an ESL teacher. She teaches beginner level students (levels 2 and 3), stated that though she hasn’t yet been able to get to writing essays, her students have looked at grammar structures and usually it includes both the Deductive and the Inductive approach. “Teaching Grammar skills and rules to them is good and does work to an extent, but there are a few of them that discover and figure out the rules and what doesn’t work, on their own too.” (Stagg, 2017). This shows me that either using deductive or Inductive approaches there are always students that will need the visual representation of the steps versus the others students that will be able to figure the rules out on their own.
Nowhere in my research did I see or find any information on which method, deductive or inductive, works better for students who are ‘reviewing’ grammar, specifically. Thus I believe that it depends on your students and on your preference and so going back to what Conti stated, it doesn’t matter which you choose, as long as it gets to your goal (para.11).
-Rational-
Seeing that the students are advanced and nearly fluent in the English language, much of the first Activity is Inductive in approach, and the second activity contains both the inductive and the deductive approach of teaching grammar.
The first activity is the warm-up activity and is in the Inductive approach. Where the students need to see and figure out what is ‘wrong’ with the paragraph’s verb tenses and see for themselves as to, why it is not exactly understood. They will need to remember some grammar rules in order for it to be understood.
The second Activity is a deductive approach, where the students are presented with the explanation of the two different tenses with examples. They are also given a handout with writing exercises to refresh their memories, with the reviewed Verb Tenses. I believe this activity is appropriate for this group of learners, due to the knowledge that it’s more ‘review’ than a lesson, and they are CLB 7-8 level learners, thus the process of teaching is a quick reminder of what was forgotten.
-Research-
The Deductive method is the oldest and most used approach in the classroom when teaching grammar. It is teacher-centered, and typically follows steps such steps as, Presenting the grammar rules, giving students controlled exercises like sentence structuring, and lastly having students apply learned the lesson in controlled activities that would elicit the target structures in real time. In this deductive approach, the rules guide them in applying the structure in a task that requires higher level processing (Conti, 2017, para.1). Some of the benefits of this approach are that it works for more traditional learners and those who lack the training to find the rules on their own (Admin, para 3). Another benefit to this approach is that it is not as time-consuming as that of the Inductive approach. Time is only spent on the language principle, and it encourages faster learning and encourages the value of accurate writing (ITTO, para 2).
On the other hand, the Inductive approach to grammar is more student-centered and is encouraged for more advanced English level learners. It has a more personal and deeper cognitive process that is stated to result in better information retention. But as stated above, it requires time and planning from the instructor, which most instructors sadly lack. However, as Conti (2017) states, it doesn’t matter which method brings about a better understanding or retention of the target language structure; what is important is rather what are we aiming for with this instruction, if we want more efficient and autonomous learners, he suggests then we use the Inductive approach (para. 11). Conti also states that the ‘deductive approach [ought to] be replaced by or integrated with an inductive approach which …promotes noticing and pattern recognition (para. 4).
Having spoken to one of my PLN’s who is an ESL teacher. She teaches beginner level students (levels 2 and 3), stated that though she hasn’t yet been able to get to writing essays, her students have looked at grammar structures and usually it includes both the Deductive and the Inductive approach. “Teaching Grammar skills and rules to them is good and does work to an extent, but there are a few of them that discover and figure out the rules and what doesn’t work, on their own too.” (Stagg, 2017). This shows me that either using deductive or Inductive approaches there are always students that will need the visual representation of the steps versus the others students that will be able to figure the rules out on their own.
Nowhere in my research did I see or find any information on which method, deductive or inductive, works better for students who are ‘reviewing’ grammar, specifically. Thus I believe that it depends on your students and on your preference and so going back to what Conti stated, it doesn’t matter which you choose, as long as it gets to your goal (para.11).
References
Admin. (2006). Deductive Approach. Retreived from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/deductive-approach
C. Stagg (personal communication, December 1, 2017).
Conti, G. (2017, April 23). Why you should change your approach to grammar instruction [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/why-you-should-change-your-approach-to-grammar-instruction/
Fushs, M., Bonner, M., & Westheimer M. Focus on Grammar: An Integrated Skills Approach. 3rd ed. Pearson Longman, (pp.30, 212- 214, 362).
ITTO (n.d.) Inductive and Deductive Approach in TESOL . Retreived from https://www.tefl-online.com/tefl-jobs/online-tefl-articles/inductive-approach/
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