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At EF Teach Online, we provide the technology to connect teachers and students worldwide. Here you'll find tools, tips and teacher stories to power your online classes.

Polina Bolivar ‹ Teach Online

Grammar-focused lessons can sometimes instill a sense of boredom in students; even these days, when the focus has shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. Many learners can still associate studying grammar with repetitive tasks and endless drills that often seem irrelevant to them and don’t always help with the retention of information in the long run. Repeating model responses over and over again can certainly help students learn something by heart, but does it mean that now they have the ability to experiment with the new language? Does this boost their confidence in using the target language in a real-life situation? Does it make them feel motivated and engaged in the lesson?
Fortunately, plenty of activities and teaching techniques that can help liven up grammar lessons are available to teachers today. They can be adapted to suit an online environment as well as the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom. Let’s explore a few ideas that can help create an engaging and productive environment where your students will enjoy learning grammar.
 
Eliciting instead of dictating grammar rules to the students
Let’s say you are working with a group of adult students who are introduced to the present progressive tense. Use an example sentence that describes something that is happening at the moment and all the students can see. You can type or write it and also demonstrate an action using realia: “The teacher is looking up a word in a dictionary.” It can be tempting to jump straight to the explanation of the form and function here, but the key is to get the students to realize it for themselves. Asking questions for eliciting, such as “Is this past, present, or future?” can provide opportunities for many “aha moments” when learners arrive at conclusions themselves.
 
Choosing a context and staying within it while presenting the use, meaning, and form
A helpful strategy for keeping your students engaged and motivated throughout the entire lesson could be focusing on one important grammar point at a time. For example, letting the learners master the use of the present progressive tense for unfinished actions happening now can be more effective and help them feel more confident with their progress. Present progressive for future plans can be introduced in a different lesson after they have properly practiced one use of this tense.
 
Using Concept Check Questions (CCQs) to gauge learners’ understanding
Forgetting to check for understanding throughout the lesson can be a common pitfall. When we ask, “Does it make sense? Do you understand?” many students don’t want to admit that they couldn’t understand something and are often too shy to ask for clarification. One way to make sure they are grasping the concept and staying focused is using simple yet effective CCQs such as 50/50 chance questions, basic wh- and yes/no questions. For example, you could consider showing the students a picture of a chef cooking spaghetti and ask, “Is it happening now? Is the dish ready?”
 
Personalization
Students respond better to examples and phrases they can relate to. If they are working professionals and are learning English to succeed in their career, they’re more likely to value the language they can use on the job. As a controlled practice activity, students can complete sentences about things their colleagues are doing at work right now: “Brian is hosting a meeting. The accountants are attending a conference.”
 
Gamification
Spruce up a grammar exercise with a bit of a competitive challenge and you’ll notice how your students start feeling more engaged and excited. If they love solving mysteries, why not prepare a picture of people doing different things and explain that one of them wrote you a love letter and you’re dying to know who it is from? The students can talk about what these people are doing at the moment and guess how their actions can help spot the person who wrote the love letter. They can come up with sentences such as “He is buying a bouquet of flowers for you. He wants to secretly leave them on your doorstep.” Encourage the students to discuss the most convincing or realistic explanation. You can also praise them and give points for coming up with the most creative and grammatically correct sentences.
 
Using humor whenever appropriate
Another effective way to make a grammar lesson memorable and fun are through using humor. Not only does it keep the students engaged with the material, but it also often helps to eliminate the feeling of awkwardness associated with speaking a foreign language. Humor can provide insights into the culture and authentic materials such as funny short stories, sitcoms, and comedies can supply a plethora of ideas for classroom content.
With a few simple strategies, grammar lessons no longer have to be boring, and students don’t have to dread learning new grammar rules. We hope that these top tips have inspired you to have more fun with grammar in your lessons.
 
Do you want to learn more about this topic? Watch <a href="https://youtu.be/k1ulxmfRN_U">this</a> video for more ideas that you could try in your face-to-face or online classes.
 
Learn more about EF Teach Online <a href="https://www.ef.com/wwen/teachonline/">here</a>.

Grammar-focused lessons can sometimes instill a sense of boredom in students; even these days, when the focus has shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. Many learners can still associate studying grammar with repetitive tasks and endless drills that often seem irrelevant to them and don’t always help with the retention of information in the long …

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Polina Bolivar

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