Teaching Grammar, Listening, Reading, and
Integrated Skills
Grammar Teaching
Principles
Grammar knowledge doesn't guarantee fluency. Fluency requires communicative practice.
Teach grammar for communication, not just form.
No single grammar teaching approach is ideal. Methods supplement each other.
Framework for teaching grammar:
Form: How is the grammatical structure formed?
Meaning: What does the grammatical structure mean?
Use: When/why is the grammatical structure used?
Approaches
Explicit Grammar Teaching:
Teacher-centered, with direct explanation of rules.
Focus on correct form (tense, agreement, word order).
Conscious learning of rules.
Example: Explaining the Past Simple rule (adding -ed) and providing examples.
Benefits: Clear understanding, effective for analytical learners.
Challenges: Overload, limited practice.
Implicit Grammar Teaching:
Student-centered, learning through exposure and context.
Grammar learned through authentic language input (stories, conversations, videos).
Focus on communication and fluency.
Subconscious learning of grammar.
Example: Reading a story using Past Simple and asking comprehension questions.
Benefits: Natural acquisition, contextual relevance, less overwhelming.
Challenges: Slower learning, less control.
Comparison of Explicit and Implicit Teaching
Teacher Role:
Explicit: Explains rules directly.
Implicit: Provides exposure and context.
Student Role:
Explicit: Receives direct information.
Implicit: Discovers rules through practice.
Focus:
Explicit: Form (grammar rules).
Implicit: Communication and context.
Consciousness:
Explicit: Conscious learning (awareness of rules).
Implicit: Subconscious learning (rules absorbed through exposure).
Method:
Explicit: Rule-based explanation and practice.
Implicit: Contextualized language use and exposure.
Examples:
Explicit: Grammar drills, explanations, exercises.
Implicit: Reading texts, listening activities, conversational practice.
Learning Pace:
Explicit: Faster understanding of rules, but can be mechanical.
Implicit: Slower but more natural and fluid learning.
Activities and Techniques
Fill-in-the-blanks tasks
Error correction tasks
Grammar awareness raising
Sentence restructuring/transformation
Matching activities
Putting verbs into the correct form
"Old and Faithful" Method
Presentation: Present text with grammatical structures.
Isolation and explanation: Focus on grammatical structures.
Practice: Exercises in class and as homework.
Test: Assess mastery of material.
Tips and Tricks
Use substitution tables after teaching a grammar point.
Use images/GIFs to teach grammar. Elicit responses rather than giving answers.
Use questions to guide students to learning goals with images/GIFs.
Use picture stories to teach grammar.
Simplify explanations.
Familiarize yourself with sentence parts, labels, and constituents (parts of speech).
Consider learners' needs (age, level, interests, etc.).
Use games.
Use online resources (Kahoot!, Wordwall, etc.).
Teach grammar with communicative purposes.
Teaching Listening Comprehension
Factors Making Listening Difficult
1. Clustering: Speech is broken into smaller groups of words, not just sentences.
2. Redundancy: Spoken language contains rephrasing, repetitions, etc.
3. Reduced forms: Contractions, elisions (e.g., "Djcetyet?" for "Did you eat yet?").
4. Performance variables: Hesitations, false starts, pauses, corrections.
5. Colloquial language: Idioms, slang, cultural references.
6. Rate of delivery: Number and length of pauses are crucial.
7. Stress, rhythm, and intonation: English is stress-timed, and intonation affects meaning.
Principles for Designing Listening Techniques
1. Don't overlook specific instruction in listening skills.
2. Use intrinsically motivating techniques.
3. Utilize authentic language and contexts.
4. Carefully consider bottom-up and top-down processing.
5. Encourage the development of listening strategies.
6. Include both bottom-up and top-down listening exercises.
7. Subdivide techniques into pre-listening, during-listening, and post-listening phases.
8. Build in evaluative aspects.
Example Activities
Beginning Level:
Discriminating intonation contours.
Discriminating phonemes.
Selective listening for morphological endings.
Matching words to pictures.
Listening for normal sentence word order.
Discriminating between emotional reactions.
Getting the gist of a sentence.
Recognizing the topic.
Building a semantic network of word associations.
Recognizing a familiar word and relating it to a category.
Following directions.
Intermediate Level:
Recognizing fast speech forms.
Finding the stressed syllable.
Recognizing words with reduced syllables.
Recognizing words as they are linked in the speech stream.
Recognizing pertinent details in the speech stream.
Analyzing discourse structure to suggest effective listening strategies.
Listening to identify the speaker or the topic.
Listening to evaluate themes and motives.
Finding main ideas and supporting details.
Making inferences.
Discriminating between registers of speech and tones of voice.
Recognizing missing grammar markers in colloquial speech.
Using incomplete sensory data and cultural background information to construct a more
complete understanding of a text.
Using knowledge of reduced forms to clarify the meaning of an utterance.
Using context to build listening expectations.
Listening to confirm your expectations.
Advanced Level:
Using features of sentence stress and volume to identify important information for note-
taking.
Becoming aware of sentence-level features in lecture text.
Becoming aware of organizational cues in lecture text.
Becoming aware of lexical and suprasegmental markers for definitions.
Identifying specific points of information.
Using the introduction to the lecture to predict its focus and direction.
Using the lecture transcript to predict the content of the next section.
Finding the main idea of a lecture segment.
Using incoming details to determine the accuracy of predictions about content.
Determining the main ideas of a section of a lecture by analysis of the details in that
section.
Making inferences by identifying ideas on the sentence level that lead to evaluative
statements.
Using knowledge of the text and the lecture content to fill in missing information.
Using knowledge of the text and the lecture content to discover the lecturer's
misstatements and to supply the ideas that he meant to say.
Teaching Reading Comprehension
Text Types
Non-fiction, fiction, letters, diaries, memos, messages, announcements, newspaper articles,
maps, manuals, menus, schedules, advertisements, invitations, directories, comic strips,
academic writing, forms, questionnaires, directions, labels, signs, recipes, bills, and more.
Strategies
1. Identify the purpose in reading.
2. Use efficient silent reading techniques for rapid comprehension.
3. Skim the text for main ideas.
4. Scan the text for specific information.
5. Use semantic mapping or clustering.
6. Guess when you aren't certain.
7. Analyze vocabulary.
8. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
Types of Classroom Reading Performance
Oral reading: Use sparingly for pronunciation and bottom-up skill checks.
Silent reading: More common, allows for faster comprehension.
Principles for Designing Interactive Reading Techniques
1. Provide specific instruction in reading skills.
2. Use intrinsically motivating techniques.
3. Balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts.
4. Encourage the development of reading strategies.
5. Pre-reading, during-reading, and after-reading phases.
6. Build in an evaluative aspect.
Integrated Skills Instruction
Segregated-Skill Instruction
Focuses on mastering discrete (separate) language skills.
Language learning is separate from content learning.
May be easier to present courses on writing divorced from speaking, or on listening isolated
from reading.
Does not prepare students to use the language in everyday life.
Grammar-Translation Method
An extreme example of segregated instruction.
Teaches students to analyze grammar and translate.
Restricts language learning to a narrow, non-communicative range.
Integrated-Skill Instruction
Exposes learners to authentic language.
Challenges learners to interact naturally.
Promotes learning of real content.
Content-Based Instruction (CBI)
Achieves language proficiency by shifting the focus from language learning to subject matter
learning.
The second language is the medium to convey informational content.
Characteristics:
1. Subject matter core.
2. Use of authentic texts.
3. Learning of new information.
4. Appropriate to the specific needs of students.
Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)
Tasks are central to the learning process.
Organize classroom activities around practical tasks.
What is a Task?
A piece of work undertaken for oneself or others.
An activity carried out as a result of processing or understanding language.
A structured language learning endeavor with a particular objective.
Pedagogical Tasks
Require learners to comprehend, manipulate, produce, and interact in authentic language.
Connect to the real world.