Tools for Teaching English Grammar to SpanishSpeaking Students Who Know Almost Nothing About It

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Tools for Teaching English Grammar to
Spanish-Speaking Students Who Know Almost Nothing
About It
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What Well Discuss

• Gramática del inglés Paso a paso At last a
  grammar book written in Spanish that assumes no
  prior knowledge of English or Spanish grammar
• Winning strategies for teaching grammar to
  Spanish-speakers who know very little about
  grammar in English or Spanish

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Introducing Gramática del inglés Paso a Paso

• Written in readers native language Spanish
  (with English addition available)
• Explicitly teaches punctuation and parts of
  speech in addition to teaching grammar
• Assumes no prior knowledge of Spanish or English
  grammar or punctuation

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Topics Covered

• Identifying nouns, pronouns, and adjectives
• Using capital letters, periods, and question
  marks
• Distinguishing between singular and plural nouns
• Using a, an, and the
• Conjugating the verbs to be and to have
• Possessive adjectives, his, her, etc.
• Contractions

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Pace

• Presents concepts in small, manageable steps
• For example
• Section 1 my
• Section 2 his, her
• Section 3 your, our
• Section 4 its, their

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Format

• Employs consistent, easy to use layout
• Each page of explanation is followed by a page of
  practice exercises

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Focus on Error Correction

• Calls out differences between Spanish and English
  grammar
• Includes exercises in which students choose
  between the correct and incorrect grammatical
  structure
• I no tired. Im not tired
• She hair Her hair

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Practice Makes (almost) Perfect

• About a thousand exercises
• Answers to all exercises included
• All vocabulary is defined before it is used
• Bilingual dictionary includes all words used in
  exercises

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How to Use This Book

• As a class text
• As an optional text that students purchase
  themselves for use at home
• In one-on-one tutoring programs
• In Study at Home programs
• As a resource for teachers with Spanish-speaking
  students

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And please

• Purchase, dont copy, these books!
• Its cheaper for you.
• Its better for your students.

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Almost hot off the press

• Gramática del inglés Paso a paso 2 will be
  available early next year, if not sooner. It
  covers
• Simple present
• Do and does
• -- Present Progressive
• -- and LOTS more

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Goals for today

• Make teaching grammar more fun and effective
• Make learning grammar more fun and productive

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Grammar Conundrum 1

• The Audio-lingual Method produced students who
  knew a lot about specific language structures but
  couldnt apply what they knew to spontaneous
  conversation.
• The Communicative Approach produces students who
  communicate well but lack grammatical competency.
  

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Grammar Conundrum 2

• Explicit knowledge conscious knowledge of
  grammar rules learned through formal classroom
  instruction
• Implicit knowledge unconscious, internalized
  knowledge of a language that is available for
  spontaneous speech

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Resolving the Grammar Conundrum Goals

• Enable students to develop grammatical competency
  even in spontaneous speech.
• Make correct grammar automatic.
• Avoid the inert knowledge problem, inability to
  activate knowledge or transfer knowledge when you
  need it.

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CASE STUDYShort Answer, present tense, with to
be

• Students answer these questions
• Are you tired?
• Are your parents in the United States?

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CASE STUDYShort Answer, present tense, with to
be

• Prior knowledge required to answer these
  questions
• Statements vs. questions
• Conjugating the verb to be
• Parts of speech (you vs. your)
• Singular vs. plural
• Contractions (or not)

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How do you do it?

• Explain
• Experience
• Explore

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EXPLAIN grammar forms

• Be brief
• Be organized
• Be repetitive
• Be authentic

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For every grammar form

• Focus on error detection
• 1. Im not tired. I no tired.
• 2. It is empty. Is empty.
• 3. I have an old car. I have car old.
• 4. The cars are new The cars is new.
• Can you identify the root of each grammar error?
  

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For every grammar form

• Test for understanding often!
• Assignment Write a sentence that includes the
  word cleans.
• She is a cleans the house.
• Marias cleans her house.
• He clean his house.
• She has cleans her house.
• Maria is clean her house.
• Louisa is a housecleaner.
• She cleans the her house.

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Teach parts of speech from Day 1

• Teach them in this order
• nouns (person, place, animal, thing)
• subject pronouns (replace nouns)
• adjectives
• verbs (start with to be)
• prepositions
• adverbs

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Teach parts of speech from Day 1

• Use a variety of techniques
• Contests
• Four corners
• Fill the form
• Identification exercises
• Analylze texts
• Practice parts of speech often!

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EXPERICNE grammar using these strategies

• Make grammar a stand-up activity.
• Make grammar a cooperative activity.
• Make grammar a kinesthetic activity.
• Make grammar a joyous activity!

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Make grammar a stand-up activity

• Four Corners
• Gerties Grammar Cards

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Make grammar a stand-up activity

• 3. Student Interviews
• Writing
• Speaking

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Make grammar a stand-up activity

• 4. Find three people who

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Make grammar a cooperative activity

• 1. Picture
• Q and A

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Make grammar a cooperative activity

• Dictation Part 1
• Listening and writing

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Make grammar a cooperative activity

• 2. Dictation Part 2 Speaking (including
  pronunciation)

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Make grammar a kinesthetic activity

• 1. Scrambled sentences

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Make grammar a kinesthetic activity

• 2. Fill the form

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Make grammar a joyous activity Sing!

• Sing! (And explore grammar too!)
• Do You Want to Dance? (Beach Boys) asking
  questions
• I Cant Smile Without You (Barry Manilow) can
  and cant
• Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton) simple present
• Email me for more examples

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Make grammar a joyous activity Sing!

• How to do it
• Select a song based on the grammar structure you
  want to teach.
• Use iTunes to download the song.
• Print the lyrics from the Internet.
• Develop lessons based on the lyrics and one
  grammar point.

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Make grammar a joyous activity Sing!

• Day 1
• Play the song.
• Talk about what it means
• Note grammar form

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Make grammar a joyous activity Sing!

• Day 2 and 3 Focus on vocabulary

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Make grammar a joyous activity Sing!

• Day 4 Practice the grammar form using vocabulary
  from the song.

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Make grammar a joyous activity Sing!

• Day 5
• Do a cloze activity.
• Students listen to the song and fill in the
  missing words.

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Make grammar a joyous activity Sing!

• Sing every day!
• Make a Class CD with lyrics

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EXPLORE Let students discover grammar forms

• The goal of discovering grammar forms is for
  students to develop awareness of rather than
  production of target forms.
• This awareness helps learners notice target forms
  in future input and facilitates the eventual
  acquisition of these forms as implicit.

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EXPLORE Let students discover grammar forms

• Five part lesson plan
• 1. Listening to comprehend
• 2. Listening to notice
• 3. Discovery
• 4. Checking
• 5. Trying it

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CASE STUDYShort Answer, present tense, with to
be

• Explanation
• Present information in small, manageable chunks
  
• Day 1 Are you talkative?
• Day 2 Is your sister talkative?
• Day 3 Are your classmates talkative?

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CASE STUDYShort Answer, present tense, with to
be

• Explanation
• Provide one reference sheet that students refer
  to whenever this topic is discussed
• Repeat the grammar explanation prior to each
  activity

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CASE STUDYShort Answer, present tense, with to
be

• Exploration Worksheets plus
• Four Corners
• Gerties grammar cards
• Class interviews
• Scrambled sentences
• Find 3 People Who.
• Dictation

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In sum

• Even though English grammar is excruciatingly
  difficult
• You can make it fun!