Teach English in A'erbengele Zhen - Xing'an Meng — Hinggan

Topic: Teaching grammar. Title: How to make grammar lesson more interesting to young learners Grammar is a key segment of language, particular English, in which learners have different views. Some students are keen on learning grammar rules and doing lots of grammar exercises. On the other hand, others hate grammar and suppose that this is the most boring part of learning a new language. Teaching grammar for children is harder than for adults since it is difficult to attract and motivate them. However, whatever opinions they have, learning grammar is inescapable. We can find them in every sentence when we read, write, speak or listen. Grammar in English is simply the rules that people follow when they use this language. Grammar is necessary to express precise meaning in discourse. It ties closely into vocabulary in learning and using the foreign language. Furthermore, grammar learning can evolve from the learning of chunks of language. Talking about something meaningful with the child can be useful way to introduce new grammar. And more crucially, grammar can be taught without technical labels. Grammar indeed play a vital role in language learning, especially in the early stages of learning process. Mastering of grammar will help learners improve their writing, speaking or even better understanding in reading and listening skills. Nevertheless, though the benefits of grammar bring back, the majority of people still think that grammar is boring and difficult to learn. It is important to keep the needs and interests of young learners at heart. Furthermore, children learn very differently and process information in a very different way to adults, so grammar lesson ought to reflect this. In the most basic sense, younger learners differ from adults in the motivation they learn new language. Adults are choosing to be in the lesson, they need to pass an exam, and we might say that adults tend to be intrinsically motivated. Children, on the other hand, learn through playing activities and joyful environment to trigger their language part of developing brain rather studying intensively. As a teacher, making grammar lesson more interesting to learners, especially to young children, is important and effective to teach them a new language. First, we need to understand the language development of typical English-speaking child. These language development are including six weeks cooing; six months babbling; eight months intonation patterns; 12-15 months children can say single words; 18 months can speak two-word utterances, use simple negatives or simple questions; 21 months can speak three-word utterances; two years inflections; three years children can use adult-type negative or adult-type questions; three and half years children can use adult-type inflections; and ten years children can use adult-type grammar. Second, we should go through grammar teaching techniques. There are typically three ways of teaching grammar. First, noticing such as listen and notice, presentation of new language with puppets. Second, structuring such as questionnaires, survey and quizzes, information gap activities, helping hands, drills and chants. Third, proceduralizing such as polar animal description re-visited, and dictogloss. Furthermore, there are seven techniques of teaching grammar in child-friendly grammar to young learners. The first one is presenting the grammatical structure in a child’s context with humor. Second is practicing the grammatical structure. Third is drawing and writing on the board. Fourth is learning grammar through story telling. Kids love stories and narrative play. Those of stories and books present authentic language in context, and they usually present lots of visual support to match the text and often repetitive. Fifth is learning grammar through songs and chants. This is because they are repetitive, which is the key elements in the developing brain. Sixth is learning grammar via rhymes and poems. And final technique is total physical response. That is if a student volunteers something in the first language or in what they can manage of the foreign language, the teacher can respond in the foreign language by offering a fuller or more correct way of saying it. For example: student says “cat, mouse”, then teacher can say “Yes. The cat is racing the mouse”. Briefly, teaching students grammar in English needs certain techniques to suit each one and each group, especially young learners. Finally, teaching grammar to young learners need further enthusiasm and passion from teachers. Indeed, learners will feel the energy that teacher bring into the class, then they feel more inspiration and excitement to learn and go through it. Grammar in English is more different compared to other parts in English, and teaching this part needs further effort from teachers. This helps learners easy to learn and remember the rules which they have learned in the class. Both teachers and learners benefit from this positive and exciting environment. In conclusion, teaching grammar is necessary to students, even young learners, when they study English as second language. However, teachers should research the fundamental needs from learners, the different purpose of learners, and the features of grammar in order to apply suitable techniques to each group of students. Moreover, teachers can turn into a boring grammar class by showing their energy in the class and doing more activities that bring students more active and involve in.