Knowledge Transfer Sharing

Grammar Teaching Resources for School Teachers

Dr Lee Fung King Jackie

Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies

24 May 2016

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Should grammar be taught?

Krashen (1993) argues that acquisition only takes place when learners are exposed to comprehensible input and that learning is limited to a few simple rules.

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Should grammar be taught?

In ‘natural setting’ … the amount of time and motivation devoted to learning is so great that there is no necessity for conscious planning of the learning process … However, in a formal course of study, there is very much less time available, and often less motivation, which means that learning time has to be organised for optimum efficiency.

(Ur, 1988: 5)

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Presentation/Practice of Grammar Items

Past tense

An Easy

Approach

to English

Grammar (2001)

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Language

Practice

Language Input Language Output

Decontextualised

isolated sentences;

Grammar rules

Homogeneous, mechanical

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Knowledge Transfer Project: Grammar Teaching Resources

for School Teachers (2015)

Aims:

1. To give BEd(EL) students opportunities to apply their pedagogical learning at IEd to real practice

2. To provide useful grammar teaching resources for school teachers

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Project Team

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Participants

• 9 Year 4 (final year) BEd (English Language ) students

• 6 primary; 3 secondary

• Place of birth: 4 born in Hong Kong, 4 in China, 1 in Korea

• No of years living in HK: 3 for 4 yrs; 6 for 19-24 years

• Mother tongue: 6 Cantonese; 2 Mandarin; 1 Korean

• Field Experience: 6 full semester; 3 had two teaching practicums of shorter periods

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Methodology

• 12 Meetings and 2 tryout lessons were conducted.

• 1st meeting:

– completed a questionnaire about student teachers’ views on grammar teaching and learning

– Followed by a group interview

– Selected grammar topics for lesson planning and materials development

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• 2nd - 12th meetings:

– Took turns to present lesson plans and teaching materials;

– Others gave comments;

– Made revisions and presented the revised plans again for further comments.

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• Presented lesson plan and teaching materials

• Received comments from team members.

Revised the plan and teaching materials

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• 12th meeting:

– completed a questionnaire about participants’ learning in the project

– Followed by a group interview to learn about their learning in depth

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Pre-project Questionnaire 1. Do you think that grammar should be taught in schools?

2. Did you like the grammar teaching methodology used by your own English teachers at the primary and secondary levels? Will you follow their teaching approach? Why or why not?

3. What did you observe about grammar teaching in your placement school(s) during the FE?

4. What problems related to grammar teaching did you come across during the FE?

5. What are your comments about the grammar textbooks used in Hong Kong?

6. How should grammar be taught?

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Summary

1. Do you think that grammar should be

taught in schools?

Yes.

• For communication, make meaning

• Know the norms

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Summary

2. Did you like the grammar teaching

methodology used by your own English

teachers at the primary and secondary levels?

• Not satisfied – mechanical, repetitive, boring

• Form-focused

• Teacher-centred

• Might work for able students, but didn’t work for less

able students

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Summary 3. What did you observe about grammar teaching in your placement school(s) during the FE? • Similar to how they learnt grammar in school –

traditional, form-focused, boring, mechanical, repetitive

• Time is a major factor – tight schedule, many grammar items to teach

• Use traditional method – easy for classroom management

• Exam-oriented • Meaning ignored

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Summary

4. What problems related to grammar teaching did you come across during the FE?

• Designing appropriate and interesting contexts and activities

• Metalanguage needed

• 1st language influence (e.g. my vs mine)

• Students’ cognitive development

• Time

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Summary

5. What are your comments about the grammar textbooks used in Hong Kong?

• Form-focused

• Not related to students’ daily lives, not authentic

• No context or inappropriate context

• Mainly written practice; oral practice lacking

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Summary

6. How should grammar be taught?

• Provide appropriate contexts and inputs

• Deductive and inductive

• Fun

• Meaning-focused

• Application for communication

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What does grammar teaching involve?

1. Grammar is a means to an end, but not an end.

2. Grammar teaching needs to be integrated into the teaching of speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills.

3. Grammar needs to be taught through engaging learners in meaningful and motivating activities.

4. Show how grammar is a resource for making and exchanging meanings in context.

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Some Pedagogical Suggestions 1. Encourage learners to explore the relationship between form,

meaning and use.

2. Provide opportunities to explore the relationship between grammatical choices and discoursal contexts.

3. Use appropriate input and personalise teaching materials.

4. Use heterogeneous, open-ended exercises (Ur, 2009).

5. Use student-centred self-discovery activities.

6. Use songs, video clips and games.

7. Build on students’ prior knowledge and cater to their learning needs and interests.

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http://ec-concord.ied.edu.hk/grammar/

Grammar Teaching Resources for School Teachers

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Comparatives Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Present tense Junior Primary

Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Prepositions Junior Primary

Senior Primary

Present progressive Junior Primary

Junior Secondary

Adjectives for countries Junior Primary

Senior Primary

Present perfect and past tense Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Few & little Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Type 1 Conditional Junior Secondary

Subject-verb agreement Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Type 2 Conditional Junior Secondary

Relative clause Junior Secondary

Modal verb + have + past participle Senior Secondary

Try-out lessons

• AOG Hebron Secondary School – Type I Conditional – Type 2 Conditional (May 2015)

• Sarasas Ektra School, Bangkok – Subject-verb Agreement – Relative Clause – Talk for Thai teachers on ‘Making grammar

instruction more effective – What should teachers be aware of?’ (June 2015)

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AOG Hebron Secondary School

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Type 1 Conditional Type 2 Conditional

Post-lesson meeting with school teachers

Sarasas Ektra School, Bangkok

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Subject-verb agreement Relative clause

Lesson Observation Modal verbs Past tense

School Tryout

Talk: Making grammar instruction more effective – What should teachers be aware of?

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HK Sharing Session

• For school teachers

• For IEd staff and students

• Held in July 2016

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Adjectives of countries

LI, Man Yee Karena The Hong Kong Institute of Education

How I used to learn It…

Tomorrow

we are going

to have a

dictation.

Copy the

table 1o

times.

Junior primary

Task: My Dream Food Court

Comprehensible input

Noticing

-n / -an / -ian

-ish -ese Others

Mexico Mexican

BritainBritish China Chinese Thailand Thai

Italy Italian Sweden Swedish

Japan Japanese

France French

+ =

Consolidation: Memory matching game

Information gap

My Dream Food Court-Yummy Food

Court

Korean Food

Kimchi

Brainstorming and shared writing

Task: My Dream Food Court

1. Food court is an authentic and everyday context. 2. The concept of suffix is explained graphically through a flower and a leaf, and the animation of Pokemon. 3. The writing task can facilitate students' creativity and imagination.

Senior primary

Task: Travel brochures

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtVJdrIydt0&feature=youtu.be

Comprehensible input

Noticing Noticing

Consolidation: Memory matching game

Intermediate

Intermediate

Advanced

Information gap

Information gap

A travel brochure may have:

Maps, photos/pictures

Headings and sub-headings

paragraphs

bulleted lists

• Organized?

• Easy to read?

• Boring?

• Pictures?

• Country names and adjectives?

Korean

Korea Food:

Korea food,

such as kimchi,

is hot since

Korea people

like eating spicy

food. Korea

Stone Pot :It is a

famous Korea

dish. There are

rice, vegetables,

beef and eggs.

It is yummy!

Korea Traditional Clothing :The Korean traditional dress is beautiful and colorful. It is made up of a blouse, a jacket and a skirt. The Korea people in the past wore it during Korea festivals.

Korea

Korean Food

Korean food, such as kimchi, is hot since Korean people like eating spicy food.

Korean Stone Pot

It is a famous Korean dish. There are rice, vegetables, beef and eggs. It is yummy!

Korean Traditional

Clothing The Korean traditional dress is beautiful and colorful. It is made up of a blouse, a jacket and a skirt. The Korean people in the past wore it during Korean festivals.

Korea

Korean Food

Kimchi

Brainstorming and shared writing

1. Travel brochures are authentic texts. 2. Use the comprehensible input of an appealing and informative video about what people eat in different countries for breakfast, lunch in school and in McDonald's. 3. To consolidate their learning, students form groups to play card memory games of different levels – their different learning abilities can be catered for.

Teaching ‘few’ and ‘little’

Traditional method:

Fill in the following blanks with ‘few’ or ‘little’.

1. I have _______ apples. Let’s buy some.

2. There is ______ water. Go to get some.

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Chau Ka Ying

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I have little milk.

I want more milk.

I have few teeth .

I want more teeth.

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little ? few ?

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Once upon a time, there was a naughty boy called Tom. He didn’t go to school. He played all the time.

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One day, he saw a beautiful lamp. He kicked it. A fairy came out of the lamp.

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‘I can give you wishes,’ the fairy said.

Tom was very happy and excited.

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I have little chocolate,’ Tom said.

‘So you want more chocolate, right?’ the fairy asked.

‘Yes, I want more chocolate.’

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Tom said, ‘I have few toys. I need to share them with my brothers,’ he added.

‘So you want more toys, right?’ the fairy asked.

‘Yes, I want more toys.’

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Tom said, ‘I have few candies. I feel sad, ’ he complained.

‘So you want more candies, right?’ the fairy replied.

‘Yes, I want more candies,’ he said.

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Then Tom thought of a new idea. ‘I have few wishes!’ he said. ‘So you want more wishes, right?’ the fairy asked. ‘Yes, I want more wishes!’ he said. ‘You are such a greedy boy. I will not give you any wishes!’ the fairy said unhappily.

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What did Tom want more? Write down the things he wanted more.

1. chocolate

2. toys

3. candies

4. wishes

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Countable noun Uncountable noun

toys chocolate

candies

wishes

The things can be classified into two groups. Can you put them into the correct box?

1. chocolate 2. toys

3. candies 4. wishes

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I have few toys.

I have few candies. I have little chocolate.

I have few wishes.

little ? few ?

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I have few toys.

I have few candies . I have little chocolate.

I have few wishes

little

few

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countable nouns

uncountable nouns

Few & Little – Make wishes

Dialogue writing :

One day you found that beautiful lamp.

You picked it up. The fairy appeared

again. You are going to make some

wishes. Write a dialogue between you

and the fairy. You can draw pictures.

You may add your own ideas to make

your story interesting.

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• Use a heterogeneous, open-ended exercise. • Personalise the learning activity. • Integrate the four skills.

Conditional Type 2 Mak Pui Yi

Level of students: Junior secondary

• Topic: Imagination

Learning objectives:

At the end of this unit, students should be able to:

• identify the form of conditional sentence Type 2

• use conditional sentence Type 2 to talk about imaginary situations

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What would you do if you had a million dollars?

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Comprehensible input

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from Teacher

What about you?

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

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If I had a million dollars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtV6h4g9eYw

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If I had a million dollars

If I ____ a million dollars (If I _____ a million dollars)

_____ ____ you a house (I ____ _____ you a house)

If I ____ a million dollars (If I ____ a million dollars)

____ ____ you furniture for your house

Maybe a nice chesterfield or an ottoman

If I _____ a million dollars (If I ____ a million dollars)

____ ____ you a K-Car, a nice Reliant automobile

If I _____ a million dollars, ____ ____ your love.

1st stanza

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Writing/Speaking Activity

If I had a million dollars, I would …

If I had ten thousand dollars, I would …

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What would you do if you were one of the characters in Harry Potter?

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What would you do if you had a magic wand?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHPqO0UnaW8 (0’00’’-0’40’’)

If I had a magic wand, I would…

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turn paper into banknotes.

What would you do if you had the following magic instruments?

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broomstick

invisibility cloak

time turner owl

The Water Cycle – Renee Wong

Listen to the song “ Water Cycle”.

What grammar point would you teach with

this song?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWb4KlM2

vts

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The Water Cycle

Takes the water and moves it

Up and Down and all around the Earth

Evaporation comes

When the heat from the Sun

Warms up all the groundwater

Then it turns to water vapour

Condensation takes over

It goes up to the clouds

Water vapour cools down

And it changes to a liquid, now

Precipitation happens

When the drops get big

It falls like Rain, Snow, Sleet, and Hail upon my head

I know it's the water cycle happening again

Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation

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Language across

the curriculum

Writing Stage – Write a song/poem

T tells students to form groups of four

and that they will compose a song about

a science topic they have learnt in the IS

lessons (e.g. photosynthesis) using a

melody that they find suitable.

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School Students’ Feedback – Do you like the grammar lesson today? Which activity in the lesson do you like most? Why?

More funny. Not just learning the things on textbook.

I think it is very interesting and fun. We have a lot of special activities to learn tense (e.g. song and create song).

Use a song and play some games with me.

今天有視頻和歌曲， 並且同桌互相合作

Yes. We share our ideas with other classmates.

Yes, it is more interesting than just talk about grammar in the lessons.

I like the grammar lesson today because it different from other grammar lessons. We can learn about grammar and human body at the same time.

Yes. I like the "dream school" because I want to have Sarasas Ektra School change everything that I'm have dream (relative clauses).

Make some sentences with "if…I would..." It is because I can imagine many interesting things.

If I was Harry Potter, because I like thinking some impossible things.

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Teachers’ feedback

I really appreciate the choices of the materials. The idea of using Harry Potter is very good. Students may like it very much.

Wow! It’s a useful website for teachers! I’ll definitely introduce it to my colleagues.

Helpful website with a lot of grammar teaching resources. I love it!

Helpful materials for grammar teaching! Great topic arrangements and useful content!

I appreciate the great effort of your team put into the designing and creating of the grammar teaching resources. Well done! Nice reminders I got for teaching grammar more purposefully.

Very creative design of the lessons

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Student Teachers’ Reflections

• KC: I have learnt how to design different learning materials and activities for different levels of students. I have also learnt how to organize the lesson plan in a way that students can follow easily and how to present the grammar objectives clearly. I have also gained lots of inspiration from the sharing of the student teachers.

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Student Teachers’ Reflections

• CL: I learned a lot from my peers about how to include creative ideas through songs and videos. I also benefit from modifying my own lesson plan with the comments from my peers.

• KL: The professional exchange among peers and between the project leader and us has reminded me of the importance of being student-oriented when planning the lessons. I learnt a lot about how to design authentic contexts and meaning-driven lesson plans.

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Student Teachers’ Reflections

• RW: The project benefits me in terms of how to conduct professional discussions and the ways to modify lesson plans, e.g. provide an interesting context, and simplify instructions for different types of learners.

• WM: This project brought me some innovative ideas and activities to teach grammar and raised my awareness of relating grammar to daily experience.

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http://ec-concord.ied.edu.hk/grammar/

Grammar Teaching Resources for School Teachers

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Grammar Teaching in Language Education (2016)

• Project Leader: Dr Lee Fung King Jackie

• Team members: 6 HKIEd BEd(English Language) Year 4 students

1. Au Lai Yee Naomi

2. Jiang Zhengxin, Janet

3. Mak Tin Lun, Colin

4. Poon Ka Chun, Jason

5. Yeung Ching Yee, Annie

6. Siu Ka Ka, Katy

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Articles

Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Phrasal verbs

Senior Primary

Imperatives

Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Modal verbs

Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Reported speech

Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Present perfect

Senior Primary

Gerunds and infinitives

Senior Primary

Junior Secondary

Pronouns (subject, object,

possessive)

Primary

Passive voice

Senior Primary

Junior Secondary