Re: (teach) English Grammar

Ria Smit wrote:

May I point out two errors in your message Russ.
1.  There are no grammar questions in any of the national or
provincial exams.  I have old papers and I can vouch for that.  There
is a lot of usage, that is filling in the correct word, but that is
not a grammar question.  A grammar question asks you to change these
verbs to adverbs or other similar exercises.

My comment:

I disagree completely. Grammar terms might not be needed for the test but why shouldn't they be mentioned in English when students I have taught know the names of different grammar trams in Chinese but not in English? I don't speak Chinese very well and certainly not in class so if the answer is in Chinese how will I know they are correct or not?

I have also seen past papers for TEM 4 where there are sentences that need the student to do multiple choice questions where they are in fact choosing an appropriate tense from 4 given choices. Isn't that a grammar in use question? I have also seen questions where nouns, adjectives or adverbs have to be chosen. Surely basic grammar knowledge is needed for this?

There also questions where sentences written in the active voice have to be rewritten in the pasive and vice versa. Won't grammar knowledge help the student understand what is going on and why? Maybe not but you'd have to persuade me on that point.

Ria then wrote:

Therefore, actual grammar and terminology is not needed by the
students.  If they speak the language in every lesson they will know
the fill in answers easily.

My comment:

A big 'if' in some Chinese teachers lessons where English grammar is explained in Chinese all too often. If this was all so easy I wonder why written papers for IELTS exams are so full of basic grammar mistakes? Grammar in use is needed to be explained much more.

Ria wrote:

2. I train teachers every summer, and the only thing that they want to know how to teach is grammar and vocabulary, because that is all they see a reason for knowing.  They really teach only grammar and
vocabulary.  I have even been told that there is not time to do the
exercises in the text book because the grammar takes up so much time.
They are usually shocked when I tell them that I will not train them
how to teach either grammar or vocabulary.

These are junior high school teachers and I just tell them to teach
the book, teach what is in the book.  Don't teach what is not in the
book.  (Horror, horror!)

My comment:

Don't they want to know how to teach grammar as they know it's gonna be on the test? Aren't some of the exercises in the textbooks grammar comprehension gap fills? I'll stick with what I know to be true from my own experience of teaching in China, that grammar is taught as it is 'knowledge' that the Chinese prize so highly but they need to be taught how to use the grammar appropriately in different contexts. That is part of what I do, it is not everything but I still believe it is important. It is those students who know how to use the grammar well that score more highly in exams, both written and spoken; mine and others.

Russ Taylor