Re: (teach) how helpful is grammar instruction?

For the vast majority of the foreign teachers in China, teaching oral English will be the primary activity.  This class at the university level can be set up so that a teacher meets with students several times a week over a semester, but usually is established so that students meet just one or two class periods a week.  Some situations allow the university to place a teacher in classes all at the same year of study and the same major, but others regroup students into elective courses where all majors and levels show up.
 
Secondly, the classes are normally established with anywhere from 30 to 90 students.  Lets suppose you are lucky and have a class of 30 students.  If you can work easily with small groups, say 5 students to a group, you can establish a situation where each person might have about 7 minutes of speaking, leaving organizational time and teacher interruptions.  More than likely some students will practice speaking 12 to 14 minutes while others will have about 2 to 4 minutes. 
 
Very rarely does the teacher see a group of students for more than two semesters and therefore all planning must encompass the idea that what ever can be taught must be done in a very short period of time and infrequent contact.  Compound this situation with the fact that a teacher might have been assigned 7 to 14 different groups of students each semester.
 
Occassionally some grammar points and clarification can be introduced or interjected, but the vast amount of time must be spent on activities to foster as much speaking and interaction as possible.  As the level of competence in a language increases then grammar has to be presented and discussed, but does it need to be the foreign language teacher? 
 
I think the planning and execution of an oral English class must be considered as a part of a larger team approach and not that the Foreign teacher will be the only player.  The Chinese English teachers do spend many hours of instruction on grammar, not all of which is done correctly.  They also spend many hours making sure that students can provide the correct answer for test questions where most Foreign teachers would have trouble finding one specific answer.  Many times I've been asked by Chinese teachers of English to clarify what answer would be best when they have debated for hours whether or not the test preparer's answers are correct.  I've been told that even though I might indicate that more than one answer would be appropriate, they know the test makers will require just the CORRECT answer to be selected.
 
So for most new members to get down to work in an oral English class, I think we should stress ideas that foster larger periods of time of student talking.  Grammar instruction is appropriate as the teacher sees a common issue or a frequent missuse, but spending too much time in teacher talk takes aware time for student interactions.
 
If this discussion is predominately interested in applying the grammar instruction to writing classes, then I can see more time spent in grammar issues when large numbers of students have common problems.
 
My opinion is that grammar instruction is helpful and some situations needs to be more evident than in others.  However, the vast amount of time in a classroom with a Foreign teacher needs to be on other activities, especially pushing for all communication to be done in English.  Getting students to think in the language rather than translating needs much more time each day.


john    
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