Grammar in the classroom (reflection text)

Rykkinn skole, Bærum
Three of the four participants teach a variation of 8-, 9- and 10^th grade English, while one teaches in-depth English only.

Grammar in the classroom

I recently initiated a meeting for the English teachers at my workplace in accordance with the study plan. The school`s principal let me use an hour out of the mandatory weekly two-hour meeting (“fellestid”), which was welcoming since my two previously initiated English-meetings, from last year, ended up being done outside of regular school hours. Quite to my surprise, the topic grammar in the classroom, immediately sparked an interest during lunch before the meeting. It turned out one of my colleagues always has a lot of explicit grammar teachings in her classes, while another teaches absolutely none. This gap in practice was hopefully going to lead to a fruitful discussion, if not a heated debate. My colleagues seemed curious getting insight into the do`s and don’ts of grammar-teaching. Unfortunately, research in this field, do not give clear black- and white answers, making a discussion about it even more relevant.

I started off my presentation by introducing chapter 11 in English for Teachers and Learners (EFTAL) and a few articles (“The Grammar Dilemma”, by Carmen Garrido Barra (Barra: 2013), “Grammar in communicative English teaching” by Hilde Hasselgård (Hasselgård), and Grammatikken I skolen – klar for en omkamp?” by Frøydis Hertberg (Hertberg, 2014)) as starting points. I briefly talked about the backdrop: that the English subject during the last decades has undergone a shift from mechanical language drills to an enhanced focus on communicative aspects. Our main aim is to enable our pupils to interact in real-life situations and increase their communicative competence. The question is: which implications does this have on grammar teaching? Is it necessary or not, and if it is, how should we teach it? I showed examples of both experts saying explicit grammar teaching is vital, and some (Tracy Terrell, Krashen etc) who claims that formal grammar instruction does not play an important role in developing language competence.

Furthermore, I talked about grammar typically being a challenge since it is often thought of as demotivating for reluctant Norwegian learners. I introduced the question: How can we keep motivation high while still facilitate grammar learning? And I brought up Stages, our school`s English coursebooks, and showed examples of how it integrates grammar in the chapters in a rather subtle manner. We all agreed that we were lucky to be using this rather than Key, Searching or Crossroads, which integrate grammar. My colleagues picked up on different elements from my presentation, but for the sake of clarity, let me mention three of them:

Firstly, one of the things I mentioned in the presentation was that Norwegians in upper-secondary often have great fluency in oral English, while continue to make the same mistakes over and over in written English (one of Hilde Hasselgårds points). One of my colleagues suggested gaming to be the reason for this. One colleague argued that accuracy (through improved grammar skills) in written English will become increasingly more important in the future, due to the steady growth of the English language in general and a more globalized Norway, business and culture-wise in particular. This simply calls for more focus on grammar. Accuracy, obviously, has to do with precision and communication.

Secondly, an important branch of the discussion revolved around motivation. Given that we only teach 8-10 graders English two hours each week, needless to say, we should keep those lessons as interesting and inspiring as possible. But to balance the fun and the serious/important is challenging. On this note, one claimed that it is simply a myth that grammar is abstract, difficult and demotivating. Rather, she found grammar to be appealing to their “logical, curious nature”, and that upper secondary is “the perfect time to learn it”. Not surprising, she also teach German. Come to think of it, it turned out all except one had some anecdote or vague memory of engaged pupils in our own grammar classes. We agreed that well-planned and well-executed grammar classes rank high among our best experiences teaching English.   

Thirdly, they picked up on using authentic texts when teaching grammar. We discussed which books we have used in the past, which we would like to use later this year (the school library has gotten about 20 new English novels this semester, the ideal length of such texts, before having a closer look on the authentic texts in Stages   

Our conclusion was all in all pretty much in line with Carmen Barra: that formal grammar instruction play an important role in increasing our pupils communicative competence, but that we should remember that grammar learning should be motivating and appropriate in terms of their level. In this regard we agreed that it is particularly important to implement adaptive learning (advanced learners typically get more out of grammar classes than reluctant learners according to Frøydis Hertberg), vary our methods, while requiring feedback from our pupils after classes. Post-it notes after grammar classes, thumb up/down/sideways or signs (that pupils hold up after sessions) are some ways to ensure that we get our messages across, and that the pupils all have a learning outcome in grammar classes.    

I really enjoy giving my co-workers, and leadership at my school, insight into my studies, and I felt that the meeting was a success ending on a positive note. It seemed that my colleagues thought of it as time well spent. I have pressed my boss that we should have these kinds of meetings more often. Due to the school-building (the different teams are located far away from each other) and our respective time-schedules, there is not an established routine for cooperation amongst the English-teachers at my workplace (the exception being sharing weekly plans and coordinating assessment). Being able to sit down and exchange ideas on a highly relevant topic like grammar was definitely in place, and at the end of the meeting we were even promised more scheduled English-meetings for the next semester. 

 

Sources:

Barra, Carmen Garrido (2013). The grammar dilemma, in English teaching professional, issue 88, September 2013.

Flognfeldt, M.E. & Lund, R.E “English for Teachers and Learners” (Cappelen Damm Akademisk, 2016)

Hasselgård, Hilde. Grammar in communicative English teaching (in Språk og Språkundervisning 1/01)

Hertberg, Frøydis (2014). Grammatikken i skolen – klart for en omkamp? (In Bedre skole nr. 2, 2014)