More grammar with a twist
Jono Ryan
Michael’s post on ‘Grammar with a twist’ has been one of my favourites so far. The issue was how to effectively teach grammar without losing half the class or making it pointless or meaningless.
My underlying belief is that there is still a place for the succinct explanation of grammar—even an old-school transformation exercise now and then—but that too often grammar activities feel too abstract and unconnected from real communication. Many learners don't respond well to them. They do appeal to a certain type of mind, but not to many others.
Michael’s blog got me thinking about my own experience of grammar activities with a twist, and especially my experience using books by Scott Thornbury, Uncovering Grammar (Thornbury, 2001), and Nick Hall and John Shepheard, The Anti-Grammar Grammar Book (Hall & Shepheard, 1991) [republished in 2008 by ELB Publishing], both of which I go back to repeatedly. Both present approaches in which the learner works to discover the rule to complete the task. The learner has some well selected examples of language, a clear context for the use of the language, and the activity poses a puzzle for them to work through. I’ll describe one from each.
From Hall and Shepheard, there's an activity called Deadly Mistake, designed for intermediate to advanced learners (p. 115 for the photocopiable student handout; pp. 39-40 for the teacher instructions and answers). The objective is to work through uses of four present tenses (simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous). It's not the kind of activity for the initial teaching of any of these tenses, but one for revisiting them collectively and seeing how they work in relation to each other.
The students receive a handout which has a line drawing of the aftermath of an accident in a bathroom. Around this are speech bubbles representing 20 different comments or exchanges by people on the scene. Each is a short and snappy comment about the image, utilizing one of the present tenses, and often containing errors (e.g. ‘You can’t go inside—they take photographs now’).
In teams, students are asked to decide which sentences contain errors (e.g. ‘They have this apartment since 1987.’) or to choose between options presented in a speech bubble (e.g. ‘This is the first time I saw/have seen so much blood.’). Each team then takes turns to select a speech bubble and correct the error or identify the correct option. Points are given based on correct answers.
When I've used this activity, groups move through some of the 20 questions quite quickly—they’re rightly confident on some. This leaves the harder questions. And so as the game progresses, there is more and more intense focus on the more difficult ones. It's a puzzle that regularly leads to ‘uh-huh’ moments. And, for me, it’s the uh-huh moment that justifies grammar activities at the higher levels.
Thornbury’s book is a little different and has much more information for the teacher explaining the approach of the book. Again, because I like puzzles, the activity I have used most often is one called Physical Distance (pp. 88-89). It's a simple one-page photocopiable activity. There are four line drawings involving two newly shipwrecked sailors on a tiny island alongside one other sailor from a shipwreck 20 years earlier. The four pictures show the same scene, but each one has a slight variation in either place or time. First, students have to match the speech bubble that goes with each picture and then each picture, adapt 3 sentences to the context. The speech bubbles all contain reported speech (e.g. ‘He said he has lived there for 20 years’.)
Simple? In terms of concepts and instruction, yes, it's very simple, and in terms of meaning, for most learners, it is very transparent. But it generates some great learning. The grammar for focus is on the sensitivity of English reported speech to distance in place and time, including the way tenses and adverbials (here/there, ago/previously) change.
What’s true of both of these tasks in my experience is that students fully engage with them. They complete a puzzle-like activity, where the materials provide clear context, and they routinely experience those uh-huh moments, where what they learn will most probably stick with them.
Hall, N., & Shepheard, J. (1991). The anti-grammar grammar book. Longman.
Thornbury, S. (2001). Uncovering grammar. MacMillan Heinemann.