Teach English in Xuying Zhen - Liaocheng Shi

Imagine being a student who does not understand English and you walk into a classroom with a bunch of diagrams written on the board. Chances are, you will feel overwhelmed from the get go. Having been out of a classroom for over 20 years, beginning the grammar part of my ESL course was a bit overwhelming for me. Teaching grammar to ESL students is probably one of the toughest tasks I will undertake in a long time. I had to reach far into the depths of my brain to retrieve some of the grammar rules that had long been forgotten. Sure, I use the rules everyday but having to explain them to someone who doesn’t understand them will be a monumental task. My goal with this essay is to provide information on how I will teach grammar to ESL students in a creative and interesting manner. The most important thing to do is to be well prepared for the lessons. This requires a well thought out lesson plan that provides a map to take you smoothly through the entire lesson. My plan will use the inductive learning method which teaches grammar through a discovery process. The students will be allowed to discover how the rules function through different fun exercises and games. One interesting way that will help students learn without being boring and repetitive will be to show videos to explain word pairs that students might find confusing such as “which” and “what.” Making my lessons personal will be a better way of engaging the students. Some of the games or activities I use will allow students to draw on personal experiences. One of these activities might be to create a personal experience survey using words like “may” and “might.” I will have students use reading exercises that describe people doing something up to a certain period of time or doing something at a specific time in the past. Then, I will use pictures related to the reading exercise the students just did and ask the students questions about when the people did certain things. The students will use the answers to determine what tense of the verb is being used in each sentence. Using the same information in the reading material, I will have the students play different games or work in pairs to complete worksheets such as gap-fill that are interesting and fun to complete. We will play games where the students match the noun/pronoun – singular or plural - to the proper verb in the sentence in order to correctly make the noun/pronoun and verb agreement. The students will do question and answer games in pairs with one student asking a question and the other giving an answer in a question form so the students will understand the affirmative and negative aspects of the sentence. Students will be encouraged to create their own sentences or short stories emphasizing the topic we are studying that day. Working in groups, the students will then read their sentences or stories to the class. I will give feedback following the activity. This is where pairing stronger students with weaker ones can be very advantageous. Another thing I will do is to have my classroom a virtual English dictionary with labels on objects in the room such as the chairs, desk, door, etc. I will also have colorful pictures labeled with the name of the object posted all around the room so that the students will be surrounded by learning clues. The inductive teaching method allows the students to retain the grammar concepts they have learned in a fun and interesting way. I think this technique also makes a more positive impression on students’ memory than does a boring, repetitive lesson of just reviewing words. By using this method and these exercises I hope to make a good impression on my students and that they will enjoy and retain the information taught in the class.