TEFL Effingham Kansas

Learning grammar should focus on four components; listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Focusing on listening and speaking are important in helping to enhance the learners overall communicative skills. While reading and writing do the same they also take the experiences gained from those skills and allow you to share them with others. In order to make the most out of your experience with learning grammar, these four aspects should be incorporated. In order to get a well-rounded understanding of the language all sides must be considered. This much may seem obvious. Once this is understood you need to choose which approach you will take in learning grammar. Some teachers believe that learning the rules and regulations of the language can give insight in to how to construct proper sentences, thus expanding your english skills. Other teachers say that it is best to leave rules out of the equation and via drill and repetition allow students to develop the naturalness to a language. Mimicking the way native english speakers learn english. I trust that to get the most out of an english grammar class you must not have excess or deficiency in either method. Both styles of learning (and likewise teaching) grammar have their pros and cons. Here I will highlight the benefits of both methods and explain how combining the two can offer more to students. When someone in learning english as a second language they already have a concept of sentence structures, of subjects and objects, nouns, verbs, etc. Perhaps not exactly how we understanding them, but for example the idea of running is not new to them – classifying it as a verb may be new, but they can easily understand that verbs are action words; thus things like running, walking, and driving are common vocabulary words for beginners learning about verbs. As somebody who is already familiar with these concepts it might be easier to know the rules for speaking, writing, and reading english. Comparing what we are learning to something we already know is a common way to learn. There are other times in english when it is simply easier to know a rule. For example, a student who is confused with when you add –s versus –es might be relived to find out that –es is only applicable to words ending in o, x, ss, ch, etc. In other words, rules can sometime organize your learning. On the other hand, learning proper grammar from listening, using repetition and drills, is a great way to work on becoming more spontaneous with the language. If a person has to reflect on the structure of a tense every time they want to make a sentence it will come across as mechanical. With the natural approach (that is, without most rules) learners will develop a sort of reaction within the language. They will allow themselves to speak without over thinking and to make mistakes more naturally that can then be corrected. Along with the idea of gaining spontaneity from this approach comes the notion of the rhythm of the english language. With this approach of learning grammar listening is a very large component. Not necessarily more important, but there is more emphasis then there ordinarily would be. This can allow learners to develop the rhythm of the language that will help them with their speaking skills. In conclusion I would like to reiterate the importance of combining both an ‘academic' and ‘natural' approach when teaching grammar. Arguably, grammar is the most taught aspect of learning english and for this reason should cover a wise basis of learning.