Page 130 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Teaching Grammar and Vocabulary

Classroom Insight: Class Surveys
When focusing on grammar with her YLs, encourages the pupils to report the results of
Tina often uses a variety of class surveys. the survey, for example: four pupils like ba-
With younger learners, the surveys are usu- nanas, two like oranges and one likes cher-
ally small-scale, the task may be to survey as ries.With older pupils, the survey task and the
few as five school friends on a certain topic. language can be more complex (e.g. ‘How of-
For example, when talking about food, the ten do you have (cereals, fruit, bread and but-
survey question may be ‘Do you like (apples, ter, a toast etc.) for breakfast?’). Learners in
bananas, oranges, cherries)?’ – ‘Yes I do./No, higher levels are also encouraged to prepare
I don’t.’ Before the survey, Tina uses a well- a written report and a full presentation of re-
known tune and rhythm to drill the commu- sults. Here Tina provides them with a range of
nication pattern. Then she gives out tables for useful chunks (‘The survey shows that ...,’ ‘As
the pupils to fill in the results. She also always we can see from the table,...’).

Sara
Tim
Jan
Ema
Kristina
Images by vector4stock on Freepik

Reflection Point
1. What is your attitude towards teaching grammar to YLs?
2. Do you agree with the following statement ‘Grammar is too difficult for YLs
so we should not teach it’?
3. Watch a video in which the presenter describes a grammar game for teach-
ing the present continuous. Discuss how effective games are for develop-
ing YLs’ grammar competence.

Key Takeaways
• Vocabulary should always be developed and learnt in rich contexts.
• There are clear benefits in using the noticing approach to teaching gram-
mar.
• Teachers can help their students to enhance long-term memory connec-
tions by encouraging them to use vocabulary learning strategies.
• In the YL classroom, grammar and vocabulary are best taught and learnt
in combination.

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