Module 5: Ways of Presenting Grammar
As a new teacher I would be more inclined to teach grammar deductively. I believe this strategy would be best considering my low comfort level with grammar rules. I might know instinctively how to write or speak grammatically correct texts and phrases. However teaching grammar principles would require on my part more familiarity with the rules and vocabulary of grammar to become a content expert for the students. If using an inductive approach I feel because of lack of experience I could get confused in guiding learners to achieve an accurate formulation of the rule.
One of the advantages of a deductive approach is it gets straight to the point. This appeals to my preferred teaching style since I'm not big on lectures. I prefer to keep my explanations clear and concise and then have lots of practice time for the students. I do believe adult learners need to perform the task in order to learn rather than listen to an instructor go on and on. One of the reasons I would hesitate to choose teaching grammar inductively is because of the time taken to work out a rule takes away from practicing communication skills.
I can understand if teaching only with the "chalk-and-talk" approach as cited by S. Thornbury lesson plans can become dull and boring. This type of approach might not appeal to everyone's learning style either, for example as in young students. How can I encourage myself to be more comfortable with the inductive strategy? I myself am a visual learner. S. Thornbury's sample lesson of teaching the present simple using realia (Beginners) appealed to my senses. I like the idea of using objects and keeping students interests high by using detective work as the activity. This seems like a fun activity, which focuses on the meaning rather than the form of the rule making it less dry as a lesson. When trying a new approach I would like to get feedback from the learners and act accordingly to their opinions on how the lesson went. Learning from experience and building confidence I would like to plan lessons using a generative situation. I like that this type of presentation offers a wide variety of visual media. If you don't have diversity in your lesson plans you risk tuning people out and you might even get bored by not challenging yourself from time to time.
Hi Josanne,
ReplyDeleteI think that your being honest with yourself about your strengths and hesitations will serve your future students well. Understanding the limits of our abilities (as in grammar) gives us a please to begin our own learning which is an important model to show our students.
You also make a good point about time limitations within the course. I agree that some of the deductive teaching strategies lend themselves better for moving through content that needs to be covered.
I do, however, feel that some parts of inductive teaching add depth and meaning to the language learning experience. I believe that in most classrooms components from both methods will work their way into the course, even if it happenes unintentionally.
Tanya