2. Stages in teaching grammar

They used to single out 3 main stages in the process of teaching grammar: presentation – practice – production (PPP model). More important nowadays is considered MMM model (meeting the new language – manipulating the language and making language one’s own). This change signifies turn to mainly inductive teaching: first learners observe (it is called guided noticing), then hypothesize and then experiment with the language. A grammar item is introduced in meaningful context, in communication. The teacher supplies a lot of examples, uses a picture or two pictures (e.g. What has changed?), some realia (Puts some objects on the table, asks children to close their eyes and quickly moves something on the table. Children are to guess what she has moved), personalizing (writes the names of five people on the blackboard and tells the class about each of them using Present Perfect with just, e.g. My son has just started school, my friend Nina has just gone to Greece on holiday etc), elicits sentences with the structure and asks learners to perform some actions by analogy (tells the class what she has done this morning and then asks individual learners this question, gradually elicitating present perfect sentences), asks to imitate some examples, guess and recognize some regularity themselves, i.e. to formulate the rule. This inductive way is most effective for beginners or when we deal with grammar items that have counterparts in learners’ native languages. It has both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages: it makes learners active thinkers and compare grammar items in both languages, and help learners understand their native language better. Disadvantages: it takes much time, besides the teacher should be sure that all learners understand the rule correctly.

Certainly, introduction can be performed in the deductive way, when after the presentation the teacher formulates the rule herself, draws a time line, gives an algorithm, a table, a formula etc and then gives more examples to illustrate it. This way is more appropriate for intermediate and advanced learners with difficult grammar items specific for the target language only. Advantages: saves time, creates conditions for more exact understanding by all the learners and can help to overcome mother tongue interference. Disadvantages: the rule and examples have nothing to do with learners’ experiences; learners are usually passive and forget the rule easier and sooner than in the former case.

Nevertheless, at the first stage the learners get acquainted with new grammar material and perform actions according to the speech pattern. The second phase is called practice in stereotyped situations when a new grammar item is practiced at phrase/ sentence level. The third phase presupposes using the new item in various utterances at the text level in various situations. The second and third stages embrace a number of activities.

2. A set of activities for developing grammar competence

Receptive and receptive-reproductive semi-controlled activities and some non-communicative drills make up a system of activities used for developing grammar competence.

Receptive activities include:

• Recognition activities (e.g. read the text of the activity given below. Copy out the numbers of sentences comprising the Perfect Infinitive Passive.)

• Differentiation activities (e.g. Listen to some questions and possible answers. Decide if the verb forms in bold type are the same or different/ 1. Where are the children? a)They must have gone to the lake; b) They have gone to the lake (different)

• Identification activities (Read the sentences comprising various forms of the Infinitive. Put the numbers of sentences into the table below

	Active	Passive
Simple
Progressive
Perfect

• Matching (e.g. the structure to the function)

• Multiple choice according to the context (e.g. Read an e-mail message from your American friend Bill Clarke. But the message looks like a puzzle: almost each verb I it has two or three variants for you to choose from. Solve the puzzle by copying out the correct verb form according to the context.)

• Checking comprehension of grammar structures (by multiple choice, by identifying the function, interpreting the meaning, e.g. Read the sentences and say which driver is more careful. The car stopped when the lights changed. The car was stopping when the lights were changing.)

Receptive-reproductive activities

• Imitation (e.g. Agree with me if I am right. Say “You are right!” and repeat the true statement or “I’m afraid you aren’t right” if the statement is false. Do not repeat the false statement.)

• Substitution activity

• Question and answering activity

• Transformation activity

• Completing sentences

• Combining sentences

• Using the grammar item in your own sentence in a situation

• Using a grammar item in your own utterance according to the situation