Unit 2

Methods for Teaching EFL: Systems

Teaching Grammar (II)

 Index
Scheme 3

Key Ideas 4
2.1. Designing grammar-based lessons and activities 4
2.2. Effective grammar teaching. An eclectic
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approach to grammar 7
2.3. Teaching grammar through authentic texts,
stories, games and songs 11
2.4. Bibliographic References 19

In Depth 21

Test 23
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Teaching grammar (II)

Designing grammar based lessons and Eclectic Approach (combines different

actitivities approaches,techniques, methods)

Grammar-Translation
Syllabus Types of Method
Dimensions Syllabus Designs
Direct Method
Input

Process Audiolingual

Ouput
Forward Design Backward Design CLT
Syllabus
Central Design
Methodology

Learning
Outcomes

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Scheme

Unit 2. Scheme
3
 Key Ideas

2.1. Designing grammar-based lessons and

activities

Before teaching a language, we need to decide what linguistic content or input we

expect our students to achieve. For this reason, content should be chosen in advance
according to the age and level of the students and be organized into teachable and
learnable units following a progressive sequencing. The result of this process is
syllabus and the criteria to select the right syllabus relies on usefulness, simplicity,
teaching methods and authenticity. Therefore, the first step is input and once this
has been decided we move onto process concerning teaching methods, classroom
activities and material. Process mainly focuses on teacher’s methodology giving into
Methodology also from the students’ perspective which conveys the types of
activities chosen according to the teaching style.

Nowadays as we can see in the following figure, learning outcomes are represented
in terms of objectives or performances.
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Figure 1. Syllabus dimensions.

Curriculum design can start from input, process or output leading into the following
distinction: forward design, central design and backward design. The three designs
share the following form.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 Figure 2. The three dimensions common to the forward, the central and the backward design.

Forward design is based on the fact that before taking into account decisions related
to methodology, teachers should be aware of the contents they should teach.

Wiggins and McTighe (2006, p. 15) illustrate the process with the following example
of a forward design lesson plan:

 The teacher chooses a topic for a lesson (e.g. racial prejudice).

 The teacher selects a resource (e.g. To Kill a Mocking-bird).
 The teacher chooses instructional methods based on the resource and the topic
(e.g. a seminar to discuss the book and cooperative groups to analyze stereotypical
images in films and on television).
 The teacher chooses essay questions to assess student understanding of the book.

A Forward design curriculum can be represented as in the following figure.

1 Content

2 Syllabus

Forward Design Curriculum 3 Methodology

4 Outcomes
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5 Assessment

Figure 3. Forward Design Curriculum.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 Examples of Forward Design Curriculum can be found through CLT (Communicative
Language Teaching) methodology and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated
Knowledge).

We now present a lesson plan based on CLIL with a Forward Design Curriculum.

Unit/Lesson Year Timing Materials

Teachers
-Whiteboard
-Power point
presentation
-Posters
Students
-Ice
-Freezer
The Water -Plastic bag
Cycle 1st E.S.O. 50 -Paper towels
- Learn how water is and how it can change.
- Learn the water cycle.
- Reflect about how water is recycled through the cycle.
- Define the processes of evaporation, condensation,
Content precipitation, etc.
objectives - Characteristics of water.

Table 1. Lesson plan about The Water Cycle.

Central design opposed to the others does not need to define specific outcomes or
objectives. The purpose ‘will vary according to the needs of the students and their
particular interests’ (Krashen and Terrell, 1983, p. 65).
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The backward design is based on the outcomes to develop the input and the process
also known as “ends-means” approach. Some critics argue that it could turn
education into something too mechanical where learning is only focused on
objectives.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 It consists of 3 steps:

1. Identify the desired results (What will students be able to do?).

2. Determine acceptable evidence (How will the students know they have reached
the goal?).
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction (How can I prepare them for the
assessment?).

Thereupon, we can see a lesson plan based on the backward design:

Title of the lesson

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe .

Purpose
Read a short story about paranoia with the students and show how patients with this
mental problem feel. This will also help students to understand Gothic novels and
horror stories.
Learning outcomes
Students will understand the general idea of the story and what happened with
precise details. They will also understand some adjectives applied to horror and
metaphors.
Pre-test
Students will be able to create a different end for the story using metaphors and
adjectives related to terrible facts.

Figure 4. Forward Design of the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.

2.2. Effective grammar teaching. An eclectic

approach to grammar
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Throughout the last century we have experienced many changes in language teaching
because teachers need to know at first hand, what works and what does not work in
English Language Teaching, this is also known as an enlightened, eclectic approach or
a principled approach (Brown, 2011). Teachers decide the approach or methodology

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 depending on the aims of the lesson for example we can start a lesson teaching the
present continuous with an inductive activity, then use TPR to represent some verbs
that express a progressive function and end with a Task Based Approach to work on
the vocabulary about sports.

We will now analyze the most famous teaching approaches that have sprung during
the last centuries.

Grammar-Translation Method

It derived from the traditional method to teach Greek and Latin. The main purpose is
to translate sentences and texts from the target language to the mother tongue. This
method is suitable for beginners but only focuses on written skills. Sentences are
taught in an isolated way, not attached to an authentic context and there is no scope
to use it through oral skills.

Direct Method

It was introduced in 1900 after a strong opposition to the Grammar-Translation

Method. The main purpose is to develop communicative competence among
students. Meaning is conveyed in the target language directly through visual aids. In
this approach grammar is taught inductively because students have to think and
respond in the target language. According to Brown (1994: 56), “it did not take well
in public education where constraints of budget, classroom size, time and teachers’
background made such a method difficult to use”.
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Audio-Lingual Method

It was developed during the WWII at the University of Michigan (US). In the 1950s
and 1960s it was widely spread in foreign language teaching. It mainly pursues to

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 acquire structures and patterns in daily conversations. Audio-visual aids are used to
teach vocabulary effectively and focus on pronunciation and intonation patterns.

CLT (Communicative Language Teaching)

This approach was a response to the disadvantages of all he previous methodologies.

It was introduced in the 1970s and 1980s and aimed to develop communicative
competence among students. The teacher plays the role of the facilitator who does
not use a textbook but develops listening and speaking skills before reading and
writing. Some critics to this approach state that it is mostly addressed to speaking
skills rather than to reading and writing.

Other approaches that can be found in ELT are:

 Silent Way: through this approach teachers hardly speak because students should
discover knowledge themselves. In the same line as CLT, the teacher is the
facilitator of knowledge and the students focus on inducing meaning rather than
memorizing.

 Cognitive Approach: It is meant to develop cognitive strategies that help learners

to learn and use language successfully. Through this approach teachers use a wide
array of strategies like mind maps, visualization, key words, matching to foster
learning content in various ways and students are aware of their progress through
self-assessment and monitoring.

 Task-Based Language Learning: It is aimed to accomplish a task rather than to

achieve vocabulary or content. As it occurred in CLT and Silent Way, the teacher
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acquires the role of a facilitator helping the student with some doubts that may
arise. Language is merely acquired by students’ outcomes from the different tasks.

After analyzing the different methodologies, the Eclectic Approach presents many
advantages because it integrates all techniques and approaches. One of the most

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 important components of language is grammar because without it, language cannot
be conveyed. However, grammar is introduced in an entertaining and dynamic way
by combining sentences, focusing on specific categories and working the 4 skills.

The next linguistic component is vocabulary which is taught following these

guidelines:

 Students should understand vocabulary in context.

 Try to manage translation techniques.
 Strategy where students have to guess the meaning of words.

At the same time, reading and writing are meant to introduce or produce information
through different grammar structures and using different vocabulary. Both skills will
be done in groups, sharing information and fostering their creative and cognitive
capacities.

Eclectic approach

We will now analyze the main benefits of the Eclectic approach:

 This approach turns teaching into an enjoyable and innovative experience.

 Teachers can attain good results not putting too much pressure on the students.
 Learners are aware of their progress.
 This methodology involves multiple tasks, high interaction, lively learning.
 It is suitable for a heterogeneous classroom with different needs.
 It follows natural language acquisition process starting with the oral skills and then
the written.
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 The four skills are taken into account.

Hereby we present a lesson plan based on an eclectic approach.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 Approaches Activity Objective Skills
Understand
message of the
CLT Warm-up activity based quote Reading
Task Based on a famous quote Use the future to and
Approach about the future explain it. speaking
Students will be given a
text about the year 2040 Understand the
and artificial intelligence content of the text,
Silent Way They will have to read it the topic and
Task Based individually and guess deduce the main
Approach some underlined words. words. Reading
The teacher will ask the
Grammar- students to translate Understand the
translation some sentences from words, syntax and
method and the text and they will content of the text.
CLT have to read them aloud Present the
Task Based to check if they meaning of the Reading
Approach understood them. sentence orally. Oral
The teacher will check
students’ acquisition of
key ideas by images, Remember and Reading
Cognitive matching, mind maps, memorize the key Listening
approach etc. ideas. Writing

Table 2. Approaches.

2.3. Teaching grammar through authentic texts,

stories, games and songs
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As we saw in unit 1, grammar should be taught through different techniques turning

into an interactive and appealing experience. As a response to this it is
recommendable to introduce grammar through authentic texts, stories, games and
songs.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 We will first focus on the importance of introducing stories in the classroom specially
at early stages. Glazer & Burke (1994) stated that from a linguistic perspective, stories
help us to introduce grammar, vocabulary and structures in a meaningful context
which eases the understanding of the narrative world and the content of the story.
In the same line, Cameron (2001) also highlighted that stories offer real opportunities
for conversation which help children to widen their repertoire of vocabulary and be
in touch with new words like listening to the story.

One of the main difficulty teachers encounter, is the lack of time to choose the
appropriate resource to work a special topic or grammar skills. We will now propose
a very useful and entertaining structure to engage students in the story and get them
to understand the deep message of the story.

Pre-storytelling stage

During this stage the teacher has to introduce the key ideas or concepts to ease the
comprehension of the story, e.g. if we are going to read Jack and The Beanstalk,
students should get familiarized during this stage with words like: beanstalk, golden,
axe, harp and with topics like fear, generous. It is also recommendable to create a
context for the story so the listeners can associate it to experiences from the past or
previously acquired knowledge.

While-storytelling stage

We will welcome students to bring additional material or typical objects, for example
the red apple in Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs will evoke a bad souvenir that
conveys the message of “you should never accept a gift from a stranger” opposite to
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this, the magic lamp in Aladdin will evoke a good memory. Throughout the story the
narrator should ask questions to reassure students comprehend the story. This
technique will foster participation, interest and creativity. In order to increase their

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 interest, we can also change some events that children dislike or on the contrary
represent their favorite part.

After-storytelling stage

During this stage the teacher will verify whether the students have achieved the
vocabulary and expected content, thanks to their interest and attention. Children will
have to draw an imagen the story has inspired to them from specific details. In order
to ease memorization, it is recommendable to introduce songs related to the topic
and/or the characters of the story. Throughout the activity students should also be
encouraged to adopt different roles which will also help them to cope with daily life
issues.

Music has been proven to be one of the most beneficial approaches to teach a
Foreign Language from the linguistic, affective and sociolinguistic perspective. As
Brown (2011) pointed out, language and music are similar due to their origin and
progress. Hereby we enumerate the similarities between language and music:

 They are an innate capacity of human beings.

 They are produced by the vocal-auditory system.
 Music and language have fixed structures and codes that should be felt and
respected.
 Both means of expression allow human beings to be creative by combining notes
in music or vocabulary and sentences in language.
 Singing and speaking are developed at early stages through imitation and
repetition.
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For the above mentioned reasons, music helps English language learns to express
themselves in the FL in a more natural way. Moreover, music is a good way to explore
the connections between language and cultural identity in an authentic context. A
clear example of this is the use of Jolly Phonics for the early stages of education to
teach synthetic phonemes through gestures and catchy songs. This methodology has

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 been implemented in the UK since the 1960s and proves to teach children all the
English phonemes in just 2 years. Jane Willis (1996) presented a series of activities
where students are offered meaningful opportunities to learn music through English.
As they were listening to the teacher they had to clap, use music signals or interact
in English at the same time.

Songs can be used in the classroom for multiple purposes as we can see in the
following table.

SONGS

Grammar
- Present simple “She loves you” (The Beatles).
- Past continuous “Cryin’” (Aerosmith).
- Future “I will survive” (Gloria Gaynor).
- First conditional “Money money money” (ABBA).

Vocabulary
Difficult words to explain, “Superstition” (Stevie Wonder) and Suspicious Minds (Elvis
Presley).

Phonetics
- Jolly Phonics, Yo-Yo Phonics.
- Rhyming pairs “An Englishman in New York” (Sting).

Figure 5. How to introduce different skills through songs.

The last approach to introduce grammar is gamification. According to Merriam

Webster the word refers to incorporation of game elements like point or reward
systems for people to participate. As a response to a globalized world where ICT tools
play a vital role, it is an excellent resource to improve teaching practice, promote
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students’ development of digital competence as well as they learn a foreign language.

Many educational institutions like ClassDojo, Duolingo, Classcraft and Ribon Hero
among others use gamification to increase students’ motivation.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 One of the main problems we encounter is that games have been mostly used when
there is some spare time in class, to keep students quiet or to reward them. However,
Lee (1979, p.3) proposes that “games should not be regarded as a marginal activity
filling in odd moments when the teacher has nothing to do” but be integrated in the
class as a textbook or other techniques.

Rinvolucri (1990) clarifies that games can be used during these three stages as part
of grammar instruction:

 Before presenting a given structure.

 After a grammar presentation.
 As a revision of that area.

In the following figure we can see the steps that should be taken to gamify your
English classroom.

Choose a goal
1 What do you want your Divide the goal into
2
students to learn? smaller parts

Consider playing in How to gamify your

6 3 Design the game
teams ESL?

Define students’
5 Give rewards 4
roles

Figure 6. How to gamify your English classroom.

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Following the previous steps, we will now create a gamification activity to revise the
difference between play, do and go which are very difficult for Spanish speakers.
Once we have designed the game, we will explain the students what their roles are,
in this case they are detectives who have to unlock the padlock by choosing the right

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 verbs. The reward is to get to the padlock. This game is more likely to play it in pairs
to foster cooperative learning and make it more competitive.

Figure 7. Gamification to work the difference between go, play and do. Retrieved from:
https://view.genial.ly/5e3e6ba0a1f6e40fdb0cd111/game-review-go-play-do-copia

Another useful resource if your main goal is to revise students’ knowledge is to create
an online quiz with free apps like kahoot, quizziz… that can either be played
individually or in pairs. The reward will be to get the highest number of correct
questions in the least amount of time.

In the following image we can see a Kahoot to revise the verbal tenses.
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Unit 2. Key ideas
 Figure 8. Kahoot on the verbal tenses. Retrieved from:
https://www.moortown.leeds.sch.uk/blog/2018/03/29/kahoot/

Another resource to introduce grammar and foster cooperative and autonomous

learning are creating wikis or blogs in groups about a given topic. In the following link
you can find the explanation about what a wiki is http://dotsub.com/ and we can see
them applied to the English classroom.

Hereafter I provide a list of very famous blogs to learn English:

BBC learning English

Where you can find games, quizzes, grammar and vocabulary for teachers and
students.
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Figure 9. BBC learning English. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 EF blog of language

This blog will give us some tips about getting rid of our foreign accent or understand
why the level of English is so important in your country, based on authentic contexts.

Figure 10. EF blog of language. Retrieved from: https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/language/

Video. How to choose stories: resources and material.

Access to the video through the virtual campus

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Video. Teaching/Learning Vocabulary in the English Classroom.

Access to the video through the virtual campus

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 Video. Ideas to make up stories.

Access to the video through the virtual campus

2.4. Bibliographic References

Brown, H. D. (2011). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language

Pedagogy. (N. a.): Pearson Education.

Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: C.U.P

Glazer, S. & Burke, M. (1994). An integrated approach to early literacy. Australian

Review of Applied Linguistics, 15, 95-106.

Krashen S., and Terrell T. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the
Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon

Lee, W. R. (1979). Language teaching games and contests. Oxford: Oxford University
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Press.

Rinvolucri, M. (1990). Grammar games: Cognitive, affective and drama activities for
EFL students. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 Wiggins G. y McTighe J. (2006) Understanding by Design: A Framework for Effecting
Curricular Development and Assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development

Willis, J. (1996) A flexible framework for task-based learning. In J. Willis (ed.)

Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Macmillan Heineman. Retrieved from:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gamification
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Unit 2. Key ideas
 In Depth
Teach grammar through songs

TEFL Tunes. (2009, March 15). Songs to Teach English Grammar [online]. Retrieved from
https://tefltunes.com/songs-for-teaching-english-grammar/

This site it is very useful to teach grammar implicitly through songs. Depending on
the grammar topic you will find a song and choose it according to the level, task,
theme and artist.

Making stories and storytelling interactive by Allison Smith

British Council Spain. (2013, October 7). Making stories and storytelling interactive by
Allison Smith [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/dRZSmZSnHoc
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This resource form the British Council justifies the importance of interacting while
you read stories in the classroom to make it a more engaging and appealing activity.

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Unit 2. In Depth
 Using Gamification to Enhance Second Language Learning

Figueroa, J. F. (2015). Using Gamification to Enhance Second Language Learning. Digital

Education Review, 27, 32-54. Retrieved from:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1065005.pdf

This article is very useful for teachers and students to understand the importance of
using gamification specially to teach a foreign language, as well as to learn the
benefits of some apps to learn languages like Duolingo, Class Dojo, Edmodo and the
difference between gamification, game-based learning, simulations, etc.
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Unit 2. In Depth
 Test
1. Forward Design Curriculum is based on:
A. The teacher should focus on the outcomes, then the process and lastly the
content.
B. The teacher should be aware of the contents to be taught and after on the
methodology and process. It encourages learners’ autonomy, applied to real
communicative situations, learners discover knowledge.
C. None of the given answers is correct.

2. In the while-storytelling stage we should introduce:

A. The keywords and content to fully understand the story.
B. Some additional material to make the story more engaging and foster
interaction.
C. Revise what has been previously read to consolidate understanding.

3. The statement “Central Design varies according to the students’ levels and
interest” is:
A. True.
B. False.

4. Which of the designs could turn education into something mechanical?

A. Forward Design.
B. Central Design.
C. Backward Design.
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Unit 2. Test
 5. What order does Backward Design follow?
A. Identify the desired results, determine acceptable evidence, plan learning
experiences and instruction.
B. Identify the desired results, plan learning experiences and instruction, and
determine acceptable evidence.
C. Plan learning experiences and instruction, identify desired results and
determine acceptable evidence.

6. Input, process and output are important in these designs:

A. Backward Design and Central Design.
B. Backward Design, Central Design and Forward Design.
C. Forward Design and Central Design.

7. If you present a lesson where you focus on communication and you teach
grammar implicitly you are using the ……………. approach:
A. CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) approach.
B. Direct Method Approach.
C. Eclectic Approach.

8. The Forward Design lesson plan follows this structure:

A. The teacher selects a resource, the teacher chooses instructional methods
based on the resource and the topic and the teacher chooses essay questions to
check understanding and assess it.
B. The teacher chooses instructional methods on the resource and the topic, the
teacher selects a resource and the teacher chooses essay questions to check
understanding.
C. None of the given answers is correct.
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Unit 2. Test
 9. Who quoted the following statement “stories offer real opportunities for
conversation which help children to widen their repertoire of vocabulary and be
in touch with new words like listening to the story”?
A. Brown.
B. Jane Willis.
C. Cameron.

10. Which of the following statements is correct?

A. Process concerns teaching methods, classroom activities and material.
B. Process concerns input, teaching methods, classroom activities and material.
C. Process concerns input, methodologies and classroom activities and material.
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Unit 2. Test