ECT 310

ENGLISH SUBJECT METHODS

NOTES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 LECTURE 1: ENGLISH LANGUAGE

CURRICULUM.................................................................................................

 LECTURE 2: THE TEACHING OF LISTENING AND SPEAKING

SKILLS......................................................................

 LECTURE 3: THE TEACHING OF

GRAMMAR......................................................................................................

 LECTURE 4: THE TEACHING OF

READING..........................................................................................................

 LECTURE 5: THE TEACHING OF

WRITING..........................................................................................................

 LECTURE 6: THE TEACHING OF

VOCABULARY...................................................................................................

 LECTURE 7: INTEGRATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND

LITERATURE..............................................................

 LECTURE 8: MEASUREMENT, EVALUATION AND

TESTING.................................................................................

 LECTURE 9 INSTRUCTIONAL
PLANNING............................................................................................................

In the actual teaching, there should be integration of the domains as much as possible. It is further
argued that aims can only be written for those learning situations that permit the end result to be
identified beforehand. Such aims give direction to the content and activity in the lesson.

Various ways are used in different countries to select objectives. For example, they may be: a) chosen on
the basis of expediency – i. because they are the easiest, most convenient or least controversial b) just
accepted without exploring alternatives and choosing between them c) imposed upon a situation from
outside for political or personal reasons.
The format chosen to select objectives should be appropriate to the situation and it should necessitate
their achievement.

Decisions about curriculum objectives are usually affected by the following factors: (a) Contemporary
life outside school Society is dynamic i. it is in a constant state of change. As such, the objectives must be
selected in accordance with major current educational trends and inventions and innovations. An
example of these is integration of technology through use of computers. For these reasons, analysis of
implications of societal changes should be done beforehand.

(b) Manpower employment patterns These are normally dictated by new behaviour requirements in
education, health, welfare, politics and social activities. Social and cultural patterns of behaviour are in a
state of evolution the world over and students should acquire the skills and attitude needed to cope
with everyday living in the society. Objectives should, therefore, be selected in accordance with major
current trends, such as use of technology like computers in schools.

(c) The needs of the student In addressing student needs, an analysis should be done. The aim of needs
analysis is to identify the type of knowledge, skills and level of language proficiency the program should
aim to deliver. Needs analysis is also concerned with identifying general and specific needs for each
subject that can be addressed in developing goals, objectives and content.

The goals of students vary and must be determined before decisions about content and methods can be
made. The needs of the student may emerge from contemporary social life and from the individual
himself. Information obtained from needs analysis is used in developing, selecting, or revising program
objectives. The factors below should be taken into consideration when doing needs analysis.

Needs Analysis Needs analysis may focus on the following:

Who the students are.

i. Their present level of language proficiency.

ii. Teacher and student goals and expectations
iii. Your teaching skills and level of proficiency
iv. Constraints of time and budget
v. Available instructional resources
vi. Societal expectations or on a specific need
vii. What skills the student will be required to use on completion of the program.
The following are general objectives for teaching English in secondary school

1: General Objectives for Teaching English

By the end of the course, your students should be able to select and use methods and techniques that
will enable the student to:

1. Listen with understanding and respond appropriately

2. Speak intelligibly and intelligently in English in different situations

3. Read intensively and extensively

4. Understand a passage by following its content, arguments and logical sequence

5. Infer information from what is said or read

6. Use correctly and effectively a common core vocabulary learnt during the course

7. Demonstrate acceptable habits both in spoken and written communication

8. Use effectively the main structures of English by writing logically and coherently

9. Recognize and use technical and specialized registers in language

10. Exploit current technological resources and literary materials to enrich the learning of English
language.

11. Show a deeper insight in the appreciation of literature in English by applying creative and critical
thinking.

12. Maintain a habit of wide reading for information and pleasure

13. Appreciate the importance of English as a tool of fostering understanding among peoples of the
world.

What do you understand by the term, “English is an essential tool of communication”?

Let us now look at various areas of teaching English in secondary schools.

Mother tongue influence in most cases predisposes your students not to hear and identify the
differences in sounds that are important when learning a second or foreign language. You should
identify the problematic sounds that are none existent in the mother tongue. Students in this case have
to be exposed to such sounds and learn to identify them.
2 Objectives for Teaching Listening and Speaking

By the end of the course, your students should be able to:

1. Recognize, articulate and use correctly English language phonemes, vowels and consonants

2. Listen with understanding and respond appropriately verbally and in writing

3. Listen and respond spontaneously and fluently to conversational prompts

4. Identify and use correctly stress, intonation, tonal variation and rhythm in utterances

5. Make grammatically correct sentences verbally

6. Respond verbally to both verbal and written questions and instructions

7. Express ones ideas verbally in different situations

8. Present orally reports from what is read and on everyday experiences

9. Conduct a conversation intelligibly

10. Adapt ones mode of conversation to suit the context or situation

11. Identify the main ideas from different types of spoken discourse

12. Write down/retell correctly what is heard

2: English Language Phonemes Phonemic awareness entails knowledge of how the minimal meaningful
units of sound, the phonemes, influence the production and perception of the sounds of that language.
These, consequently, influence communicative intelligibility in the language. As you who is supposed to
be knowledgeable in this area, you should assist students who have problems with differentiating, for
instance, between chip /t ipʃ / and sip /sip/ in the way they are articulated.

Phonetic awareness, on the other hand, involves the general knowledge of how human speech sounds
are produced and received, in the process of verbal communication. Your phonetic awareness should
help you to assist your students where they have L1 interfering, with the learning of L2. Gimson (1980:b)
stresses that phonetic and phonemic analysis should occupy an important place in the study of any
language.

You as you of English must make every effort to acquire and master the phonology of English. You
should not only be able to produce the various individual vowel and consonantal sounds of English, but
also the various sound clusters like dipthongs and digraphs used in English. You should also be able to
help your students to acquire, not only the English sounds, but also patterns of English.
As you, you should be the model for students to imitate. Ensure that your pronunciation is proper.
Familiarise yourself with phonetic symbols/script to help your students in pronunciation, where they
face difficulties.

Pronunciation Pronunciation is related to phonetics and phonology. Phonetics means the speech sounds
of a particular language. Phonology is the study of speech sounds and systems of languages. As stated
earlier, English language has 44 basic sounds which are too many to be represented by the 26 letters of
the alphabet. Phonetic script as well as digraphs, consonant clusters and diphthongs are, therefore, used
to represent the 44 sounds.

It is important to note that not all differences in sounds are phonemic. There are other sounds that are
not phonemic in the sense that they do not distinguish between words. For example, the sound /k/ can
be produced by either consonant /k/ or /c/.

The vowels that follow letter /c/ determine whether the sound is /k/ or /c/. For example, you can help
your students by letting them know that in most cases, when /c/ is followed by /e/, /i/ and /y/, it is
pronounced as /c/ as in “circle”, ‘cycle’, “cease”. However, when /c/ is followed by any other letter
except /h/, it is pronounced as /k/ as in “cure”, “clip”, “coat”, “cap”.

Knowledge of the vowels and consonants would help students in the formation of words and
pronunciation. Vowel sounds are characterised by free flow of air from the lungs for the vibration of the
vocal cords.

The mouth cavity, tongue and lips shape the vowels. Consonants on the other hand, are formed by
audible obstruction or complete stoppage of airflow. They can be classified as voiced, if the vocal cords
vibrate or voiceless if they don’t. Most of them are usually in pairs. For example, /p/ voiceless /b/
voiced. Consonants are usually described in terms of their point of articulation such as dental (teeth)
and bilabial (lips). They are also described in terms of the degree or manner of obstruction along the oral
or nasal channels.

Consonants can be:

 Bilabial plosives /pen/ /bin/ like “pen” and “bin”

 Alveolar /t ɔɪ/ /da / as in “toy” and “dye” ɪ

 Velars /kiŋ/ /giv/ as in “king” and “give”

 Nasals /m m/ /nʌ ɒt/ like “mum” and “not”  Lateral /luk/ as in “look”

 Affricates /t∫ k/ /ʌ ʤʌʤ/ for example “chuck” and “judge”

 Semi vowels /jes/ /∫u:/ like “yes” and “shoe”  Velar /siŋ / as in “sing”

 Trills /rə l/ like “roll”ᴜ

 Labio-dental /feil/ /veil/ such as “fail” and “vale”

 Dental / Өin / /ðeə/ as in “thin” and “there”

 Glottal /ha / like “high”NB:ɪ

NB: Phonetic script has been used.

There are other features related to pronunciation that contribute a lot to meaning. These can only be
heard when we speak in sentences or in larger units of sentences like in dialogue or speech. These
features are: stress and intonation. To distinguish these features from phonemes, we call them
suprasegmental phonemes or prosodic features.

Stress  Stress means the force by which the voice bears upon one syllable rather than on another. In
English, it operates at 2 levels: word and sentence levels. This is also the case in Kiswahili.  At the word
level, stress distinguishes between parts of speech. For example, produce (noun), produce (verb),
present (noun), present (verb). In many other words though, stress is fixed, which means it does not
change, as in “always”, “horizon”.

pronounce it. Many African languages are tonal. For example, in Kenya, Gusii, Kikuyu and Luo are tonal
languages.

Rhythm The other phonological feature is rhythm. There are two types unique to English languages and
indeed to most languages: stress–timed and syllable – timed rhythm. Stress–timed rhythm occurs when
the time interval from stress to stress is more or less the same. The unstressed syllables in between are
pronounced within an equal length of time. For example, ‘I told you to lay it on the floor. In syllable-
timed rhythm, like the one found in Kiswahili, each syllable in a sentence is given approximately the
same length of time. This results in a staccato type of rhythm with all the vowels pronounced in
practically the same way whether stressed or unstressed. This feature forms the foundation of rhythm in
poetry. The implication of this phenomenon is that speakers of languages with stress-timed rhythm,
usually find it rather difficult to appreciate, for instance, Kiswahili poetry (Mashairi) which is syllable–
timed, and vice versa. These phenomena, if present in the first language, could affect learning of a L 2
like English.

We now turn to teaching strategies that can be used to teach the speaking skill.

2: Teaching Strategies

 To be able to teach listening and speaking skills efficiently, you should be a role model. Ensure you are
able to pronounce English sounds and words correctly, since students will be copying you.

You should also have knowledge of the phonetic script to be able to check the pronunciation of
particular words, especially the problematic ones, from a dictionary or phonetics book.
 While teaching, students should not be taught pronunciation through the phonetic script because
they must first of all learn to produce the sounds represented. When this is mastered, they should then
be taught how to pronounce the words correctly, ignoring the phonetic script.

Later on when they have developed proper pronunciation, they can learn phonetic script for the same
reason as for which it is useful to you, that is, to check how certain words are pronounced.

A number of teaching techniques can be used to teach pronunciation skills.  One of the methods is use
of minimal pairs like cup/cap, lead/read, shoe/sue and church/judge.

These are best taught in their contexts so as to show students their usage in sentences. This also helps
to bring out the meaning.

 Another method of teaching pronunciation is by asking students to listen carefully as you utter a
word, either singly or in a sentence. Then ask them to identify the uttered word. This is called auditory
discrimination.

The problematic sounds should be identified first before students can imitate you. The assumption here
is that you are a good model and that his/her pronunciation is correct.

However, if you are not quite sure of his/her pronunciation, it would be advisable to use a taped
cassette with the sounds being taught.

Such resources can be obtained from curriculum development centres like the Kenya Institute of
Education.

 Use of tongue-twisters is another method that helps in auditory discrimination.

These are enjoyable and frequent practice helps students to learn the right articulation and to get rid of
pronunciation errors in a relaxed atmosphere without tension of making mistakes. Use words

with sounds that cause pronunciation problems in the community from which the students come.

 You can also use dictation to teach pronunciation of words.

The passage or sentences selected for dictation should contain a substantial number of words in which
you are interested. These should be words that are problematic to spell by your students. It is
recommended that you give immediate feedback of the students’ performance, by going through the
errors identified and giving remedial work where necessary.

Drama As a teaching technique, drama can be defined as an activity that asks students to portray either
themselves or other people in an imaginary situation.

Although drama may be in form of mime, it usually involves verbal communication, an activity that helps
students in the development of the speaking skills. The student is expected to adopt the role of a
character and to project, for instant, that character’s way of dressing, physical features and behaviour.
This may be done individually like in monologues but it is usually done with one or more of their peers.
Students can follow the guidelines laid down by you, by acting in a controlled manner. They can also be
given the liberty to speak and react as they see fit. You can integrate language teaching by using drama
to reinforce grammatical structures that have been taught.

Role-Play Role-play also helps in the development of the speaking skill. It is very much like drama but it
has connotations of a more controlled situation. Students may interact in pairs or small groups, as
follows:

(1) Students are given different cards with different emotions written on them, e. sadness and anger.
Each tries to portray in turn the emotion written on the card so that other members of the class can
guess which emotion it is.

(2) Here the actor is not allowed to speak but to act out an action or a situation or a profession. For
example, he may pick an imaginary object from the floor. You then asks the others to say which object
they think has been picked. Other students are allowed to ask questions concerning the role played,
such as “Do you like it?” “Is it made of wood or iron?” Is it dangerous? Is it liquid or solid? This activity
does not only help development of the speaking skill, it also helps to reinforce understanding of
interrogatives.

(3) Students can also be asked to act out situations in which arguments may easily develop. For
example, a chief may suppress his subjects. You may pose questions based on the chief’s behaviour.

(4) ‘A’ meets a stranger ‘B’ who is lost. He wants to know the way to a specific place such as the post
office or hospital or shopping centre.

“A” is then asked to give directions to “B” You should decide on the starting point, (where they met).
Local landmarks well known to the students should be used to give directions.

Communication Games  Communication games are used to foster authentic, natural and creative
language use. They are based on an information or opinion gap, which has to be bridged. Cooperation
during the game is more important than competition. A goal has to be set and the challenge of achieving
it should encourage unrestrained communication behaviour. Your role should be that of a consultant
and facilitator.

 In conclusion, it is important to point out that in terms of intelligibility, accurate intonation, stress and
rhythm are rated higher than accurate pronunciation of the phonemes.

 The intended meaning can be clarified by using the context of the situation and the linguistic context
of the sentence. This is called redundancy in language. Redundancy means in some cases, units in the
language carry the same information. If one of them is left out, the message will still be left intact.

For example, in some cases the word “stump” and “stamp” are pronounced interchangeably without
causing communication breakdown, until the students are able to identify the two different vowel
sounds / ӕ/ and / /.
The implication here is that ʌ even though some words may be pronounced wrongly, the meaning can
be got from the content and context in which it is uttered. Redundancy is important in language learning
because without it, there would be misunderstanding and breakdown in communication. However,
proper pronunciation is important as incorrect pronunciation can sometimes cause communication
breakdown, especially in situations where the content is limited to a single sentence.

When children learn mother tongue through total involvement in real–life situations, which require
genuine communication, they acquire both linguistic and communicative competence.

 Since opportunities to engage in genuine communication in a second or foreign language learning

situation are rare, you have to create opportunities and situations that promote this intentionally.

 To bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world outside, you can use teaching
techniques that promote this, such as role-play, drama and communication games.

 It is also important to remember that we converse in sentences and not single words. Again, sounds
occur in a sequence of not only words but also sentences. Therefore, practice in auditory discrimination
and sound production should as soon as possible be switched from contrasting sounds of single words to
their use in sentences. The sentence should ultimately be the minimal unit for pronunciation practice.

them in complete sentences to show their usage. The two subsystems in grammar: morphology and
syntax, form methods in which to describe the formal aspects of a language.

3: Types of Grammar There are 3 types of grammar that you are expected to teach your students:

1. Structural grammar: This type of grammar shows how words combine to form phrases, clauses
and sentences.

2. Traditional grammar: It is sometimes referred to as school grammar. It deals with labeling of

parts of speech.

3. Prescriptive grammar: It prescribes grammar rules to be followed to construct correct

sentences. It prescribes what people should say or write.

There is also a fourth type of grammar which is, linguistic grammar. This is knowledge of L 1 , learnt
naturally at home.

3: English Language Competences As you of English, you should aim at developing among your students
the following competences:

1) Linguistic competence which involves the speaker’s knowledge of a language, mainly the first
language. This kind of competence is acquired or learnt naturally without formal schooling

2) Communicative competence requires the speaker’s ability to put language to communicative use
appropriately. For example, language to complain or praise would be different each time it is used, and
would perform specific functions
(3) Pragmatic competence is sometimes referred to as strategic competence. It requires the speaker’s
ability to use language for a range of public and private functions, including communication.

(4) Social linguistic competence implies use of language appropriate to particular social situations. To
attain the above competences, expose your students to the following types of sentences.

3: Types of Sentences

a) Expose your students to different types of sentences and their usage. They should be familiar with
the 4 basic types:

(i) Declaratives: Statements and assertions

(ii) Interrogatives: Questions – these seek information

(iii) Imperatives: Express commands

(iv) Exclamatory: Express strong feelings

a) All the above types of sentences should be taught in their correct usage and contexts.

b) Ensure your students are familiar with grammatical terms, especially the 9 parts of speech,

These are: Nouns, Verbs, Pronouns, Adverbs, Adjectives, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Articles and
Interjections.

These are the building blocks in sentence formation.

c) The ultimate goal should be to develop the ability to use language in meaningful communication, not
just rote learning of grammar rules as an end in itself.

d) Ability to describe functions of subject, object, tenses, phrases, clauses and sentences.

e) Use of structural elements such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliaries.

f) Master suprasegmental phonemes/prosodic features. These are, e. stress, intonation and

rhythm. The sentence should be the basic unit for teaching grammar (in all activities). Avoid teaching
language items in isolation. Instead use sentences that allow meaningful activity.

It is important for you to realize that languages are dynamic. New words and structures are being
incorporated in the existing languages through technological inventions and contact with other
languages. It is your responsibility to keep abreast with what is acceptable (standard language) and what
is no. You can do this by reading widely to get exposed to different words, registers and structures.
3: Objectives

By the end of the course, your students should be able to:

1. Identify the word classes and their functions in the sentence.

2. Use correct sentence structures in various situations

3. Note common errors and identify them in their own work.

4. Demonstrate creativity and flexibility in sentence construction.

5. Express themselves clearly and precisely using grammatically correct sentences.

6. Understand and appreciate what they hear and read

7. Assess their progress in the acquisition of grammar skills.

3: General Criteria for Selecting Grammar Teaching Methods The choice of a teaching method is left to
the discretion of you. However, there are certain criteria that need to be taken into consideration before
a method is selected:

1. Student objectives: These should determine the type of teaching method chosen.

2. The context of the teaching: (Where learning will take place)

3. The time requirements of the method: Consider the time you have and the time

requirements of the topic. Also consider the time on the timetable.

4. The demands of the method: How will you and students be involved?

5. The type of resource materials: What materials will be needed to use the method

successfully.

6. Availability of the required resource materials:

7. The objectives that the method helps to achieve: (Is this the best method?)

8. The number of students in the classroom: This will determine the method selected.

 You should abandon teacher-centered, frontally controlled classroom, in favour of student-

centeredness.

 Individual activities should give way to group and pair work (co-operative learning.
 Encourage interaction where the student makes meaningful use of language.

 Spontaneous dialogue is a major classroom activity.

 Questions and dialogue are based on a passage or selected topics and situations.

 Students are encouraged to contribute in discussions, either verbally or in writing.

 You should act as the facilitator of the communication process by creating opportunities for everyone
to participate. You should also act as an independent participant within the group, which you may stop
to join and contribute.

 Avoid using your authority to influence members of any group.

3: Teaching Techniques

i) Deductive and inductive teaching

There are two main general teaching techniques (deductive and inductive) that teachers use to teach
grammar. In the deductive way, you start by teaching rules of grammar, then asks students to give
examples by forming sentences.

In the inductive way, you give examples first and asks students to come up with the rules. This
technique in teaching grammar has been found to have long lasting effects than the deductive teaching.
The retention is also longer and rote-learning of the rules common in deductive teaching is eliminated.

To use any of the techniques effectively, you should make proper preparation beforehand. Examples of
techniques that you can use are:

ii) Language games

 Games add fun and variety to the teaching of grammar. Students would normally welcome a change
of pace.

Requirements:

 You should make thorough preparation by first of all reading the rules of the game beforehand, to
have a good understanding of how it is played.

 Gather the materials that you may require for the game in advance.

 Before introducing the game, you should find out if the students are interested. If they are not, you
should abandon it until a later date.

 The game selected should be within the student’s language ability.

 You should also choose a game that allows as many students as possible to participate.
 You should ensure the participants understand the game rules clearly.

 The rules should be adhered to strictly as allowing them to be broken, sets a precedent that may lead
to hostility and you may be accused of bias.

 You should keep the game under control and indiscipline should not be allowed.

 You should have a pleasant but firm tone. Pleasantness brings about a relaxed atmosphere whereas
firmness makes the game serious.

 If an error occurs when the game is going on, do not point it out on the spot. Instead, note it down
and deal with it at a later time.

 If it is a team game, have mixed ability teams where the proficient students mix with the less
proficient ones. This balances the teams and the weak students learn from the brighter ones, as they are
absorbed in the team. However, remember to rotate participants in different teams.

 You should also direct the game and act as the facilitator and the referee.

 There should be flexibility in the choice of games. If one game does not succeed, select another one
that is more appealing.

 Do not use one game too often to a point that it bores your students. Encourage a good spirit of fun.
 Games become motivating if competitiveness is included, such as in the scoring system

 An example of a game is a quiz where two balanced teams are involved.

 For example, you have just taught the conditional tense and you want to reinforce the structure. The
rule is to use: If I were..., I would....

 In this case, you divide the class into two teams, having already made cards with various occupations
that students are familiar with. Examples of these are a farmer, policeman, lawyer and teacher.

 The leader of the team picks any card from you at random and in not more than ten seconds
produces a suitable sentence based on the occupation on the card.

 The conditional structure should be used in the sentence correctly. However, if the student is unable
to make the sentence within the given time, the chance is given to the other team.

 Write the sentences that the students make on the chalkboard.

 At the end of the game, point out identified errors and encourage students to correct their own errors
first, before offering assistance. Ask them to copy the correct sentences in their books.

 In large classes, some students can become the audience.

 The language game should not be played at the beginning of the lesson but in the middle or towards
the end, when a change is welcome.
iii) Use of songs

 Songs like games add fun to the teaching and learning of grammar.

 The structure being taught is also learnt in a relaxed manner.

 You should look for a song that has the grammatical structure that has been taught and needs to be
reinforced. You could also have one of your own.

 For instance, the students may have finished learning how to use the conditional: If I were..... I
would......

 Songs should be used towards the end of the lesson as it is an enjoyable way of concluding the lesson.

iv) Role play Role-play has been confused with drama.

Drama is a literary form while role-play is condensed drama. The acquisition of any language goes hand
in hand with the familiarity of the culture of the language. Through role-play, the culture of the native
language can be understood. The target language and the context of role-play fuse into the language
learning process with high interest, relevance and enjoyment. You can use role-play to teach grammar in
an enjoyable way.

In role-play, pairs or groups of students act out certain parts, where they are required to use limited
structures. For example, you may teach students how to get permission using polite structures like May
I, Could I, Is it possible for me/you to---

Role-play could also be used as a form of communication game where students could hold a mock- trial.
This involves having a judge, the defendant, the prosecutor and the jury.

The rest of the class becomes the audience. Students’ perform first with your guidance but during the
actual role-play, they are on their own.

Your role is that of a facilitator and you are expected to offer help if need arises. Your presence should
not influence the progression of the role-play. Language games have some advantages as seen below.

Advantages of using games, songs, drama and role play

Use of these techniques gives students a chance to use formal, informal and specialized

language forms and registers.

They are good for revision of grammatical structures in a relaxed manner.

They help to structure human behaviour and speech into an art of speaking.

They also provide an opportunity for the integration of a variety of language structures.
 Use of role-play gives students a chance to use formal or specialized language (register).

It is good for revision of grammatical structures in a relaxed manner.

It structures human behaviour and speech into an art of speaking.

It provides an opportunity for the integration of a variety of language structures.

The topic should be at the level of students’ linguistic ability

The selected passages should contain the structures you want to put emphasis on.

v) Flash cards

Flash cards may be in form of pictures. For example, pictures could be placed in a

sequence and students are asked to develop a story from them.

E.g. Pictures of a lion An antelope grazing at the edge of a forest The lion eating

the antelope.

Alternatively, flash cards may be in form of words. E.g. Lion Antelope Graze

Forest Attack.

Ask students to use the words to create a story. Later on, you can ask the students to

analyse parts of a sentence.

For example, you can teach definite and indefinite articles using the

sentences they have made:

This is a lion that…..

This is the lion that…..

It is also important to familiarize students to grammatical terms.

The main ones are the parts of speech.

The ultimate aim should be to develop the ability to use them in meaningful

sentences, not as single words or rote-learn them as an end in itself.

 It is important that students are able to use structural elements such as articles
,prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary in sentences.

Likewise, mastery of suprasegmental phonemes that are usually referred to

as prosody, like stress, intonation and rhythm, is also important.

vi) Pictures and drawings

Draw or collect pictures that will assist you to teach a particular grammatical structure. Pictures

can be obtained from books, magazines, newspapers and photographs. Prepare by formulating

questions that you would like your students to answer. These should be based on the

picture/drawing.

Show one picture to the whole class or, different pictures to different groups. For example, to

practise use of comparatives & superlatives, present different pictures like: different makes of

cars or animals. These will assist students to practice:

Comparatives: more beautiful, tougher, less reliable

Superlatives: most powerful, fastest, the best.

Here, your students will be learning use of: more, er, most, est, less and best.

vii) Audio tapes

Audio and visual tapes assist to teach difficult grammatical and sentence structures. You have to

prepare beforehand by following the steps below:

Revise with students the structure to be taught beforehand.

Listen to the tape in advance and prepare relevant questions based on the recording.

When playing the tape, ensure there are no distractions.

Stop purposefully at certain intervals to explain.

Afterwards, ask questions based on the tape content.

Give a writing assignment to consolidate the grammatical structure taught.

viii) Films

If the school has a film projector and power, you can use films to teach grammar. Study the film

beforehand and make oral and written questions from the film. Then proceed making the same

preparation like that made when teaching using an audio tape.

ix) Realia or 3D objects

These are real objects. For example, you could use a box effectively to teach prepositions: in, on,

over, under, beside etc. Display the box to the class and demonstrate various prepositions using a

pen, for example, in, on, over, beside, along and under. This technique increases students’

concentration span and the retention rate improves.

x) Reading

To reinforce taught grammatical structures, select reading passages containing such structures.

Use such passages during reading comprehension sessions. Consider the language level of your

students when selecting reading materials. Afterwards, ask questions that require students to use the

taught structures. Questions should be varied to test different skills. E.g. comprehension, knowledge,

inference, evaluation, application, synthesis and vocabulary use.

xi) Writing

You can use writing to consolidate taught grammatical structures. This can be done in form of

written assignments. For example, after teaching the Passive voice, you can ask students to describe

a process in writing, using the passive voice. You can also use transformation of sentences from one