An Appetizing Way to

Teach GRAMMAR

CONTENT
Introduction
Vowels and Consonants
- Objectives

and activity games

Verbs
- Objectives

and activity games

Nouns
-Objectives

and activity games

Adjectives
- Objectives

and activity games

INTRODUCTION
Mention the word grammar and students will cringe. In fact, most teachers will
cringe, too.
Of course, teachers know correct grammar rules, but it's one thing to know them, and
another thing to effectively teach them, and transmit them so that students not only
understand the rules, but also apply them correctly.

In my experience, grammar shouldnt be taught by the book. At least not in teaching

English as a second language. Thats not what students are there for. They don't want
to know all of these rules; theyre not interested in them. They want to learn English.
They want to speak, read, and write in English. So, how do we as ESL teachers teach
them essential grammar and give them what we need, rather than boring them to death
with the rules. Its actually quite simple: by teaching grammar in context and in
fun ways.

In order to understand how the human mind works, it is

important to keep in mind the following statement made by
Confucius, I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and
I understand. Most of the teaching of grammar is done in a
traditional manner, where the teacher does the talking and the
students are passive audience. One does not know how much of
the knowledge is absorbed by the students. Text books and work
books have several exercises. However, just practice is not
enough. One of the best ways to
understand something is to get ones
hands on it and actually experiment
with it.

The involvement and interest of the students increase when they

are given something to do. Activity-based learning helps
students understand concepts better, increases their willingness
to work together and enables them to relate the topic to real
life examples. An interactive and hands - on environment helps
in establishing better relationship between teachers and students
as well as between students themselves. Students are more
motivated and engaged in the process of learning and this makes
them learn better. Lets move
on to some examples, and
you'll see what I mean......

VOWELS
VOWELS
CONSONAN
CONSONAN
TS
TS
NOUNS
NOUNS
VERBS
VERBS

Fun with vowels and consonants

o b j e c t i ve :
For the students to be able to identify if a letter is a consonant or a vowel in
different words of different text. Also, for the student to be able to apply their
knowledge on consonants and vowels.

1) M i s s i n g V o w e l E x e r c i s e
Once the students are comfortable in knowing the vowels and their sounds,
the teacher can introduce short words with short vowels in them. Create some
cards with short words on them, for example c_t (cat), d_g (dog), r_d (red),
and so on. Use a short vowel word list with pictures as a guide. I like to
include a picture on the back of the card for picture support and self
correction. Students practice by placing the correct missing vowel on the card
from their vowel .

2) A or an?
This activity works great with beginners, including small children. Cut up a
list of several words that either take a or an and mix them up. For very
young learners, you may use pictures instead of words. Then divide students
into pairs of groups, and have them put the words in two piles, depending on
the article. Once they have their piles ready, ask them if they can figure out
the rule by themselves. By far the best ways to teach any type of grammar is
through the use of either realia or real life settings and contexts. Why would
a student be motivated to learn the conditional tenses if he has no idea why
hes learning them, in other words, he doesn't understand when and where
he'll have use for them? When teachers use real life settings and objects
students will know the grammar structures they learn will be useful for them.

FUN
WITH VERBS
O b j e c t i ve s : S t u d e n t s w i l l :
R e c o g n i z e d i f f e r e n t v e r b s .
I d e n t i f y v e r b s i n v a r i o u s s e n t e n c e s .
U s e p r e s e n t , a n d p a s t t e n s e v e r b s .

1 | Use a rhyme
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Touch the ground.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Turn around.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Show your shoe.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
That will do.
The rhyme can be used to give simple instructions which the
students are expected to do. For example, Touch your nose,
Clap your hands, Stamp your feet etc. In this way,
playfully the action words can be introduced to them.

2 | Go fish
Several words, some nouns, some adjectives, some verbs can be
written on cards, which can be scattered on the ground. The
children should be able to read the words clearly. A fishing rod
can be made with a magnet attached to a stick. Each card will
have a metallic gem clip attached. The children can be asked to
go fishing. They will identify the cards with the verbs written
on them and pick them up with the fishing rod.
(The activity can be adapted to teach all the parts of speech

FUN WITH NOUNS

Objectives:
Students will identify different nouns including singular and plural forms
Students will share ideas about classroom objects.
Students will write sentences using the ideas from class discussions

Have students break into groups, and have them make a four-column chart with the
titles Person, Place, Thing, or animals/birds. Tell them that they will have
twenty seconds to fill out each column with as many nouns as they can think of. This
fast-paced noun activity should take less than two minutes. Encourage students to share
their lists with the class, and reward the longest fully-correct list with a small prize or a
bit of congratulatory praise.
2) ABC Nouns
Write the letters A through Z on flashcards, and put them in one pile. In a second pile,
place flashcards with the words person, place, thing, or animal/bird on them.
Play a version of Around the World by instructing two students to stand up, reading
them a letter from one pile and a type of noun from the other pile, and seeing which
student can think of the right type of noun that begins with the appropriate letter first.
The student who gets the answer correct first advances to the next students desk, and
the other student sits down. You can use this noun game to see whether students are
struggling with the concept of the three types of nouns.

Fun With
Adjectives
Objectives:
Students will define 'adjective' as a describing word.
Students will generate a list of common adjectives.
Students will identify adjectives in sentences.
The students will discover adjectives through various activities.

Activity Steps:
1 | Feel and describe
The teacher puts some objects in a bag. She asks a student to come up and
feel the object. He/she has to describe the object without looking at it. For
example, if its a wooden scale, the description could be ,It is long and
flat and hard. The others try to guess what the object is.

2 | Describing people
The students are asked to collect pictures of
different kinds of people. They are then asked to
describe the people. They can be further guided to
describe the structure, the face, the eyes, thenose,
etc. in detail. For example, She has a sharp nose,
she has slanted eyes, she has a cheerful face etc.

3 | Popcorn Game :Once the students know how to describe a person or

thing , this activity can be taken up. Each student
is asked to describe the taste, colour, looks of the
popcorn. For example, crunchy, salty, white etc..

FEW MORE
ACTIVITIES

LEARNING OUTCOME

THANK
YOU