Grammar Is Dead! Long Live Grammar!

Monica Hoogstad, UK

Monica Hoogstad is a freelance Business English and Legal English teacher, with eighteen years experience in ELT. She is particularly keen on coaching Advanced Learners. Her current interests are multiple intelligences, NLP, the cognitive function of metaphor, teaching while having fun (and the other way around). E-mail: monicahoogstad@yahoo.co.uk

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Introduction
Activities

Introduction

Grammar has fallen off its pedestal and has turned into an ELT Cinderella. In an impetuous surge of purism, the Lexical Approach zealots have simply excommunicated tenses, modals and auxiliaries, prepositions and sentence structure from the language class. Matching and gap-filling tasks based on chunking and lexical prefabs have become overnight the new darlings of teachers and students alike.

As an advocate of the lexical approach and despite believing that the heyday of parsing is long gone, I wouldn't recommend discarding grammar totally. My advice is: Don't ask what grammar can do for you, but what you can do for grammar. How about dissecting the language in its components and - instead of waxing lyrical about inflexion and other bores - getting creative?

Grammar is dead! Long live grammar! In the following activities, grammar fights back, inviting learners of English to give worn out vocabulary a new lease of life. Anything's possible with a little bit of TLC.

Activities

Activity 1

This activity encourages learners to play with familiar words and recycle them creatively. You can use the game as an idioms/phrasal verbs acquisition and review activity.

• Announce you're going to play a game called 'Noun-Verb-Adjective'.
• Get the students to split into three teams that are going to compete against each other.
• Prepare three sets of cards containing the words in the table, shuffle them, and distribute nine cards - three of each category - to the teams.

• Allow some preparation time, in which the students have the opportunity to consult various good monolingual dictionaries, including a dictionary of idioms and of phrasal verbs.
• You call out a theme word (i.e., referring to all three - noun, verb, adjective) and the teams that have been dealt cards containing those words nominate a member to stand in front of the class and tell a short story revolving around that subject.
• The object of the game for each team is to use their words - with as many meanings as possible - correctly and creatively in a story that makes sense. Give bonus points if the words occur in (semi) fixed collocations, phrasal verbs and idioms, such as it's in the bag, a bag of tricks, let the cat out of the bag, turn the other cheek, have the cheek to …, cheek to cheek, cheeky monkey, big cheese, like chalk and cheese, cheese off, cock-and-bull story, cock-up, cock one's ear, satellite dish, dish the dirt, dish out, big fish in a small pond, there are plenty more fish in the sea, a pretty kettle of fish, have bigger fish to fry, fish in troubled waters, crazy like the fox, a peach of a …, peach on somebody, feel peachy, chimney-pot, pot luck, pot of gold, the pot calling the kettle black.
• The team that tot up the highest number of points are the winners.

Activity 2

This activity invites learners of English to view familiar vocabulary from another perspective. You can use the game as an idioms/phrasal verbs acquisition and review activity.

• Announce you're going to do speed dating.
• Get the students to split into two teams of six: the Nouns and the Verbs.
• Prepare two sets of cards containing the words in the table and distribute each set to the corresponding team - one card per team member.

• Allow some preparation time, in which the students have the opportunity to consult good monolingual dictionaries, including a dictionary of idioms and of phrasal verbs.
• If the layout of the classroom allows it, arrange three tables in a row and provide each table with two chairs facing each other. The Nouns remain seated, while the Verbs will move to the seat to their right when you give a cue (clap or whistle).
• Each team nominates three players for the first round, and other three for the second round.
• When the Nouns and the Verbs are seated, you signal that they can put their cards face up on the table and engage in a conversation. Each pair is allocated two minutes, after which they exchange partners.
• The object of the game for each team is to use the words correctly and creatively in a coherent dialogue. Give bonus points for (semi) fixed collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs.
• For instance, if the word on the Verb card is 'can' and the one on the Noun card is 'boot', each of them should try to use the words to reflect their own grammatical category. The Noun could use expressions like ,i>it's in the can, a can of worms, carry the can, can-opener, and the boot is on the other foot, put the boot in someone, give someone the boot, boot sale; while the Verb could use no can do, I can imagine, if there's anything I can do for you, how can I be of assistance, anything that money can buy, can I ask you … and boot out, boot up.
• In true speed dating fashion, the students who are impressed by their counterpart's linguistic prowess should ask for his/her phone number. The team whose numbers have been in the highest demand are the winners.

Activity 3

This activity stimulates out-of-box thinking, the students being challenged to use certain parts of speech differently in a creative writing assignment. Keep good monolingual dictionary, a dictionary of idioms and of phrasal verbs at the ready.

• Announce you're going to play a game called 'All that glitters isn't gold'.
• Get the group to split into four teams that are going to compete against each other.
• Prepare four cards containing the words in the table and distribute one to each team.

• The object of the game for each team is to write a coherent story using all their words and avoiding the obvious: they should be used as different parts of speeches than their main meaning suggests. For instance, up, down, in and out shouldn't be used as prepositions, but as nouns, verbs or adjectives. E.g., upping the ante, ups and downs;, ins and out; This is the in thing to do; an in joke; an out island; the down train; Eventually, lies will out; He downed a few pints before the meeting.
• The most creative team are the winners.

Please check the Expert Teacher course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology for Teaching Spoken Grammar and Language course at Pilgrims website.