Hey everybody! Next in the 3 Quick Tips series, a video about little tricks you can play on your students to make them less negative and more open to grammar lessons.
Teaching grammar is never the highlight off any lesson. Well, that's not entirely true, it can be with the proper presentation, but still, the vast majority of students actively prefer other components. In my experience, the introduction to a new unit and practical skills are always the winners. This is rooted in the fact that grammar lessons are rarely engaging and productive but it also has to do with an innate fear of the mechanics of language. So, here are some clever little hacks that will help take the edge off any grammar lesson with young learners.
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Tip 1: Tell them it's hard when it's easy
Many students, especially younger ones, tend to start a grammar lesson with apprehension. That's because they think it will be difficult for them to learn. So, when you're doing grammar tasks, find a moderately easy one and try to convince them that's it's actually much harder than it looks. This way, they will feel greater achievement when they complete it, and this will give them a huge confidence boost that will help you through the lesson.
Tip 2: Tell them it's easy, when it's hard
When you move on to the next task, find the challenging one and tell them it's easier than it looks. Use words like: "Oh, please, you can do this, you did the other one and that was actually hard!". So this will help them start with a positive mood and the confidence that they can really do it. Make sure you give them some gentle help along the way and when they complete it, they will be very satisfied with themselves!
Tip 3: Find a practical use
It's always important to use what we have just learnt to do something real and practical, not only to consolidate the new knowledge, but also to convince ourselves it was worth learning! So, at the end of the lesson, try to find them a practical use of their newly acquired grammar skill. For example, yo can tell them that, now that we know the future tenses, we can write someone's horoscope, or we can make a weather report! Always have them try it out in new creative and interesting ways. This will make them feel they have actually learnt something useful and not something completely theoretical.
Those were my 3 Quick Tips for making grammar less scary for younger students. Try them out, and remember: Try Something New, Every Week!
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