I interviewed a teacher at our high school who is working with ELLs when

they first come to the school. She has also taught adult ESL classes for a
long time.

1. What role does grammar play in your classroom? What

percentage of the time do you spend on grammar?

It depends on the level. In lower levels, the focus is more on vocabulary

building and speaking and listening with grammar embedded, but not
directly taught so much.

For example, I would use the simple present tense structure for questions
about routine such as Do you live ? Do you walk to school? Do you
take the bus? Then the grammar structure would be pointed out i.e. I, you,
we, they ____(verb) and he, she, it ____s (verb + s).

In mid to higher level classes, more focus is given to grammar, especially

finer points that students dont pick up intuitively such as use of gerunds
and infinitives and prepositions that go with them (e.g. I enjoy swimming. I
like to swim. I like swimming. I am interested in swimming.)

Its hard to calculate a percentage of time as it varies so much. Roughly I

would say 10-20% (with the rest for the 4 main skills of reading, writing,
listening and speaking).

2. Once students have learned a specific pattern, how long does it

take for them to correctly use it in everyday writing?

That depends greatly on the student their capacity to learn a language

(their attention to detail), their knowledge of their L1 and how similar their
L1 is to English. Often they can do it correctly in specific exercises, but
make more errors when they are writing free-style and are less focused on
it.

3. What are your views about errors in L2 writing? How do you

manage these in the classroom?

Of course errors will always happen, but they also do for native speakers
espescially for spelling and even grammar.

It is hard for me not to correct every error, but depending on the level and
the purpose of the writing, I focus on correcting anything that has been
taught or is the focus of the lesson. They cant be expected to be correct
with what they dont know/havent been taught or exposed to yet.

I also stress that errors are the way to improvement and are not a sign or
measure of failure.

As for how to manage errors in writing, usually I just underline or use a

marking system (e.g. double underline for a missing capital letter or a
carrot for a missed word or sp. for spelling) so that they have to do the
corrections and learn from their mistakes.

I also have students create their own personalized spelling list (a chart in
alphabetical order) to add and refer to.

4. In your experience, what percentage of students plateau at a

certain level no matter what you do to try and move them ahead?

Most (especially adults or those with a lower or less formal level of

education). However, from what Ive seen of teenagers, more of them are
able to get beyond the plateau level.

5. How long does it take for students to really understand the rules
of grammar when first taught? Are ELLs better at understanding
these rules than their L1 peers (since the peers often acquired the
language without thinking about grammatical rules)?

Again I would say it largely depends on their understanding of their own L1

and of grammar in general. There is a lot of research that supports the
importance of maintaining the L1 while learning English.

6. Do you believe that any subject teacher should correct mistakes in

grammar? Should they just correct mistakes, or also explain the
rule(s)?

It depends on the context the students awareness of the grammar, the

ability to be corrected without feeling shame or embarrassed. If it impedes
communication/understanding, then it needs to be clarified/corrected (e.g.
tenses is the student talking or writing about the present, past, or future?)

In general, I think they should just correct the mistake and only explain the
rule if asked and they know how to.

7. What is your best piece of advice when it comes to teaching

grammar to ELLs?
Establish a classroom environment where effort and mistakes are praised,
not criticized.

Keep the lessons short and specific.

Always review, then build on.

Imbed the grammar in real-life context (e.g. the Side by Side text series is
great for putting grammar into communicative practice with questions and
answers in pairs).

Remind ELLs that even (and especially) native speakers make mistakes too
(e.g. with object pronouns and past participles) and that spoken language is
more flexible than written.

Observations:

My colleague has been teaching ELLs for a long time, and I find it
rewarding to see that her answers correspond with everything we have
learned in this course. I was very happy to hear that she agrees that she
agrees about the importance of students maintaining their L1 and in our
conversation after the official interview she told me that the lets students
use their L1 regularly. The personalized spelling list also includes their L1. I
believe that such a list is a great idea and since its electronic, its easy to
add to it and maintain the alphabetical order. Back when I moved, I had
little vocabulary cards, which would have been easy to keep in such an
order, as well (I had them organized by category). I can also understand my
colleagues answer about correcting mistakes. While it is most important to
correct mistakes of things that students have not learned, it is hard to leave
mistakes in written work, especially when it is a bigger project (opposed to
a journal entry). While it looks discouraging to get a marked-up page back,
it is also the best way to learn. I was often unsure about some of the things I
wrote. If it got corrected, then I knew how to make it better. If my teacher
would have left mistakes in my written work, it would have let to more
mistakes. I often went back to look at my work and see how I had worded
something similar before. If it had not been corrected the first time, I would
have made the mistake again. After a while I got used to a lot of correcting,
and it did not bother me anymore. Maybe colour coding mistakes that
students should have known about and others that they had not learned
about yet, would be a way to encourage students more (although this is
more work for the teacher, of course). I also agree with my colleague that
spoken language is more flexible, and I really like that she keeps reminding
her ELLs that native speakers make many mistakes, as well.

Grammar resources:

http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/

This site is linked to the Frankfurt Internatioal School in Germany, which

is also an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School. There are many
little grammatical games organized into different categories, like tenses,
questions, irregular verbs, word order, etc.

Side by Side text series (as mentioned by my colleague) which includes

grammar, as well as vocabulary and listening exercises, etc. For more
information about them, visit: http://pearsonerpi.com/en/elt/integrated-
skills/side-by-side-3-e