Introduction

According to Chitravelu (2005), there are several features that a

teacher has to consider when planning suitable techniques in
his/her grammar classes.
a) Be meaningful : relate to students own needs, interests, likes
and dislikes.
b) Be purposeful : provide challenge, get them involve and utilize
the new
language.
c) Have a social function : provide opportunities for interaction.
d) Provide plenty of practice : using similar language in different
ways.
e) Use a multimedia approach : use of all the five senses
f) Provide variety : practise new structures using all four skills
g) Encourage active participation


Techniques for
Teaching
Grammar
Games
Songs
and
Chants
Puppets
Stories
Plays and
Dialogues
Nursery
Rhymes
and
Poems
Songs
To enlarge the vocabulary background of children
To develop pupils' listening and speaking skills
To introduce and familiarize children with the target
language culture
To improve children's pronunciation
To teach various language functions
To recall grammatical points
To develop auditory discrimination
To add fun to learning
To motivate children to participate -- even shy ones
To help teachers get closer to their children
To stimulate children's interest in the new language
To create a lively atmosphere in the language
classroom
Songs are a good way to teach in an "Edutainment"
way because they incorporate all the language skills:
(1) Listening (to the song) - Following the song to
determine words.
(2) Reading (following the lyrics to determine the words)
(3) Writing (filling in the blanks)
(4) Speaking (singing the song)


Criteria for Choosing a Song:
1. The song should contain limited vocabulary.
2. The song should contain language compatible with that
being used in
the classroom.
3. The song should present a limited musical challenge.
4. The rhythm should be straightforward and repetitive.
5. Song topics should be within the experiences of children.
6. For primary level 4 and 5 it is useful if songs are
accompanied by actions.
7. It is also helpful if the words of the songs are highly
repetitive and if they
have a refrain: a repeated stanza, between verses of the song.

Kind of songs:
Special songs
Children's songs
Action songs
Teaching structure songs
Telling stories songs
Pop Songs

How to use songs?
Classic gap-fill
Spot the mistakes
Comic strip
Order the verses
Discussion
Translation

Chants
Grammar chants can be a lot of fun to use in classes. They are
especially effective when used to help pupils learn problematic
forms.
Grammar chants use repetition to engage the right side of the
brain's 'musical' intelligence.
The use of multiple intelligences can go a long way to helping
pupils speak English 'automatically'.
The teacher (or leader) stands up in front of the class and
'chants' the lines. It's important to be as rhythmical as possible
because these rhythms help the brain during its learning
process.
Remember that through the use of repetition and having fun
together (be as crazy as you like) pupils will improve their
'automatic' use of the language.

To teach the natural rhythm, stress and
intonation of conversational English.
To recall a grammatical point, i.e., present simple,
past simple, pronouns, questions, etc...
To teach language functions, i.e., asking for
information, giving explanations, etc...
To develop students' listening and speaking skills.
To create an interesting, relaxing atmosphere that
helps students in acquiring the new language.

Sample Jazz Chants ("A Song", in
Hello! )

(ii) Question Story

1. Write 4 or 5 questions on the board.
2. Run through a few possible answers orally with
the class.
3. Then give a piece of paper to every pupil.
4. Ask them to answer the first question
5. All pupils then pass their paper to the pupil on
the left.
6. They all then write the answer to the second
question. And so on until all the questions are all
answered

(iii) Retelling Stories
1. Choose a short story that can be told in
several sentences.
2. Write a title on the board as an introduction.
3. Adding pictures helps, as long as the pictures
can be drawn in a few seconds.
4. Then tell the story, sentence by sentence,
pointing to the verbs eliciting the correct past
tense from the students.
5. The pupils then retell the story.

4.4.3 NURSERY RHYMES AND POEMS
Nursery Rhymes and poems like songs,
contextualize a grammar lesson effectively
poetry is often spoken, repeated, dealt with, and
considered, it acts as an effective tool for
practicing a specific grammatical structure
teacher should first consider the grammatical
structure to be presented, practiced, or reviewed,
then the level and the age of the students, next
the theme and the length of the poem and its
appropriateness to the classroom objectives.

For example to practice adj.
Hippos

Hippos swim.
Hippos snort.
Hippo legs
are rather short.

Hippos ears
are pink and tiny.
Hippo hide
is very shiny.

Hippo tails
are stout and stubby.
Hippo hips
are kind of chubby.

Hippos stay
rather quiet.
Hippos never
like to diet.

Games
3. Games allow the students to "practice and
internalize vocabulary, grammar and structures
extensively." How?
i) They can do this through repeated exposure to
the target grammar and because students are
often more motivated to play games than they
are to do deskwork.
ii) Plus, during the game, the students are
focused on the activity and end up absorbing the
grammar subconsciously
In short, we can conclude that there are many advantages
of using games in
the classroom (Lee, 1995):

1. Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of
the language class.
2. They are motivating and challenging.
3. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort.
Games help students to make and sustain the effort of
learning.
4. Games provide language practice in the various skills-
speaking, writing,
listening and reading.
5. They encourage students to interact and communicate.
6. They create a meaningful context for language use.'

Tips for Using Grammar Games in Class
Successfully
1. ORGANIZATION
Figure out how to organize your class i.e. the
time spent.
For the younger students you'll want to
change your activities every five to ten
minutes because they have shorter attention
spans.
If you don't change your activities, they'll soon
start losing interest
2. EXPECTATIONS

If you notice that your class is getting noisy or
rambunctious, it's time to
change activities. Pupils of this age like to be
active; in order to balance out
the energy levels in the classroom, alternate
between active activities and
quiet activities.
3. VARIATION

You want to make sure your activities appeal to
all sorts learning styles, so even when you are
using games to teach grammar you'll want to vary
the types of things you expect your students to
do.
For Level One pupils, stick to games that use
talking, listening, looking and moving. For Level
Two pupils, you can continue to use games that
use talking, listening, looking and moving and add
in some games that use writing and reading.

RESPECT

To make games work for you and your class,
be sure to operate your class with the utmost
respect - both to and from students.
ROUTINE

Establishing a routine will help the class go
smoothly. If pupils know what to expect next,
they will be more able to participate in what's
going on now.
EXAMPLES OF GAMES
Board games

crossword puzzle

a game of hangman
PUPPETS

Meaning : A puppet is an inanimate figure moved
by a puppeteer to convey emotion, character and
story.
Why and how should teachers use puppets in
their class?
to catch the attention of children
use a puppet (or a set of puppets) to act out
various grammar concepts. This can be especially
useful for learning verb tenses and prepositions

DIALOGUES

there are two broad categories of dialogues
1. Conversation-facilitation
Provide students with useful phrases with which they can begin to
communicate, dialogues are often short - students are encouraged
to memorize them.

2. Grammar-demonstration dialogues.
The dialogues are longer and contain certain grammatical structures
that are to be studied.

Teachers can use or adapt dialogues to:
demonstrate grammar in context
facilitate conversation
provide recreation such as a skit

(b) Plays

- plays give pupils the chance of interacting and
practicing communication acts in different contexts
-they are of primary importance in language teaching.
-The play scripts encourage students to read aloud,
swap roles, repeat and understand grammar in context,
and make the sentences come alive.
-Pupils in pairs or small groups can also be given the
task of writing a play script.
-After they have learned rules and done some practice,
they can undertake the work of creating a play using
the newly learned structure.

Some points to keep in mind when writing or adapting
dialogues for pupils to practice

Use natural language as much as possible (include
exclamations and
expressions where appropriate; avoid a strict question-
answer-question
sequence).
Keep the dialogue short enough so that students can
easily remember it.
Apply current sociolinguistic norms. For example, an
informal introduction is Hi, nice to meet you, rather
than How do you do?
Depict situations in the dialogue that are relevant and
useful to the learner