Yvonne's Tips For Teacher Blog

Yvonne's Tips For Teacher Blog

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Post 27: How To Make Teaching Grammar Online Fun





How To Make Learning Grammar Online Fun
 by Yvonne Ho
Prof. Ho is a full-time Professor at the American Military University who teaches English Composition, Literature and Foreign Language
Do you find learning online grammar tedious? Do students find memorizing grammar rules overwhelming?  Why not make online grammar teaching fun by turning it into a game?  I actually found out about this game when I was teaching French online.
Example French Grammar Game
French Grammar Rule:  In French, all French nouns are either feminine (la femme) or masculine (le stylo).   The grammar rule being learned was that if a French noun ended in e, or ion the French noun would be feminine, but if the French noun ended in anything else, it would be masculine.
French student one: Is this French noun masculine or feminine?  Table
French student two: This French noun is feminine because table ends in an e.
Students  have fun guessing the gender of the French noun. Having students give each other grammar question posts is a fun way for students to learn this major grammar French gender rule. So far, I have used a grammar game to teach students a grammar rule in a foreign language.
What about teaching students English grammar? Can this grammar game be used for English teachers teaching English grammar online? The answer is Yes, you can.  These grammar games can be used to prepare students for online English grammar quizzes or for online comma quizzes.  Students hate memorizing grammar, but they love playing grammar games to learn those same boring rules.
Example English Grammar Game:
English Grammar Rule:  In this grammar game, students are asked to distinguish the difference between a simple sentence, a compound sentence, a complex sentence and a compound complex sentence in English. Student 1 posts the grammar question and then Student 2 guesses the answer and writes the corresponding grammar rule.
Grammar Game 1
Student 1 posts: Is this sentence a simple, compound or complex sentence?
John eats steak.
Student 2 posts: The sentence, “John eats steak” is a simple sentence because Subject + Verb + Object (SVO) is a simple sentence.
Then Student 2 can post his own grammar question along the same line and so on.
Grammar Game 2
Student 1 posts: Is this true or false?
A dependent clause is a complete sentence.
Student 2 posts: This is false because a dependent clause expresses an incomplete thought.
By encouraging students to quiz each other, students have fun learning grammar and egging each other on in trying to guess the right answer. If a student guesses wrong, the original poster has fun giving hints to the right answer or the student has fun explaining why he/she was wrong. This concept of having students teach each other grammar and quizzing each other is similar to the concept of flipping the classroom.  In addition, the teacher can also play the game and post incorrect grammar sentences for the students to correct; therefore, the teacher becomes the participant, a guide by the side, in a student focused online forum discussion. In the end, students learn grammar and have fun at the same time by playing a grammar game rather than memorizing grammar rules by rote.

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