Post 99: Teaching Grammar using the Learning View

Post 99: Teaching Grammar Using The Learning View



When I taught at American Intercontinental University (AIU), I taught English grammar to ESL students using The Learning View where I taught from Betty Azar's Understanding English Grammar. I taught all ten chapters for a ten week semester. Each grammar unit in Azar's book corresponded exactly to a week in the semester so I didn't have to do much lesson planning. I just taught from unit to unit page by page in Azar's book and believe it or not, the students loved it.

My ESL students were from countries where teachers used the Learning View method of teaching through long lectures, rote memorization and textbook learning. Students are expected to sit quietly as the teacher shows herself as the expert on the subject giving lectures. Students are empty vessels waiting to have their heads filled with teacher information. For many ESL students, teaching the American way, the Inquiry-Discovery-Acquisition method takes ESL students time to get used to since in their home countries, they are used to a teacher centered classroom, not a learner centered classroom. I will write another blog post on "The Effects of Previous Schooling of Language Minority Students or ELL (English Language Learners)" in my next blog post. I have written a bit on this topic in a previous blog post called Learner Diversity.

I remember I taught the Betty Azar book so many times that I had every page and every unit memorized and I could write the grammar notes and teach the grammar lessons by heart without looking at the book even once. Actually, the students were impressed that I could teach and write on the board without looking at the board! Students admired my expertise because I did not have to look at notes or look at the book. Teaching at that school was fun. This was a face to face job.

When you teach ESL students from other countries, it is okay to teach grammar using The Learning View because ESL students are used to this method of teaching and will not complain about being bored as much as American students. To be fair, I did interact with my students and constantly asked them questions about the grammar lesson as I taught. I have always been an interactive teacher because for me the most fun part of teaching whether online or face to face is the interaction I have with the students.

Interestingly, most of the ESL class was grammar-focused. I taught 3 hours every single day and I remember bonding with the students and when the class ended, we all took pictures!