"Teaching Grammar Creatively" is a workbook, written by Günter Gernegross et.al., for teachers concerning a new approach to teaching grammar as a second language. After describing their approach, there will be a closer look at the unit dealing with adjectives and adverbs to see how the theory looks like in practice. In the end, there will be a small summary in which there will be shown the positive and negative aspects of this teaching method.
Teaching Grammar Creatively
1. Introduction
Teaching Grammar Creatively is a workbook, written by Günter Gernegross et.al., for teachers concerning a new approach to teaching grammar as a second language. After describing their approach, there will be a closer look at the unit dealing with adjectives and adverbs to see how the theory looks like in practice. In the end, there will be a small summary in which there will be shown the positive and negative aspects of this teaching method.
2. Approach
According to the introduction of the book, the aim of the authors is “to stimulate the imagination, humour, and creativity” (Gernegross p.5) of the learners by providing lessons which do not only give pure information but involve the learners in a process of exploration. This will be explained later.
The grammar lessons are divided into two sections, called Language Awareness Activities and Creative Grammar Practice. Even though these sections are mainly used together, they are self-standing and can be used separately. Should you as a teacher like one part but think of the other one as unfitting for what you intend to do, you can just drop that one and only use the one you feel comfortable with.
Teaching Grammar Creatively works without explicit grammar rules like class-books normally do. The idea behind it is that especially younger learners need to learn more subconsciously. This is called Awareness-raising, meaning the students discover the language and find the rules for themselves while the teacher only provides a frame in which the learners work. This learner-led method is said to be more efficient because these self-done discoveries of rules lead to a reorganisation of the learner’s knowledge. Thus the learners have a higher possibility to remember the rules and apply them correctly.
The ability of applying rules subconsciously, rather than knowing them by heart, is the main goal of the whole approach.
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- Quote paper
- Florian Biehl (Author), 2010, Rezension: "Teaching Grammar Creatively", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/268310
