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ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
CALL: Using technology to teach grammar
1. Main material: Teaching grammar using technology
a. Why teaching grammar is a must?
If you ask people “what is the most difficult thing in learning English?”, I’m pretty sure their
answer would be ‘grammar’. Unfortunately, grammar is not only hard to learn, but it is also hard
to teach. However, grammar might be the second most important aspect in English learning after
vocabulary. Why so?
According to Prof. Bethany Gray from Iowa University, grammar enables us to express ideas
freely even in more complex forms. Vocabulary is indeed very important, but we may run into
trouble when we want to say a lot of ideas and words at once without good grammar. Grammar
helps us combine words into phrases, phrases into clauses, and clauses into a sentence.
Moreover, grammar is important to allow us to express and understand ideas/statements in
English more specifically, such as time references and types of sentences in speaking or writing.
Vocabulary is constructions materials. You cannot carelessly put them together and expect
to build a good house. You need a building design, and it is grammar.
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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
b. How do we teach grammar?
As a teacher, we should understand the knowledge focuses, faces, and variations in grammar.
1. Knowledge focuses -> to create a good teaching instruction
> Implicit: knowledge used when we produce a language/sentence
> Explicit: knowledge used to identify parts of a language/sentence
2. Two faces of grammar: to help create a learning content
> Form: rules for creating the structure of sentences, such as part of speech
> Function: rules for creating a meaningful sentence, such as subject, verb, object, etc.
> Discourse function: rules for creating a meaningful language, such as passive voice, tenses,
etc.
3. Register variation: to make learning contextual
> Authentic languages breed different variations of grammars, such as daily grammar and
formal grammar.
So, after we know all of those things, how should we teach grammar?
1. Guided learning > can make students ‘learn’
Teachers provide students with explicit and structured grammar material and exercises.
2. Exposure-based learning > promote independent learning
Teachers focus on providing students with many examples and practices based on authentic
materials.
3. Communication-based learning > enable meaningful and sustainable learning
Teachers facilitate both explicit and implicit learning using real-life communication activities.
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Author is licensed under
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
c. How can technology help you teach grammar?
Again, teaching grammar may be one of the hardest tasks for English teachers, even with the
help of technology. You need to use your creativity extensively to teach grammar. However, the
technologies below can ease your burden and improve your teaching practices.
1. Browsers and social media
These are the easiest digital tools that you can use to teach grammar. Using browsers, your
students can easily look up words, phrases, or even sentences to understand their structure or
meaning better.
In addition, social media like Twitter and YouTube may provide your students with authentic
examples of grammatical forms and functions. My suggestion, please use social media with a
character limit like Twitter for grammar learning to make the learning easier.
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
2. Grammar websites
Grammar websites are super helpful to provide students with full content learning. However, you
need to mind your students’ proficiency. If possible, you may show grammar websites written in
Bahasa. Here are some of my recommendations:
1. British Council LearnEnglish [https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-
reference]
2. VOA Learning English – Everyday Grammar TV
[https://learningenglish.voanews.com/z/4716]
3. English Grammar [https://www.englishgrammar.org/]
4. Grammarly Handbook [https://www.grammarly.com/blog/category/handbook/]
5. Grammar Bites [https://www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm] – Recommended for teachers
6. Wordsmile – in Bahasa – [https://www.wordsmile.com/]
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
3. LMS
LMS is important to provide students with structured learning and one-stop grammar learning.
You can use Google Classrooms and Canvas for this. Take a look at the example of a Canvas
class material for grammar learning below!
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
4. English Corpus
Corpus can be really good to show grammatical examples for the students, especially in a more
controlled manner. If you use browsers or social media and enter certain words, the results can
be random and difficult to learn. To solve this issue, you can use English corpus. You can choose
these two platforms:
1. English Corpora – COCA [https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/] - Recommended
2. Crow: Corpus & Repository for Writing [https://crow.corporaproject.org/]
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
2. Forum: Designing grammar class using English corpus
Hello again!
In this week’s forum, we are going to design a simple lesson plan to teach grammar using
technology COLLABORATIVELY. Here’s what you need to do in your group (and
individually)!
1. Select a grammar topic to teach.
For example: how to use the verb “help”, when to use “having”, how to use “they’re”,
etc.
2. Plan your activity and the materials using the template below.
a. You must use COCA in your lesson plan.
b. You should choose 1 grammar topic.
c. You can use other tools like social media or websites.
d. You must do this collaboratively.
Template
Instructor/Teacher’s Name:
Part 1: General Description
Type of Course • ( ) General English ( ) English for Specific Purposes
Target audience
• Age group: ______________________
• Students’ educational level: ______________________
• Students’ English Proficiency level: ______________________
• Class size: ______________________
• How class size affects this activity: ______________________
Classroom equipment • My classroom is equipped with ______________________
Lesson Aims • To ______________________
Learning Objectives
• At the end of this activity, my students should be able to:
o ______________________
o ______________________
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
Assumptions • ______________________
• ______________________
Assessment • ______________________
• ______________________
Class time • ______________________
Resources (and links)
• ______________________
• ______________________
• ______________________
Part 2: Lesson Plan
Timing (minutes)
Stages
Interactions Ss/T T/Ss Ss/Ss
Aims
ICT in Language Teaching – Week 5 UMM Bramy Biantoro, M.Ed.
3. Reflection and submitting your lesson plan
a. Write a reflection post on the forum individually about what you have learned while
developing your group lesson plan. [100 words]
b. Then, attach the lesson plan file (Ms. Word) to your post. Every member of the group
should attach their files to their own forum’s post.
Good luck!
Resource and credit
This material is adapted from OPEN Network Course – Educational Technology
presented by Iowa University.