Grammar Without Rules
Teaching English Grammar Through Core Meanings, Images, and Human Experience
Students want to learn sentences to communicate in English.
What will you teach?
In class I used to explain grammar by telling students "the rules". However I found that even after studying rules students still had trouble using the grammar. This left me wondering:
- Are rules the best way to study grammar?
- I learned English as a child without grammar rules.
- Rules are complex and don't always hold true.
- Do my students really need them?
I stopped teaching rules and focused on communication.
But I soon found just speaking is not enough.
Students want feedback and want to understand.
We can do this without rules. Instead of remembering the rule we can help students develop their understanding of what it means.
- Examples (read and hear it)
- Images (visualize it)
- Simple explanations (understand it)
This is a way of teaching grammar without teaching linguistic theory. We can keep things simple and the student can focus on their goal of understanding meaning to communicate.
BOOK COMING SOON
For my previous book, see realgrammar.com