Reflecting on Grammar Teaching: Grammar for Teachers

Jardín Botánico, Bogotá, Colombia

Photo by Jonathan Acuña (2017)

Reflecting on Grammar Teaching

Grammar for Teachers

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Friday, August 15, 2019
Post 337

Grammar has been one of those areas in the teaching of a foreign language that attracts many of us language instructors. Using grammar for communication is probably what many of us claim we teach our students so they can use English more effectively in communication. But the definition of what grammar consists of is by far one of those things we really want to state in a few words. Then, what does grammar mean?

The fact is that “the word grammar carries a wide range of connotations” (Crawford, 2013, p. 3). Depending on what part of the teaching spectrum one is standing, grammar can be thought in different ways. That is, a linguist’s definition of it differs greatly from what a language learner understands by it. And what about the language instructor or the curriculum designer’s ideas of what grammar connotes for them? Do all these individuals conceptualize grammar in the same way? Definitely not!

When thinking of the naming of what each persons’ conceptualization of grammar is, what matters most here is what grammar teaching consists of. For Crawford (2013), “grammar teaching consists of two different types of knowledge: teacher knowledge and teaching knowledge” (p. 1). For a better understanding of both constructs proposed by Crawford, consider the following infographic.

The idea behind this visual is to help the reader see what each one entails and what it is expected from us instructors when dealing with one or with the other. Both of the sides stated in the infographic highlight what a grammar teacher is meant to be able to do to help learners become competent users of the language.

Beyond this division of knowledge made, the best way to see why this knowledge is imperative in language teaching is linked to the reasons why native speakers and L2 learners use grammar rules for. Are we all language instructors aware of all these similarities and differences when these two types of speakers are compared? Take a look!

As stated in the visual, language is used for communication. What differs is what we do when we stand as a native speaker of a language and what we want to do as a L2 speaker. Both want to be able to transmit ideas that can be understood by other individuals, whether these are native speakers or foreigners using it for communication. And as explained in the infographic, we just want to be skillful in being able to encode and decode messages for the sake of conversation.