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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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.