Describe how songs, chants, stories, nursery, rhymes and poems, are used for teaching grammar

Songs are one of the most enchanting and culturally rich resources that can easily be used in language classrooms. Integrates all learning skills : listening, speaking, reading, and writing Adapts to teach a variety of language items such as sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, adjectives, and adverbs

Songs creates a non-threatening atmosphere for students. How? Songs are authentic texts, hence they are motivating : possess prosodic features of the language such as stress, rhythm, intonation which students can emulate. Most songs, especially folk songs, have regularly repeated verse form, with rhyme, and a series of other discourse features, which make them easy to follow.

For young learners, the best songs would be either those familiar to them or those, which have an international nature - easy children songs will be useful. Add motions : dance or act while singing will ensure a lively atmosphere. Add competitive feature in the activity(ies).

Gap fills or close texts Focus questions True-false statements Put these lines into the correct sequence Dictation Add a final verse Circle the antonyms/synonyms of the given words Discuss

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching one by one The little one stops to suck his thumb

And they all go marching down to the ground

To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching two by two, The little one stops to tie his shoe

And they all go marching down to the ground

To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching three by three, The little one stops to climb a tree And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ants go marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching four by four, The little one stops to shut the door And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The ants go marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching five by five, The little one stops to take a dive And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The ants go marching six by six, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching six by six, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching six by six, The little one stops to pick up sticks And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ants go marching seven by seven, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching seven by seven, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching seven by seven, The little one stops to pray to heaven And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The ants go marching eight by eight, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching eight by eight, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching eight by eight, The little one stops to shut the gate And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ants go marching nine by nine, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching nine by nine, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching nine by nine, The little one stops to check the time And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The ants go marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching ten by ten, The little one stops to say "THE END" And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A teacher's selection of a technique or a set of techniques is based on the objective(s) for the classroom. Identify the grammar point to be studied, the techniques to be employed, prepare an effective lesson plan. How would you go about using this song to teach grammar?

Poems, like songs, contextualize a grammar lesson effectively. Since poetry is often spoken, repeated, dealt with, and considered, it acts as an effective tool for practicing a specific grammatical structure. Through repeating and considering the poem, the grammatical structures become more deeply internalized. poems exaggerate the rhythmic nature of the language.

There are three main barriers in adopting poetry in the teaching of grammar especially for L2 learners. What are they? They are linguistic, cultural, and intellectual barriers. Begin with:
- talking about poetry or the poet - Discussing some necessary vocabulary - Reading the poem has been read at least twice, - Eliciting the primary responses of the students about the poem - Practicing the grammar item, students may be asked to paraphrase the poem.

discuss or talk about the meaning of the poem and its relevance. students may also be asked to write a poem about anything they want using the grammar structure identified earlier.

What is your opinion of the above suggested procedure? How can you adapt the above procedure to meet young learners needs? It might not be very useful to use poems for young learners or beginners. using nursery rhymes would be more helpful since they provide more joyful and easier contexts.

How do you like to go up in a swing Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do! Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide, Rivers and trees and cattle and all Over the countrysideTill I look down on the garden green, Down on the roof so brownUp in the air I go flying again, Up in the air and down!

How do you like to go up in a swing Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do! Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide, Rivers and trees and cattle and all Over the countrysideTill I look down on the garden green, Down on the roof so brownUp in the air I go flying again, Up in the air and down!

What grammar item can you teach from this poem? How would you go about teaching it? What are the limitations of the poem (if any) to your learners? How would you address them?

Resources can come from a prepared piece or created by the learners themselves. The teacher can start a story and go around the class letting students add to the story. The teacher should indicate either past or present tense before the story begins. Pupils should add to the story in the tense suggested. For instance, the teacher may suggest a past tense story and begin with Jake went into the woods late yesterday evening. He saw several white rabbits and gave them a chase. The next pupil can continue the story from there. If a pupil adds to the story in the wrong tense, eliminate the pupil and continue with the story. As the class builds the story, discuss those words in the story that help indicate the story is in past tense.

Children learn in many different ways. While some prefer and excel at gaining information through reading, many learn by hearing others speak during activities. Games appeal to everyone whether they learn best by visual, aural or kinetic activities, This is particularly true with lessons involving knowledge that is too often taught by rote, including pronouns. ESL games are an effective tool to help ESL students reduce the time it takes to recall information in English.

The ultimate goal of fluency can only be reached when there is no hesitancy in speech. Tense Scavenger Hunt: Give each student a copy of a magazine or a short story. Ask them to look for examples of the past tense. Have them highlight the words or have them write out a list of all the past-tense words. Pair up children and ask them to compare their lists. Verb Of The Day: Start off each day by telling children about the "verb of the day." Choose a verb and write it on the board along with the past and future tenses. Explain the meaning of the word and use it in sentences.

Games are a way to review a lesson and push students to learn. I Went To... :This game is good for practicing past tenses. Students form a circle. The first student starts by saying, "Yesterday (or some time in the past, such as 'this morning' or 'last week') I went (or ran, or flew) to Washington (or any place) and watched a movie (saw the President, ate a pizza)." only the tense. The difficulty of the sentences depends on the class level.

It's important for children to understand the concept of verb tense early so that they don't fall into bad habits as they age and learn to write. For many learners, the more active they are while learning the better the ideas will stick in their heads. Example: Make a set of posters, one that reads "Today", another that reads "Tomorrow" and the last that reads "Yesterday." Stick them up on a wall as far apart as possible from each other.

Explain to them that you are going to say something which you do now, did yesterday or are going to do tomorrow. When you say the sentence they must run to the poster with the word for the day when you do, will do or did the action. When they reach the poster, have them mime the action you named. Start by including the word for the day they must run to in the sentence, for example "Yesterday I cleaned my teeth". After a few times, just use the verb in the correct tense and omit the day. So say "I will walk the dog," and the kids should run to the the "tomorrow" poster. They will figure out what each one means very quickly.

It is obvious that the teaching of grammar can be supported effectively by using authentic resources such as songs, poems, stories and games. These resources can assist our teaching of grammar while providing a relaxed atmosphere and motivate students. According to the needs analysis of a classroom, several techniques can be integrated with such resources. These activities are student centered, and by employing them teachers give the pupils a chance to express and enjoy themselves during learning, as well as use the reserves of their minds.

How to Teach Grammar With Time Lines | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_8504156_teach-grammar-timelines.html#ixzz1v3G3vyVy Arif Saricoban & Esen Metin, Songs, Verse and Games for Teaching Grammar,arifs [at] hacettepe.edu.tr Hacettepe University & Cankaya University (Ankara, Turkey) Hill, D.A. (1999). Traditional folk songs in class. MET, 8/2:2833 Kim, L.S. (1995). Creative games for the language class. English Teaching FORUM, 33/1: 35-36 Lo, R. & Fai Li,H.C. (1998). Songs enhance learner involvement. English Teaching FORUM, 36/3:8-11