Inside-Out Grammar

There’s an epidemic in the world of English teaching. Though a cure exists, many teachers swear the cure won’t help. In fact, they claim that the epidemic is the cure. It’s an upside-down way of thinking, for sure. What is this epidemic? It’s the belief that grammar teaching should drive language learning and that grammar should be the hottest pursuit of the language learner. Many classrooms around the globe start with grammar, end with grammar, and then repeat the whole process again. Whether instructors are consciously choosing this manner of instruction or not, these English language teachers are resorting to archaic methodology, rather than benefiting from the last 60 years of progress in our field.

Every semester, I have students come into my office demanding that they have no use for the real-life conversations their teachers are including them in, and beg for more grammar.  Of course, many of them can’t even articulate their points in understandable English. Some of them even bring in translators to help them state their case. While I believe in grammar instruction, I firmly believe that grammar should be introduced as organically as possible, birthed within the context of authentic language. I call this “Inside-Out Grammar”. Basically Inside-Out Grammar (IOG) looks inside the individual first to the language that is already being produced, and then uses that language to take a look at grammar.

Let me give you one example of how I employ this in my grammar classroom: I do an activity with my Grammar class every semester revolving around UNESCO World Heritage Sites and passive voice. In this activity, I have each student choose a UNESCO World Heritage Site that they are interested in (there are 936 to choose from), and they research all about that site through the internet. Then, I have each student summarize what they’ve learned in a power point presentation and a speech. Throughout the research and development process, I guide each student into recognizing and employing passive voice. Through this activity, IOG is being employed because the students are motivated to be researching a site they are interested in, and they are using articles they read as well as their own summaries as a springboard into the passive voice.

If your English classes are centered around grammar drills and memorization of grammar rules, you have it reversed. Start with what students are ingesting and producing, and then use that authentic language to identify and clarify grammar points. By using Inside-Out Grammar, you will create language learners rather than rule followers.