Louanne Piccolo is a native English speaker living in France who is also an English language teacher. As a regular reader and contributor to our blog, she’s written an article that’s all about using graded readers to teach grammar in the EFL classroom!
Have you ever had students who do all of their grammar exercises correctly and score highly on grammar tests, but sometimes make mistakes with the same grammar structures when speaking? If you don’t really know what the problem is, or how to fix it, this can often frustrate both you and your students. Here are some ideas to help you find a solution…
Thought processes during speaking activities
Language learners are naturally at ease when speaking in their native language, because they are under no pressure to perform. This mentality changes when they are expected to speak in a foreign language, because they have to think about:
- The topic of conversation.
- The correct vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
- The reaction and answers of the other speakers in the conversation.
As this list suggests, most of their concentration is taken up by what they would like to say and by trying to understand the response to what they have just said. Grammar takes a back seat when the pressure is on.
How to automate grammar patterns using graded readers
It goes without saying that if your student knows that they have a test on the present perfect tense, they will do well if they sit down and learn the rules beforehand. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for using the present perfect tense in authentic speech, because there is much more at stake. Language learners have to think about more than one tense when speaking, as well as focusing on pronunciation and listening. An effective solution is to encourage your students to automate grammar patterns so that there is less for them to think about during the conversation.
Graded readers are books, of different levels, written for foreign language learners. They promote fluency, reinforce grammar and vocabulary and teach new words from context. They are interesting and are also excellent resources for automating grammar patterns.
Asking students to talk about a story that they have recently finished reading means that they don’t have to think about what they want to say: they simply have to reproduce the story and are free to focus on grammar and any other tricky language structures that they are struggling with.
To get the most out of this graded readers exercise, students should:
- Be familiar with the vocabulary in the book so that they can concentrate on grammar.
- Use the grammar structure that they want to master as often as they can.
- Focus on only one problem area at a time.
- Choose a book that they enjoy reading.
Students who regularly practise talking about books without worrying about vocabulary, what they want to say, or if they are boring the listener, improve their grammar at a faster rate. Have you tried using graded readers as a prop for getting your students to talk in a more relaxed way so that they can concentrate on mastering grammar structures that they’re struggling with? Perhaps you have a different solution? If so, please share!
If you enjoyed Louanne’s article and want to read more about using graded readers in the classroom, make sure you read her blog post all about activities for graded readers and extensive reading in the EFL classroom.