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What is Grammar?

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What is Grammar?
What is Grammar? & Language Awareness




Learning grammar in school was particularly a good experience for me. I had the privilege to have a wonderful English grammar teacher named Mrs. Rivera. I’d like to mention that I’ve lived in Puerto Rico for all of my life (recently moved to Chile) and Spanish is the main language spoken in the island. English is taught mainly as a second language in most schools around the country. Despite that fact, English wasn’t my native language. I learned it thanks to a specialized bilingual program that most private schools offer. Mrs. Rivera was a very disciplined teacher so she didn’t succumb to explaining things to us in Spanish. Because of this, English grammar wasn’t the easiest of subjects but in time I became more and more proficient at it.

 Preparation is always needed when it comes to being ready to teach in the ESL/EFL classroom. As a native or expert speaker you’ll probably know what the correct form is even if you don’t know the rules. During the preparation process the teacher’s responsibility is to find out what he/she doesn't know in a good grammar reference book if the teacher’s handbook doesn’t already explain it. 

 On the other hand you don’t need to know all the grammar of the English language to teach it. One also learns by doing. As you gain experience, your grammar teaching skills will improve. Students will also uncover the rules and patterns of English for themselves if you utilize some effective grammar techniques, such as Guided Discovery. These techniques will encourage students to be actively involved in their learning process while replacing traditional grammar lecturing.

 Grammar describes the structure of English, as in the way it fits together to communicate meaning. There are two ways to define grammar. First, descriptive grammar rules which are the structures children learn through observation and their own trial-and-error efforts at communication. Second, people then standardize and

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