Misunderstanding how to teach grammar to language learners
A commonly misunderstood concept in teaching ESL is that of pedagogical grammar. Native English speakers who are learning to be teachers often find it very difficult to learn the grammar of English because they are forcing their brains to analyze something that they already know and use intuitively in communication. So when they go to teach grammar to ESL learners, there is a tendency to explain the grammar abstractly with just a few examples to illustrate the point. What I say to new teachers is that it is not the logic of the grammar, it is its conceptual use in communication which will help explain a grammatical point to language learners. I found two contrasting pictures – a shell on a beach and a group of shells formed into the shape of an anchor – to demonstrate the importance of meaningful examples in anchoring a concept.
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