The topics of the fifth meeting of English Teachers Training at LBI FIB UI were very interesting: “Teaching Grammar” and “Using Games”. Let me tell you first about teaching grammar.
I said teaching grammar was interesting topic because since long time a go, ‘grammar’ had been the focus of teaching foreign language, though from time to time, the method in Teaching English has developed and offered different approaches. Some people might worry about learning grammar because of the inappropriate teaching method. So, how should teachers teach grammar?
This training session actually made me feel guilty, realizing that I’ve made many mistakes when I taught the students grammar. Well, it was because I didn’t know how to teach it effectively. Based on my experience, it needs extra effort to teach grammar since lots of students argue that grammar is hard, so teachers should create context first to make them understand, including tenses, if conditional, expression of quantity, etc.
Ms.Nadya delivered the materials well, and firstly asked the trainees to give comments on “teaching grammar”. She gave us a provoking question, “Is grammar important?” most of trainees said yes, but some others said no. It was ‘yes’ because to be a professional author or orator, for example, we need grammar. Others said that grammar was not that important because when we talk to foreigners, they will understand what we mean without focusing much on grammar. After a quite long discussion we then agreed that grammar is important because it enables people to carry out their communication purpose and accomplish defined communication tasks.
We then learned about two approaches in teaching grammar; deductive and inductive approach, and also how to convey grammatical meaning. After that, Ms.nadya divided us into peer group and let us discuss the right grammar presentation techniques for the case study given. Actually there are so many techniques in teaching grammar, and each has its own advantages and possible problems. However, we can apply the technique depends on the materials and the purpose.
The second session of the training was using games. Games were needed to break the ice and enable students to more easily understand the materials. Well, this session was so fun because Ms.Nadya let the trainee practice to play the games. This is very beneficial because games are very effective to teach teen students English. Ms.Nadya also told about how to manage the games, and asked the trainees to analyze certain conditions, and which game appropriate with such conditions.
I believe that this training session will be worth my effort and motivate me to teach better and effectively (*)