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Wed, 14 Apr, 2021

English Grammar for Kids: The Most Effective Methods to Teach

English Grammar For Kids

 

Grammar is the structural foundation of English and all other languages. And for kids to grow up to become confident English speakers, the lessons must start at a young age. Some kids get an environment where they are talked to in English almost all the time, which helps them understand the language’s natural context. However, learning and understanding grammar rules are equally important.

Teaching grammar to kids is not an easy feat, especially since everyone learns differently. But you can try out one of these different methods and see which one works best for your kid

Interactive Teaching

Teaching English to kids can become challenging if they see it as a task. Learning should instead be made fun with interactive activities that incorporate English grammar lessons. This would allow you to adjust your teaching style to kids’ learning styles. For example, if you’re teaching a class, you can play human jumble words with students. You can give every student a flashcard with a word on each and ask them to arrange themselves in positions to make a sentence. Activities like this combine play with learning, which helps kids remember lessons for a long time.

Other great English grammar games that parents can also play with their kids at home include

Movements

Assign punctuation marks to movements. For example – a question mark to clapping, a full stop to jumping, and an exclamation mark to sitting.

Hide and Seek

Hide a thing and ask the kid to find it with the help of its description in English.

Charades

Ask the kid to guess a word after you do some actions and then encourage them to say a few lines about it. You can also turn this into a creative writing activity.

Deductive Training

The deductive training approach starts from giving students instructions that incorporate lessons of basic grammar for kids and then moving to practice. An in-depth lesson before the reading or writing activity will provide kids with confidence when they encounter the same concept when practising.

While this method may work great for some, it may drive certain kids away from learning. Many people, including teachers, believe that teaching grammar to kids using worksheets and exercises can encourage rote learning in kids. However, an in-depth explanation of grammar concepts is necessary to lay a strong foundation when teaching English to kids. Therefore, you can incorporate speaking exercises or games to turn this mundane activity into a fun one. For example, if you have just explained the concept of past tense to your kid, you can ask them what their friend’s birthday was like or what they did during the weekend. Make sure to encourage them to use lessons while they speak.

Inductive Training

In the inductive training method, you can give your kid or the class several examples of a specific grammatical concept and give no explanation about them. You can help the students identify the pattern in those example sentences and recognise the rule of grammar used in a more natural way. This would naturally help them notice the same concept when they are reading or writing themselves. If kids discover and visualise themselves how these rules work, it would allow for easier retention. This method is also preferred highly by teachers since it works cognitively and has an effect on kids’ contextual memory.

Learning Through Writing

Practice makes a man perfect. This is especially true when it comes to learning grammar. And the best way to encourage practice is through creative writing and reading activities. You can teach English to kids by helping them understand grammar usage as they read or write. And when they encounter certain problems pertaining to one or more grammar rules, give them more structured and detailed lessons.

These days, the emphasis is placed on English grammar acquisition instead of English grammar learning, which means that lessons are easy to remember when kids use grammar rules in their writing. It is important to note that repeated exercise improves retention. So, make sure to encourage writing at least one page every day.

Understand the learning style of your kid, and it will certainly help you enhance your lessons. Hope this helped!