Quote:
Originally Posted by johnengteach  Hi,
I'm John teaching English in India. My fascination for English is critical by nature. Why it is said that it takes almost eight years for native child to learn English. English grammarians and linguists are not doing enough to make it easy. It might be fascinating to teach English in big cities in India, but it's not easy to make any headway in getting the positive results in the rural places like where I teach. |
John,
In my first message in this thread I mentioned the approach to grammar teaching in Australia from the Systemic Functional Linguistics paradigm. There has been a big effort to introduce this different approach to grammar in schools in Australia. Functional grammar is well described in "A Grammar Companion - For Primary Teachers" by Beverly Derewianka. This book is directed towards teachers in Australia. I recommend you get this book if you are interested in teaching grammar. Unfortunately, this book is still pitched too high for most of my Japanese students and I have had to 'cobble together' various simple elements I have garnered from various sources. There is a school in Vancouver, Burnaby School, which teaches this functional grammar.
By the way John I asked you what textbooks you are using in your classes?
Cheers,
John Curran