Perhaps we could discuss unusual methods

[Edward B]

I believe vocabulary is the key to good English, but creativity and thinking skills are also very high on the list -- You'll notice I skipped grammar.
I also believe the way to keep students interested is to play a little, and allow them to play with their words. That in mind, what tricks do you use to engage your pupils?

 

[Edward B]

I want the kids to talk about sandwiches so I created this trick. I've been using it successfully for around three years. The kids laugh, then tell me what's wrong with the picture.

 

[jutfrank]

Nice idea, Edward.

I find that children and adults can be engaged in different ways, but using funny eliciting material like your sandwich is always a success, regardless of age.

 

[Edward B]

I really like your idea of learning through games. The advantage of this approach is that children learn new words and improve their communication skills very quickly. However, grammar cannot be overlooked if your goal is comprehensive language development.

I'm in the very happy position of teaching conversation and listening compensation skills. Grammar, also known as the wicked witch of the west, isn’t really my thing. That's handy as, if I'm honest, my own skill are questionable.
However, I spend a little time on basic stuff that matters to the spoken word.

 

[Edward B]

I made this today.
The table is a plastic thing that I bought many years ago in a local hardware shop. It's strong, but it isn't hea- proof, and that's a thing when your ex-wife is using it to hold a BBQ.
A quick cover later, and it looks fine, but it needed a little more, so I used Gemini to design a banner, and off I went.
The first question was why I intend to introduce Shakespeare, so I informed them I didn't want to do so, just make him a normal part of their everyday lives.

 

[Edward B]

It must be admitted that not many students are truly excited about learning grammar.

Grammar is stunningly boring, and English grammar doesn't make sense anyway.
I now speak reasonably fluent Indonesian, and that learning has given me first hand experience as to what a terrible language English is as far as grammar goes.
Indonesian has a tiny fraction of the grammar rules that English has, tenses are non-existent, and there are no gender specific pronouns.
But, and there's always a big but, the English language's complexity is what gives speakers a flexibility, even a wild flamboyance, that simply isn't possible in simpler tongues. You can get away with translating something like The Mayor of Casterbridge into Indonesian without losing too much, but try the same with Macbeth and you just can't capture the same feelings.

 

[5jj]

Grammar is stunningly boring,

There are several members of this forum who would disagree with you, including some learners. I do hope, for your students' sakes, that you don't make your feelings obvious.

and English grammar doesn't make sense anyway.

Few languages outside artificial ones such as Esperanto 'make sense' in the sense of being completely logical.

 

[Edward B]

There are several members of this forum who would disagree with you, including some learners. I do hope, for your students' sakes, that you don't make your feelings obvious.

Few languages outside artificial ones such as Esperanto 'make sense' in the sense of being completely logical.

The kids hate English grammar, and they are very open about it. The vast majority of them are Indonesian L1 (with a few Chinese languages scattered in to make pronunciation training more difficult).
Indonesian doesn't mess around like English, as can be demonstrated with the following:

I went to Jakarta yesterday / Yesterday I 'ever' to Jakarta.
I have been to Jakarta/ I 'ever' to Jakarta.
I will go to Jakarta tomorrow / Tomorrow I to Jakarta.
I'm on my way to Jakarta / I to Jakarta
Articles are defenestrated as well - I ever to museum.
That same simplicity applies to all verbs, regular and irregular.
There are no gender specific or plural pronouns, so 'he/she/they' are all 'Dia'.

Now, the question of fibbing to the kids comes up. Do I tell them porkies, or should I be honest but add an explanation as to why they need to learn the tongue?
I prefer to assume the children are intelligent, and they usually prove me right.

Covid learning loss is a killer for many of my grade 4, 5 and 6 kids so I don't expect as much as I otherwise would, but that issue doesn't apply to grade 3 and below. I only got three CEFR C1 speaking and listening results from this year's grade six, but I want to see about 20% of the class hit that mark when grade 3 rise to 6. Achieving that requires the kids to trust me, so terminological inexactitudes about the wicked witch of the west we know as grammar are, in my most humble of opinions, unwise.

To your assertion about how few languages make sense, that's open to argument. Anything Latin based, or Latin influenced, tends to be full of complicated grammar - That sorts out the romance languages.
English is even worse because of the Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Normans, and Americans have turned the language into a Mashup of vocabulary and grammar from a variety of conflicting influences. Add a bunch of well meaning but foolish academics stuffing extra letters into words to make spelling more 'Latin' flavoured, and you have a lousy language as far as ESL learning goes.
South-East Asian languages tend to be far simpler, unless European colonialists messed them up.
On the down side, an Indonesian Shakespeare would never have had schoolkids moaning about having to learn about Scottish kings murdering people, or his dog hating wife (out, damned Spot), because the language's simplicity doesn't allow for the sort of wordplay that made Shakespeare so great.