Spoken Grammar: a Guide for English Language Teachers

Techniques and materials for teaching new items of spoken English

Excerpts from reviews of the course:

Modern English Teacher, May/June 2022: "It will help teachers develop the skills needed to understand and teach an evolving language field. Most importantly, it should go some way to helping language learners have a more realistic understanding of how authentic conversations take place and how they can have a place in them." (Mark Rooney, Monash University)

TESOLANZ Newsletter, July 2020: "Overall I found this a highly interesting course which opened my eyes to many lexico-grammatical points I hadn’t thought about before. In my opinion, taking this course would benefit all teachers of ESOL at Intermediate level and above, enriching their teaching of both grammar and speaking." (Dr Katherine Quigley, School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Victoria University of Wellington)

IATEFL Voices, July/August 2019: "I was truly impressed by the author's knowledge of the subject matter and his clear explanations in the videos. ... I think the information in this course would be great for providing teachers with the 'meat' to design a conversational speaking course that would be both practical and engaging for higher-level students." (Hilary Livingston)

ELT Planning blog, July 2019: "Other things I like about the course: Everything! I think this course is essential for anyone taking, or thinking of taking, a Dip TESOL. It is a great way to enhance your subject knowledge and offers some nice practical ideas to integrate the teaching of spoken grammar into your lessons." Rating: 5/5

EL Gazette, January/February 2019: "This guide would be useful on the electronic devices of all language teachers I know, and at any stage of their career, who have a distinct interest in teaching English as it is really spoken." (Wayne Trotman)

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‘Spoken grammar’ is the term used to describe new features of conversational grammar initially discovered by the computer-processing of vast amounts of spoken English. It includes features such as:

· Tails, e.g.: It’s a great place to visit, Barcelona.

· Vague category phrases, e.g.: Shall we go for a walk or something?

· ‘Spoken discourse markers’, e.g.: Listen, can I call you back? We’re about to have dinner.

If you want to learn more about spoken grammar and teach your students a range of useful items in this recently-researched and evolving area, where few materials are currently available, then this is the course for you.

Master Key Items of Spoken Grammar and Teach Them to Your Students

· Learn 15 new items of spoken grammar.

· Discover how to teach them.

· Build your own lesson plans.

Bring Spoken Grammar Into Your Classroom

Recent research into spoken English has shown us a wide range of new grammar items. What it hasn’t shown us is how to teach them! This course fills that gap by a) selecting the items that are most useful in enabling your students to take part in natural, everyday conversations and b) providing you with the techniques and materials to teach them.

Contents and Overview

Under each of the five section headings below, you’ll find three spoken grammar items:

1. Word order and ellipsis: heads and tails; declarative questions; ellipsis.

2. Emphasis: hyperbole; interjections; cleft structures and binomial phrases.

3. Vague language: vague categories; vague placeholders and quantities; vague lexical bundles.

4. Marking spoken discourse: adverbials; discourse markers; ways of using direct speech.

5. Response language: response tokens and response questions; ‘so’ and ‘do’; synonymous language and dependent clauses.

A typical lecture looks like this:

· A short video talking you through each stage of a lesson, including guided discovery of the concept; explanations of key language; naturalistic dialogues; controlled practice through exercises; and freer practice through role plays and simulations.

· A Word document that you can download and make editable, containing all the materials that you need to create your own lesson. (See ‘Resources’ in each lecture.)

N.B. You don’t need to write down the language displayed in the lectures: it’s all there in the downloadable document.

Practice and Revision

Here are four ways of practicing and revising what you learn:

· Do the student exercises before you look at the answers.

· Teach some of the items before you finish the course.

· Do the downloadable REVISION exercises at the end of each section. (See ‘Resources’ in the last lecture in each section.)

· ‘Test Yourself!’ at the end of the course. (See ‘Resources’ in Lecture 22.)

Sample Lesson Plans

The aim of this course is to give you the materials to create your own lesson plans. To see how I’ve done this for my own teaching, go to Lectures 12, 18 and 22 and you’ll find in the ‘Resources’ detailed ‘sample plans’ with lesson stages, answers to the exercises and student worksheets.

Give Your Own Presentation on Spoken Grammar

At the end of the course, you’ll find the PowerPoint presentation on spoken grammar that I give to teachers. You are welcome to adapt this to give your own presentation to teaching colleagues in your institution or at local conferences/staff development events. (Go to ‘Resources’ after Lecture 22 and download ‘Spoken Grammar Presentation’ and ‘Spoken Grammar Presentation notes’.)

Please note:

1) This course doesn’t deal with other aspects of grammar - verb tenses, for example - that are important for conversation but already well covered in existing teaching materials.

2) Learners using the material in the course should be at intermediate level or above.