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  4. What do ESL teachers need to know about teaching grammar? Insights from thirty-five years of searching for an answer

What do ESL teachers need to know about teaching grammar? Insights from thirty-five years of searching for an answer

Jan 19, 2024

4PM - In person & Online capacity

St. Basil School
11510 102 St. NW. Edmonton

Online session will be hosted via Edmonton ATESL Tutela group.

Session Information:

Dr. Leila Ranta will present this modified version of the keynote that she presented at the ATESL 2023 conference.


It is widely acknowledged that having a solid understanding of how the various grammatical systems of the English language work is a fundamental aspect of a teacher's expertise. Yet having explicit knowledge of grammar rules at one's fingertips is necessary but not sufficient. An ESL teacher also needs to know about how grammar is learned, how to design instructional activities so that learners' accuracy increases, and how to integrate such teaching into communication-oriented lessons. Unfortunately, this kind of information is scattered across different types of pedagogical resources including teaching methods textbooks, teacher's guides for published textbooks, and academic articles written by second language acquisition researchers. I will present a 'Coles Notes' version of my pedagogical grammar courses, which build upon a conceptual framework of different types of grammar teaching techniques, which I consider essential components of the pedagogical toolbox that every ESL teacher ought to have.

Bio:

Dr. Leila Ranta is an Associate Professor in the TESL program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. For over three decades, she has been involved in research relating to grammar instruction and error correction as well as a range of other topics. Over her career, Leila Ranta has served the academic and practitioner communities as a co-editor of the journal, Language Awareness and as a member of the executive of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, the Association for Language Awareness and the Quebec ESL teachers association (SPEAQ). She was president of ATESL in 2000.

To access ATESL Edmonton webinars, navigate to Tutela.ca and join the ATESL Edmonton Group!

Please email edmonton@atesl.ca to confirm your attendance or if you have any questions.

ATESL Chapter: Edmonton