Teaching English Grammar in Context

Learn to teach English grammar as a meaning-making resource, not a list of arbitrary rules, to promote engagement and retention with this course from UCL.

Duration

5 weeks

Weekly study

3 hours

Premium course

What's included?

Discover innovative techniques for teaching grammar

On this five-week course, you’ll discover methods for teaching English grammar in context throughout primary and secondary education.

With this approach, you can employ grammar in other aspects of your teaching for a more unified experience. This engaging method helps your students explore grammar through authentic texts and discussions about meaning, choices, and effects, rather than simply identifying features.

This technique has also been shown to have positive impacts on students’ creative writing and analytical reading.

Examine useful teaching tools from stylistics and more to take back to your classroom

You’ll discover how you can teach your students to apply grammatical knowledge to a range of texts, genres, and styles to keep your activities interesting.

This allows you to combine aspects of both language and literature for an integrated approach to teaching. Drawing on tools from literary linguistics and stylistics, you’ll come away with usable ideas you can immediately include in your lessons.

Develop your knowledge of English grammar alongside academics

You’ll learn from Professor Bas Aarts who teaches English linguistics at UCL, as well as drawing on useful resources from Englicious – a free library of English language teaching materials tailored closely to the national curriculum.

With the new national curriculum requiring school teachers to teach English grammar from primary school, this course will help develop your own grammar knowledge to feel confident in the classroom.

  • Week 1

    Introductions

    • Course overview

      Gain an overview of the course, meet your fellow learners, take a poll on how much you teach grammar, and discuss your current practice.

    • Englicious

      Some background on the Englicious project and the resources it offers for schools.

    • English grammar in context

      Your introduction to what we mean by 'teaching English grammar in context'.

    • Summary

      What we have done so far, what's next and your thoughts.

  • Week 2

    Principles

    • Overview

      A refresher from Week 1, and an introduction to the core principles that underpin this course.

    • Reader response

      Definition and examples of reader response.

    • Meaning-making resource

      What it means to call grammar a meaning-making resource.

    • Texts and contexts

      The importance of losing at authentic texts in context.

    • Summary

      What we have done so far, what's next and your thoughts.

  • Week 3

    Non-fiction texts

    • Overview

      What we can expect when looking at non-fiction texts.

    • Headlines

      How headlines create bias.

    • Articles

      How to write paragraphs with cohesion.

    • Adverts

      How the wider context is used to persuade.

    • Summary

      What we have done so far, what's next and your thoughts.

  • Week 4

    Fiction texts

    • Overview

      What we can expect when looking at fiction texts.

    • Poetry

      How poetry uses patterns.

    • Characters

      Using language to describe characters.

    • Narrative

      Building a narrative that hooks the reader's attention.

    • Summary

      What we have done so far, what's next and your thoughts.

  • Week 5

    Review and resources

    • Final overview

      A quiz on the principles that underpin teaching English grammar in context - and what to avoid!

    • Creating a Resource

      The final task is to create a resource based on the principles we have covered on this course.

    • Conclusion

      Concluding remarks and how to stay in touch.

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