Few students enjoy grammar classes and hence employing interesting activities help a lot.
Tape and Video Recorders
Teachers have always used tape and video recorders in the classroom. They are particularly helpful for teaching listening materials. The teacher can use authentic tape records or those made with the sole objective of using in the classroom. These taped conversations help students improve their listening skills.
The teacher can also ask students to record their own conversations. The best thing about this exercise is that students quickly catch their mistakes while listening to themselves on tape. If they fail to do it, ask other students to catch the mistake. The feedback they get from this exercise is invaluable. Students will be particularly careful the next time they speak and avoid committing the same mistakes again.
The teacher could also ask students to prepare a presentation for a video. Now preparing a video presentation requires the whole-hearted participation of all students. This method is quite effective in creating engagement. Of course, shy students may find these sorts of exercises a bit difficult. But if a teacher can manage to get them involved in these activities, they will learn a lot and even manage to shed their inhibitions.
Story telling
Ask students to tell stories. This involves a great deal of imagination and the use of different grammatical structures. If you are teaching young students you could perhaps use puppets to fire up their imagination. Children will appreciate this exercise and may even speak without inhibitions.
The teacher can come up with several other activities. While choosing an activity make sure that it is age-appropriate. Adult students will probably not enjoy playing with puppets. Remember that ensuring the participation of all students is the goal of employing these techniques. If you feel that your students do not enjoy a particular activity, try something else. Don’t force them to engage in a particular activity.
