If you still teach grammar in your French, Spanish, or Italian classes, it’s likely that you fall into one of three categories of World Language teachers who still teach grammar:

You believe that grammar instruction is still invaluable, and that language students benefit from learning grammar because it helps them understand the structure of the target language.
You are forced to teach grammar because it’s part of your World Language curriculum.
Both!

Personally, I fall into the third category: I teach grammar because I believe it has tremendous value when implemented appropriately, and my curriculum includes grammar topics in every single unit.

Regardless of where you fall, if you teach grammar, you’ll want to keep reading… because in this blog post, I’m sharing best practices for grammar instruction that I’ve picked up over the last decade of my teaching career.

Continue reading for grammar lesson ideas, and click on the thumbnails
below at any time to browse grammar resources for your own classroom!

How to Teach French Spanish Italian Grammar

Use English Liberally

In this blog, I’ve talked about How Much Target Language Should I Use? in the World Language classroom, so check out that blog post if you’re interested! One of the points I mention in that post is that you need to prioritize comprehensibility when using the target language, especially for your novice and intermediate students. Another point that I mention is to consider communicative context; what is the purpose of my using the target language, and does it make sense?

I’m here to say that teaching grammar in the target language—specifically for novice and intermediate students—doesn’t make much sense! If your grammar lesson lasts 25 minutes, I’d say you be using English for roughly 20 of those minutes. Why? Because if you deliver a grammar lesson in the target language, you can be certain that your students will struggle to understand you (especially if the topic is complex or doesn’t have a lot of cognates) AND your communicative context is to teach language structure, NOT to provide comprehensible input.

So, it’s best to stick to English most of the time, and save the target language for a subsequent lesson when you’re trying to focus on reading or listening comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, or something else.

Teach the Fundamentals

Your students are not going to become linguistics or grammarians. They’re likely not going to become French, Spanish, or Italian teachers, either. Therefore, teach the basics. They don’t need to know obscure grammar rules that even native speakers have a hard time using. Give them the essentials. We’re talking…

Nouns & Pronouns
Verbs (Irregular [Most comon] & Regular [3 groups])
Articles
Adjectives & Adverbs & Prepositions

I’m sure you could add on to this list, but these are the most important to start with.

Implement a Blended Inductive-Deductive Approach

When I was in the last semester of master’s program for my Master of Arts in Teaching, I had to deliver a culminating presentation about a teaching topic that interested me, using research and relevant teaching experience to explain the topic. I chose to talk about an Inductive & Deductive approach that I take to teaching grammar. Let me break it down for you:

An inductive approach provides context-rich examples of target grammar concepts (think sample sentences), and asks students to analyze patterns and draw conclusions about grammar rules.
A deductive approach focuses on explaining grammar rules through direct, explicit instruction and then asks students to apply the rules through examples and practice activities.

Both of these approaches have their pro’s and con’s: the inductive approach is great for promoting higher-order thinking and can lead to better retention, whereas the deductive approach is efficient, effective, and great for students with learning challenges.

So, why not blend both approaches? Here’s how you might go about doing that:

Context-based sentences: You’ve probably heard of the importance of teaching grammar in context. Develop 5 or 6 sentences using the target grammar structure. (Pro tip: Include culture or personal examples that students will relate to! This is a simple way to boost motivation.)
- For example, if I am teaching students the verb être/ser o estar/essere (to be), I will have 6 basic sentences projected on my board, each featuring a different verb form.
Sentence Analysis: Have students copy down the sentences. Then, ask them to underline or highlight the conjugated form of the verb (or whatever grammar structure you’re teaching) they have noticed in each sentence.
Pattern Detection & Rule Creation: Have students create a “rule” or find a “pattern” to explain what’s going on in the sentences. Have them write the rule/pattern out explicitly.
- I like to have students complete this step in pairs or small groups! They tend to be much more focused AND accurate when they work together.
Practice: Now that students have analyzed their sentences and come up with a rule and/or pattern, now they need to implement what they’ve learned by practicing.

Provide Students with Ample Practice Activities

Students need a LOT of practice with grammar to achieve mastery. This is my favorite part of the “instructional cycle” - students using what they’ve learned in engaging and authentic ways to further their mastery… while accomplishing a specific task or communicating / collaborating with their peers. So much fun! What types of practice activities can you offer your students?

Well, I like to start off with a practice worksheet (or two! I just photocopy them front/back) that has students implement the grammar they’ve just learned. I’ll then review the worksheet with students using one of the following methods:

Whole-class review: I project the worksheet(s) on the board and have students come up to the board to fill in the right answers. Sometimes I’ll write the answers in myself, but why rob students of the opportunity to write on the whiteboard?!
Peer review: Students work together to correct each other’s work. When students are done, they can come up to the front of the room and grab an Answer Key that I’ve already printed out, so that they can be extra certain that all of their answers are correct.

I like to give a few practice exercises for students to complete for homework. In my view, students really do benefit from a bit of extra practice at home to further reinforce the work we’ve done in the classroom. The following class, we’ll start with a Do-Now related to the vocabulary, check the homework assignment, and then play a grammar-related game.

Prioritize Communication over Perfection

Really important idea here: we want students to learn grammar so that they are able to use the language more accurately, both in spoken and written contexts. However, we should not be setting our students up to aim for perfection, because it’s not really attainable, and we know that students will get by just fine without perfect grammar.

Grammar should be taught as a way to enable students to make more advanced and sophisticated mistakes, NOT as a way to prevent them from making mistakes altogether. Sure, our assessments ask students to focus on accuracy (form), but when students use the language in a communicative context, we want to prioritize communication (content).

Another note on communication: make sure to have students practice grammar in interactive, communicative contexts.

We don’t want students to memorize endless grammar rules and verb conjugations. We want them to use what we’re teaching them! Have students participate in interpersonal conversation practice activities, simulations, role plays, or ask them to write a story using the target grammar structures. There are so many creative ways we can get our students to practice what they’ve learned in new, exciting, and interesting ways.

Be sure to Assess Learning

It’s so important to formatively assess your students prior to, during, and after instruction, so that you can gather data on student learning as well as prepare targeted interventions to help remediate students’ knowledge gaps. Also, you want to tie some sort of grade to their grammar learning, because students today really do rely on extrinsic motivators before they put the effort in.

I often like to use Exit Tickets post-instruction to see how much students have acquired and retained during instruction - I use the data to inform what the Do-Now of my next class might address. I also use Quizzes to gather data on learning outcomes and ensure that my students are ready to move on to the next piece of the unit.