Do you want to do grammar practice in English to see if your students still remember everything they learned so far? Or do you want to remind them of what they learned at the very least, because they’re taking a test on it? If this is the case, I’ve got just the tips for how to do grammar practice in English in a fun way during those weeks of the year that workbooks and worksheets just don’t cut it anymore! But if you want to skip ahead, you can also download my Great Grammar Lesson Road Map. This freebie will give you lots of good ideas on how to teach grammar as well! Get it by clicking here.
Grammar practice ESL style
Confession: I love to teach grammar! I believe that it should be part of holistic learning and that all the skills should be combined when you teach. However, I also love explaining the rules of grammar. What I found in the past, though, is that the rules don’t always stick. If students don’t actively practice using grammar in the correct way, they forget how it’s done.
Do you see this happen to a lot of students? I do! But I know I can avoid it by just practicing the grammar once in a while in a fun and active way that sticks with them. Would you like to know how I get my students to retain what they’ve learned?
Learning in context
Students need to see examples of what correct English looks like. Get them to read a set of sentences that are correct to see how it’s done. Or better yet, get them to read texts that are full of the grammar point in question. For example, stories are usually full of the past tense, news article will contain a lot of passive tense, and recipes tend to use the imperative.
After reading, get students to identify the grammar point. Then have them practice doing the same thing that they see in front of them with a clear writing or speaking exercise. Get them to talk about what they did last weekend (past tense) or will do next weekend (future). Tell them to explain what they see around them (prepositions or determiners). Ask them to create the perfect set of school rules (modals and/or imperatives). Get them to use the grammar point in action with content that actually meaning something to them. This will really help switch on those skills for future use.
Grammar practice online is fast and self-checking
I love using online worksheets in my lessons, because they are quick and self-checking, so students get instant feedback on whether they’re doing it right. I love Perfect English Grammar and Agendaweb the most right now. These websites are also great at mixing grammar points together so students can see how they interact in the English language in real life. In addition to these worksheet websites, I also love Boom learning for self-checking activities! You can make your own quiz on this platform, which is very cool, or you can use other teachers’ activities.
Online quiz fun!
Another excellent tool for practicing grammar, and one that students can NEVER get enough of is the online quiz platform. Kahoot, Quizizz and Blooket make it super fun for students to show off their skills, because they can win the game if they do well. It gets pretty competitive actually and the graphics are so awesome. You can make your own quiz with sentences for grammar practice, or you can choose to use another teacher’s quiz. Less work, more pleasure for you!
Games to practice grammar
And now for my favorite thing: I love to use games to practice grammar! Board games are the absolute funnest way to ask students to use a grammar point in action. Ask them to roll the dice and then answer the question in the box they land on with a full sentence. It’s such an interactive game and students can help each other out as well.
Dominoes and memory are next on my list of favorite ways to do grammar practice in English with games. Have pictures on one side of the domino tile and a word on the other and have them find matches in a great big circle. (Prepositions make excellent pictures by the way.) Or have sentences with a gap on one tile and the matching word in on another one. Games will help your students activate their skills and knowledge while they think they’re just playing a game. Which, let’s face it, is the most fun thing to do, isn’t it?
Need some games?
Could you really use some ready-made games for grammar practice in your lessons? I’ve made a whole bunch of them that are for sale in my store. I’d love for you to take a look if there’s anything I can help you with in there! I have resources for prepositions, parts of speech, many of the verb tenses, pronouns and tag questions. Check them out here.
So, give these grammar practice tips a try! And always vary the methods you use. Sometimes do online worksheets, next play a game, and then play an online quiz. I hope doing this brings you and your students joy and lots of awesome practice!
If you want to read about why games are also awesome for teaching vocabulary, check out this post about it!
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