A Journey Through Online
Language Learning
Activities > Grammar
Things to consider
Grammar practice can be embedded in a comprehensive language course or be offered as a specific-skills course. Since it is relatively easy to develop drill and practice exercises on grammar that are self-correcting, they function well in a learning environment without tutor-support.
There are many ways to approach and incorporate grammar practice in your online materials. Grammar topics can be selected on the basis of their occurrence in the text materials your course is based on, as in the case of the beginners' course Lagelands, or take the learner through the basics of the language starting with traditional topics, such as the present tense of verbs or plural of nouns. Explanations on grammar can either be very detailed, or kept brief and refer the learner to other (standard) works on grammar, either online or in print. For grammar and syntax explanations Lagelands, Hogelands and Business Dutch all refer to two online grammars for Dutch, one for beginners and one for advanced students, that were developed by the Department of Virtual Dutch.
Exercises on grammar can be tutor-supported, as is the case in Business Dutch where students email their answers to the text-based grammar exercises to the tutor for feedback (example), or self-correcting as in Lagelands and Hogelands. The self-correcting exercises in these two Dutch courses are all developed using the Hot Potatoes freeware and range from multiple-choice, short-answer, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises.
Example of a self-correcting grammar exercise in Lagelands.
Students also find extra self-correcting exercises, for example on topics not covered in the course, in the online Dutch grammars mentioned earlier. Students like the idea of an on-line bank with exercises, which can be built up over time. Students can be asked to ‘clock’ which exercises they have done and keep a kind of portfolio, which can be part of continuing assessment. In a blended learning environment, this could free up valuable face to face class time for more exciting aspects of language learning such as discussions, oral presentations or collaborative projects.
- How will the materials/course be delivered? Will the focus be on self-study or will tutor-support be a part of the course? And do you have time/availability to offer support as a tutor? Note that if the focus is on self-study, students need to take a lot of responsibility for their own learning process.
- What type of course do you want to offer? Will the activities be part of a comprehensive language course or will they be offered as a specific-skills course focusing on developing (only) grammar skills?
- How do you want to organise your grammar materials? Do you want to offer them in a specific order, or do you let students decide? This will depend on the type of syllabus you are adopting.
- Do you want to offer your own grammar explanations or do you want /can you refer your students to other secondary works (online or printed) on grammar? Note that writing your own grammar explanations is very time-consuming and may mean that you have less time for the development of the practice materials.
Examples
- Grammar in Lagelands, Hogelands and Business Dutch
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