Grammar and Language Awareness
Teaching ESL/EFL grammar in the late 70s and early 80s has been a period of theoretical, teacher centered system. This Audio-Lingualism approach focused more on over-learning through recapitulating drill exercises, resulting in apathy and monotony during most of the grammar lectures. Outdated English books were not encouraging for the learner, but underlined the necessity of learning by hard and provoked for a drastic change in ESL/EFL methodology.
Today the methods for ESL/EFL teaching have changed radically. Different theoretical and methodological techniques are supporting teachers of a foreign language to keep the lesson interesting and satisfy students needs. Communication in the classroom, group work, pair-work,
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Some might be more acquainted with the use of the auxiliary verbs and the conditional, but will find the verb system and the passive voice more demanding. Surprisingly, weaknesses do not indicate one's incompetence or inability for teaching however, they demonstrate the necessity to be prepared for each class in the future. The lack of knowledge in a specific area does not highlight the evaluation of a good teacher, but confidence, patience, organization, awareness of needs, flexibility and imagination, open mind, encouragement and preparation.
In order to be successful, an open mind towards grammar is the first step that all EFL/ESL teachers have to conquer. Encountering the metalanguage of grammar guides the language instructors to: understand sentence structure, understand learning-resources like quizzes, E-books, tools, tests, understand learners needs and grammar deficiencies, understand own insufficiency.
The metalanguage of grammar is inevitable for trainers of any foreign language for creating a symbiotic relationship between teacher and learner. Without acknowledging the importance of the metalanguage of grammar educators might drift to a teacher-centered, audio-lingualism approach, and generate an empathy and monotony in their grammar