Grammar Puzzels
Young learners demand very creative approach to the choice of teaching techniques.
As far as grammar is concerned, a child is able to reproduce complex grammatical structures as cliches without realizing the relationship of their elements. When asked to produce his own utterance, he will be at a loss and will not say any foreign word.
Teaching English to young learners has been practising in Nursery school № 223 in Ulyanovsk since 1993. The curriculum for a three year course of English has been worked out. It includes acquisition of elementary communicative habits and skills and some cross cultural information. The curriculum was published in two parts of “Английский язык в массовых дошкольных учреждениях” Ulyanovsk 2000, 2001
But the time alloted to special classes of English turns out not to be enough for proper acquisition . For 5 year-old special classes last 15 minutes twice a week. For 6 and 7 year-olds, they last 20 minutes twice a week to avoid the children’s overwork.
We try to make use of every opportunity to practice English grammar. Grammar puzzles help us to acquire the rigid word order of the English sentence. We play with them in classes and during spare time.
First we introduce our children to the character Mr. Spom who demands absolute order in sentences. This is the exact representation of the word order in the English affirmative sentences: the adverbial modifier + the subject + the predicate + the object, the adverbial modifier.
Then we practice our grammar puzzles that give our children an experience in constructing and transforming the sentences. They study to do the following:
- to keep the order of the elements in English affirmative sentences in the Present Simple and Future Simple Tenses;
- to ask a question after changing the places of the subject and the predicate expressed by the forms of the verb to be in the Present Simple (Foxes are blue. Are foxes blue?);
- to ask a question after adding modal verbs “can, may” or the auxiliaries “do, does, shall, will”. (Can you hop? Do you live …? );
- to ask a question after changing the form of the verbs “to be, to have got” in the Present simple according to the concord (He is five. Are you five?) ;
Grammar puzzles have jigsaw ends that are to fit each other. All grammatical elements that may be used in both interrogative and affirmative sentences are made in two different formats Concrete nouns, verbs, adjectives are represented by “pictures or signs. The auxiliary verbs, the verbs “to be, to have got”, personal pronouns in the nominative and objective cases, the articles, the demonstrative pronoun “this” are given by letters but sometimes we hint at the emotions expressed by the above-mentioned parts of the sentence.
Grammar puzzles are used for mail communication with characters because all forms of teaching young learners are looked upon as acts of communication. Our children either sound letters from foreign characters Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Minni Mouse, Barbie, Donald Duck or construct letters to them.
It is fun for them to play grammar puzzles. Try that teaching technique and your pupils not only in the nursery schools but also in the primary schools find it easy to keep the rigid word order of the English sentence.
Study the following pictures:
