|
In the Teacher Education program at the University of Siegen, Germany, pre-service teachers training to teach English in state schools take a compulsory course called ‘Grammar Workshop’ which focuses purely on pedagogical grammar.This course was designed with a backwards approach, beginning with the question: What do our teachers need to know when teaching grammar in schools? The course covers only a set number of grammar topics, which are largely those covered in the middle school years in Germany, and explores these from a Form-Meaning-Use (FMU) perspective, thus encouraging participants to use the FMU model to review their own knowledge of English grammar and the grammar they would need when teaching. Differences between German and English are also highlighted, for instance, the absence of the present continuous in German, and how these differences may be an issue in the school classroom. Participants also get ample practice in error correction, not only in identifying errors but also explaining these and their corrections. While we don’t expect teachers to be walking reference books of grammar, there is still some grammar that a teacher ought to know. For those preparing to teach in the middle and high school years, the course is an intensive 15-week program which culminates in a written exam, reflecting the knowledge and skills they need to have when teaching English language in German schools. For more information on how to design such a course, contact me at kuttig@anglistik.uni-siegen.de. |
