Wednesday, April 18, 2012

TEFL World Wiki: It all starts with Grammar

The other day, I was browsing the web for grammar teaching tips when I came across this website: TEFL World Wiki (TWW). As you may know, the original Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia which allows people from all over the world to edit and add information to the extensive articles on the site. Not only is it a great resource to enhance your teaching experience, but it is most importantly a useful learning tool.

Even though TWW is primarily directed towards language professionals who teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) in a variety of international countries, the abundance of interdisciplinary articles and adaptable language activities makes this Wiki page applicable to all language educators in the fields of TEFL, TESL, TESOL, and English teaching.

TWW provides a wealth of teaching resources that are categorized in different themes. The categories include:

Teaching (tips), Grammar Guide, Forum, Employment & Finding Work, Skills, Books & Materials, Linguistics, Glossary, and even TEFAL (Teaching English for a Laugh).

The TEFL World Wiki Grammar Guide emphasizes the importance of English grammar as the “glue” which holds words together and gives sentences contextual meaning. Grammar represents the set rules we use in any language to create and understand meaning through written or spoken modes of communication. Thus as teachers, we have an important responsibility to help our students build a strong foundation in grammar, not necessarily with tedious drills, but integrating grammar instruction into meaningful learning games and reading/writing activities.

If you don’t exactly remember how to explain determiners, the future perfect simple, gerunds, imperatives, modals, participles, subjunctives, or subordinate clauses, the Grammar Guide is the perfect place to brush up on your grammar knowledge!

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