Ironton, Missouri TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

“Why?” - This is a question teachers often hear, especially those teaching a foreign language to students. As it is often the case with those teaching their mother tongue as a foreign language, grammar isn’t explicitly taught in grade school, or is ancient history long forgotten. Explaining basic grammar to students is extremely important, and in this unit I got some new insight into the common pitfalls and questions of English language learners. “I have many money” – I have often come across this mistake in my students’ writing, but hadn’t considered the root cause. I learned from this unit that this mistake happens because “money” is an uncountable noun, while the word “many” is used with countable nouns. Perhaps if my students learned this reasoning, they would be less likely to make the mistake in the future. I also learned about the zero article; when an article is omitted when referring to something in the general sense. I sometimes see my students struggling with definite and indefinite articles. If the third zero article option was defined to them, it may help make articles clearer in their minds. So sometimes answering students’ questions isn’t enough, teachers can also observe and recognize when a student would benefit from more defined parameters of grammar. Overall, this section gave me a brush-up on my own first language. The specifics of basic grammar can be often difficult to explain for those who were raised with them, but being familiar with it is a crucial tool for language teachers.