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Hello everyone!

I am an English teacher from Israel. I teach English as a foreign language L2 in 9th grade.
for my students, learning grammar has been very difficult, they just can`t figure it out. Maybe something is wrong with the way I`m teaching it, English is not me L1 as well.
Can you please advise me how to teach grammar in a clear and interesting way? for example the prefect tenses

Thank you

hope you get an answer soon, I'm Interested to hear ideas too.

I use grammar as the primary, initial foundation to communicative competency. I only teach privately.

The main problem with grammar is the way it is traditionally organized & taught: separate, isolated chunks as a supplement to content, and using terminology that may not be practical for certain learners (I teach Chinese students).

For example, perfect tenses are all traditionally taught separately (present, past, future). So of course, most students won't understand how they are related & to use them properly.

I strongly suggest analyzing the grammar yourself, reorganizing it, and to teach it "holistically". Start with the 4 basic tenses first.

Clarity is already interesting.

I'm not a native English speaker either, but i've been teaching English for over 10 years, hope my answer could help you a little bit.

I don't TEACH grammar, I USE grammar (most likely, structure) to play with kids, by the words they've learnt, we use the structure over and over again, you do need to set up different situations to make sure that all of the terms will be practiced.

The reason I don't TEACH grammar is I just can't imagine a 2 or 3 years old native speaker of any language would be told by the adults around him/her that they should put the verb at a place because "the grammar said so".

At least in my native language, we learn Chinese grammar in middle school.

Dear Teacher,
Good Day!

Pls note that just for comparing, `He is too weak to walk' that means `He is so weak that he can't walk'- in the negative sense. But I have myself tried enough to reveal following sentences in comparison to the structures of alternative sentences. Kindly ensure me to remove my confusion about my senses to following sentences.

1. I'm not so desperate as to agree to that. = I'm not so desperate that I will agree to that. (Am I right or wrong??)

2. The word itself is so rare as to be almost obsolete. = The word itself is so rare that it is almost obsolete. (Am I right or wrong??)

3. Global warming is becoming so extreme as to threaten the existence of life in future = Global warming is becoming so extreme that it threatens the existence of life in future. (Am I right or wrong??)

4. John was so clever as to understand the trick. = John was so clever that he understood the trick. (Am I right or wrong-??)

Thanks & Best Regards.
Microctg

Hello,

Your understanding is correct for all the sentences.

Susan

I am totally agree with doomer's ideas and thoughts.

To teach English grammar, I always refer to Edmond Murphy's 'English Grammar in Use'. Still the best after all these years; it comes in 3 levels. I refer to it as the Bible. Since you are from Israël, you can call it the Torah 8)