Inductive grammar

What and why?

GRAMMAR may be approached in two main ways: deductively, where students are given a rule which they then practise (that is, they work using other people's deductions about the language), or inductively, where they work out rules for themselves. Inductive grammar teaching is useful for a number of reasons. It can involve the students more fully as thinking people with ideas of their own and thus increase motivation. It can involve them more fully in understanding the language as they work out different rules for forming and using English. It can also help clear up misconceptions they have and make it clear to you, the teacher, what ideas they have about how grammar works. CEWw includes a number of inductive grammar tasks in the Language focus sections.

Practical ideas

• Some aspects of English grammar may be similar in the students' MOTHER TONGUE. Students can be asked to think about how things are expressed in their mother tongue and when they use certain words, etc. before they are asked to think about English.
• Students can be given simple tables and asked to complete them (for example, sentences with 'don't' and 'doesn't' missing). They can then look through the Unit in the book to discover which word belongs with which subject pronoun.
• Students can briefly work in small groups/pairs to work out a rule before you ask for their ideas. If their ideas are incorrect, you can then present the correct rule or give some more examples which make them think about the rule further.