Summary
Highlights
The speaker recounts their early days as a grammar teacher in Japan, where they fell into the trap of Michael Swan's 'telling the whole truth'. This involved giving exhaustive grammar explanations, covering every minute detail, which often led to student confusion. They mimicked textbook approaches, filling whiteboards with rules and formulas, consuming most of the class time with presentations and leaving little room for practice. Students would return with questions, leading to a repetitive cycle of explanations without much progress.
The speaker realized that their extensive explanations were not serving student learning effectively. This led them to read works by prominent educators like Diane Larson Freeman, Michael Swann, and Scott Thornberry. They also took additional courses on teaching grammar and began experimenting with new ideas in their classroom. Reflection on these changes helped them understand that student learning truly happened through output and active engagement with the language, rather than passive listening to long presentations.
The key insight gained was that effective learning stemmed from allowing students to 'wrestle with the language', make mistakes, and receive feedback. This shift in focus from detailed explanations to student output and practical application became the core of their improved grammar teaching methodology.