Teaching grammar for communication

Encourage cooperative learning. 
We just said that games make students competitive, so how can they also help with cooperation? They facilitate bonding between students and between the students and teacher. Students need to assist their classmates and cheer them on when competing in teams or pairs. Everyone will pitch into the group effort in order to succeed!
Get students’ pent-up energy out.
ESL learners often lose focus during traditional grammar lessons because there’s a lot of new and sometimes complex information to absorb. Introducing a well-timed game to teach grammar could break up a monotonous lesson and get rambunctious learners to participate.
They may appear more reluctant at first, but that’s because they’re not used to this way of learning. Once they see you, the ESL teacher, having a great time and being a little bit silly, they won’t be so reserved.
Here are the reasons why different groups of ESL students can expect to see unique benefits from mixing games and grammar:
Adults need more engaging ways to learn. 
Generally speaking, adult language learners have a more difficult time learning another language. Language and grammar games will help them learn the relevant points in context.
All students need to keep things fresh.
Learning grammar or any part of language is tiring. The constant learning of grammar rules and exceptions in English requires constant effort from learners. Grammar games, if used wisely, can really break up the monotony of what’s considered to be one of the worst and more difficult aspects of learning any language. In short, using grammar games in the ESL classroom can allow for meaningful use of the target language in the right context.¹²
Younger learners need a purpose to study.
Many young ESL students just fail to see the importance or need to learn and study grammar. To them, grammar is just something their teachers make them study. They’re too young to really grasp the true concept of the importance of grammar, which is why game playing and grammar go hand-in-hand sometimes—these young learners will have no idea that they’re actually learning something very valuable that will assist them with their English knowledge in the future.
Games target young students’ learning potential.
Grammar games will naturally pique a child’s curiosity. They’ll want to explore and experiment with different skills. When young children can move around, they’ll be able to better stimulate their mental capacity. Once this has been stimulated, they’ll not only learn, but they’ll also retain the new information as well.
Dixit is a storytelling board game that consists of colourful picture cards. Students make up stories around these cards. The most important thing here is to assign the task correctly. If your main purpose is to revise Present tenses or Past tenses, ask your students to create a story using these tenses respectively. If you want them to concentrate on ‘will + infinitive’, ask them to look at the pictures and make predictions on what will happen next. In fact, this task can be carried out in writing activities as well. Thus, your students will revise the target grammar and improve their writing skills.
With higher-level students, you can try more complicated tasks. In case you want to revise Conditionals, ask your students to pick up a card and write a conditional that describes it, e.g. “If the seaman hadn’t sailed on that stormy day, he wouldn’t have drowned”. Then students mingle. They show their cards to their new partners and ask them to come up with a conditional. Students score a point if they come up with a correct and logical conditional sentence.
You can download Dixit cards from Pinterest, order them on Amazon or just Google them. Additionally, you can watch the video to find out the main rules of playing Dixit and adapt it to your classes.
Grammar Flashcards (for elementary and pre-intermediate levels)
Teaching online has led me to come up with more and more new ideas on how to revise grammar with my remote students. I have made my own flashcards on different topics of grammar, that always come in handy. Mainly I use them not to interrupt my students to correct their mistakes, and finally, they turned out to be useful instruments to revise grammar. I just show the corresponding card and ask them to brainstorm grammar ideas connected with this special word. Let’s take ‘will’: they speak about its usage in the sentence and word order, make examples with each point and analyse them. Of course, this activity can be applied in higher grades as well. But intermediate and higher-level students may sometimes find it not so challenging.
Storyboards (for elementary — intermediate levels)
Storyboards are stories in the pictures. They serve a great tool not only for improving speaking skills and breaking the silence in the classroom but also for revising English grammar. You just need to tell your students in advance what grammar material they should use in their stories. I mostly download storyboards from Pinterest. But many more resources can be found on different websites as well. You can read more about using storyboards in lessons in this article.
Basketball (for beginner and elementary levels)
For this activity, you will need a large container to use as a basket and paper balls. Each student should use balls of different colours. Ask them questions with the target grammar. They should answer them using the corresponding tense or grammar structure. If they answer correctly, they throw the ball into the basket and score points. The winner is the student who has thrown the most balls into the basket.
Jeopardy (beginner-intermediate levels)
Divide your whiteboard into columns for grammar structures and tenses and rows with different point values. Divide your students into two teams. Each team chooses a category and the points they want to play for: We choose Present Tenses for 25 points. Ask them questions with Present tenses or give a list of sentences with tense mistakes. If they guess the right answer, they score points. Adapt this game to any level of difficulty and include as many categories as you wish.
GRAMMAR TRUTH OR DARE
Get students to review basic skills and apply concepts important to reading and writing with a friendly game of Truth or Dare.
Truth prompts can be considered basic review questions. Example: Explain the debate about the Oxford comma.
Conversely, Dare prompts might be harder questions or silly challenges. Go deeper with application when possible. Example: Give a one-minute monologue about everyone in your family without using any names – only pronouns!
I use two different versions of this Grammar Truth or Dare game: one for students who are more reserved and another for those who enjoy being goofy.
REVISION GRAMMAR AND WRITING GAME
If your students need to revise and edit their writing, integrate grammar. Put together a game board with the skills you want students to focus on. For example, students might look for comma errors, sentence variety, and parallel structure.
When it is a student’s turn, allow him or her to select the square from the game board they want to complete. As they revise their essays, students can color-code their changes with corresponding prompts on the game board.
Worried students won’t find their mistakes? Do a partner or small group format of this game, and spend time working with each group.
Not in the middle of an essay unit? It’s okay! This game can easily be used with sample writing pieces as well.
DICE REVIEW
At the end of a unit, review key concepts with a dice game. They usually enjoy adding a little flair to parts of speech and types of sentences, for instance. Have students play in small groups or with partners to keep skills fresh and add accountability.
If you picture designing a grammar lesson like creating a menu, games and activities are like the side dishes. Students need layered practice that comes in different formats. Maybe mentor sentences are one of their side dishes, and games are another.I create game boards to build in previous concepts so that students are not only reviewing current skills but also spiraling back to previously taught concepts. Dice games can also be differentiated by student readiness levels.
BUILD-A-SENTENCE
Mentor sentences aren’t the only way to get students implementing grammar skills in writing. Ask students to begin with a basic sentence and then add onto it.
For example, let’s say the original sentence we give students is The dog barked. We can then ask students to build on to that sentence, one grammar concept at a time.
First, maybe we ask them to add a dependent clause as a transitional element.
As the mailman approached, the dog barked.
Then, we might tell students to add adverbs for description.
As the mailman approached, the dog barked ferociously.
As you can see, this process can continue for a while. Play this game as a class or in small groups. After each group has submitted a sentence to a shared class doc, study them together. Give awards for the strongest sentence. Tell students they can’t vote for their own group’s contribution so that their bias is removed and they really take time to analyze the other examples.
Add a brain-based aspect by color-coding grammar elements. Find a simplified version of this build-a-sentence grammar activity that you can use to get started here.
SCAVENGER HUNT
Help students identify grammar skills in writing by asking them to go on a scavenger hunt for specific concepts. They can look through a common text or choice reading books. For example, you might ask students to find a sentence that uses an attribution tag with correct punctuation.
Teachers can guide this activity to keep the class well paced. Set a timer and give each group who finds an example a point (in the game, not the grade book). If you prefer, students can play at their own pace. Just create a page of directions with space for students to write the examples they find in their reading. This approach frees you up to provide small group support.
TELEPHONE GRAMMAR
Students will enjoy a light-hearted game of silent telephone, reminiscent of the telephone ice breaker game where players whisper ideas to their neighbors until the reaches the last player in line.
In telephone grammar, the first person writes a grammar concept on a slip of paper and passes it to the next student. No talking allowed!
The second student reads the paper, puts it on the bottom of the pile, and writes an example on the next clean paper. That student passes the stack to the next person, who puts the example on the bottom of the pile and writes the grammar term he or she thinks best applies to the example written by the previous student. (See below – the example also includes a connection sketch.)
The goal is to finish the game and have the original grammar concept emerge. If the end concept is different than the beginning, ask students to talk about why. Exploring perspectives will give you insight as to whether they are confused or if the examples do have multiple acceptable concepts associated with them.
Troubleshooting: If students have issues selecting grammar concepts for the game, determine the topic for them at the beginning. Takes too long to complete? Divide the class into two or three smaller groups to play.