Tricks for Tricky Grammar

C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz

Tricks for Tricky

Grammar
Strategies for teaching tricky grammar concepts
in first and second year foreign language courses

2005 TFLTA Conference

Charmaine Briggs
Cheryl Chandler
Kelly Scheetz
Franklin High School
Franklin, TN
charmaineb@wcs.edu, cherylc@wcs.edu, kellys@wcs.edu
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz
This session concentrates on how to teach problematic grammatical concepts. Although many of
these techniques focus mainly on the concept and sometimes do not work within a context, we
do advocate the use of the target language. It’s the single most important teaching tool in your
repertoire. It’s natural and costs nothing. If it sounds right, it is right. You can start your
students out with oral interview questions for each level. In addition to your use of the language,
students’ personal interviews with each other two to three times a week will keep them talking.

Subject Pronouns
Sign language
Use American Sign Language

Stick drawings (most helpful for formal v. informal)

Visual aids in the classroom (formal v. informal)

Choose items in the classroom such as posters with people, puppets, etc. and have students
address those items using either formal or informal second person pronouns

NOTES:
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz

Subject/Verb Agreement
Conjugating with dice
Preparation: For these games, you will need a classroom set of dice. I particularly like dice
with more than six sides, which can be purchased at a comic book store or any other place that
would sell materials for role-playing games.
Prepare flash cards with the verbs you want to practice in their infinitives. You will want to have
more cards than the students could ever use so that they do not run out.
You will need to prepare a list of subjects to match with each number on the die on a poster or
transparency (see below).
To play: Taking turns, the students roll the die, which indicates the subject they must use, and
then turn over a flash card. They must use the subject from the die and the verb from the flash
card (in the appropriate form and tense) to write a complete sentence. The team that gets the
most sentences correctly written in the assigned amount of time wins. Extra points may be given
for creativity.
Example: Write the following subjects on an overhead or transparency.

0 – yo 0 – je 0 - ich
1 – tú 1 – tu 1 - du
2 – Javier 2 – Jean-Luc 2 - Udo
3 – María y yo 3 – on 3 - man
4 – ustedes 4 – vous 4 - Sie
5 – Carolina 5 – Sophie 5 - Gabi
6 – mis hermanos y yo 6 – mes frères et moi 6 – meine Brüder und ich
7 – las chicas 7 – les filles 7 – die Mädchen
8 – el profesor 8 – le prof 8 – der Lehrer
9 – mis padres 9 – mes parents 9 – meine Eltern

Spanish: Students roll a 7 and select a flash card that says hacer. They write:
Las chicas hicieron la tarea.
French: Students roll a 4 and select a flash card that says faire. They write:
Vous faites le gâteau.
German: Students roll a 5 and select a flash card that says hören. They write: Gabi hört gern
Musik.
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz

Two target language verbs with one English meaning

Ser v. Estar, Saber v. Conocer, Savoir v. Connaitre, Wissen v. Kennen
Flash cards & dice (adapted from the Toys and Tricks for Teachers’ Ser o Estar: ¡Esa es la
pregunta!) Use the subjects listed above.
Ser & Estar: Flash cards contain statements such as puertorriqueño/a, contento/a, de Madrid,
en el colegio, maestro/a, etc. Students roll the die for the subject and select a flash card. To
write the sentence, students must decide between ser and estar.

“To know” Roll the die once to choose the subject and a second time to choose an ending. To
create a correct sentence, students must choose between savoir and connaître, saber and
conocer, or wissen and kennen..

0 – le meilleur prof de français 0 – a la mejor profesora de español

1 – la réponse 1 – la repuesta
2 – Paris 2 – Madrid
3 – que Québec est la capitale de Québec 3 – que San Juan es la capital de Madrid
4 – la sœur de Marc 4 – la hermana de Marcos
5 – parler français 5 – hablar español
6 – les œuvres de Monet 6 – las obras de Dalí
7 – que Prévert est poète 7 – que Neruda es un poeta
8 – nager 8 – nadar
9 – M. Dupont 9 – al Sr. Garcia
Students roll a 2 and a 6. They write: Students roll a 4 and a 7. They write:
Jean connaît les oeuvres de Monet. Ustedes saben que Neruda es un poeta.

0 – die beste Lehrerin

1 – die Antwort
2 – München
3 – dass Berlin die Hauptstadt von Deutschland ist
4 – die Schwester von Gerd
5 – die Deutsche Sprache
6 – die Werke von Grass
7 – dass Goethe Dichter war
8 – schwimmen
9 – Herr Schmidt
Students roll a 4 and then a 9. They write :
Die Schwester von Gerd kennt Herr Schmidt.
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz

Partitive
Use white boards to have students illustrate the partitive. Start with une banane, de la banane,
des bananes, and pas de banane. This is a difficult concept for our students, so just tell them to
remember the banana pictures.

Prepositions
Sign language to demonstrate location and direction.
TPR and props
Simplistic maps of neighborhoods

Word order
Magnetic words or flash cards
Have students manipulate magnetic strips on boards or hold flash cards and move into the correct
sentence position to practice verb second and time, manner, and place (German), noun/adjective
placement, or questions and answers.
Questions

Commands
Begin using the first day of class (TPR, etc.)
Directions (practice prepositions also)
Collect tourist maps of cities where the target language is spoken and your own city
Create a city in your own classroom
Recipes
Have students write recipes for culturally authentic foods (and have a food day!)
Spanish irregular tú commands
“Di sal pon sé ve ven haz ten?”
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz

Reflexive verbs
Total Physical Response
Act out your morning or daily routine using props. Narrate as you go along. Then have students
act with you. Build until students can speak and describe what they do (1st person), what you do
(2nd person formal), and what their classmates do (2nd or 3rd person).

Past tense complications

Avoir v. Être and Haben v. Sein
Difficult irregulars
Soccer verbs: On a soccer ball, label each square with a subject. To play toss the ball to a
student as you call out a verb. The student must conjugate that verb using the subject that his or
her thumb landed on.
Conjugating with dice: See above, use flash cards in the attachments
Songs
Mnemonic devices: See attachments

Preterite / Compound past v. Imperfect

Most of these ideas are adapted from the Toys and Tricks for Teachers’ Past Tense Kit
Color coding
A great tool for visual learners. When writing on the white board, overhead projector, or even
computer presentations, consistently use red for the pretérito or passé compose (it stopped in the
past) and green for the imperfect (which was ongoing in the past). You could also use yellow
(caution) for cases or words that often work both ways.
Folders
Have students create a “past tense folder.” The outside can be used for reasons and notes on the
past tenses and the inside can be used as a guide for forming the verbs (list verb endings,
irregular verbs, rules, etc.) Encourage students to keep all relevant notes and work within the
folder. They can carry their folder on to upper levels!
Reasons & Signal words
Give students as many clear-cut rules as you can. Provide students with signal words that
usually indicate the use of one tense or another.
“Sanity Checks”
Have students identify the verbs in complete sentences, identify the tense, and write a reason
(interruption) or translation (was writing) that the tense was used. Students can also look at
sentences in English and translate the verb into the correct tense.
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz

General ideas for various grammatical concepts

Gap texts
Gap texts build not only vocabulary retention but also challenge what your students know about
grammar. Adding two to three gap texts underneath a daily idiom will make a big difference
over the course of a year. Simply construct sentences with one missing part of speech: noun,
verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, etc. You can work together with your students to look at
possible words that work, and/or you can ask students to solve in groups, pairs, or individually.
Students may work for prizes, points, or grades. Texts should be created from one of several
areas:
• What you naturally say in the target language to your students daily
• What you are learning in the text
• What you are learning from other sources
Students will acquire more vocabulary and retain more grammar by thinking about it daily. Even
if you have not taught a concept formally, you will be surprised at the results you get. Again, the
more your students listen to you, the more they will pick up. Consistency will help you turn your
students into Mad Lib Experts in the 3rd and 4th year levels.
Here’s how: If you do not use Power Point, use a Sharpie on an overhead transparency. Write
one idiom and a few gap texts. Use a Vis-à-vis marker to fill in missing words when going over
with students. Then wipe off for use in the next class. The goal is to create a notebook of
grammar challenges for use with each grade level.
Instructional time: 5-10 minutes daily

Idioms
Idioms are useful in head-start or bell activities. Students are immediately focused on grammar
and vocabulary. There is no better way to tackle the nuances of the target language. Have
students look up words and guess the figure of speech in English. It’s really fun, and you can
review previously taught grammatical concepts by asking students to identify and explain those
concepts as they arise. It’s a one-a-day prescription for grammar retention.

Songs
From nursery rhymes, to classical music, to heavy metal, songs will not only help your students
learn vocabulary and grammar, but they will help students learn by association. Songs are
invaluable mnemonic devices that make learning fun. Use songs to teach everything about the
cases. They are particularly useful in teaching prepositions and verb conjugations.
You can also use popular songs from the target culture. Provide students with the lyrics and
allow them to listen to the song daily for 5-10 class days. Then quiz the students by giving them
the lyrics with key words (such as all the verbs in the past tense) blanked out. Students listen to
the song and complete the cloze activity. This helps students with pronunciation and they can
see how the grammatical concept is used in “real life.” Students also enjoy the five minutes of
pop-culture in the target language. To vary, you could provide students with a multiple-choice
cloze activity in the beginning instead of simply giving them the lyrics.
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz
Flashcards
Teacher-constructed and student-constructed flash cards should be large enough to see and read.
Large and colorful symbols and words attract visual learners. In addition, grammar posters on
the wall are useful year round. Cover up only on test or exam days. It’s your Periodic Table.

Games
From white boards for each student, to board runs, to whatever kind of simple game you can
think of, allow students to “do” the grammar. Stick with two to three games that your students
love. It will save you time in lesson planning, and it will keep them happy. Getting them out of
their seats is always a plus.

Toys & props

Toys can never be underestimated, no matter the age of the student. Show the cow jumping over
the moon or the chair being placed on top of the table. Start collecting little bags of plastic toys
for students to use in groups.

NOTES:
 Tricks for Tricky Grammar
C. Briggs, C. Chandler, K. Scheetz

Songs for the Spanish Classroom – level 2

“El 28” La Oreja de Van Gogh Regular preterite

“La Historia de Juan”
“Pobre Juan”
“En el muelle de San Blas”
“El 20 de enero”
“Eres mi religión”
“Puedes Contar Conmigo”
“Un Día Normal”
Juanes Preterite
Maná Preterite & Imperfect
Maná (level 3 vocab?) Preterite & Imperfect
La Oreja de Van Gogh Preterite & Imperfect
Maná Preterite, imperfect, future, present
La Oreja de Van Gogh Infinitives
Juanes Future

Mnemonic Devices for irregular preterite tense verbs in Spanish

Sentences that use both the irregular stem and the English meaning:
I’ve been running anduv been walking.
Dij you tell him the secret?
The hic was good at making “coon soup”.
The baby was able to eat pudding
I want a quis!
(These are the result of a project I assigned honors students one year.)

Sentences that help students remember the irregular stem and the Spanish meaning:
Traje un traje.
Yo puse el gato en la mesa.
 Flashcards to practice irregular verbs

faire être aller avoir

vouloir venir pouvoir boire

croire voir lire dire

écrire savoir connaître mettre

prendre manger payer dormir

partir sortir servir placer

nehmen springen haben sein

sprechen denken bringen bleiben

geben gefallen beginnen finden

wissen fliegen trinken singen

lesen tun sitzen laufen

gehen müssen mögen kommen

hacer dar tener estar

querer venir traer traducir

llegar producir ser ir

poner saber andar decir

poder almorzar caer sentir

leer sacar pedir dormir