Resources for teachers

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Pages and websites to help teachers

These resources are pages are about grammar and the teaching of grammar in general. They are not in themselves resources for the teaching any particular points of grammar. Helping teachers to teach is the key to helping learners learn.

The language of grammar

Every language teacher must be able to explain at least some of the concepts and rules of grammar. Teachers fumbling and stumbling over grammar can be a recipe for failure, and many teachers are ill at ease with even the most fundamental terms of grammar. The amount of specific terminology the teacher needs to be familiar with will depend both on the level at which grammar is being taught, and the needs of the students; but it is safe to say that all teachers, except those teaching solely to very young learners, will need to understand at least the 30 fundamental terms used in grammatical description.

• 30 Essential grammar keywords - the thirty grammar terms that all teachers should be familiar with.
• A glossary of grammar terms -  a very useful page with short explanations of over seventy of the key terms used in traditional grammar, with examples and links to longer explanations
• The Oxford glossary of grammatical terms - A full glossary covering over 150 headwords used in grammatical description, not just those relevant to English grammar
• Grammatical and linguistic terms from UsingEnglish - This comprehensive list includes virtually all the terms used in grammatical or linguistic description, explaining hundreds of terms including many that will only be of interest to students of linguistics.

How to teach / learn grammar

Grammar teaching involves some general skills and method, but also some specific skills and priorities in particular classroom or one-to-one environments.

• Best practices for teaching grammar - a short clear guide to teaching grammar, primarily aimed at high school teachers.
• Engaging ways of teaching grammar - a blog page from Australia, with some original ideas about teaching grammar.
• Teaching and learning grammar by example - grammar is best taught in context, working towards the rules from the examples. 
• Teaching grammar to young learners - A blog page looking specifically young children learning a second language
• Teaching grammar in the EFL classroom - this article takes a short look at different methods, from the old fashioned to the new, via inductive grammar, deductive grammar and the Silent Way
• Teaching grammar online  - Some very up-to-date ideas for teaching grammar to secondary / high school students.

Free online reference grammars

• Online English Grammar from Linguapress - A comprehensive compact online grammar of English - with rules and examples
• Learn and practice English Grammar with Lingolia - Short definitions and examples of the main points of English grammar
• Learngrammar.net - an extensive English grammar website, quite technical.