Teaching English Grammar in Asian Contexts: Making Meaning with Grammar

This book guides teachers, teacher educators and pre-service student teachers on using grammar as a pedagogical tool for meaning making, linking grammar as a meaning-making resource to literacy development. When grammar is meaningfully linked to literacy skills such as reading and writing, there is contextualised teaching of grammar.

The authors thoroughly explore key concepts in grammar, including grammar as structure and grammar as choice. They illuminate these concepts by analysing a range of authentic texts from Asian contexts, showing how specific grammar features are purposefully used to convey meaning. Examples and illustrations of teaching ideas and materials focusing on contextualised teaching of grammar, including lesson plans, activity outlines, worksheets and teaching strategies, are contributed by current teacher practitioners who have tried out these ideas in their language classes. These teacher practitioners also share their reflections on how these ideas have worked in their classes.

As a result, this book is an indispensable resource for teachers, teacher educators, pre-service teachers of English as both a first language and a second or foreign language, as well as anyone who is interested in harnessing the power of grammar to enhance English language teaching and literacy development.

Christine Anita Xavier is a teacher educator and researcher in English Language and Literature department at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She teaches courses on grammar and linguistics within the pre-service, higher degree and in-service programmes. Her research focuses on the intersections between theory and practice in the areas of pedagogical grammar and English language variation and use.

Alexius Chia is a teacher educator and researcher in the English Language and Literature department at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He teaches courses on language teaching methods, including teaching grammar, to pre-service and leadership programmes. Before he joined NIE, he was a Head of Department/English Language and Literature at two local Singapore schools. His research focuses on curriculum implementation, multiliteracies, multimodality and teacher professional learning.