Inductive Grammar Lesson

What is an inductive grammar lesson?

How do we create one?

In the inductive grammar lesson, we first give students input (examples) of how a grammar works and then ask them to figure out the rule based on the examples they have seen. In other words, in this type of grammar lesson we attempt to teach our students about a grammar without directly explaining the rule in the beginning of the lesson. It is very important to resist temptation to explain the rule because the whole point of the inductive process is to discover something based on patterns discerned through experience.

The inductive grammar lesson lets the students get input (experience) regarding the grammatical structure first through a topic or theme of interest. Then, after being exposed to the structure about seven to ten times, the students natural thinking processes see the patterns and draw conclusions.

How do we create one?

The challenge for the teacher is to choose a topic that will naturally expose the students to repeated use of the structures. For example, if the teacher wanted to expose the students to many examples of simple present tense, she might come up with a theme like The Habits of Highly Effective People. The students could listen, read and discuss all the good habits a person possesses, and this would expose them to the simple present tense.

Example Dialog

Teacher: "Today, we are going to talk about something really important -- successful people...Can you name some really successful people in the world? "

Student 1: Um, yes..my sister!

Student 2: My father!

Teacher: Have you ever wondered what makes them successful?

Student3: Yes, I think it is the things that they do. They work hard.

Teacher: So what do your parents do everyday to be successful?

Student 3: They going to work!

Teacher: I see -- it's true they GO to work everyday. What else? What about famous people? Oprah? What do you think she does?

To build on the engagement phase, the teacher will need to continue with the topic and continue to give students exposure to the target grammar. Here is an example text that could be used in the lesson to build on the engagement phase of the lesson while also incorporating reading into the lesson.

Oprah

Every day she wakes up and exercises. After she exercises, she reads the morning paper. She always tries to eat a good breakfast. In the afternoon, she goes to work and makes sure to greet all her employees with a friendly smile. Because she believes that good health comes before work, she takes a one hour workout during the workday. She does both stretching and aerobic exercises.

Oprah's Employees

Because Oprah respects her employees, they work very hard for her. They feel happy because they get a good salary and they enjoy a three-week holiday every year. Also when the employees do a good job, they receive a bonus in their salary.

Giving multiple examples is critical as it gives the students the opportunity to see the patterns. To draw some attention to the grammatical structure, the teachers might use italics or boldface during the input stage of the inductive lesson.

As you can see the singular form of simple present tense is repeated several times in the paragraph of Oprah's good habits, giving the students multiple examples of the grammar. This is followed by the short paragraph about the employees to give some input for the plural form of simple present tense. This is an example of a reading that shows the target language in context. However, speaking, listening and writing activities are also good options. For instance, a text like this could be followed by a listening activity about another successful person who has good habits, and this would further give more examples of the target grammar.

Or, the students could brainstorm the habits that the famous people might do everyday. Afterwards, they could interview each other regarding their classmates personal habits and write them down. The students could then share their classmates good habits with the teacher:

Example Dialog

Teacher: So tell me what habits your classmates have?

Student 1: Aisha wakes up early every morning and she drinks milk

Teacher: OK, good. (writes it on the board)

Student 2: Amal reads to her brother.

Teacher: Ok, good, job (writes it on board)

Student 3: Amna clean her room

Teacher: Hmm, very interesting. (teacher writes incorrect form on the board)

Once the teacher elicits enough example sentences from the students and places them on the board, she can discuss the accuracy of the student-generated sentences and see if they can see any patterns in the grammar.

Teacher: Is this sentence correct?

Student: Yes!

Teacher: What about the verb? Is this verb OK? Look this verb has an 'S' and this one doesn't. Why?

The students may be able to notice the errors depending on their abilities or what patterns they have seen so far in their education or in the lesson. It is important to mention at this point that although the teacher is talking about the grammar with the students, she has not explained it yet. She has not given the rule.

In the end, the teacher can ask the students to figure out the rule based on the discussion and all the examples they have seen or heard during the course of the lesson, referring back to the class materials as necessary. In pairs, the students can review the examples they have seen and work together to create a rule that they think will explain how to use the grammar. How well they can do this will depend on the age and level of the students, but they should engage in the formation of the rule with the teacher's guidance as necessary. During this part of the lesson the focus becomes the grammar rule: What is it? How do we know? But the key difference is that the teacher is letting the students create the rule.

Having the students struggle a bit to create the rule is an important cognitive function of inductive learning.

The best case scenario for a lesson like this would be that the students figure out the rule and the teacher only confirms what they discovered and then congratulates them on a job well done. It is quite possible, however, that the students will not be able to discover the rules in full, especially the exceptions to the rule. At this time, the teacher might need to explain a bit. However, with all the input they received, explaining the rule will most likely have more meaning to them.

In general, the inductive approach is seen as more engaging for students; however, for me this is very dependent on the skills of the teacher. Creating and good inductive lesson requires careful planning and thinking.

Remember, the main characteristic of an inductive lesson is that first the teachers provides examples of the grammar and then guides them in the discovery of the rule. How this happens varies greatly based on teacher values, creativity, age of students, level of students and practical matters like time constraints.

Some teachers, do not try to use interesting topic or themes: They simply start discussing the grammar with the students without explaining the rules. The teacher gives them several examples of the grammar structure in the beginning and asks the students to discover the patterns. This can work with adult motivated students who want to simply focus on the grammar and understand it. Either way, the fact that the teacher presented examples of the grammar first and then asked the students to discover the rule, makes the approach inductive. For younger students, in contrast, engaging them in interesting themes and content is best practice in my view.

In general the inductive process of figuring out the rule can be more engaging and mentally stimulating for the students, and this creates the opportunity for a deeper understanding of how the grammar works.

Move the statements to match either the deductive or inductive lesson concepts.

Directions: Drag the statements on the bottom to the type of lesson that it is related to.

The following video is a good example of using an inductive approach with low-level adult learners. This video was developed at Michigan State University as an example of an inductive lesson plan for low-level adult learners. In this lesson the teacher begins with a listening activity, which is followed by a focus on the grammar. However, the teacher does not explain the grammar directly; she uses questioning to help them discover the rule for themselves.

This video of an inductive Grammar Sequence should be helpful.