Teaching Grammar

Grammar for TEFL teachers

At Essential TEFL, grammar is part of our Level 5 teacher training in Bangkok. You develop your knowledge of English alongside the skills needed to teach it: preparing language, explaining it clearly, recognising learner difficulties and choosing appropriate practice.

Grammar study connects with lesson planning, teaching practice and feedback throughout the programme. This page describes that training; it is not a separate grammar course.

Speaking English fluently gives you a great deal of language knowledge, but some of that knowledge may be difficult to explain. You might use a tense correctly without remembering its name, or know where a word belongs without being able to describe its function.

During training, you begin looking at English from a teacher’s perspective. You consider how sentences are formed, what they mean in context and what learners need to know to use them.

The work starts before you stand in front of a class. You need to understand the language you are preparing to teach, including the questions a learner might ask. Our course places particular emphasis on this preparation.

A learner needs an explanation they can use, not just a rule they can repeat.

What grammar will I study on the course?

The grammar training covers connected areas of English rather than a list of isolated rules. You study the language with the work of a teacher in mind.

Word classes and sentence structure

You study the functions of words, including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and determiners. This connects with understanding how phrases and sentences are organised and how punctuation supports written meaning.

Verb forms and their uses

The course covers present, past and future forms, continuous and perfect forms, and modal verbs. These provide the language knowledge needed to prepare lessons on subjects such as routines, experiences, plans, ability and possibility.

Other areas of grammar

Study also includes countable and uncountable nouns, articles, quantifiers, comparisons, possessives, conditionals and reported speech. These are considered within the wider task of helping learners understand and communicate in English.

You are studying these areas to prepare for teaching. Knowing a term is useful; understanding what to do with that knowledge in a lesson is the next part of the work.

Understanding grammar and teaching grammar

The TQUK Level 5 Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (RQF) contains two separate grammar units.

Understanding English Grammar

Develop knowledge of word classes, tense, person, number, sentence structure and punctuation.

Teaching English Grammar

Present language in context, select language for different levels and respond to learners’ errors.

This distinction is important when choosing a TEFL course. A grammar refresher can help you remember terminology and rules. Preparation for teaching also needs to address how you will explain language, judge its suitability for a class and respond when learners misunderstand it.

At Essential TEFL, these qualification requirements sit within a programme that includes trainer demonstrations, discussion, guided planning, teaching practice and feedback. The Level 5 TEFL curriculum explains how these areas fit together.

Qualification reference: 601/5234/5. See TQUK’s official TEFL/TESOL qualification information.

Teaching grammar in context

A grammar explanation needs to be accurate, but it also needs to be understandable to the person listening. Teaching English grammar involves helping learners understand what a structure communicates, not only how it is written.

Our training asks you to examine meaning, form and pronunciation when preparing language. You consider what the language communicates, how it is constructed and how it sounds in speech. You also consider what might confuse a learner and how they will practise using it.

This preparation helps you look beyond the rule itself. A learner’s difficulty might concern the meaning of a sentence, the way it is formed or a spoken form they do not recognise. Those are different problems, even when they occur within the same grammar topic.

The course develops your ability to adjust the vocabulary and complexity of your explanations to the class. Explaining a familiar structure to beginners requires different choices from discussing it with more advanced learners.

You do not need to say everything you know about a grammar point in one lesson. Preparation should help you decide what learners need at that stage and how to make it clear.

Methods of teaching grammar

During training, you consider different ways to introduce language and support learners as they begin using it. The choices need to suit the lesson, the class and the language being taught.

Our training connects introducing language with practice and meaningful communication. Trainees consider how much support learners need, what the practice is intended to achieve and how learners can move towards expressing their own ideas.

The PPP teaching method is one framework used during the course. It gives trainees a way to think about the relationship between introducing language, supporting practice and making room for more independent use.

You also study the purpose of returning to previously taught language. In the course, this is called recycling language. The emphasis is on helping learners revisit and use what they have studied, including in different contexts, rather than treating each grammar lesson as unrelated to the last.

These decisions connect closely with lesson planning: what learners are working towards, which language they need and how the lesson will support them.

Teaching different learners

The grammar knowledge belongs to the teacher. The way it is presented needs to suit the learners.

Our young learner training considers children’s development, participation and need for appropriate support. The adult teaching material places more emphasis on learners’ goals, existing experience and the relevance of classroom work to their lives. These differences influence the choices a teacher makes when preparing grammar lessons.

Age is not the only consideration. You also need to take account of the group’s English level and previous learning. The course asks trainees to adapt their language and instructions rather than use the same explanation with every class.

For someone preparing to teach in Thailand, this is a useful part of the training. The question is how to make the language accessible to the particular learners you are teaching, within the aims of their lesson.

Recognising and responding to mistakes

A teacher needs to do more than identify that a sentence is incorrect. They also need to consider the possible cause and decide how to respond.

The TQUK grammar teaching unit includes analysing learner errors and selecting appropriate correction procedures. Our course material develops this through questions about the purpose, timing and effect of correction.

The approach depends partly on what learners are doing. Work focused on accuracy calls for different decisions from an activity in which learners are trying to communicate more freely. Trainees consider how correction can support the lesson without allowing it to become a constant interruption.

This is one of the areas where grammar knowledge and teaching judgement meet. You need to understand the language well enough to recognise the difficulty, then respond in a way that helps the learner continue.

Teaching practice and feedback in Bangkok

Essential TEFL’s wider programme includes teaching practice in real classroom settings. Trainees prepare lessons, work with learners and receive feedback on their teaching. This provides opportunities to apply the communication and preparation skills developed during training.

For grammar teaching, the relevant skills include explaining clearly, checking understanding, adapting language and noticing when learners need more support. The purpose of practice is to develop these abilities through working with a class, rather than relying entirely on what looks suitable in a written plan.

Reflection is also part of the work. Our course material asks trainees to review what happened in a lesson, consider the learners’ experience and identify changes for future teaching. This includes looking at the clarity of explanations and the extent to which learners achieved the intended outcome.

A lesson that did not go as expected can therefore provide useful information. You can return to the language preparation, reconsider your explanation or adjust the support learners receive.

Read more about teaching practice at Essential TEFL.

Before you start the course

Do I need to know grammar before a TEFL course?

You do not need previous experience of teaching grammar. The TQUK qualification is designed for people with little or no experience of teaching English, and developing language knowledge is part of its purpose.

However, studying grammar and preparing to explain it are part of the course. You should be ready to examine language carefully, revisit unfamiliar terminology and work on areas that need attention. Being able to speak English comfortably does not remove that preparation.

Concerns about grammar are worth discussing before you enrol. Tell us what you are comfortable with and what you are unsure about, so we can explain the training and the work involved.

Does the Level 5 TEFL course teach English grammar?

Yes. The TQUK qualification includes Understanding English Grammar and Teaching English Grammar. Essential TEFL connects that study with language preparation, lesson planning, teaching practice and feedback within its in-person programme in Bangkok.

Is this a separate grammar course?

No. This page describes grammar training within Essential TEFL’s Level 5 TEFL programme. For the full course, entry requirements and current booking information, see our Level 5 course details.

More from the Level 5 curriculum

Questions about grammar?

Tell us what you are comfortable with and what you would like to improve. We can explain the grammar training and what to expect on the course.

Talk to us about the grammar training.