Making grammar engaging

What additional grammar manuals can be used to engage students without overloading them?

Unfortunately, it is very easy to overwhelm students with Russian grammar, which is hardly surprising: it is really difficult for foreigners, as all teachers, both experienced and new to the profession, undoubtedly know. Moreover, some grammatical topics are particularly challenging: the case system, verbs of motion, verb aspect, participles and adverbial participles, verbal and nominal government, prefixed verbs. That is why the main challenge for teachers is not simply to use the “right” manuals, but also to make sure that grammar exercises are linked to communicative situations, appropriate to the students’ level, and varied and engaging rather than monotonous. 

For example, when we cover the topic of “Restaurant” at A1 level, we introduce the instrumental case with the preposition “с” (“with”), because this grammatical point is directly related to the topic itself: “мясо с рисом” (“meat with rice”), “блины с икрой” (“pancakes with caviar”), “чай с сахаром” (“tea with sugar”) and so on. Matching the material to the students’ level is equally important: for instance, we would not give A2 students exercises practising participles and adverbial participles. The question of how “engaging” grammar exercises should be is more complicated. Of course, before students can use particular grammatical forms in spoken and written communication (what is usually called “speech output”), they need to do a certain number of exercises to practise the form itself, for example, by working on case endings. Exercises of this kind are essential, but there should not be too many of them. The teacher needs to monitor the students and recognise when they have mastered the material well enough to move on to more “open-ended” exercises.

To prevent students from losing motivation, becoming discouraged or simply getting bored, grammar manuals should meet the following requirements:

• a limited number of exercises focused on practising grammatical forms; 

• a timely transition from form to meaning, taking the communicative context into account;

• a timely transition from form-focused exercises to more open-ended activities and tasks involving language production;

• the range of grammatical topics in the manual should match the student’s level;

• illustrations and engagingly presented information;

• the structure of the manual, well-organised presentation of the grammatical material.

Let us look at some specific grammar resources and consider what our students may need.

1. Visualising the material. Some manuals present different aspects of Russian grammar in a visual format. They can be particularly useful for teachers working with beginners with whom they share no common language. Moreover, visual presentation can also make grammar much easier to remember. Students can use these resources independently to complete homework or memorise grammar rules when necessary. Examples include “Грамматика русского языка в иллюстрациях” by K. I. Pehlivanova and M. N. Lebedeva, and “Кто? Где? Когда? Русская грамматика в картинках для начинающих” by G. G. Malyshev.

2. Grammar tables. Grammar tables can help students understand the material more easily and complete exercises practising the grammatical forms of verbs, nouns and other parts of speech. One of the best resources with Russian grammar tables is “Русская грамматика в таблицах и схемах” by E. V. Ross. In this manual, the tables use different colours, and the information is presented clearly and logically, progressing from simple to more complex material.

3. Communicativeness. As we have already mentioned, grammar does not exist in a vacuum: it is closely connected with communicative situations. There are several manuals in which grammar is successfully integrated into such situations. One of them, designed for A1 level, is a book by G. Malyshev “Практический русский язык в ситуациях и иллюстрациях”. For A1-A2 levels, I would recommend the coursebook and workbook “Живая речь”, where grammar is introduced through communicative phrases and situations. For B1 level, there is “Новая Россия: 127 живых диалогов и самые важные глаголы для общения”.

4. Revision and consolidation. There are several grammar resources that can be used to revise a range of grammatical topics without overloading students, for example, “A Living Russian Grammar” (three parts, levels A1-C1), “Let’s Improve Our Russian” (three parts, level B2), “Luggage” (levels A2-B1). The fact is that these manuals provide detailed and clear explanations of different topics, along with plenty of exercises. I would especially like to highlight “Let’s Improve Our Russian”, which contains a large amount of interesting authentic material: jokes, humorous material and short texts.

Teachers should observe their students, identify which grammar points they find difficult, recognise when they are becoming tired, and help them whenever something is unclear and so on. Resources that combine communicative and grammatical material effectively, as well as those that present information clearly and incorporate visual elements, can be particularly helpful in this work.

Author: Yulia Amlinskaya, teacher of Russian as a foreign language and administrator of the “Teachers of RFL” group.