5 Common Grammar Teaching Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)

TEFL grammar instruction focuses on helping students use English accurately in real-world situations. To succeed, teachers must avoid five common mistakes: over-explaining rules, teaching forms in isolation, using excessive worksheets, neglecting context, and correcting errors at the wrong time. Mastering these strategies ensures a more communicative and effective classroom environment.

If grammar – its form, its function, its nuances, its complexity and the fact that you need to somehow teach all of it – overwhelms you, you are not alone. 

Why teaching grammar overwhelms new TEFL teachers (and why that’s okay)

Grammar in our first language is something most of us learn holistically- at home, while speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The process is organic and by the time we are young teens we are, for the most part, using intricate grammar accurately and appropriately. 

However, as teachers, we are well aware that just knowing something doesn’t mean you can teach it. 

But here is the good news before you pack your TEFL certificate and suitcase away – most of what we teach, we learn on the job! 

Yes, your TEFL course teaches you the fundamentals of grammar, your certificate gives you the license to teach – but your students, and the lessons you plan for them, are your best teachers. 

In this post, we’re going to look at the common pitfalls teachers make when planning lessons and teaching grammar- and here’s the important part – how to avoid them, or if you have already made a few of these mistakes- how to avoid them next time! 

Read more: What Do You Learn On A TEFL Course?

Pitfall 1: High TTT and the trap of the grammar lecture

Over-explaining grammar rules

Yes, we’ve all done it and it is the easiest trap to fall into. It’s almost human nature to get wordy when presenting new concepts – for most of us, anyway. So, what can we do to reduce our Teacher Talking Time and, in turn, reduce confusion when clarifying new concepts? 

The key is to involve our students by allowing them to do most of the talking. 

Instead of giving a model sentence in the new form you are teaching, elicit it from your students using simplified, graded language. Rather, elicit the aspects of form and pronunciation. Then confirm understanding of function with a few concept questions. 

What this process creates is a genuine, two-way dialogue between you and your class,  rather than a one-sided teacher monologue/podcast/lecture. This interactive approach makes your lessons more student-centred and the content more likely to be remembered. 

Read more: Teacher Talk Time VS Student Talk Time

Pitfall 2: The ‘expert’ myth — How to handle difficult grammar questions

Pretending to know something when you don’t! 

With twelve tenses, eight main parts of speech, countless aspects of pronunciation and numerous functions, grammar is a lot to process, let alone teach. The good news is that we don’t need to know everything before we start teaching. Your TEFL course will give you a solid foundation, but preparation before you teach a new grammar point is everything. 

The first logical step here is to get to know the grammar point yourself and this, teachers, is half the work done. Try to foresee what issues students might have while trying to learn the new structure, try to predict the questions they may ask, and then think about your responses. 

If, during the lesson, you get caught off guard by a question you do not know the answer to, and do not have the luxury of Google at your fingertips, tell your students that you are unsure but that you will certainly do a bit of research and clarify things as soon as you can. Most experts in most fields have the privilege of saying I don’t know. We can too. 

Pitfall 3: Decontextualised grammar and why meaning matters

Teaching a new grammar point in isolation

In other words, to teach a new structure with no relatable context and detached from other forms and vocabulary that our students may already know. 

This is not a realistic way for our students to communicate and therefore not a realistic way for us to teach. 

When planning a lesson, think about the following factors beforehand: 

• a relatable and engaging context, 
• assumed knowledge, and 
• other forms that the new structure is often paired with -for example, if you are teaching the past continuous tense, pair it with the already familiar past simple to express interrupted actions in the past. 

This makes the content of your lesson, and the way your students communicate once they leave the classroom, more meaningful. 

Pitfall 4: ‘Death by worksheet’ vs. communicative practice

Mismanaging the balancing act of activities and their timing 

Yes, practice is vital once students have learnt the new target language, but including too many worksheets can start to feel like admin. ‘Death by worksheet’ is real, in that it can derail your lesson and leave your students feeling exhausted and frustrated, with no chance to engage and interact with their peers. 

There is no magic number of worksheets to include as this would depend on the timing of the stage and how much practice is needed. Having said that, many teachers include two worksheets during a controlled practice stage – one for solo work, and one to complete in pairs or groups. 

Remember to include peer correction by placing them in pairs or groups to check their answers after they’ve completed the activity. This increases speaking time and makes a stage that could feel mundane and solitary, interactive and communicative. 

When it comes to that production stage at the end, make sure there is enough time to include speaking activities that allow them to verbally respond to the context using the target language in a freer, more natural way. If you feel the need, include more than one speaking task at the end. You could, for example, plan a role-play for the first few minutes, and a group discussion for the remaining minutes before the lesson wraps up with the plenary. 

Pitfall 5: Real-time vs. delayed error correction in the classroom

Error correction 

Teachers often feel the urge to address mistakes in real time as they arise, but this is not always ideal. So, the question is: when? 

Timing is everything! The timing of error correction is determined by the focus of the task. If the task is accuracy and students are focused on structure, it can help to correct errors as they happen. Letting mistakes slide mid-task might stall the task and prevent it from moving forward. 

However, if the focus is fluency, monitor your students as they speak, and quietly note down any mistakes that need to be addressed after the task. That said, if a task literally cannot continue until the error is corrected, then by all means, step in, help with the correction, and step right back out again. The risk of correcting mistakes unnecessarily during a fluency task is that your students may clam up, lose confidence and even stop participating altogether. 

Read more: Accuracy VS Fluency: What’s The Big Deal?

My final tip on this is to reassure your students that it’s OK to take risks with the language and to make mistakes along the way. 

When they trip over their tenses or muddle their word order, that’s not failure — that’s learning. 

And if they’re going to make those mistakes anywhere, remind them your class is just the place to do it.

The learning curve: Embracing mistakes in your TEFL career

So, teachers, that’s our list for now. And here’s a friendly disclaimer: You’ll probably read this, nod along in agreement, maybe even take a few notes, plan carefully…and STILL make a couple of these mistakes in your upcoming lessons. 

But guess what? 

That is completely fine. We reflect, we learn and we do better next time. Happy teaching!

Author Bio

Written by

Luan Dreyden

Edited by Kirsten Colquhoun

Luan is a Language Practitioner and certified ESL instructor. Her love for the English language led her into the classroom. After gaining experience at the top language schools in Cape Town, she went on to become the Head Teacher of a well-known English institution. This is where she discovered and practised her passion for teacher training. She now runs the TEFL courses for The TEFL Academy in Cape Town and continues to teach second language learners – both in the classroom and online. Read Luan Dreyden's story →