Are you tired of teaching grammar to your students through boring exercises? I know I was, so I came up with these 20 grammar in context exercises to share with you! Ain’t nobody got time for boring grammar.
Teaching grammar in context is seriously a game changer. By providing students with exercises that incorporate grammar rules into real-life situations, students will be more engaged, motivated, and better able to retain the information they learn.
In this article, I share 20 fun and engaging grammar exercises that will help you teach grammar in context and keep your students entertained. These exercises include gap-fill exercises, story writing, role-playing, and more. So, let’s dive in and make learning grammar a fun and enjoyable experience for your students!
1. Use real-world examples
There’s a reason why this is my favorite one—there’s seriously nothing better than authentic content. News articles, short stories, and songs, are great resources to teach grammar in context.
For example, if you’re teaching the past tense, you can provide a news article about a historical event that uses the past tense extensively. Students can then analyze how the past tense is used in context.
2. Dialogue
Encourage students to create dialogues using a particular grammar structure, such as the present perfect tense. For example, have students work in pairs to create a conversation using the present perfect tense.
You can provide a prompt such as “What have you done in the last week?” or “Have you ever traveled to another country?” to guide them.
3. Writing stories
Have students write a story that includes specific grammar structures, such as conditionals or reported speech.
One that I really like is conditional storytelling: have students write a story where they must use the conditional tense. For example, the story could be about a person who discovers a magical object that grants them one wish, but with a catch that they must use the conditional tense to make their wish.
4. Reading comprehension
Provide students with a reading passage that contains examples of the grammar structure you want them to learn. For example: Present Perfect Tense ESL Reading Comprehension Worksheet (englishwsheets.com)
5. Vocabulary + Grammar
I know you’re like…wait, aren’t these supposed to be *grammar* in context exercises? Hear me out. This one is specifically for those students who prefer vocabulary to grammar. To be honest, I was definitely one of those students, haha.
Use vocabulary exercises that incorporate the grammar structure you want your students to learn. This exercise will help students understand how the grammar structure works with specific vocabulary. Two birds, one stone, right?
6. Role play
Have students role-play using a particular grammar structure, such as the past continuous tense. E.g. you can have them act out a conversation between two friends about what they were doing yesterday at a particular time. You could even ask them to create a mini play!
7. Jigsaw reading
Divide a reading passage into sections and give each student a section to read. Then, have them work together to put the passage in order. This will not only help them with grammar, but also teamwork!
8. Sentence transformation
Provide students with sentences that use a particular grammar structure and ask them to transform them into different structures. This will also help them remember the names of such structures, which can come in handy.
9. Jam session
How about turning your classroom into a party? This has to be one of my favorite grammar in context exercises. Have your students sing songs that include the grammar structures they’re learning.
For instance, if you’re teaching the past tense, you can have them sing “Yesterday” by The Beatles. Your students will love it, and it will help them with grammar too! You can thank me later.
10. Picture description
Show students a picture and ask them to describe it using a particular grammar structure. Then, assign a specific grammar structure to each team (e.g. present continuous for Team A, simple past for Team B, etc.).
Give the teams a set amount of time to come up with a creative and descriptive paragraph using their assigned grammar structure to describe their picture. Encourage the use of vivid vocabulary words and descriptive language. Once time is up, each team can read their paragraph out loud.
11. Debate
Challenge your students to argue on a topic using a specific grammar structure, and watch them build their persuasive skills while improving their language fluency!
12. Word formation
Provide students with a root word and ask them to create words that use a particular grammar structure. This exercise will help them understand how the grammar structure works with different words. Let’s say the root word is ”fame”—ask your students what the adjective would be, etc.
13. Error correction – Grammar detective
How about playing the “Grammar Detective” game? Divide students into teams and provide them with a text that contains errors related to a particular grammar structure. Each team must identify and correct as many errors as possible within a set amount of time. Fun!
14. Grammar board game
You can play a board game where each space contains a sentence with a particular grammar structure. Students must correctly identify, but also use the grammar structure to move forward!
Alternatively, there could be different spaces that represent different tenses. Each player must roll a dice and land on a space that corresponds to a tense.
15. Scavenger hunt
Hide sentences around the classroom that use the grammar structure you want your students to learn! Students must find the sentences and then use them in a sentence of their own.
To add more context, you can tailor the sentences to a specific topic or subject that the students are interested in.
Also, if you want to make the scavenger hunt even more engaging, you can add a storyline or theme to it! For example, you can create a mystery where the sentences are clues to solve the case, or a treasure hunt where the sentences lead to a hidden treasure.
16. Essay writing
Ask students to write an essay using a particular grammar structure. Depending on how competitive you want it to be, you can even divide the class into teams and give each team a different grammar structure to use in their essays!
17. Social Media Posts
This is a wonderful way to make grammar structures more relatable! Your students love Justin Bieber? Go through his Instagram feed and find the structure you’re working on, and then present it to class. Yes, you will have to do some ”stalking” to find the right structure, but it’s totally worth it.
18. Picture description
Show students a picture and ask them to describe it using a particular grammar structure. You can always ask them to use a picture of something that they like, or ask them who their favorite celebrity is.
That way, you can print out a picture of their favorite celebrity or person doing something that you could have them describe, and engage them even more! I’ve done this in the past and it works wonders.
19. Matching exercise
Provide students with a list of sentences and a list of grammar structures. Students must match the sentences with the correct grammar structures.
You can even create a memory game with the list of sentences and grammar structures. Write each sentence and grammar structure on separate cards and mix them up. Then, have students take turns flipping over two cards to try and find a match. When they find a match, they must say the sentence aloud and identify the grammar structure used.
20. Story retelling
Last but not the least in my list of grammar in context exercises! What you can do is have students form pairs and provide them with a short story that includes a variety of grammar structures. One student must retell the story using the same grammar structures, while the other student listens and checks for accuracy. Then, they switch roles and repeat the exercise with a different story.
Hope you enjoyed this list of grammar in context exercises! Let me know in the comments below. Also, feel free to modify any of the exercises, and adjust them in the way that suits you and your students 😊
Like the idea of teaching students using context? I have a cool article on using anchor charts here.
