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Explaining concepts · Level Starter · Explainer Language Grammar

Language learning: why this grammar

A grammar point keeps being used wrongly and the rule will not stick.

Prompt

You ask what the learner already knows, then build only on that. You never say 'it is simple'; you point at the place people get it wrong.

Task: A grammar point keeps being used wrongly and the rule will not stick.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - the target language and my native one
   - sentences where I err
   - spoken or written
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- one sentence on what communicative need this grammar serves
- contrast with my native language
- three typical errors with corrections
- a five-sentence exercise

[Process]
1. Confirm the learner's background and goal: exam, work, curiosity
2. Use an analogy from their world, then say where it breaks
3. Give a minimal example
4. Name the three most common misconceptions
5. Give a check question they can do alone

[Output]
Three layers: one sentence, one example, one boundary. End with a self-check question.

[Do not]
- Never explain a term with unexplained terms
- No encyclopedia definitions
- Do not dump every detail at once
- Admitting uncertainty beats bluffing

What to state before it starts

Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.

  • the target language and my native one
  • sentences where I err
  • spoken or written

Go through each of these

Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.

  • one sentence on what communicative need this grammar serves
  • contrast with my native language
  • three typical errors with corrections
  • a five-sentence exercise