Raider Grammar Lab
Break grammar to see why it’s there
Build your own language
You invent the words and the grammar. A robot that knows your rules, and nothing else, tries to understand your messages. Can you make a language that is clear and short at the same time?
Your words
Your grammar
Or copy a real language:
Test yourself
For teachers
Raider Grammar Lab teaches grammar by breaking it. Students switch off one feature, watch a sentence stop making sense, and work out why the feature exists before anyone names the rule. Then they see how Spanish, French, Latin and Mandarin each solve the same problem.
Ways to use it
- Five-minute opener before a grammar unit: project one experiment, have the class predict what breaks before you flip the switch.
- Spanish object pronouns: run “Word order,” then the “Spanish: who is doing it?” drill. It targets the habit of reading the first noun as the doer.
- Latin cases: “Word order” with case endings switched on, then “Latin: make it happen.”
- Build a language in pairs: one designs the rules, the other plays the robot on paper. Who gets to 100% clarity with the shortest sentences?
- Exit ticket: a round of “Test yourself”; students screenshot their score.
Why it works this way
Noticing comes first. Learners pick up a grammar feature when they notice it in the input. Switching a feature off makes it impossible to miss.
Explicit teaching helps. A large meta-analysis found that focused, explicit grammar instruction produces large and durable gains compared with leaving learners to pick it up on their own.
Discover the rule, then talk about it. Consciousness-raising tasks give learners a grammar problem to solve rather than a rule to memorise; the solving builds explicit knowledge.
Fix the wrong reading strategy. Learners tend to treat the first noun as the doer, which misreads Spanish sentences like A la abuela la persigue el perro. Structured input, where learners must pick the picture that matches the sentence, targets that habit directly. The “who is doing it?” drill is built on that design.
Compare languages. Seeing that Mandarin has no tense endings and Latin has free word order shows students that grammar is a set of solutions, not arbitrary rules.
Sources
- Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11.
- Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (2000). Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning, 50.
- Fotos, S., & Ellis, R. (1991). Communicating about grammar: A task-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 605–628.
- VanPatten, B., & Cadierno, T. (1993). Input processing and second language acquisition: A role for instruction. Modern Language Journal, 77; and Explicit instruction and input processing, SSLA, 15. VanPatten, B. (2004). Input processing in second language acquisition.
All sentences are written for this lab. The Spanish and French conjugation drills use only fully regular verbs, so every form follows the rule students are practising.