"Gonna" - No, I have not forgotten my English grammar ...

I'm gonna do this! I'm gonna do that! He was gonna go to the beach. She was gonna have a swim.

No, I haven't forgotten my English grammar, but it is so hard at times to correct words like "gonna" in children's writing when I hear myself saying, "We're gonna have fun next week."

Now I know, and I'm sure most of those reading this know, that the word "gonna" does not exist and is a colloquialism or slang from of "going to". The difficulty comes when you are teaching English Language Learners in the context of mainstream English education, and you know that you say it that way yourself. Grrr.

Another thought. It is much easier to write correct English than it is to speak it. The difficulty is that my students hear me a lot more than they see my writing.

So what do you think? Are you "gonna" have fun this weekend? Am I "gonna" see you on Monday?

I guess the first step to addressing my oral use of this word in the classroom is realising that I'm saying it. Next I need to stop myself before I say it and say "going to" instead. Hmmm, I wonder how I'll go?

How would you go?

P.S. I just ran a spell check on this article and the only errors it highlighted were "Grrr" and "Hmmm". I guess that means "gonna" is acceptable English - NOT!