Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Relevance of grammar to the language teacher
Relevance of grammar to the language teacher
Relevance of grammar to the language teacher
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Relevance of grammar to the language teacher
It goes without saying that grammar teaching plays an essential role in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This opinion is based on the assumption that without a detailed knowledge of grammar, the language use will stall. Despite its importance, grammar teaching has gone through some debates for the decades. Before the 1970s, it was a common belief that grammar was a crucial part of the language teaching since no one would be able to reach the point where he/she communicates well without comprehending the grammatical rules of any language. This belief was then questioned by the conception that "knowledge of the grammatical system of the language was one of the main components which underlie the notion of communicative competence." …show more content…
The general consensus is that grammar should unmistakably take part in language teaching. The questions are:
How should we teach grammar?
Should we teach it deductively or inductively?
Which grammar rule should we teach?
In other words, the question is whether grammar should be taught by giving a formal presentation or giving natural expression. (Nassaji & Fortos, 2011). The continuous debate on the favourableness and the type of grammar teaching or instruction has led a lot of different methods and techniques of forming a grammar instruction to become known. Most notably, two completely different and opposing approaches are inductive and deductive. Although these methods are both beneficial for the learners, the inductive teaching is more acceptable or right for the students than the deductive teaching somehow. Deductive teaching also called deduction, from the verb ''deduce'' is a well-known technique which proceeds from
…show more content…
The teacher first gives the grammar rules and vocabulary of the language. Then, the learners need complete tasks to practice those rules and vocabulary in activities.The
Children were taught to speak in a proper manner and because they were taught to speak correctly they wrote in a proper way as well. As technology evolved and texting came more profound grammar was becoming a lost art. In Dana Goldstein’s article ,‘Why Kids Can’t Write’, she talks about what teachers are doing about grammar. The teachers are not doing much about the grammar issue in schools.
3. Although conservatives advocate syntax, linguists say that we need morphology. Morphology is the most basic grammar which deals with
Grammar Matters “People are judged everyday by their grammar.” suggests Lynne Truss, the bestseller of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance approach to Punctuation. People are downgraded in the workforce or just in school if someone uses incorrect grammar. In spite of critics, grammar is critical to learn in school. Even though Brock Haussamen says grammar isn’t important, Mignon Fogarty, Douglas Rushkoff, Lynne Truss, and Kyle Wiens think otherwise.
In order for the students to understand grammar, they have to practice, practice, and practice some more. It is up to the teacher to see if they are up to the task of teaching the students correct grammar or not. English has always been one of the hardest subjects for me because I did not have an effective English teachers to teach me a lot of the rules that apply to grammar. So, I believe that teacher should teach the students grammar because this will help them become better writers in the long run. For the people who said that correcting student’s grammar does not help the students, I would have to disagree.
In addition, repetition and error correction play an important role in the achievement of this goal. While teaching grammar with reading exercises (questions and responses) and communicative activities, students learn grammar without being cognizant of the process. In addition, if the class is taught in the proper way the levels of achievement are realized without undue stress to the student under no circumstances may the professor let ridicule if the students make a mistake, the
1) What is the place of grammar in language teaching? How necessary is it for the teacher to have knowledge of both English Grammar and the grammar of the students’ language or languages?
Thus, the doing things with language fits the story. Next, grammar used in the literature can be expounded on in greater detail so as the co-relation between what the students read and what they can write is expanded on. Practice in doing both is an effective way of learning the skills. Learning the components of language leads to greater understanding when a student is asked to make their own
After the teacher is reassured that the students are familiar with direct questions, the presentation of a new grammar can start. The teacher tells the student the aim of the lesson.
In the article entitled “How to Teach Grammar, Analytical Thinking, and Writing”, Lynn Sams (2003) voiced and suggested methods on how grammar and writing should be taught in the classroom. This article was published in the English Journal by the National Council of Teachers of English. Sams based her research on her 16 years of experience as a high school teacher and the instructional approaches she used with her sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grade classes. Sams refers to grammar as “the relationship between structure and meaning” (57). The information in this article demonstrates processes of analyzing the structure of sentences and suggests students cannot completely understand writing without first understanding the basic concepts of grammar.
On balance, the language in its written form is the center of attention and the pivotal responsibility of the learners is to comprehend the structure and rules of the language whose parts are dissected and analyzed. Coupled with intellectual effort and deductive reasoning, the form is of greater importance than communication. Likewise, teaching and learning are technical and inextricably linked with a syllabus.In the same way, error correction is steadfast in leaving little room for the quality of being spontaneous. In closing, the teacher is an authority figure, but the participation of the student is predominantly passive despite this.For one thing, the student will learn how to make interrogative and negative sentences, memorize irregular verbs, study modal verbs, learn how to form the perfect tense, etc., but hardly ever understands the use of these structures in conversation. In the case of language learning, one may be able to recite the fact when specifically asked, but is unlikely to use this knowledge in conversation. Importantly, Krashen insists that language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules and does not require
A large part of an English teacher’s job deals with helping students find their own voices amidst the many teachings of their parents and peers. A student’s voice can be their values, their interests, and their perspectives of the world in which they live. Their voice can be their critical questioning of the many situations they face, whether in a text, the school cafeteria, or a park after school. It is the job of an English teacher to aid in finding this voice through their writing. It is by putting words and thoughts down on paper that a student can sometimes feel comfortable enough to take risks and find their true voices. Although traditional grammar instruction has long been thought to improve this skill, this is no longer the case. Instead, by providing a classroom environment in which students are immersed in classic literature from many genres including poetry, short stories, and novels, students will learn how to harness grammar for their own purposes of finding their voice in their writing.
The lesson is designed to give implicit exposure of grammatical features to the students. In some sections of the lesson (e.g. warming up activity and transi...
It is not uncommon to say that grammar instruction plays an important role in language teaching. Regarding the status and importance of grammar teaching, a variety of opinions have been made. Batstone (1994) states that “language without grammar would be chaotic: countless words without the indispensable guidelines for how they can be ordered and modified” (p. 4). More vividly, Wang (2010) makes two similes. She compares grammar to the frame of a house, which is a decisive factor to ensure the solidness of it. Additionally, she regards grammar as a walking stick, whose function is to help and support students to learn English. Thus, the nature of grammar instruction manifests its own significance as it helps students enhance their overall language proficiency by integrating grammar into other aspects of learning, like listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Sekelj and Rigo (2011) stated that there are three phases of learning the English language. The first phase is the pupils of Year 1 to Year 4, where in this phase, pupils are preferably do a lot of mechanical drilling and practicing some patterns of grammatical features which occur in the context of dialogue that are related to their real-life without any metalinguistic explanation in order to allow them to participate orally and physically as much as possible in dialogues, role playing and dramatizing. It is because, in this stage, it is important to make them conscious of their progress and increasing their motivation to use the language. Teacher should use a variety of activities to teach grammar such as by using songs, riddles, games and stories because it could be very helpful and an efficient ways in teaching grammar as what had suggested by Long (2000) where this FonF approach is effective because it is learner-centered and tune to the learners’ internal syllabus. According to Sekelj and Rigo (2011), Vilke (1977) said that, at the early age, the unconscious acquisition process is superior to the learning one due to the child’s cognitive development. Next, the second phase is Year 5 to Year 6 where in this stage, grammar start to be taught explicitly but with simple and clear explanation and awareness of accuracy of grammar structure should be
While languages do essentially have the same building blocks, the arrangement of words can range. Some languages begin with clauses by naming a subject such as a noun, which would make it the topic of the sentence. However, other languages begin clauses with words that name the action in a specific sentence (Freeman & Freeman, 2014). For example, English syntax is different from Spanish syntax. This means that confusion may result for students whose L1 is Spanish. For example, in English “red shirt” is used, but in Spanish, the phrase is inverted to “shirt red”. This may result in non-standard syntax when Spanish learners speak or write English. Another difficulty may be faced if a student does not understand that a structured sentence is needed. A student may not see the purpose of saying “I want to get a dog” when simply the words “want dog” would suffice. The problem with this is because syntax is a part of grammar, there is a set of internalized rules that people acquire (Freeman & Freeman, 2014). Within time, students will discover that a full sentence is needed instead of just two words. However, this is something that cannot be simply taught, as a student requires this throughout time and