NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY Bayombong Campus Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION Second Semester, Academic Year 2023-2024 Reporter Subject Professor Topic : Erika Jane M. Ganaden, Rolyne Pugong : TECGL 207 Linguistics, MAT English : Dr. Filemon A. Pamittan : The Teaching of Grammar THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR Students’ learning opportunities can be affected by several variables, including socioeconomic factors, parents' education, school structure and resources, safety, learning disabilities, language barriers, teacher factors, and willingness (Traylor, 2017). Teacher attitudes, expectations, and behavior are the powerful teacher factors influencing learner motivation, academic achievement, and social success (Griffin, 2008). Understanding teacher attitudes towards language learners is crucial since these explain and control their professional behaviors and practices (Mitchell, 2016). However, teacher attitudes and beliefs towards learners are hard to measure since they might be unaware of their own biases shown to the learners (Lippert, 2017). Key Roles of Teachers in Relation to Grammar Teaching Structure of language systematically - The place of grammar in English Language Teaching courses has often kept switching over the centuries depending on convention or practice, and theories. - The main aim of the teachers in teaching grammar is to teach the structure of the language systematically and make their students get good command over the language to produce the learned grammatical structures accurately when they use them in their real-life situations in either spoken or written form. As there are different methods, approaches, and techniques for teaching grammar, teachers must always make sure to know what is applicable. Guides and Observes - Teachers are just guides because grammar translation deals with the memorization of rules, manipulation of rules, and manipulation of the morphology, and syntax of the foreign language. It requires few specialized skills on the part of teachers because test of grammar rules and translation are easy to construct and be objectively scrod. The facilitator's main function is that of observation rather than corrective intervention regarding the learners. Grammar-Translation Method - Grammar learning/teaching was based on the goal of helping students to read and appreciate foreign language and literature. Interacting grammar learning/teaching as a second language was used as it was believed, to translate in and out of the target language. The grammar learning/teaching consisted of the memorization of the rules of the various sentence patterns and various grammar was taught prescriptively and guided by the rules of the target language as well and greater emphasis was paid on accuracy. Facilitate Communication - Nowadays, the English language has become extremely popular among people around the world. It seems that everybody speaks or wants to use this language to communicate, work abroad, do business or even just hang out with each other. We can easily say that English is so common that everyone should know this language so as not to feel alienated from the current times. Unfortunately, it is not easy just to speak a foreign language, it has to be acquired or learned. What does it mean to be taught and how to be taught successfully? Yet another question is whether there’s one “correct” way of teaching a language. A lot of methodologists and teachers have been trying to respond to such questions for many years but the answers are still varied. As we all know, language is constituted by Vocabulary and Grammar. Grammar is considered to be the component of the language which requires a lot of effort put by the teacher to trigger the learner’s process of analyzing and understanding the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words. As we assume teachers are called to teach and we expect them to perform this role to their utmost. We are all fully convinced that, in teachers’ professional lives, there is no greater satisfaction when their students have learned the language. The Direct Method - The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed”. It contextually emphasizes the learning of language and the avoidance of the mother tongue was preferred while the meanings were taught through action and demonstration. “The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed”. It contextually emphasized learning of language and the avoidance of the mother tongue was preferred while the meanings were taught through action and demonstration. Correcting Grammar Mistakes Although grammar is crucial, the teacher should refrain from stopping the activity and correcting the mistakes. The teacher can note down the errors and provide suitable feedback at the end of the task. - “Without grammar, we cannot imagine a sentence” - Language plays a vital role in communication and grammar is the main essential element for any language since the formation of sentences primarily depend on the structure of its sentences. Without grammar, we cannot imagine a sentence. Therefore, grammar is needed for all languages to frame correct sentences. 7 Key Principles for Teaching Grammar Build up your subject knowledge - To teach grammar, you need explicit as well as implicit knowledge, to be confident about using the correct terms and explaining these. Don’t just learn the next term you are teaching. It is important to be able to relate new learning to other features and the text as a whole. Give talk a high priority in your classroom - Children need to be able to select from a wardrobe of voices that includes Standard English. Remember the purpose of teaching grammar - Grammar is not simply the naming of parts of speech or for teaching the rules of English. It needs to be strongly embedded in classroom talk, reading, and writing. Teach grammar in context - By introducing children to grammatical features and language in context, you will be helping them to internalize these principles. Try not to go for the ready-made solution by using a worksheet from a book. It will make very little difference to children’s use of language and will be meaningless for those learners who are not yet able to think in abstract ways. Read aloud and discuss how authors use grammar - Children who read extensively and are read to will have a ‘toolbox’ of structures, patterns, and rhythms to draw on. Be systematic - Make sure you know what the class you are working with has already learned and what they need to learn now. Link new learning with their prior knowledge. Make learning grammar fun - Teaching grammar can involve investigations, problem-solving and language play as part of developing children’s awareness of and interest in how language works. Reasons Why Language Teachers Are The Worst People To Teach Language 6 Reasons Why I, as a Language Teacher, Don’t Want a Language Teacher By Paul Finnerty 1. Knowing 'How' to Teach - Language teachers have experience with various teaching methods and can identify effective strategies through observation and practice. 2. Knowing 'How Not' to Teach - Recognizing ineffective teaching methods such as excessive focus on grammar explanations, gap-fill exercises, or simply reading dialogues aloud, which may not effectively facilitate language learning. 3. Emphasizing Language Use Over Language Study - Advocating for a shift towards treating language learning as a skill to be practiced and used rather than a subject to be studied extensively. 4. Acknowledging English Language Teaching as a Business - Acknowledging the commercial aspect of language teaching institutions, which may prioritize enrollment numbers over effective learning environments. 5. Concerns About Teacher Preparedness - Noting that some language teachers may lack adequate preparation or may be overwhelmed by the demands of teaching multiple classes with varying needs and expectations. 6. Promoting Peer-to-Peer Learning - Advocating for a more learner-centered approach where students take an active role in their learning and have opportunities to interact with fluent speakers for practice and feedback. Differences between Explaining and exploring a. Exploration Exploration is the first stage of integrative grammar teaching. This stage is characterized by "inductive learning." Students are given sentences illustrating a certain grammar rule and are asked as a group to find the pattern and, with the help of the teacher, to formulate the rule. Many scholars have argued against passive or inactive learning (see, for example, Johnson, 1995; and others) in which teachers refer to a textbook for explanations of rules. I completely agree with this critique. Students should be given opportunities to figure out everything by themselves, receiving help only when necessary. To make the task easier in the beginning, some grammatical forms or endings can be highlighted. Students tend to prefer assignments that allow them to explore the language. The knowledge they obtain becomes theirs and it is often much easier to remember. Exploration, then, works as an excellent tool for motivation. b. Explanation Explanation is the second stage of learning. As students find sequences or patterns in the examples they used during the exploration stage, the teacher or the students can summarize what was previously discovered, now focusing on the form. In some situations, it may be essential to go to the textbook and together with students relate 'textbook rules' with the examples and findings of the exploration stage. The explanation stage is quite important because students feel safer when they know the rules and have some source to go back to in case of confusion or for future reference. Depending on students' proficiency, confidence, and actual performance, this stage can sometimes be omitted. However, students should be aware of and experience the strategies they may use to refer to the explicit rules, if needed. Source: Integrative L2 Grammar Teaching: Exploration, Explanation and Expression by Pavel V. Sysoyev
