Here are some of the views on Teaching Grammar.You can also get in touch with latest trends in ELT by subscribing here. http://www.britishcouncil.org/eltecs/
I agree that teaching
structures as rules to be blindly followed is
what is popularly understood as teaching of grammar and that we need to
relate grammar teaching to the social functions of structures.
However, I think there are some important points which we need to pay
attention to when considering teaching of grammar. We need to extend our
concept of what constitutes grammar. Grammar is the underlying organization
of thought structures. It is the way our intentions are realized in choosing
certain words, arranging them in certain orders.
Therefore, once we begin from our intentions and how to link them to actual
language bits. We are learning how to
use grammar. There will be many
grammars. How does the teacher select which one is to be used? It is here
that the level of the learner is important.
At a young age, when students from class 1 to 4 learn English, explicit
teaching of 'rules' would be irrelevant. Stories with questions and answers,
simple descriptions, beginnings and conclusions are the best way students can
be helped to internalize the linking between intentions and language.
At a later level, performing various tasks useful in school life may be
considered to be important. There will be some parts of the organization that
will be highlighted and some might not be so useful. But helping learners to
perform these tasks through easy to break down steps is a sure way of
enabling them to use grammar of communication.
Maya Pandit
Pro Vice-Chancellor
EFLU, Hyderabad ( Former CIEFL, Hyderabad)
I agree with professor Mohanraj that the
study of grammar should be based on
the context. Teaching isolated sentences and structures may be beneficial
from an examination point of view, but there are possibilities that the learner
never internalizes these structures. When I was in class 7 or 8, I was taught
gerunds and participles by my teacher. She just gave us the definition of the
two terms and read out few sentences from the book. Though at that point of
time I did manage to scrape through the section of the question paper that
contained gerunds, I cannot claim that I have understood the concept at all.
Grammar has always been the main aspect of a language class room. Grammar
is important and speaking "good English" is often equated with
speaking
grammatically correct English. But the teaching of grammar as an isolated
language item can lead to the learners losing interest in the subject. For
instance, on the first day as an English teacher in a school, I asked my
students of class VI what they liked most about learning English and what
they did not like. Most of them replied that they liked listening to stories,
some said they like reading poems but a majority of them said they do not like
learning grammar. When asked the reason for this, they said that grammar
was "boring". However, all of them agreed that to speak correct
English we
need good grammatical skills.
The interesting thing to note here is that grammar when being taught as an
isolated subject does not interest the learners. But learners like listening to
stories and poems. Teaching of grammar can be inbuilt within a lesson and can
be done simultaneously while teaching a story or a poem. Grammar need not
be taught in isolation. Context based teaching of grammar may prove to be
more interesting for the learner. Relating the grammar item to their personal
experience can prove to be fun and rich learning experience for the learners.
Sweta Mukherjee
Student, EFLU, Hyderabad
Email: sonusweta1@gmail.