2021

TECHNIQUES USED AND CHALLENGES

FACED IN TEACHING GRAMMAR
– RANJITA REGMI

A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English Education

In Partial Fulfilment for the Master of Education in English
427 (S)
TECHNIQUES USED AND CHALLENGES FACED IN TEACHING GRAMMAR

Submitted by
Ranjita Regmi

Faculty of Education
Tribhuvan University
Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal
2021
 TECHNIQUES USED AND CHALLENGES
FACED IN TEACHING GRAMMAR

A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English Education

In Partial Fulfilment for the Master of Education in English

Submitted by
Ranjita Regmi

Faculty of Education
Tribhuvan University
Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal
2021

T.U. Regd. No.: 9-2-737-0098-2012 Date of the Approval of the

M.Ed. Fourth Semester Thesis Proposal: 18/08/2019
Exam Roll No.: 7228605/073 Date of Submission: 31/12/ 2020
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that to the best of my knowledge, this thesis is original; no part
of it was earlier submitted for the candidature of research degree to any
university.

Date: 31 /12 /2020 . ……......

Ranjita Regmi

i
 RECOMMENDATION FOR ACCEPTANCE

This thesis is to certify that Ranjita Regmi has prepared the thesis entitled
Techniques Used and Challenges Faced in Teaching Grammar under my
Supervision.

I recommend this thesis for acceptance.

Date: 31/ 12 /2020

……….…………………………
Mr. Khem Raj Joshi
(Supervisor)
Teaching Assistant
Department of English Education
T.U., Kirtipur, Kathmandu

ii
 RECOMMENDATION FOR EVALUATION

This thesis has been recommended by the following Research Guidance

Committee.

Signature
Dr. Gopal Prasad Pandey
Reader and Head Chairperson
Department of English Education
T.U., Kirtipur, Kathmandu

Mr. Khem Raj Joshi (Supervisor)

Teaching Assistant Member
Department of English Education
T.U., Kirtipur, Kathmandu

Mr. Guru Prasad Paudel

Teaching Assistant Member
Department of English Education
T.U., Kirtipur, Kathmandu

Date: 18/08/2019

iii
 EVALUATION AND APPROVAL

This thesis has been evaluated and approved by the following Thesis
Evaluation and Approval Committee.

Signature
Dr. Gopal Prasad Pandey
Reader and Head Chairperson
Department of English Education
T.U., Kirtipur, Kathmandu

Dr. Chandreshwar Mishra __________

Professor Expert
Department of English Education
Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur

Mr. Khem Raj Joshi (Supervisor)

Teaching Assistant Member
Department of English Education
T.U., Kirtipur, Kathmandu

Date: 01/ 03/2021

iv
 DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to my parents and brother who have supported and
guided me throughout the every step of my life.

v
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Mr. Khem Raj

Joshi, Teaching Assistant, Department of English Education, T.U., Kirtipur,
Kathmandu for his unconditional supports and valuable guidance throughout
the research which made possible to complete my research work. This research
would not be completed without his valuable guidance from very beginning to
the end.

I also would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Gopal Prasad

Pandey, Reader and Head, Department of English Education, T.U., Kirtipur,
Kathmandu for his supportive and courageous suggestions for my thesis.
Similarly, I would like to offer my profound gratitude to Mr. Guru Prasad
Paudel, Teaching Assistant, Department of English Education, T.U., Kirtipur,
Kathmandu for the most constructive instructions and insights for the
completion of this research.

I want to express my special gratitude to all the faculty members as well as

staff of Department of English Education for their administrative supports. I
wish to convey my especial thank to all the members of Curriculum Research
Center for providing me required study materials that have helped to complete
thesis.

Finally, I am thankful to Santosh Adhikari, Diwas Samba, Merina Shrestha

and all the teachers, friends and good wishers for supporting and motivating me
throughout the research work who directly and indirectly standby me.

Ranjita Regmi

vi
 ABSTRACT

The title of this research is Techniques Used and Challenges Faced in

Teaching Grammar. The main objectives of this study were to find out the
techniques used in teaching grammar in basic level, to identify the challenges
faced by English language teachers in basic level, and to suggest some
pedagogical implications. I adopted survey research design based on
quantitative method. The participants of the study were forty basic level
English teachers selected randomly. A set of questionnaire and observation
checklist were used for the collection of data, and simple statistical tools like
percentage and tables along with description was applied for the analysis and
interpretation of the data. Furthermore, the findings of this research suggest
that different techniques such as inductive, deductive, narration, realia, role
play, dialogue can be applied for teaching different aspects such as tense,
voice, preposition, articles of a grammar. Likewise, multifaceted challenges
related to student, lesson, time, teachers, expectations, resources and materials
might occur while teaching grammar.

This thesis consists of five chapters. The chapter one contains background of
the study, statement of research problem, objectives, research questions,
delimitations of the research, significance of the study, and operational
definition of key terms. The chapter two deals with the review of theoretical
literature, review of empirical literature, implications of literature review and
conceptual framework. Similarly, chapter three consists of the design and
methods of the study, population, sample and sampling strategy, sources
of data, data collection tool and technique, data collection procedures,
data analysis procedures, and ethical consideration. Likewise, chapter
four deals with the analysis of the data and interpretation of the result.
Finally, chapter five contains findings, conclusion and recommendations.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No.
Declaration i
Recommendation for Acceptance ii
Recommendation for Evaluation iii
Evaluation and Approval iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgements vi
Abstract vii
Table of Contents viii
List of Tables x
List of Abbreviations xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1-7
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 4
1.3 Objectives of the Study 5
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Significance of the Study 6
1.6 Delimitations of the Study 6
1.7 Operational Definitions of the Key Terms 7
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE AND
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 8-32
2.1 Review of Related Theoretical Literature 8
2.1.1 Concept of Teaching Grammar 8
2.1.2 Misconceptions on Teaching Grammar 11
2.1.3 Importance of Teaching Grammar 12
2.1.4 Dimensions of Grammar 13
2.1.5 Grammar Teaching in Nepal 15
2.1.6 Methodological Positions of Teaching Grammar 17
2.1.7 Techniques in Teaching Grammar 18
2.1.8 Challenges in Teaching Grammar 23

viii
2.2 Review of Related Empirical Literature 25
2.3 Implications of the Reviewed Literature 28
2.4 Conceptual Framework 29
CHAPTER THREE: METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF THE
STUDY 32-38
3.1 Design and Methods of the Study 32
3.2 Population, Sample and Sampling Strategy 35
3.3 Research Tools and Techniques 35
3.4 Sources of Data 35
3.4.1 Primary Sources of the Data 35
3.4.2 Secondary Sources of the Data 36
3.5 Data Collection Procedures 36
3.6 Data Analysis and Interpretation Procedures 36
3.7 Ethical Considerations 37
CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF
RESULTS 38-51
4.1 Analysis of Data and Interpretation of Result 38
4.1.1 Analysis of Data Collected Through Questionnaire 38
4.1.2 Analysis of Data Collected through Observation Checklists 46
CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS 51-57
5.1 Findings 51
5.1.1 Techniques Used in Teaching Grammar 51
5.1.2 Challenges Faced while Teaching English Grammar 52
5.1.3 Pedagogical Insights for Teachers 52
5.2 Conclusion 53
5.3 Recommendations 54
5.3.1 Policy Related 54
5.3.2 Practice Related 55
5.3.3 Further Research Related 55
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

ix
 LIST OF TABLES

Page No.
Table 1: Techniques for Teaching Tense 39
Table 2: Techniques for Teaching Articles 39
Table 3: Techniques for Teaching Preposition 40
Table 4: Techniques for Question Tags 41
Table 5: Techniques for Teaching Agreement 42
Table 6: Techniques for Teaching Transformation 42
Table 7: Techniques for Teaching Voice 43
Table 8: Techniques for Teaching Reported Speech 44
Table 9: Techniques for Teaching Connectives 45
Table 10: Techniques for Teaching Conditional Sentences 45
Table 11: Challenges Faced in Teaching Grammar 47

x
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as foreign language

ELT: English Language Teaching
M. Ed.: Master in Education
T.U.: Tribhuvan University

xi
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This study entitled “Techniques Used and Challenges Faced in Teaching

Grammar” as a survey research deals with the techniques that are adopted and
challenges faced by the teachers while teaching grammar in the classroom. This
chapter includes the background of the study, statement of the problem,
objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study,
delimitations of the study and operational definitions of the key terms.

1.1 Background of the Study

Language is an essential tool for human to learn and interact. It is constructed

with various components and grammar is one of the basic components of
language and one of the important aspects of language. It plays significant role
in conveying the right meaning. It is also known as the backbone of language.
Furthermore, it is a word that confuses considerably. Celce-Murcia and Hilles
(1988, p. 16) define grammar as ‘a subset of those rules which govern the
configurations that the morphology and syntax of a language assume.’ It means
that language as a type of rule-governed behavior. Likewise, Ur (2012, p. 76)
defines grammar as ‘the way words are put together to make correct sentences.’
It means that grammar is an unavoidable aspect of language to avoid
ungrammatical sentences. With the help of grammar, we can arrange
morphemes into words, words into phrases, phrases into clauses, clauses into
sentences, sentences into meaningful paragraph using rules and principles of
language. As Harmer (2007, p. 32) says, “Grammar is not just concerned with
the way words are formed and can change their form in order to express
different meaning. It is also at the heart of grammatical knowledge” then, it
explicitly credits its importance for creating different meanings. Grammar is
regarded as an integral part of the language. The main purpose of teaching
grammar is to help the students knowing how different grammatical elements

1
can be strung together to make chain of words. Thus, students can be able to
choose appropriate structures and develop their fluency level which express the
meaning of that particular language.

Various scholars have defined the term grammar in different ways. According
to Thornbury (1999, p. 15), “Grammar is a kind of sentence making machine. It
is a set of formal pattern in which words of language are arranged to convey
meaning.” It means that through limited rules, a number of meaningful
sentences can be generated. Likewise, in Chomsky’s (1957, p. 64) words:

All languages in this world have some sort of grammatical rules. These

finite rules provide sound knowledge about the specific language. They

help language speakers to enumerate numbers of infinite utterances

along on the basis of accidental experience with language.

This above mentioned statement explicitly takes grammar as a tool to produce

unlimited number of utterances with the help of given rules for that language.
According to Ur (2005, p. 85), “Grammar is a set of rules that define how
words apart of words are combined and changed to form acceptable units of
meaning within language.” Thus, it studies how the smallest units of language
are arranged to form larger units of language in a meaningful way. Grammar
refers to the way words are used, classified and structured together to form
coherent written or spoken communication. In other words, it is the way in
which words are put together to form sentences. It helps to study structural
relationships in language or in a language, sometimes including pronunciation,
meaning and linguistic history. The teacher can present it as a classroom
activity by using appropriate methods and techniques while teaching grammar.
Thus, teaching grammar involves any instructional technique or activity that
draws learners’ attention to some specific grammatical form in such a way that
helps them to comprehend the process and the production so that they can fully
internalize it. To learn and teach effectively, we need to have the knowledge of

2
teaching principles, methods and techniques. Thus, teaching grammar requires
teachers having the knowledge of a number of techniques and methods in order
to teach effectively and efficiently.

Teaching is not an easy job. Teachers need to adopt various method, technique
and strategy while teaching students in the classroom. Technique is a particular
way of doing something especially, one in which you have to learn special
skill. Anthony (1963, as cited in Krishnaswamy and Krishnaswamy, 2006, p.
40) states, “A technique represents implementation; it is the actual
implementation of the method in the classroom. It is a particular way of doing
things to accomplish immediate objectives.” Techniques are the activities
which are implemented in the classroom to support the successful learning. The
techniques or strategies that a teacher uses in the classroom will determine how
learners learn grammar. Thus, teachers need to adopt plenty of techniques
while teaching grammar because grammar plays a pre-vital role in every
endeavor to learn new language to communicate effectively.

It cannot be denied that teaching is a rewarding yet challenging job. It includes

dynamic process due to the huge explosion of knowledge and the high
advancement in science and technology. Therefore, teachers need to be updated
every time. Particularly, talking about grammar teaching, first language
learners learn mother tongue intuitively but the second language learners,
especially in the case learning English in Nepal, need to be acquainted with the
norms of the target language and it is a serious task to teach them. Thus, it is
sure that a number of challenges may occur while teaching grammar. Here,
challenges refer to something new or difficult which requires great effort and
determination. Thus, English grammar teachers need to be aware about those
possible challenges that may occur in their teaching due to various factors.
These challenges must be identified at first in order to solve them which in turn
leads to effective language teaching and learning.

3
1.2 Statement of the Problem

Grammar helps language learners to convey the right meaning appropriately as

it is intended to. Although it is one of the most important aspects of language, it
is perceived as an additional skill of a language along with the other four skills:
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Every language has its own grammar
and it should be taught to be competent in communication in that particular
language. In addition, teaching grammar plays significant role in language
teaching. It is the study of how words and their component parts combine to
form sentences. Learners must have knowledge of grammar rules to make
correct sentences as well as to convey the right meaning in a particular context.
To teach grammar, teacher needs to adopt various techniques such as songs,
games, storytelling in order to aid in teaching grammar and learning. However,
there may occur plenty of challenges while implementing those techniques
from theory into practice in the classroom.

Teaching grammar is serious and has lot of challenges that teachers face such
as poor standard of the students, difficult lessons and its boring nature,
classroom setting, different learning styles and so on. However, it cannot be
avoided from language teaching thinking about those difficulties. Therefore,
teachers need to adopt various techniques for teaching grammar in order to
make it more effective. There are several techniques of teaching grammar for
the language classroom. Here, technique is a real classroom implication.
Different scholars have suggested various techniques for teaching grammar.
The use of these techniques determines how learners learn grammar. The
techniques we use depend on the contexts and place where teaching and
learning activities take place. They do not necessarily seem to be fitted in all
contexts. However, the techniques they use is determined by the availability of
materials, their qualification, aim of teaching English, tradition of the teaching
and so on. Talking about Nepalese context, techniques used in teaching
grammar may vary from teachers to teachers and from institutions to
institutions. In addition, teachers tend to neglect grammar in basic level than in
4
other upper level, giving less priority than other language skills. Thus, this
study intends to find out the techniques of teaching grammar used by basic
level English teachers. Moreover, there arise numbers of possible challenges
while exercising those techniques for teaching grammar due to the negligence
by teachers and students as well, lack of knowledge on the techniques,
inadequate resources and materials, educational environment or classroom
settings and so on. Thus, these kinds of challenges should be diagnosed at first
during the implementation time in order to make grammar teaching and
learning more effective. So that, I was keen on finding the techniques and
challenges in teaching grammar at basic level because it is the main aspect of
language that enables language learners to convey the right meaning while
producing the utterances.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The objectives for this study were as follows:

a. to find out the techniques used in teaching grammar in basic level,

b. to identify the challenges faced by English language teachers in basic
level,
c. to suggest some pedagogical implication.

1.4 Research Questions

The research questions of this study were as follows:

a. What techniques do basic level English teachers use while teaching

grammar?
b. What are the challenges faced by basic level English teachers while
teaching grammar?

5
1.5 Significance of the Study

This study focused on the techniques and challenges in teaching grammar at

basic level. It is said that grammar is the least important than the other four
language skills. However, a second language learner must have the knowledge
of grammar to perform the functions of a particular language in a correct form.
Moreover, this study is helpful to the English language teacher in grammar
teaching by providing number of techniques. It is primarily significant to the
basic level teachers in discovering the ways in teaching grammar items. In
addition, those teachers would become aware about the challenges that might
occur during grammar teaching through this study. It is also beneficial to all
those teachers, textbook writers, curriculum designers and all those who are
involved in the teaching and learning of English language. Moreover, it may
ensure the further researches on the areas of teaching grammar by providing
adequate references on it. Educational policy makers may become aware of the
importance of teaching grammar in order to ensure the teachers and students’
grammatical competence.

1.6 Delimitations of the Study

This research study was limited to forty English language teachers teaching in
basic level inside the Kathmandu Valley. It was based on quantitative method
with the application of survey research design. The simple random sampling
strategy was applied to select the participants. The research tools prepared for
the data collection were both a questionnaire and an observation checklist. The
study applied statistical tools such as percentage and tabulation to analyze the
collected data.

6
1.7 Operational Definitions of the Key Terms

For the readers’ intelligibility, following points have been provided with their
operational definitions.

Techniques: particular ways of doing something with needed/appropriate skills

for example; deductive, inductive, role play, task-based.

Challenges: problems or issues that demand great effort and determination for
example; poor standard of the students, difficult lessons and its boring nature,
classroom setting, different learning styles.

Basic level English teachers: those who have been involving in teaching
English from grade 1 to 8.

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 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE AND

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Literature review leads to the introduction of a research that allows a critical

and in-depth evaluation of previous researches and the existed theories of a
particular area of research. As a result, it helps researcher to establish why
he/she is pursuing this particular research by reading various related papers.
This chapter includes the review of related theoretical literature, review of
related empirical literature, implication of the review for the study and finally
conceptual framework.

2.1 Review of Related Theoretical Literature

This sub-chapter includes the concept of teaching grammar, its importance and
misconception, dimension of grammar, grammar teaching in Nepal, techniques
for grammar teaching and challenges in teaching grammar.

2.1.1 Concept of Teaching Grammar

English is the world’s mostly used language (Greenbaum & Quirk, 2008, p. 7).
Teaching of English takes place all around the world due to its international
recognition, importance and popularity. Every language of the world has its
own grammar and it is sure that the languages that we speak and write have a
number of set of rules and styles to convey the intended meaning. Thus,
English is one of them, i.e. having grammar. Etymologically, the word
‘grammar’ is derived from the Greek word ‘grammatika’ which means as the
art of writing, a part of philosophy of a way of purifying language. In other
words, it provides correctness while using a particular language. Teaching
language in general incorporates teaching grammar of that language though
some scholars have undervalued its importance for learning a language.

8
Therefore, teaching of English surely demands teaching of its grammar for
effective language learning. Here, teaching grammar means teaching accuracy
of a language which is only possible in formal learning environment. The
formation of word and sentence is concerned with the rules of grammar. These
rules of a particular language help for the correct use of that language i.e.
effective communication. Thus, teaching grammar is one of unavoidable
aspects for language teaching and learning.

The term ‘grammar’ has been defined by various scholars in a number of ways.
In general, it is a set of rules that governs the language more accurately.
According to Thornburry (1999, p. 1), “Grammar is partly the study of what
forms (or structures) are possible in a language. Traditionally, grammar has
been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of sentence. Thus,
a grammar is a description of the rules that governs how a language’s sentences
are formed.” It can be said that grammar is a device by which words are
combined into larger units of discourse. In addition, it can be defined as the
study of language descriptively, prescriptively and communicatively in a
pedagogic manner. Here, pedagogic perspective of grammar refers to a book
especially designed for language teaching and learning consisting both
descriptive and prescriptive rules. Whereas communicative perspective of
grammar refers to the grammar as the communicative end in mind or way
language manipulates and combines words as to express certain kinds of
meaning in context with various functions. Furthermore, there are many
perspectives on conceptualizing grammar. Traditional perspective perceives
grammar as a set of normative prescriptive rules established in order to
preserve the purity and standard of language. Structural or descriptive
perspective describes grammar as a device by which words are combined into
larger units of discourse or it is the study of organization of words into various
combinations often representing many layers of structure such as phrase,
sentences, utterances. Generative perspective takes grammar as the model of

9
native speaker’s competence which consists of finite rules that generate infinite
number of grammatical sentences in that language.

Cowan (2012, p. 3) defines grammar as “the set of rules that describes how
words and group of words can be arranged to form sentence in a particular
language.” It means that the grammar of language describes how smallest units
are structured to form a sentence and how different sentences are organized to
form a unified, meaningful and purposive stretch of language use. Hagemann
(2002, p. 3) concludes that grammar is a set of rules of the language shared by
its speakers which tells how to pronounce syllabus (phonology), how to form
words (morphology), how to structure sentences (syntax) and what style of
language to use in a given context(pragmatics). In other words, there is a
hierarchy of units or elements of grammar in many grammatical description in
which sentence/utterance consists of one or more morphemes, which consists
of one or more clauses, which consists of one or more phrases, which consists
of one or more words to convey the certain meaning in particular context.
Furthermore, grammar can be interpreted in terms of historical and descriptive
perspective which are commonly known as diachronic and synchronic
interpretation respectively. In diachronic study, grammars or languages are
studied from the point of view of their historical development. On the other
hand, synchronic grammar studies language at a theoretical point of time.

Debata (2013, p. 482) has attempted to conceptualize the term of grammar with
its profound importance by:

The word grammar means different things to different people. Top the

ordinary citizen it connotes to correctness and incorrectness of the

language that he or she speaks. To a school student, it means an

analytical and terminological study of sentences. Knowledge of

grammar helps the student in the correction of mistakes and

10
 improvement of written work … So, grammar is indispensable for the

student.

From above, it can be concluded that grammar plays vital role in language
learning by providing set of rules to the language learners. In other words,
teaching grammar seems to have great impact in language learning in order to
be competent in that language.

2.1.2 Misconceptions on Teaching Grammar

Misconception of grammar is said to be false beliefs or wrong assumptions

made about grammar and the grammatical descriptions. They raise some
ambiguities whether to take grammar as a great deal of confusion or to take it
as explicit object of discussion. In addition, they are myths, illogical,
conservation and irrational ideas ignoring its importance in teaching language.
Larsen-Freeman (1997) has presented some major misconceptions that arise
because of improper and inadequate reflection on the nature and structure of
the language:

Grammar is acquired naturally; it need not be taught. It assumes that some

language learners acquire second language grammar naturally without
instruction. Grammar is a collection of meaningless forms. With no concern on
other grammatical dimensions (meaning and use), it associates grammar with
verb and rules about linguistic form. Grammar consists of arbitrary rules. It
means to say that the given rules are based on individual discretion or judgment
and not based on any objective distinction. Grammar is boring. This
misconception tells that teaching grammar only involves repetition and rote
drilling that cause learners uninterested in learning it. Another myth is that
students have different learning styles and not all students can learn grammar.
It assumes that there is individual difference in learning that can cause one
learn better than others. Another myth says that grammar structures are learned
one at a time. It is false because learners may fail in learning grammar

11
structures until these structures become internalized. Grammar has to do only
with sentence-level and sub sentence-level phenomenon. It means to say that it
neglects supra sentential or discourse level of grammar. Grammar and
vocabulary are areas of knowledge. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening
are the four skills. This myth assumes that grammar is of static knowledge.
Grammars provide the rules for all the structures in a language. This
misconception asserts that grammar rules should never be changed. The myth, I
do not know enough to teach grammar, tells that teachers always feel like they
can only teach what they know.

In conclusion, these abovementioned myths should be ignored and focused not

only on form but also on meaning and used in order to teach grammar
accurately, meaningfully and appropriately.

2.1.3 Importance of Teaching Grammar

Talking about the context of teaching English language as either a second

language or a foreign language, it cannot be acquired and learnt naturally;
therefore, instruction and instruction of the language are important for language
learning. A sound knowledge of grammar is essential if pupils are going to use
English creatively (Hutchinson, 1999, as cited in Thornbury, 1999, p. 14). This
statement stresses on the importance of teaching grammar for effective
language learning. Including grammar in teaching obviously enhances effective
communication skill as well as it can real effect on all the four skills of
language learning. Thornburry (1999, pp. 15-17) has provided seven arguments
for the case of teaching grammar in language.

a. The sentence-machine argument: Through teaching finite sets of rules of

grammar, learners can innumerate finite number of marginal sentences.
Thus, grammar is taken as a kind of sentence making machine.

12
b. The fine-tuning argument: This argument assumes that teaching grammar
helps language learners to produce correct sentences and structures
minimizing the possibilities of committing errors.
c. The fossilization argument: This argument clarifies that receiving
instruction on grammar do not seem to be at risk of fossilizing than
receiving no instruction.
d. The advance-organizer argument: It argues that grammar instruction
might have indirect influence in language learning. It means that later
noticing previously is a prerequisite for language learning.
e. The discrete item argument: It assumes that language is enormous and
vague from outside by which arises possible challenges for learners.
Therefore, if grammatical items are split in the smallest specific items or
into neat categories i.e. discrete item, then it can be digestible to learners.
f. The rule-of-law argument: It advocates the rules, orders and disciplines
which are unavoidable aspects of grammar because grammar is taken as a
system of learn able rules.
g. The learners’ expectations argument: Many learners come to language
classes with the expectation that they can develop their grammatical
competence for successful language learning.

2.1.4 Dimensions of Grammar

Grammar is said to be a set of rules that govern the language more accurately.
Teaching grammar not only includes teaching accuracy of that language but
also incorporates the ability to communicate effectively as well as the ability to
perform language functions appropriately. Larsen-Freeman (2001) has talked
about teaching grammar challenging the conventional views of grammar.
Conventionally, grammar was focused on analyzing its form. However,
grammar has been analyzed with its meaning and use along with the
grammatical forms. She has emphasized the need to focus on form with in a
meaning based or communicative approach. Therefore, grammar is not only
discrete set of meaningless, de-contextualized, static structures and prescriptive

13
rules about linguistic form but it is an expression of meaning (semantic) in
context of appropriate use (pragmatics). The following three-dimensional
framework developed by Larsen-Freeman (2001, p. 252) provides the
understanding of the different dimensions of grammar.

Figure 1: A Three-Dimensional Grammar Framework

a. Form/Structure: This dimension of form focuses on the way in which a

grammar structure is built and organized within a text. It includes
inherent disciplines such as phonology, morphology, graphology and
syntax which plays crucial role in teaching and learning the language
form.
b. Meaning/Semantics: This dimension of meaning is associated with the
meaning of a particular structure conveys. It includes inherent units such
as words, derivational morphemes, multiword lexical strings and notion
i.e. in particular lexical or grammatical meaning.
c. Use/Pragmatics: The dimension of use indicates when and why
speakers make a decision to use one particular grammatical structure
over others that could convey the same meaning. It includes relevant
units such as social functions and discourse patterns.

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2.1.5 Grammar Teaching in Nepal

The credit of an origin of English language teaching in Nepal goes to the Prime
Minister Jang Bahadur Rana from the period of Rana Regime after the visit of
his Excellency to England. The history of English language teaching in Nepal
can be traced back to a half a century and the first English language education
opened to the people in 1951 (Bista, 2011, p. 1). Many policies came on how to
include English language in formal educational courses over the past years.
However, at present, it has been prescribed as a compulsory subject right from
grade one to bachelor level. Grammar teaching involves the process of teaching
set of rules of a particular language. Talking about grammar teaching in Nepal,
it was done through grammar-translation in the past which emphasized
grammar for language instruction. Student’s native language was allowed and
used to learn rules of English by translation. Explicit state of the rule followed
by exercises along with translation into mother tongue used to be applied while
teaching English in Nepal. Viewing the scenario of different trends in grammar
teaching worldwide, there exist grammar-translation method, direct method,
audio-lingual method and communicative language teaching method and
others. From the commencement of English language teaching in Nepal,
grammar-translation method explicitly prevailed most of the past decades and it
can be still observed in practice in rural areas the present time. However,
educationist criticized grammar-translation method as a traditional and not
appropriate method in this modern era. Therefore, communicative language
teaching got emphasized and so in the case of Nepal too. Nowadays, English
language trainers in Nepal have been providing trainings centering
communicative language teaching method for teaching English grammar. This
method gives explicit attention to grammar rules along with communicative
practice. At present, this method is being applied for teaching English in Nepal.

The practice of teaching Grammar in Nepal from past to present can be

explored from three different phases: traditional phase, modern phase and

15
postmodern phase (Bhattarai, 2013, pp. 56-69). These phases are briefly
described below:

a. Traditional phase: This phase continued from 1850s to 1970s.

Grammar-translation method was the widely used method of that period.
It was expected that once the rules were memorized by the learners they
would be able to apply them in translating Nepali texts into English and
vice-versa. It can be concluded that prescriptive grammar used to be
taught applying grammar translation method in the traditional phase of
grammar teaching.
b. Modern phase: This phase was based or documented on the structural
linguistics and behaviorist psychology developing its own grammar
teaching texts, tasks and procedures. With the advent of communicative
language teaching quite late, there was more focus on meaning and
moderate attitude towards structure. Despite that, the presentation and
practice of structure was the norm in our Nepalese context. In fact, there
was the practice of Nepali-dominated code mixing or bilingualism
within the sentences in the instruction as the standard mode of
introducing grammar rules to students.
c. Postmodern phase: From the mid 1980s to the present date, this period
can be put under postmodern phase. In the early period, English
language teaching in the West was influenced and shaped with the
thought of philosophy, arts, literature and general education. The
grammar components have been integral components of English
teacher’s courses in Nepal. Grammar was less prioritized component in
the school level government curriculum. It is integrated into reading
texts. However, private schools have highly recommended grammar as a
separate subject. Moreover, it is yet to incorporate methodological
innovations such as task based language teaching, grammar in context,
processing instruction, intuitive heuristic learning etc in English
grammar textbooks and classroom pedagogy in Nepalese context.

16
2.1.6 Methodological Positions of Teaching Grammar

Scholars have enumerated a number of methods for language teaching.

Particularly, teaching grammar can be done through adopting these methods
and here are some of the lists (Musilova, 2010, as cited in Ibrahim, 2016, p.
53):

a. Grammar-translation method: It is an old or traditional method

which still existed so widely. Through this method, grammar rules are
properly explained and there is focus on structure. In other words, there
is a focus on learning the rules of grammar and the application in
translation passages from one language into the other.
b. The audio-lingual method: This method was popular at the time of
Second World War which gave attention on listening and speaking.
Through this method, right grammatical structures are provided to the
students and they are supposed to listen and repeat those structures with
the help of memorization. In this method, drill is widely used and
students learn easily by repetition.
c. Communicative language teaching and communicative approach:
This approach is an alternative approach to structural grammar which
assumes that communication should be done with appropriate forms in
the context of use to perform various functions. It disregards the explicit
use of grammar rules in teaching grammar i.e. there is a shift from
form-focused instruction to meaning-focused instruction.
d. Total-physical response: In this method, teachers provide instructions
and students listen to them and do them. The main thing is that there are
no grammar rules as such. However, students try to do their best. It is
more concentrated comprehension than production.
e. The natural approach: This method tries to teach the language in a
similar way as children learn their first language. Teaching grammar
through this approach as same as in the total physical response.
Teachers focus mainly on the meaning not on the correct form.

17
2.1.7 Techniques in Teaching Grammar

Grammar is one of the most important aspects of language. It is a system of a

rule of a framework which gives the language structure. Thus, grammar can be
defined as the study of the organization of words and phrase into sentence.
Hence, teaching grammar includes the array of activities that help learners to
learn the set of rules of a particular language. Grammar teachers might adopt
plenty of techniques to support learners to learn the grammar. Technique is one
of the keys to successful teaching grammar because with the right technique a
teacher can teach grammar to the students and students become clear of what
was described by their teacher. Celce-Murcia and Hilles (1988, pp. 39-72) have
presented some of the techniques for teaching grammar.

a. Listening and responding: This technique is particularly well suited to

both presentation and focus practice of grammar structures with a
semantic challenge. It assumes that listening comprehension is necessary
for second language acquisition. It also encourages learners to make a
match between structure and meaning while observing a silent period.
Silent period refers that children often do not say anything or say very
little when firstly learning a second language. In addition, this technique
may help students to comprehend a structure before they are asked to
produce it. Some listening exercises or activities are provided to the
students and asked them to listen and respond physically or verbally.
They are; listen and physically respond, listen and draw, listen and
color, listen and manipulate, listen and speak, listen and write, and look,
listen and verbally respond.
b. Telling stories: A story prides a realistic context for presenting
grammar points, holds, and focuses students’ attention in a way that no
other technique can. Students naturally like to listen to study stories and
most are remembered after the listen is over. Storytelling is traditional,
convenient and flexible technique for teaching a phase of grammar
lesson. Stories can be either teacher generated or student generated.

18
 They can be used for both eliciting and illustrating grammar points. In
addition, students might also be marvelous storytellers as well as
excellent listeners.
c. Dramatic activities and role play: Dramatic technique including role
play may facilitate a match between structure and social function and
can be used for both communicative and focused grammar practice. In
other words, this technique is particularly appropriate for teaching
grammatical structures that are sensitive to social factors. The activities
of this technique such as role plays, dialogue, transcribed conversation
and skits provide meaningful context for integrating writing, reading,
pronunciation, listening and grammar.

Moreover, the aim of grammar practice is to make students aware of the

structures by learning those structures so, thoroughly that they will be able to
produce correctly on their own. One of the jobs as a teacher is to help students
to teach from form focused accuracy work to fluent, but acceptable, production,
by producing a variety of practice activities that familiarize them with the
structures with context giving practice in both form and communicative
meaning. Ur (2009, p. 84) has presented some of the grammar practice
activities the different techniques of teaching grammar which are as follows:

a. Awareness: Firstly, teacher introduces structures to learners. Then,

students are given opportunities to study some kind of discourse and do
a task that focuses their attention on its form and meaning. For example,
learners are given an extract from the newspaper article and asked to
underline all the examples of past tense that they can find.
b. Controlled drills: With the help of the cues provided by teachers or
textbooks, learners can produce examples of the structures which are
very clear to ended cues. For example, write or say statement about Sita
modeled on the following example; Sita speaks English but she does not
speak Italian.

19
 i) Drink: tea/coffee
ii) Like: ice cream/ cake

c. Meaningful drills: The teacher provides situation and guidelines and

the students should respond them within the limitation and a number of
limited choice of cues. The responses are very controlled. For example:
In order to practice the forms of the present simple tense, students are
asked to choose someone and compose true statement about him or her
according to the following model.

She/he likes ice cream; or She/he does not like ice cream.

iii) Speak: Nepali

iv) Enjoy: playing football

d. Guided meaningful practice: With the help of set pattern, learners

form sentences of their own using the vocabulary that they want to
choose. For example, practicing conditional clues, learners are given
cue, if I had million dollars, and suggest, in speech or writing, what they
would do.
e. (Structure-based) free sentence composition: In this activity, teacher
provides a visual or situational cue and students are invited to compose
their own responses with the direction to use the structure. For example,
students are asked to describe a picture showing a number of people
doing different things using the appropriate tense.
f. (Structure-based) discourse composition: Students are told to hold a
discussion or write a passage according to a given task. They are
directed to use at least some examples of structure within the discourse.
For example, the class is given a dilemma situation (you have seen a
good friend cheating in an important test) and asked to recommend a
solution. They are direct to include the modals (might, should, can,
could, must).

20
 g. Free discourse: Learners are given a task to write a paragraph or to hold
a discussion but they are not given specific direction/ situation to use the
structures. For example, give a direction to the strangers to reach the
central library.

Likewise, techniques in teaching grammar can be generally categorized into

two groups in which each of them includes numbers of techniques. It can be
briefly described below:

a) Teacher-centered technique: Literally, our classroom teaching has

always been criticized for being more teacher-centered. In this
technique, teacher remains active and students remain as passive
listener. Interaction between teacher and student is found less here and
teacher is more authoritative. It includes the following techniques
(Richards, 1999, p. 354):

i. Lecture: It is a pedagogical technique in which a teacher delivers

formal talk with a careful planning on the specific issues.
ii. Explanation: It is an explicit description of a concept or process. It
can be in the form of acting, defining, using sentences, stating
synonyms, telling original etc.
iii. Illustration: It is a way of teaching with the use of materials or
examples in order to make the content understandable, interesting
and clear to learners. It can be done verbally as well as visually.
iv. Demonstration: It is a presentation of pre-arranged series or events
by which the relationship between theory and practice can be built
to enables the learners to acquire the knowledge in the first hand
form.
v. Finger technique: In this technique, a teacher points to each word
with the help of finger in order to focus on the sentence or
structure.

21
 vi. Questioning: Although students become active while questioning,
teacher plays major role in providing the answers.

b) Student-centered techniques: It has been a cry in teaching and learning

at the present day. Students are in a front line and active while learning
the language. They get the opportunities to involve in discussion,
interaction, and communication. Some of techniques are (Richards,
1999, p. 359):

i) Pair work: It refers to the activity in which two students get

involved in interaction with each other. It can be done for various
works such as dialogue, grammar practice, describing pictures,
question answer, language games and so on.
ii) Group work: Groups are created having 4 to 5 in numbers for the
purposed task. Each member from the group involves in
accomplishing the specific task.
iii) Role play: It refers to an act for small scenes using the given
dialogue or can be acted out using one’s own ideas and
information. It provides an opportunity to practice the language.
iv) Project work: It is a co-operative language learning technique in
which a team of students does work usually outside the classroom.
v) Discovery technique: It is a kind of problem solving technique that
invites students to discover the information instead of passively
listen the rules of grammar.
vi) Task-based technique: Students involve in a communicative task
which focuses on meaning rather than form.
vii) Teaching through text: Students are accessed to the text containing
the structure that is intended to be taught. With the help of context,
students can be focused on the particular structure in the text.
viii) Use of language games and fun activities: They are useful for
teaching functions of language. It can be used to create situational

22
 context in the classroom. It helps to motivate the young learners to
learn the language.
ix) Use of multi-media: It refers to the technology that integrates text,
graphics, videos, and sound together. It is used to teach the
language in an easy and comprehensive way.

2.1.8 Challenges in Teaching Grammar

Teaching grammar has been a part of language teaching skills since grammar is
a prominent feature of language. If learners fail to understand the rules of the
grammar, they will fail to communicate effectively in that language. Therefore,
teaching grammar plays vital role in learning a language effectively. However,
the teaching of grammar is always perceived as the most difficult skill to teach
and the most boring skill to learn. Having said this, it does not necessarily
mean that we should avoid grammar while teaching a language. Grammar is
said to be a skeleton of language which must be included in language teaching
and learning. However, it is not an easy task. There might occur some
challenges while teaching grammar. Yusob (2018, pp. 151-155) has presented
some of the challenges faced by English language teachers in teaching
grammar. These challenges are briefly discussed below:

a. Students: Sometimes, students’ needs and levels are ignored while

teaching grammar. It is also believed that correcting students’ mistakes
is a big challenge, as teachers do not know precisely whether to correct
their mistakes in speaking class. Challenges may occur when students
have negative attitudes towards grammar as well as students’ low
proficiency level or weak students in the classroom. Generally, students
prefer fun learning than learning grammar, as they feel insecure.
b. Experience: Grammar teachers might face challenge if they lack
experience of teaching grammar. They might not even know the
techniques of teaching grammar. There might be some English language
teachers who are exposed to plenty methods but still having problems in

23
 applying grammatical rules. Thus, they must be able to apply the
grammar first before learn to teach them. It is also believed that there is
no excuse for English teachers for making grammatical mistakes.
c. Facilities: Sufficient facilities, resources, or materials are said to be
important aids to make grammar lesson meaningful. Enough exposure of
the target language helps learners’ to learn the language better i.e. it
needs abundant resources and materials. Challenges may occur when
appropriate resources are not appropriately used by teachers while
teaching grammar and it could be a problem if they do not know how to
collect and use resources and materials, and make it appropriate. They
may feel tedious to use the resources thinking that they are time
consuming and economic.
d. Perceptions: Teacher’s perceptions play a significant role and can arise
great challenges to English teachers. Negative perception on teaching
grammar may demotivate not only the English teacher but the students
also have to face the consequences as a result of the English teachers’
perception. In addition, some teachers might have negative perception
on grammar by saying that grammar is the hardest part of the job. In
others words, teaching grammar is difficult if it involves explaining
rules to students while bridging the gap between the theoretical
understanding of grammar to the practical usage of grammar.
e. Expectation of the English Teachers: English language teachers might
have high expectations on their students in learning grammar believing
that they have learnt a lot. It might be a challenge for them to create
lessons which can cater various kinds of students needs. It is also
believed that grammar lesson consumes more time than other language
skills. English language teacher sometimes expects the students to
already master grammar as they have been learning in previous classes.
In addition, teaching grammar can be frustrating at times due to the
repetition of teaching the same thing for so many years.

24
 f. Lessons: Grammar lessons seem to be worthless if they lack a balance
in fulfilling the students’ needs and at the same time achieving the
objectives. Teaching of grammar is very challenging because teacher
needs to prepare grammar lessons that seems interesting to the students.
Moreover, teaching grammar is said to be time consuming because it is
not easy to make students learn the rules and structures in an hour or
two.

2.2 Review of Related Empirical Literature

A number of researches have been carried out on the topics related to

techniques and challenges in teaching grammar. Some of the related major
research works and articles have been mentioned below:

Shuib (2009) conducted a research on ‘Grammatical awareness among primary

school English language teachers’ which aimed to examine the English
language teachers’ nature and level of grammatical awareness. This paper in
general studies grammatical awareness of Malaysian primary school teachers.
Data was gathered through questionnaire and interview from the primary
school teachers who were following their B.Ed. TESOL program. Findings of
the study shed light on an important facet of primary school English language
teachers’ metalinguistic awareness in Malaysia, and informed about the
improvement of teacher education in the country.

Al-Mekhlafi and Nagaratnam (2011) carried out a research entitled

‘Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in an EFL context’ which had
the purpose of reporting a study undertaken to investigate the difficulties
teachers face in teaching grammar to EFL students as well as those faced by
students in learning it, in the teachers’ perception. Questionnaire was used to
collect the data from EFL teachers teaching English in Omani basic education
school. The study aimed to find out whether there are significant differences in
teachers’ perceptions of difficulties in relation to their gender, qualification,

25
teaching experience, and the level they teach in school, thus providing insights
into their own and their main students’ difficulties. The results were also
discussed with respect to difficulties categorized of the themes such as explicit
grammar teaching, the transfer of declarative knowledge into procedural
knowledge, the use of grammatical terminology, error correction, problem
solving activities the use of authentic texts for grammar instruction and the use
of spoken and written communicative activities.

Similarly, Retriansyah (2013) came out with a research on ‘Teachers’

techniques of teaching grammar in junior high schools in Salatiga’ which
aimed at discovering the grammar teaching techniques. The way of teaching
may be different for elementary, secondary, tertiary, and undergraduate
students. Students will not master the grammar without any help. Therefore, a
teacher has crucial role to help their students. The research participants were
four English teachers from four different schools in Salatiga and data were
collected using a nonparticipant observation and a semi-structured interview.
The results of this study found seven different techniques such as drilling,
translation, teacher-student exchange, chain, brainstorming, transformation and
reception with minimal response, used by the teachers in teaching grammar to
their students. This study also revealed two main reasons why the teachers used
those techniques to teach grammar to the students, which were to make the
grammar more understandable and to make students enthusiastic in learning
grammar.

Bardakci and Uysal (2014) published an article on ‘Teacher beliefs and

practices of grammar teaching: Focusing on meaning, form, or forms?’ with the
aim of investigating Turkish primary level English language teachers’ beliefs
and practice patterns of teaching grammar and the reasons behind these
patterns. Teaching grammar has always been central, but problematic domain
for language teachers, what teachers believe and do regarding grammar
instruction is an important issue that needs a great concern. Data was gathered
through both a questionnaire to 108 teachers and a focus-group discussion. The

26
results showed that teachers predominantly preferred the traditional focus-on-
forms approach, which points out a serious clash with teachers and curriculum
goals, on the one hand, and theoretical suggestions on the other. The paper
eventually ends with discussions and suggestions for teacher education and
language policy-making.

Akbar, Ahmad and Iqbal (2017) carried out a research entitled ‘Problems in
teaching grammar to English learners at secondary level’ which had the
purpose of highlighting the problems in teaching grammar with the
improvements and solutions to overcome those problems. Standard
questionnaire and 9 sub-scale items were adopted as data collection tools. The
participants were 150 in number from secondary schools. Findings of the study
concluded that teachers who teach English to the secondary school students
were not fully satisfied with their teaching of English grammar that was
because they had no specialization in English language. It was also showed that
teachers were not trained to teach English grammar at secondary level.
Moreover, the study revealed that from the use of audio-lingual method English
teachers could get better results however, they had perception that English
grammar is not easy to teach.

In the same vein, Subedi (2017) carried out a research entitled ‘Exploring ways
of teaching grammar lessons at secondary level’ aiming to explore the practice
ways for grammar teaching at secondary level in terms of; teaching
prepositions, articles, tense, tags, causative verbs and subject verb agreement.
Data was collected through different tools i.e. questionnaire and classroom
observation checklists. The results showed that inductive ways were more
practiced to teach grammar lessons focusing learner-centered techniques. It was
also concluded that teachers can use or select methods on the basis of the level
of the learners and context and nature of the text.

Likewise, Lamsal (2017) studied ‘Techniques used by lower secondary level

English teachers in teaching grammar’ and the purpose of the study was to

27
identify and compare the techniques used in teaching grammar at lower
secondary level in urban and rural areas. The data was obtained through
observation checklist and diary writing under case study from two public
schools situated in Tanahun district. The result of the study revealed that
teachers in both areas used deductive, explanation, illustration, writing,
question, free sentence composition and task based techniques in teaching
grammar. It was also found that the teacher of rural area focused less use of
pictures, answering questions and the finger techniques on the comparison of
urban area in teaching grammar. Moreover, this study concluded that both
teachers did not engage their students to teach through multimedia because lack
of knowledge about information and communication technology like computer,
internet.

Similarly, Yusob (2018) produced a research article named ‘Challenges of

teaching grammar at tertiary level: learning from English lecturers’ insights’
which aimed to highlight the challenges experienced by English lecturers in
teaching grammar at undergraduate level. Although grammar is considered as
one of the significant skills to master, it is seen as the most important skill and
is often taught incidentally through other language skills. Interview was
conducted to collect the data from 15 English lecturers teaching at university
level. Findings showed that they faced six main challenges in teaching
grammar namely lack of experiences, expectations of the students, lack of
facilities, negative perception on the teaching of grammar and preparing
grammar lessons.

2.3 Implications of the Reviewed Literature

Literature review plays significant role in conducting a research. It is very

much helpful for conceptualizing research problem, research process, research
design, methodological tools and so on. From the reviews, I got some insights
on the concept of teaching grammar and the techniques used as well as
challenges faced in it by English language teachers.

28
The above mentioned literatures were similar to my research study. After
reading and reviewing these works, they provided lots of information on
theoretical and empirical literature for this research topic. Chomsky (1957),
Thornbury (1999), Celce-Murcia and Hilles (2009), Harmer (2007), Ur (2005
& 2012), Larsen-Freeman (2003), Debata (2013), Ibrahim (2016), Bhattarai
(2013) helped me understand the conceptualization of teaching grammar
including its misconception, importance, dimension, grammar teaching in
Nepalese context, approaches, ways of teaching grammar, techniques and
challenges in teaching grammar.

Shuib’s (2009) paper gave information on grammatical awareness of primary

level English teachers. The paper by Retriansyah (2013) helped me gain
knowledge upon the teachers’ techniques for teaching grammar. Subedi’s
(2017) paper was helpful for developing research tools for this study. Lamsal’s
(2017) research made me understand the techniques used in teaching grammar.
Moreover, Al-Mekhlafi’s (2011) work became additional paper that actually
aided me in developing one of my research tools again. The paper by Akbar,
Ahmad and Iqbal (2017) gave me an opportunity to read about the the
problems of teaching grammar. Likewise, Yusob’s (2018) paper gave me some
ideas on the challenges occurred in teaching grammar. These scholars’ research
papers to some extent aided me on the identification and selection of the
different topics such as research questions, research tools, research design,
research methodology and so on.

2.4 Conceptual Framework

Conceptual framework in a research refers to the researcher’s own constructed

model that he/she uses to explain the relationship that exists within the study.
In other words, it is a mental picture of the process that a researcher is going to
conduct in his or her study. The following was the conceptual framework:

29
 Techniques and Challenges in Teaching Grammar

Basic Level

Techniques Challenges

Controlled drills
Students
Lecture
Experience
Teacher Explanation
Resources/Facilities
centered Illustration
Perceptions
Demonstration
Lessons
Finger technique
Expectation of the
Questions English teachers

Guided meaningful practice

Pairwork/group work
Role play
Project work
Student
Discovery technique
centered
Task based technique
Teaching through text
Language games & fun
activities
Use of multimedia

Survey Design

Observation Checklist Questionnaire

Findings
30
Based on the aforementioned framework, this study explicitly focused on the
techniques and challenges in teaching grammar at basic level. Some conceptual
elements from both terms (techniques and challenges) were adhered here to
make the terms more comprehensible. Research design was adopted to explore
the research study. Questionnaires were used as the data collection tool to
obtain required data from the participants. Findings were carried out being
based on the data.

31
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY

To fulfill the objectives of the study, following methodologies were applied in

this research process.

3.1 Design and Methods of the Study

It is the chief responsibility of a researcher to adopt an appropriate research

design to meet the objectives of the study. It is believed that not all research
designs are necessarily appropriate for all research topics. Thus, I chose survey
research design as an appropriate research design to do this study.

Survey is a quantitative type of research design which is said to be a popular

design in education. Creswell (2012, p. 376) states, “Survey research designs
are procedures in quantitative research in which investigators administer a
survey to a sample or to the entire population of people to describe the
attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the population.” It means
that a researcher collects the data usually from the large sample to talk about
trends, opinions or attitudes. The result of this design is based on the
quantitative or numbered data obtained from questionnaires or interviews. It
statistically analyzes data and describes the trends about responses to questions.
It also tests research questions or hypotheses.

Some characteristics of survey research designs are as follows (Cresswell,

2012, pp. 380-392):

a) Sampling from a population: There should be typically selected and

studied a sample from population. Three terms namely the population,
the target population and the sample should be clearly defined at first.
Survey researcher should select a sample representative of the
population so that generalization can be made from the sample to

32
 population. It is important to select a large sample as much as possible
in order to show similar characteristics to the target population.
b) Collecting data through questionnaires and interviews: There are
sorts of surveys that exist however, two basic forms; questionnaires and
interviews are commonly used by survey researcher. Here, questionnaire
refers to the set of questions which are accessed to the participants to
complete and return to the researcher. The participants choose answers
to questions and supplies their basic personal views and information.
Likewise, interview refers to the process in which a researcher records
answers supplied by the participants in the study. In other words,
researcher asks questions to the participants based on guided questions,
and listens answer, or observes behavior and records responses.
c) Designing instruments for data collection: It is a complex process to
design a good survey instruments. Survey researchers should first
consider whether there is an availability of a survey instrument that can
measure the intended variables. Moreover, they set out the questions
which include personal, attitudinal, and behavioral questions, sensitive
questions, and closed and open-ended questions. However, they should
be able to use strategies for good question construction. They can also
perform a pilot test of the questions.
d) Obtaining a high response rate: Survey researchers should look at for
high response rate from participants in the study. In a consequence, they
can generalize the results obtained from the sample to the population. It
is believed that using interview has the high response rate due to the
consent of the participants in advance. On the other hand, there seems
low response rate if the researchers use questionnaires in the study.

Processes or steps of survey research designs are as follows (Cresswell, 2012,

pp. 403-404):

33
a. Decide if a survey is the best design to use: Researchers should decide
a survey design if he or she wants to describe the trends in a population
or describe the relationship among variables or compare groups.
b. Identify the research questions or hypotheses: Survey researcher can
address both research questions and hypotheses in the study. Forms of
research questions or hypothesis can be either the description of the
characteristics or trends of a population of people, or group comparison
in terms of specific attributes, or relationship among variables.
c. Identify the population, the sampling frame, and the sample: while
identifying the population, it includes defining the population and
determining the number of people. Once the survey researcher identifies
the target population with a compiled list of its members, then he or she
can select the sample usually with the help of random sampling
procedures.
d. Determine the survey design and data collection procedures: Survey
researchers should be aware of the types of survey design namely cross-
sectional and longitudinal. They should also determine whether their
study will be based on questionnaire or interview assessing the
advantages and disadvantages of it.
e. Develop or locate an instrument: Survey researchers need an
instrument to collect or measure the variables in the study. It is
important to form an instrument in order to check the reliability and
validity of scores during data analysis.
f. Administer the instrument: This step goes with seeking and obtaining
permissions to conduct the survey as well as using procedures for data
gathering.
g. Analyze the data to address the research questions or hypotheses:
Survey researchers involve in noting response rates, checking for
response bias, conducting descriptive analysis of all items, and then
answering descriptive questions while addressing the research questions
or hypotheses for the study.

34
 h. Write the report: Survey researchers should be aware of a standard
quantitative structure which includes introduction, the review of the
literature, the methods, the results, and the discussion.

3.2 Population, Sample and Sampling Strategy

In this research study, the population covered all the number of English
language teachers who have been teaching in basic level in a foreign language
context. Similarly, the samples for this study were forty English language
teachers out of defined population. I adopted simple random sampling strategy
for the selection of the participants in this study. Here, simple random sampling
refers to the strategy in which every member of the target population has equal
chance to be selected.

3.3 Research Tools and Techniques

The research tools for this study were a questionnaire and an observation
checklist. I included close-ended questions in the questionnaire. Forty basic
level English language teachers were distributed a set of questionnaire.
Likewise, an observation checklist was prepared to observe the six classes of
grammar teaching of basic level English language teachers.

3.4 Sources of Data

This study gathered information from both the primary and secondary sources.

3.4.1 Primary Sources of the Data

The primary sources of the data in this study were forty English language
teachers teaching at basic level from Kathmandu Valley.

35
3.4.2 Secondary Sources of the Data

Various books such as: Thornbury (1999), Ur (2005 & 2012), Celce-Murcia
and Hilles (2009), Harmer (2007), Bhattarai (2013), LarsenFreeman (2001);
journal articles like: Debata (2013), Ibrahim (2016), Yusob (2018) were used
as the secondary data in order to support this study.

3.5 Data Collection Procedures

I collected the data through questionnaire and observation checklist from basic
level English teachers. For that, I adopted the following procedures and steps
which have been described below in paragraph.

Firstly, I made questionnaire for teachers as well as observation checklist for

the classroom observation as the data collection tools. After that, I visited
District Education Office of Kathmandu district and explain my purpose of the
research study in order to take the lists of basic schools. Then, I visited the
head teachers and establish rapport with them. Then after, I briefly explained
the purpose of the study and took permission for data collection. Likewise, I
got permissions from the concerned teachers too. Moreover, I distributed the
paper of questionnaire to the teachers or participants and requested them to
response. For that, I provided adequate time to respond the questionnaire.
Likewise, I also observed the classroom of basic level English language
teachers teaching grammar. After collecting the data, I thanked the participants
and authority for their kind favor.

3.6 Data Analysis and Interpretation Procedures

After collecting the data, the data have been analyzed and interpreted with the
help of simple statistical tools like percentage and tables. The data both from
the questionnaire and observation checklist were collected and counted, and
then converted into percentage with the help of tabulation. Then, the obtained
numerical were analyzed in a descriptive way.

36
3.7 Ethical Considerations

The researcher should consider ethical issues while collecting the required data,
analyzing the data and writing the report. I firstly took a letter from the Central
Department of English Education, Tribhuvan University asking permission to
conduct my research study in different primary schools. Likewise, I asked
permission with each individual respondent along with the school
administration in order to respond the questionnaire and class to be observed.
With this, I explained the objectives and purpose of my study in detail to all the
respondents before commencing the research. I was conscious and respectful
regarding my respondents’ privacy in terms of their personalities, weaknesses
and professional ethics. I assured that I did not disclose their secrecy as well as
their identity and identity of workplace (identity of schools). I kept the
respondents’ views and information in a confidential manner. Eventually, I did
not distort the responses obtained from the participants.

37
 CHAPTER FOUR

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

This chapter consists of analysis of data and interpretation of results.

4.1 Analysis of Data and Interpretation of Result

This chapter is concerned with the presentation, analysis and interpretation of

the results. The data were collected from both questionnaire and observation
checklist under survey research design where I used closed-ended questions to
collect the required data from sample population. In the closed-ended
questions, I used multiple-choice type of questions in questionnaire and yes/no
questions in observation checklists. The percentage was used as main statistical
tool for data analysis. While analyzing the data, total number of responses for
each question and item had been changed into percentage. The analysis and
interpretation of the obtained data have been separately done on the basis of
tools employed in this research.

4.1.1 Analysis of Data Collected Through Questionnaire

A set of questionnaire was given to all the forty English teachers teaching in
basic level in order to find out the techniques used for teaching grammar. The
obtained responses were then analyzed and interpreted. The following section
consists of the analysis of the data on different teaching aspects of grammar.

a. Tense

The following table includes the frequency and percentage of tense aspect of
grammar teaching with different techniques such as controlled drills, guided
meaningful practice, narration and discussion.

38
 Table 1

Techniques for Teaching Tense

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Tense Controlled drills 10 25%
Guided meaningful practice 21 52.5%
Narration 6 15%
Discussion 3 7.5%
Total 40 100%

From the above table, out of 40 English language teachers, 52.5% of the
teachers used guided meaningful practice to teach tense of English grammar.
Likewise, the techniques such as controlled drills, narration and discussion
were applied by 25%, 15% and 7.5% respectively. Thus, it can be said that all
the given techniques are used for teaching tense of English grammar. However,
guided meaningful practice has been mostly used among the other techniques.

b. Articles

The following table includes the frequency and percentage of articles as an

aspect of grammar teaching with different techniques such as using pictures
and drawings, story narration, asking information and fill in the blanks
(activity).

Table 2

Techniques for Teaching Articles

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Articles Using pictures and drawings 9 22.5%
Story narration 8 20%
Asking information 3 7.5%
Fill in the blanks 20 50%
Total 40 100%

39
From the above mentioned table, out of 40 English language teachers, 50% of
the teachers used fill in the blanks as an activity to teach articles of English
grammar. Similarly, other techniques such as using pictures and drawings,
story narration and asking information were applied by 22.5%, 20% and 7.5%
respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that the teachers used all of the given
techniques while teaching articles of English grammar but, most of them
preferred using the activity i.e. fill in the blanks.

c. Preposition

The following table consists of the frequency and percentage of preposition

aspect of grammar teaching with different techniques such as using realia,
providing examples, using pictures and drawings and discussion.

Table 3

Techniques for Teaching Preposition

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Preposition Using realia 5 12.5%
Providing examples 15 37.5%
Using pictures or drawings 17 42.5%
Discussion 3 7.5%
Total 40 100%

Examining the above mentioned table, using pictures or drawings as a

technique was used by 42.5% of the English teachers out of 40. Likewise, the
percentages such as 37.5%, 12.5% and 7.5% of the teachers adopted the
techniques such as providing examples, using realia and discussion
respectively. Thus, it can be explained that two of the techniques such as using
pictures or drawings and providing examples were mostly used by the English
language teachers in comparison with other given techniques.

40
d. Question tags

The following table deals with the frequency and percentage of question tags
aspect of grammar teaching with different techniques such as using controlled
drills, creating context, direct explaining and dialogue.

Table 4

Techniques for Question Tags

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Question tags Controlled drills 7 17.5%
Creating contexts 12 30%
Direct explaining 7 17.5%
Dialogue 14 35%
Total 40 100%

To teach question tags of English grammar, with the help from the above
mentioned table, dialogue as a technique was used by 35% of the English
teachers out of 40. Similarly, the other techniques such as creating contexts,
controlled drills and direct explaining were used by 30%, 17.5%, and 17.5%
respectively. Thus, it can be examined that both of the techniques such as
dialogue and creating context have been used by most of the teachers.
However, the techniques such as controlled drills and direct explaining have
been emphasized by the same percentage i.e. 17.5% which can be significantly
observed in the teaching grammar classroom.

e. Agreement

The following table displays the frequency and percentage of agreement aspect
of grammar teaching with different techniques such as controlled drills,
contrasting structures, correcting sentences and making sentences.

41
 Table 5

Techniques for Teaching Agreement

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Agreement Controlled drills 4 10%
Contrasting structures 8 20%
Correcting sentences 6 15%
Making sentences 22 55%
Total 40 100%

While teaching agreement of English grammar, with the above mentioned

table, 55% of the teachers adopted making sentences as a technique. Similarly,
20%, 15% and 10% of them used the technique such as contrasting structures,
correcting sentences and controlled drills respectively. Thus, it can be said that
most of the teachers preferred the technique i.e. making sentences for teaching
agreement of English grammar.

f. Transformation

The following table shows the frequency and percentage of transformation

aspect of grammar teaching with different techniques such as controlled drills,
guided meaningful practice, teaching through text and using language games.

Table 6

Techniques for Teaching Transformation

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Transformation Controlled drills 5 12.5%
Guided meaningful practice 16 40%
Teaching through text 10 25%
Using language games 9 22.5%
Total 40 100%

42
Regarding transformation as the aspect of teaching English grammar, from the
above mentioned table, 40% of the teachers applied guided meaningful practice
technique. Similarly, the techniques such as teaching through text, using
language games and controlled drills were used by 25%, 22.5% and 12.5%
respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that guided meaningful practice has
been mostly emphasized than the other mentioned techniques. However, the
use of the techniques such as teaching through text and using language games
have been subsequently considered by the teachers.

g. Voice

The following table provides the information on the frequency and percentage
of voice aspect of grammar teaching with different techniques such as free
discourse, awareness, controlled drills and questioning.

Table 7

Techniques for Teaching Voice

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Voice Free discourse 12 30%
Awareness 1 2.5%
Controlled drills 8 20%
Questioning 19 47.5%
Total 40 100%

Considering voice as the aspect of teaching English grammar, as presented in

the above mentioned table, the data showed that the techniques such as
questioning, free discourse, controlled drills and awareness were used by
47.5%, 30%, 20% and 2.5% respectively. Thus, it can be examined that
questioning has been one of the most used techniques for teaching voice of
English grammar. Likewise, the techniques such as free discourse and

43
controlled drills have been subsequently used by the teachers. However,
awareness technique has been less considered for teaching voice.

h. Reported Speech

The following table reveals the information on the frequency and percentage of
reported speech aspect of grammar teaching with different techniques such as
dialogues, controlled drills, listening and responding and narration.

Table 8

Techniques for Teaching Reported Speech

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Reported speech Dialogues 11 27.5%
Controlled drills 13 32.5%
Listening and responding 6 15%
Narration 10 25%
Total 40 100%

Viewing the above mentioned table, 32.5% of the teachers used controlled
drills for teaching reported speech of English grammar. Likewise, the
techniques such as dialogues, narration and listening and responding were
adopted by 27.5%, 25% and 15% of the teachers respectively. Thus, it can be
assessed that controlled drills was mostly used technique among the other
given techniques, however, the other techniques were also subsequently used.

i. Connectives

The following table shows the frequency and percentage of connectives aspect
of grammar teaching with different techniques such as telling stories, free
discourse, task-based technique and interview.

44
 Table 9

Techniques for Teaching Connectives

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Connectives Telling stories 19 47.5%
Free discourse 5 12.5%
Task based technique 12 30%
Interview 4 10%
Total 40 100%

Regarding connectives as the aspect of teaching English grammar, analyzing

the above mentioned table, telling stories as a technique was used by 47.5% of
the teachers. Similarly, the percentages such as 30, 12.5 and 10 of the teachers
adopted task based technique, free discourse and interview respectively. Thus,
it can be examined that most of the teachers preferred to use the technique i.e.
telling stories.

j. Conditional Sentences

The following table indicates the frequency and percentage of conditional

sentences aspect of grammar teaching with different techniques such as stories
guided meaningful practice, listening and responding, role play and teaching
through text.

Table 10

Techniques for Teaching Conditional Sentences

Aspect Techniques Frequency Percentage

Conditional sentences Guided meaningful practice 12 30%
Listening and responding 3 7.5%
Role play 14 35%
Teaching through text 11 27.5%
Total 40 100%

45
Examining the above mentioned table, role play technique was used by 35% of
the teachers out of 40 for teaching conditional sentences of teaching English
grammar. Likewise, the techniques such as guided meaningful practice,
teaching through text and listening and responding were used by 30%, 27.5%
and 7.5% of the teachers. Thus, it can be concluded that high percentage of the
teachers used role play to teach conditional sentences. However, the other
given techniques such as guided meaningful practice and teaching through text
were subsequently used.

4.1.2 Analysis of Data Collected through Observation Checklist

I observed the six different classes of grammar teaching of six English

language teachers teaching at basic level. I prepared the observation checklist
being based on Yusob's (2018) categorization and observed each teacher's
individual classes. Yusob (2018, pp. 151-155) categorizes some of the
challenges relating them with students, experience, facilities and resources,
perceptions, expectation of the English teachers and lessons faced by English
language teachers in teaching grammar. Different challenges were found while
observing the classes. The obtained challenges faced by English language
grammar teachers have been analyzed and interpreted using simple statistical
tool of percentage and the detail has been presented in the following table.

46
 Table 11

Challenges Faced in Teaching Grammar

S.N. Questions Frequency Percentage

Yes No Yes No
1 Is there a grammatical lesson according to the 6 - 100% -
students’ needs and levels?
2 Does the teacher correct students’ grammatical 6 - 100% -
mistakes?
3 Do students feel boring while teaching grammar 3 3 50% 50%
lessons to them?
4 Does the teacher have lack of experience of 2 4 33.3% 66.7%
teaching grammar?
5 Does the teacher have adequate knowledge about 5 1 83.3% 16.7%
techniques and methods for teaching grammar?
6 Does the teacher use appropriate technique for 4 2 66.7% 33.3%
teaching specific grammar lesson?
7 Does the teacher have adequate resources and 4 2 66.7% 33.3%
materials while teaching grammar lessons?
8 Is that grammatical lesson time consuming? 3 3 50% 50%
9 Does the teacher have negative perception towards 2 4 33.3% 66.7%
grammar teaching?
10 Do the students feel difficult while learning 4 2 66.7% 33.3%
grammatical lessons?
11 Does the teacher only use second language while 3 3 50% 50%
teaching grammar lessons?
12 Does the class seem large-sized? 3 3 50% 50%
13 Are the students motivated for learning grammar 2 4 33.3% 66.7%
lessons?
14 Does the teacher use students' native language 3 3 50% 50%
maximum?

47
From the above mentioned table, it can be said that 100% of the grammatical
lessons were supposed to be in accordance with students' needs and level. Thus,
it can be concluded that there is no challenge seen on the grammatical lesson to
be taught for the particular classes.

Likewise, 33.3% of the teachers did not try to correct all the grammatical errors
committed by the students while teaching grammar lessons in the classroom. It
meant to say that ignoring grammatical errors made by the second language
learners could create a challenge because students might repeat the same errors
again and again if the task of correcting is not immediately done after making
mistakes.

While observing the classes, most of students from 50% of the classes were
seen bored while teaching grammar lesson to them. It meant to say that
students did not provide due concentration while being taught.

It was found that 33.3% of the teachers were having lack of experience of
teaching grammar. This data came with the fact that these teachers were novice
in a sense that they had just entered in the teaching profession.

Likewise, as presented in the above mentioned table, it was found that 16.7%
of the teachers did not have adequate knowledge about techniques and method
for teaching grammar. In other words, the data displayed that with improper
techniques and methods classroom teaching and learning seemed to be
ineffective.

The observation result showed that 33.3% of the teachers did not use
appropriate technique for teaching specific grammar lessons. It meant to say
that teachers just taught the grammar lesson using traditional method without
appropriate selection of technique in accordance with grammar lesson.

48
Similarly, 33% of the teachers did not have adequate resources and materials
while teaching grammar. This data came out with the fact that teachers were
facing the challenge due to insufficient resources and materials.

It was found that 50% of the grammatical lessons, out of the observed classes,
seemed to be time consuming. In other words, students' inability to learn the
particular grammatical lessons took much more time for teachers in comparison
with other teaching simple grammatical lessons in order to make them
understood.

With an observation, it was found that 33.3% of the teachers had negative
perception towards grammar teaching. It meant to say that having lack of
experience of teaching grammar, nature of teaching grammar i.e. time
consuming and students inability to learn particular grammar lessons might be
the cause of having negative perception.

In accordance with the above mentioned table, the data showed that students,
from the six observed classes i.e. 66.7%, felt difficult while learning
grammatical lessons. Either the students' first language interference or the
differences between their native language and the target language might be a
cause for this.

While observing the classes, in 50% of them, teachers used only the target or
second language while teaching grammatical lessons. This could be taken as a
challenge because only the use of target language might not be intelligible to
the students.

Likewise, it was found that 50% of the classes seemed to be large-sized. This
might be considered as a challenge due to the students' noise and
overcrowdings from the large-sized classes which would hinder teachers teach
very effectively.

49
With an observation, the data showed that students from the 66.7% of the
classes seemed not to be motivated while learning grammar lessons. Thus, it
might be seen as a challenge for the teachers because demotivation brings
lethargy in students' learning behavior.

Based on the observation, it was found that 50% of the teachers used students'
native language maximum. This could bring challenge in grammar teaching
classrooms because grammatical competence cannot be obtained through the
maximum use of students' native language rather input should be provided with
the target language.

50
 CHAPTER FIVE

FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter discusses the findings, conclusions and recommendations as

follows.

5.1 Findings

On the basis of the analysis of data and interpretation of the results from the
questionnaire and observation checklist, I found some of the techniques used
and the challenges faced by basic level English language teacher while
teaching grammar. The major findings of the study have been presented
thematically based on the data analysis and interpretation, research questions
and objectives of the study.

5.1.1 Techniques Used in Teaching Grammar

The following techniques were used by basic level English language teachers
while teaching grammar.

a. Guided meaningful practice was used for teaching tense by 52.5% of the
teachers out of defined forty.
b. Fill in the blanks as an activity was highly used by 50% of the English
language teachers out of defined forty.
c. Most of the teachers, i.e. 55% adopted making sentences as the
technique for teaching agreement.
d. Questioning, applied by 47.5% of the teachers, was mostly used as a
technique in order to teach voice.
e. 47% of the English language teachers adopted telling stories as the
techniques for teaching connectives.

51
5.1.2 Challenges Faced while Teaching English Grammar

The following challenges were faced by basic level English language teachers
while teaching grammar.

a. Teacher's lack of experience has been faced as one of the challenges in

teaching grammar.
b. Inadequate use of resources and materials seems to be a challenge while
teaching grammar.
c. The students from the observed classes i.e. 66.7% felt difficult while
learning grammatical lessons.
d. In 50% of the total classes, teachers either used only the target language
or native language of students maximum.
e. Large sized class as a challenge was found in 50% of the classes.
f. In 66.6% of the classes, students did not have motivation so how to
motivate them as a challenge.

5.1.3 Pedagogical Insights for Teachers

On the basis of the findings, some pedagogical insights have been presented
below:

a. Techniques are said to be the effective ways for teaching in an effective

way to achieve desired goal within a short period. Thus, techniques of
teaching grammar would certainly benefit teachers for effective and
successful teaching.
b. Teachers having knowledge of different techniques for teaching
grammar helps in the selection of techniques in accordance with the
nature of particular grammatical items.

52
 c. Viewing challenges positively would allow the teachers to step forward
with the innovative management skills. Identifying the challenges is a
must for the continuation of successful teaching and learning. Thus, with
the identification of challenges, teachers can become able to bring
possible solutions.

5.2 Conclusion

Grammar is said to be the skeleton of a language that's why grammar teaching,

among the other aspects of a language, has a great value in teaching a language.
The essence of grammar teaching can be significantly observed as infinite
number of sentences can be enumerated with the help of basic rules in order to
communicate in meaningful way. Different grammatical aspects or items are
put in a curriculum for teaching a language. All grammatical aspects or items
do not have the same rules, forms and structures so that they are different from
each others. Having said this, teaching grammar includes teaching different
aspects or items of that grammar so that only one technique does not
necessarily tend to be effective for all the grammatical items. Thus, grammar
teachers should have the knowledge of different techniques for teaching
different grammatical items. Not only this, they should also be aware of the
appropriateness of techniques i.e. the use of appropriate techniques in
accordance with grammatical items. Therefore, different techniques of teaching
grammar can help teachers make the classroom learning more effective.
Moreover, different teaching grammatical items such as tense, articles,
preposition, questions tags, agreement transformation, voice, reported speech,
connectives and conditional sentences could be taught using different
techniques such as inductive, deductive, narration, fill in the blanks, using
pictures, using realia, discussion, dialogue, creating contexts, using language
games, free discourse, interview, role play, guided meaningful practice and so
on.

53
Teaching is said to be the challenging job so that grammar teaching cannot be
of exceptional. However, challenges in teaching grammar should be viewed in
a positive way because they can be a means to step forward for achieving the
desired goal. Thus, teacher should be aware of the possible challenges while
teaching language in general and grammar teaching in particular. Challenges
do not necessarily come from a single source as they can be related to learners,
teachers, lessons, resources and materials, perceptions, expectations and so on.
Therefore, challenges should be discerned at first and then coped with possible
solutions.

5.3 Recommendations

In this sub-chapter, appropriate recommendations have been made on the basis

of the findings and conclusion from the study. These recommendations have
been further categorized into policy related, practice related and further
research related.

5.3.1 Policy Related

The following policies have been made as recommendations for the policy
makers, course developers and curriculum designers.

a. While developing teacher guidelines for the specific class, the concerned
authorities should have insight on multiple techniques for teaching
different aspects of grammar with appropriateness.
b. Being aware about the challenges faced while teaching grammar can be
helpful for the concerned institutions and individuals in order to cope
those challenges.
c. The provision of training should be guaranteed for the English language
teachers being concerned with different aspects of that language in
general and grammar teaching in particular.

54
5.3.2 Practice Related

The following practice related recommendations have been made for the
educational authority and real practitioner of teaching, i.e. teacher.

a. English language teachers should be aware of different techniques for

teaching grammar with appropriateness.
b. The concern institution and individuals should have impactful
management skills for the solution of the occurred challenges while
teaching English language in general and grammar teaching in
particular.
c. English language teachers should get an opportunity to participate in the
trainings related to different techniques for teaching grammar.

5.3.3 Further Research Related

The following research related recommendations have been made for future
researchers having interest on the particular area of research.

a. Future researches can be conducted on different aspects (pronunciation,

vocabulary and grammar) of English language.
b. The researchers can study on the resolution for the occurred challenges
while teaching grammar.
c. The researchers can analyze the effectiveness of different techniques

used for teaching different aspects of grammar.

55
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 APPENDIX I
Survey Questionnaire
Teacher’s name:
School’s name:
Researcher’s name: Ranjita Regmi, student of Central Department of English
Education, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu
You are requested to put a tick ( ) to the alternatives that best indicates
your responses.
What techniques do you use while teaching the following grammatical items
inside the classroom?
Grammatical items or Techniques 
elements
a. Tense i. Controlled drills
ii. Guided meaningful practice
iii. Narration
iv. Discussion
b. Articles i. Using pictures and drawings
ii. Story narration
iii. Asking information
iv. Fill in the blanks
c. Preposition i. Using realia
ii. Providing examples
iii. Using pictures or drawings
iv. Discussion
d. Question tags i. Controlled drills
ii. Creating contexts
iii. Direct explaining
iv. Dialogue
e. Agreement i. Controlled drills
ii. Contrasting structures
iii. Correcting sentences
iv. Making sentences
f. Transformation i. Controlled drills
ii. Guided meaningful practice
iii. Teaching through text
iv. Using language games
g. Voice i. Free discourse
ii. Awareness
iii. Controlled drills
iv. Questioning
h. Reported speech i. Dialogues
ii. Controlled drills
iii. Listening and responding
iv. Narration
i. Connectives i. Telling stories
ii. Free discourse
iii. Task-based technique

iv. Interview
j. Conditional i. Guided meaningful practice
sentences ii. Listening and responding
iii. Role play
iv. Teaching through text
 APPENDIX II
Observation checklists

The following observation checklist is based upon the classroom challenges

faced by basic level teachers while teaching grammar.

The researcher will apply the following checklists to collect the data by
observing the classroom of teaching grammar in basic level.

Name of the school: Date:

Name of the teacher: No. of the students:

Class: Teaching item:

S.N. Questions Yes No

1 Is there a grammatical lesson according to students’ needs
and levels?
2 Does the teacher correct students’ grammatical mistakes?
3 Do students feel boring while teaching grammar lessons to
them?
4 Does the teacher have lack of experience of teaching
grammar?
5 Does the teacher have adequate knowledge about
techniques and methods for teaching grammar?
6 Does the teacher use appropriate technique for teaching
specific grammar lesson?
7 Does the teacher have adequate resources and materials
while teaching grammar lessons?
8 Is that grammatical lesson time consuming?
9 Does the teacher have negative perception towards
grammar teaching?
10 Do students feel difficult while learning grammatical
lessons?
11 Does the teacher only use second language while teaching
grammar lessons?
12 Does the class seem large-sized?
13 Are the students motivated for learning grammar lessons?