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To Teach or Not to Teach Grammar

The document discusses the debate over teaching grammar, highlighting arguments for and against its instruction. Proponents argue that grammar teaching prevents fossilization of incorrect language habits, enhances linguistic creativity, and improves communication skills, while critics point out that it can be perceived as tedious and ineffective. Ultimately, the document emphasizes the importance of grammar instruction for academic success and effective communication, particularly for second language learners.

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johnsondanielle251999
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8 views12 pages

To Teach or Not to Teach Grammar

The document discusses the debate over teaching grammar, highlighting arguments for and against its instruction. Proponents argue that grammar teaching prevents fossilization of incorrect language habits, enhances linguistic creativity, and improves communication skills, while critics point out that it can be perceived as tedious and ineffective. Ultimately, the document emphasizes the importance of grammar instruction for academic success and effective communication, particularly for second language learners.

Uploaded by

johnsondanielle251999
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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To Teach or not to

Teach Grammar?
Arguments advancing the case of grammar
teaching
Complaints against Grammar
Teaching
• Students (and even some teachers) often dislike grammar because
it is perceived as being boring and tedious. They find it difficult to
grasp because of its markedness and how it is being taught.
• Some teachers do not know the rules themselves, do not
understand grammar and tend to stick to traditional and ineffective
methods of teaching it.
• Some school administrators believe it is an outdated practice.
• Many students do not even remember the rules they are taught and
therefore cannot apply them to everyday communication.
Why Bother to Teach it?
• Because teaching grammar matters.
The Fossilisation Argument
• Fosslisation refers to the process in which incorrect language
structures become a habit and thus cannot be easily corrected.

• All learners’ linguistic competence fossilises

• Research indicates that those learners who are not formally


instructed are more likely to fossilise sooner than their
counterparts who receive formal instruction
The Sentence-machine
Argument
• Grammar can be viewed as a sentence-making machine
and formal instruction in it enables learners to be
linguistically creative
The Fine-tuning Argument
• The teaching of grammar usually serves as a safeguard
against ambiguity.
• Its teaching helps us to produce intelligible sentences and
allows for greater subtlety of meaning.
The Advanced Organiser
Argument
• Researcher Richard Schmidt used a personal experience
to show that the formal teaching of grammar in which
noticing is dominant serves as a prerequisite for later
acquisition, particularly in natural settings.

• It influences learning and serves as an advanced organiser


for later acquisition.
The Discrete Item Argument
• Language learning can be viewed as a “gigantic,
shapeless mass” and can prove quite onerous for learners.
By teaching students the finite sets of rules the teacher
can thus reduce the enormity of the language task and
can also present the language data into neat and
organised categories, thus making language learning
more digestible
More Confident and Effective
Communicators
• The teaching of grammar can lead to a deeper
understanding of language and transfer to other strands
of language, e.g., reading and writing

• It can produce stronger communicators and provide them


with the skills they need to function in the post secondary
school society.
The Learner Expectations
Argument
• Learners still come to class with preconceived notions of
what to expect. Many were taught using the traditional
methods of teaching grammar and still expect to be taught
in a similar manner their new learning environment.
Grammar Acquisition is Often
Linked to Academic Success
• Discrete grammatical items are a major part of the CSEC
English A examination.
• The “expression category of The CSEC English A profile
speaks directly to grammar and it weighs more than the
understanding component
“use appropriate grammatical forms, and suitable
punctuation and paragraphing to convey meaning clearly
and with facility”
Teaching English Grammar is Important for Second
Language learners operating in a Continuum
Language Situation

• Discuss the language situation in Jamaica


• Discuss the confusion that exists in students’ minds as a
result of the SJE/JC dichotomy.
• Students’ lack of sufficient exposure to English prevent
them from acquiring satisfactorily the grammatical
structures of English through mere incidental means
• Some grammatical structures have to be deliberately
taught in order to be acquired.

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