...A STUDY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GRAMMAR IN LEARNING ENGLISH In India English continues to be the medium of instructions in colleges and universities. It is also the language of the administration. English should be most useful “library language” in higher education and our most significant window on the world. English plays an important role in our national life. It was of great importance in the British India. It plays an important role in various fields. So grammar plays a vital role in the field of learning language. So working knowledge of grammar is required for a sound basis of language- ungrammatical use will create disorder, misunderstanding of ideas, and bad impression among the listener or the reader. In the words of Dr. West, “grammar is not a code of rules like etiquette and table manners, a statement of convention, it summarizes what is done by cultured people, and like etiquette, and it is a state of a constant”. NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The most important ingredient of learning English is grammar. Because, when we come to learn a new language, we need to study its grammar. Grammar is the study of words and the ways words work together. Any person who communicates using a particular language is consciously or unconsciously aware of the grammar of that language. Students usually find difficulties in learning grammar and most of them hate grammar sessions. They do not realize that it is the back bone of language. Pupils at secondary schools also have difficulties...
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...Background of the Study Teaching is one of the complicated processes taking place in the schools and educational institutions. In traditional teaching model, one teacher is responsible for supervising all tasks of lessons over a specific time. The arrival of new strategies of teaching, issues of motivation, the satisfaction of students and academics’ needs and other factors contributing to successful teaching activities all are looking forward into the creative genius of a single teacher. The seemingly difficulty of addressing all these elements simultaneously by a single pedagogue appeals for a new alternative in the method of teaching. As we observe in our classroom, teachers frequently use the different methods, strategies and approaches in teaching that are applicable to their students need. For example, if the students cannot achieve to fully express their intentions or comprehend the meanings of messages, an approach should be selected that helps the student to understand the language grammar. Conversely, if the students need extra motivation, an approach with frequent changes might be proffered. If a learner does not know how to use the language grammar, he will have to rely on lexis, gestures, intonation or other nonverbal features to express his or her meanings. Thus, in order for the communication to exist, people have to know language and its rules, which we call "grammar". Grammar is fundamental to language, without grammar, language does not exist...
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...realize the importance of good writing skills but many business employees have writing deficiencies, costing American businesses billions of dollars every year. According to a study conducted by the National Commission on Writing (NCW) in 2004, American businesses may spend close to $3.1 billion yearly on the remediation of employees’ writing deficiencies. Consequently, employers are dissatisfied with employees writing skills and even more disappointed in the skills of new college graduates. Traditionally, grammar was taught using a rules-based approach which was also referred to as traditional school grammar (Hillocks & Smith, 2003). Rules-based approach focused on teaching grammar rules with emphasis on form (present, past …). Many educators condemned this type of approach, and research showed that it was an ineffective way to teach grammar. Students were simply taught a set of rules and presented with a set of usage exercises. There was very little teaching of how to use grammar in a communicative manner. Rules-based approach has since been abandoned due to opposition from educators and the decision of the National Council of Teachers of English to discourage its use. Researchers have since proposed the use of new approaches such as, context based approach introduced by Weaver (1996, 1998), and sentence-combining approach technique suggested by Hillocks and smith (2003) to name a few. Currently, the context based approach is the favored means of teaching grammar...
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...the importance of good writing skills but many business employees have writing deficiencies, costing American businesses billions of dollars every year. According to a study conducted by the National Commission on Writing (NCW) in 2004, American businesses may spend close to $3.1 billion yearly on the remediation of employees’ writing deficiencies. Consequently, employers are dissatisfied with employees writing skills and even more disappointed in the skills of new college graduates. Traditionally, grammar was taught using a rules-based approach which was also referred to as traditional school grammar (Hillocks & Smith, 2003). Rules-based approach focused on teaching grammar rules with emphasis on form (present, past …). Many educators condemned this type of approach, and research showed that it was an ineffective way to teach grammar. Students were simply taught a set of rules and presented with a set of usage exercises. There was very little teaching of how to use grammar in a communicative manner. Rules-based approach has since been abandoned due to opposition from educators and the decision of the National Council of Teachers of English to discourage its use. Researchers have since proposed the use of new approaches such as, context based approach introduced by Weaver (1996, 1998), and sentence-combining approach technique suggested by Hillocks and smith (2003) to name a few. Currently, the context based approach is the favored means of teaching grammar...
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...Teaching and Teacher Education 36 (2013) 77e91 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate Grammar matters: How teachers’ grammatical knowledge impacts on the teaching of writing Debra Myhill a, b, *, Susan Jones a, Annabel Watson a a b University of Exeter, UK University of Wollongong, Australia h i g h l i g h t s Teachers’ grammatical knowledge influences what students learn about writing. Limitations in teachers’ grammatical content knowledge can generate student misconceptions. Teachers’ ‘applied’ knowledge is more significant than declarative knowledge. a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 27 June 2012 Received in revised form 17 July 2013 Accepted 19 July 2013 Teaching grammar has been mandated in statutory curriculum documents in England since 1988. Yet despite this, research evidence continues to suggest that metalinguistic knowledge is an area of challenge for many teachers. Drawing on data from a larger study, this paper considers the role of teachers’ grammatical knowledge, both content and pedagogical content knowledge, in mediating learning about writing in the classroom. It also illustrates how students’ learning about writing is influenced by teachers’ metalinguistic knowledge. The study highlights that grammatical pedagogical content knowledge is more significant than grammatical content knowledge in supporting meaningful...
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...Implementing Elements of CLL in Consolidating Grammar in Lower Secondary School. The aim of the project: To check the effectiveness of Community Language Learning in consolidating grammar in a non-threatening atmosphere and through whole person learning. Justification of the aim: As Stevick (1990) claims it is very disturbing and confusing for students when the teacher is continually browbeating him for every error. An appropriate response to it is an assumption of CLL inventor who “(...)builds his approach on the conviction that nonthreatening counselling relationship between the teacher and the learner is the perfect concept for whole-person learning.” (Dakowska 2007: 77). The aim of this project is to examine whether this assumption facilitate learning which should come naturally and easily. THEORETICAL PART 1. Community Language Learning 1.1 An outline of the method (history, origin and inventor) 1.2 Basic assumptions (a general characteristic of CLL and a description of the main assumptions ) 1.3 Techniques and teaching activities (a general description of CLL techniques) 1.4 Teacher and learner roles (a description of attitudes, functions and roles of the teachers and the learners; the nature of student-teacher interaction) 2. Teaching grammar 2.1 The notion of grammar 2.1.1 Defining grammar 2.1.2 The role of grammar in language teaching 2.2 Different methods of teaching grammar (teaching grammar from rules (deductive learning – pros...
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...view writing skills as one of the most important qualifications that employees should possess. However, many business employees, including recent college graduates, have serious writing deficiencies, especially in their ability to use standard English. As a result, American businesses spend billions of dollars annually to remediate these writing deficiencies (College Board, the National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges, 2004). In this article, the authors examine possible reasons for these deficiencies and offer evidence that a modified context-based approach, the glossing approach, and consistent error marking can reduce the number of sentence-level errors students make. Keywords: context-based approach, grammar, punctuation, rules-based approach, writing deficiencies Copyright © 2007 Heldref Publications T hat many employers in the United States are dissatisfied with their employees’ writing skills is not a surprise to individuals who frequently peruse the professional literature in nearly any academic field or discipline (Gray, Emerson, & MacKay, 2005; Wise, 2005). Although the expressions of dismay are frequent and often strong, educators have done little to rectify the situation. Costs of Employees’ Poor Writing Skills material to decipher the intended meaning; and (c) the outcome when an incorrect decision is made because of poorly or ineffectively written material. Employers in the public sector have reported similar writing deficiencies...
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...Can Grammar or Phonetics be taught through Games? Table of Contents I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………..……………1 II. What is Grammar?……………………………………………...………………………………2 III. The place of Grammar in the language teaching……………….…………...2-4 IV. Games and Grammar teaching/learning: A.Background of Grammar Games……………………………………………..…..……4 B.The function of Games………………………………………………………………4-5 C.The roles of teachers and learners………………………………….………5-6 D.Factors affecting Grammar Games: Age……………………………………………………………………..………6-7 Ability in the target language…………………………………..7 Motivation…………………………………………………………………..7-8 Size of group…………………………………………………………..8-9 Time…………………………………………………………………………....9 V. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...………10 VI. Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….…11-13 Introduction This paper aims at discussing the issue of teaching grammar through game activities, which derives its importance from the pursuit of excellence in language learning and teaching. At this point it is probably a good idea to start with some definitions of grammar, followed by the place of grammar in language teaching. In this context, researchers speak of the grammars of a language rather than of the grammar. Therefore, different methods of teaching a language will be presented and two of them will be discussed individually; that is to say, structural and communicative. What I would like to take into consideration...
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...grammatical error feedback on students’ accuracy? Results related to the questionnaire that was delivered to the participants proved that immediate error correction enhances and has a positive effect on their accuracy. Introduction Accuracy, in its simple view, is the ability to produce grammatical correct sentences (Gower et al. 1995). Since its vital role in acquiring the English language in Palestine, grammar should seize a wide distance in EFL classrooms and should be taught either inductively or deductively. Nevertheless, the process of teaching and learning does not guarantee that all learners are expected to produce grammatical sentences, so the role of the teachers, here, is to respond and give immediate feedback. The erroneous utterances may interfere with the intelligibility of what is said. When the feedback provided during a conversational interaction, the acquisition process is facilitated (Rahimi & Dastjerdi 2012) and the direct treatment of errors helps learners learn better. The feedback and correction of errors are parts of the process of learning and teaching....
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...Lexical Approach on College English Teaching in China I. Introduction 1.1 Background In recent years, college English teaching research focuses on exploring more effective teaching methods to improve the students’English proficiency and self-learning ability. China's college English teaching find itself caught in a dilemma of time-consuming but low-efficiency. The undesirable language teaching situation drives the teaching researchers to make great efforts to innovate present teaching ideas and methods. No matter how much attention has been paid to reading and writing training, teachers and students generally think that vocabulary teaching is of vital importance and it is the foundation of English learning. However, a majority of students acquire new words by rote learning and some students even try to memorize the words based on the vocabulary list. Although students' vocabulary size is increased quickly, their English language skills have not been improved. In order to resolve these problems, we can try to update the teaching idea of vocabulary and to improve the teaching method. 1.2 Purpose of the Paper The focus of traditional English teaching is mainly on grammar and vocabulary, which are regarded as two independent items. In fact, students cannot express themselves very well even though they have acquired many words and grammar rules. So, how can we change the situation? Many studies have been conducted to improve English teaching efficiency in order to equip students...
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...is a language-teaching method developed by James Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology at San José State University. It is based on the coordination of language and physical movement. In TPR, instructors give commands to students in the target language, and students respond with whole-body actions. The method is an example of the comprehension approach to language teaching. Listening serves a dual purpose; it is both a means of understanding messages in the language being learned, and a means of learning the structure of the language itself. Grammar is not taught explicitly, but is induced from the language input. Asher developed TPR as a result of his experiences observing young children learning their first language. He noticed that interactions between parents and children often took the form of speech from the parent followed by a physical response from the child. Asher made three hypotheses based on his observations: first, that language is learned primarily by listening; second, that language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain; and third, that learning language should not involve any stress. Total physical response is often used alongside other methods and techniques. It is popular with beginners and with young learners, although it can be used with students of all levels and all age groups. Natural approach From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The natural approach is a method of language teaching developed by Stephen...
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...Rubric Teaching English as a second language – nonnative English speaking teachers of English (NNETs) compared to native English speaking teachers of English (NETs) in ESL cultures. NNETs from the same culture as their ESL students are preferable than NETs from a different culture than their ESL students. The shared culture between NNET and their ESL students (as oppose to NETs who do not share the same culture properties with their ESL students) helps the NNETs find better teaching techniques, making their student's language acquisition easier and approachable. NNETs have advantages in approaching the ESL students and display of empathy towards them and their needs. NNETs display better knowledge in some domains than NETs. Introduction...
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...Communicative Language Teaching The aim of this unit • To make you think about communicative approach to teaching languages • To analyse the concept of communicative competence • To reflect upon the communicative teaching techniques What do you have to do in this unit? • Warming up discussions • Input reading • Self-assessment questions (SAQS) • Exploratory tasks • Integrated task Warming up discussion 0 Warm up the concept of a “communicative situation” (situation, in which it is necessary to communicate orally and/or through writing in order to achieve a certain goal). Produce a “mind map” of the concept listing most typical communicative situations in your own real world Communicative situations Input reading 1 The way towards communicative teaching Warming-up discussion 1.1 Rate in order of importance the items that the students need in order to master the language communicatively (more than one item can get one rank) |Items |Rating | |Vocabulary | | |Grammar | | |Pronunciation | | |Knowledge...
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...referred to in some contexts as transformation of one's ideas (thoughts ) into written language, and pedagogically ,we can say , the writing skill is the most skill through which EFL students are examined. Writing has many interrelated aspects, and it involves different mental activities before being performed in their final written product. It needs first thinking (creating ideas), composing ,and checking their relation to each other and supporting the main idea of the topic, selecting and recalling the right vocabulary items, organizing these ideas according to their importance so that they can support the main idea i.e. theme of the topic. In addition, it needs that the writer should link his/her ideas to each other, write them down on paper or on screen as a first draft and then revise ,edit ,and to get the final draft. Raimes (1984: 335) categorizes the components of writing as content, organization, grammar, syntax, mechanics, word choice, the targeted audience and the writer's process. Students’ writing ability in general and in paragraph writing will pave the way to them to succeed in their studies, Later, they will be able to teach the writing skill effectively to their learners when they become teachers , and also they will be able to write their research papers either Master or Ph.D. theses successfully when they carry on their further studies. As pointed out by Torrance et al., the ability to write clearly and fluently is undoubtedly one of the most important...
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...Review of “Research Summary and Bibliography for Structured English Immersion Programs” of the Arizona English Language Learners Task Force Stephen Krashen University of Southern California Kellie Rolstad Arizona State University Jeff MacSwan Arizona State University The “Research Summary and Bibliography for Structured English Immersion Programs” of the Arizona English Language Learners Task Force purports to present a scholarly and balanced review of current scientific knowledge regarding effective programs for English Language Learners (ELLs) in general and Structured English Immersion (SEI) in particular. However, we find that the review neglects to reference significant research bearing on the questions raised, and frequently draws inappropriate conclusions from the research presented. Perhaps most disappointing is the tendency in the review to neglect important conceptual distinctions which could have usefully guided the research summary. Below we address each area of literature review in turn, pointing out significant limitations and incorrect interpretations as they arise. 1. What is the current state of scientific research in the area of effective instruction for English Learners? The review cites references to make the point that there are relatively few high quality studies regarding program effectiveness for English Language Learners, with estimates ranging from five (Gersten & Baker, 2000) to fifty (Genesee, Lindholm-Leary, Saunders...
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