JOURNAL #1

DAVID NUNAN’S VIEW ON GRAMMAR AND TEACHING GRAMMAR

In chapter 8, David Nunan defines grammar and describes the rather unstable place that grammar has occupied on the language teaching stage. By providing some background and context, he articulates three principles and how they have been applied to guide the grammar teaching in the classroom.

When I was a high school student , my teachers taught grammar like this

1. Introduce the name of the grammar point
2. Rules can be simply and quickly explained (in Vietnamese).
3. Give examples to illustrate the rules
4. Ask students to do exercises in the book.
5. Have students write their answer on board
6. Correct grammar or spelling mistakes

By this way, I knew the teachers had more time for practice and it respected the intelligence and cognitive processing of adult learners as well as their expectations. However, most of members in our class got bored with it. Doing many grammar exercises without using them in real contexts made us confused. Was grammar a means to an end or an end itself when learning language?

After reading chapter 8 Grammar by David Nunan, University of Hong Kong I find out many interesting and useful things in teaching Grammar: teaching grammar in context, form and function relationships and inductive and deductive teaching

First of all, my deep interest is how to teach grammar effectively. As a result of the communicative revolution in language teaching, it has become increasingly clear that grammar is a tool or resource to be used in the comprehension and creation of oral and written discourse rather than something to be learned as an end in itself. Noel Goodey insists that teaching grammar without context has no meaning and without context, meaning can never be complete. It is certain that a well-chosen context which, in themselves, attracts the students’ interest not only illustrates the meaning of each example in both form and meaning but also makes the language it presents more memorable. For example, at the presentation stage students are made aware of how the structure can be used. Then at the practice stage, I must offer them a series of tasks, each with its own clear context, to demonstrate the variety of possible uses the structure can fulfill.

Secondly, “a complete language program will include a variety of tasks that invite both as focus on form and a focus on message conveyance” (Ellis, 1995, p. 100). Language teachers need to keep a balance between grammatical accuracy and communicative fluency. That is to say that students know and can produce correct forms of language as well as they can produce language with ease. Remember that communicative fluency comes first and then the grammatical accuracy comes second. Developing communicative competence is the aim of teaching language. Therefore, when teaching a grammar point, I will encourage students to apply it in real life. At the beginning stage, I do not care any mistakes. Let students free in expressing their ideas, however at the last stage I will ask students to focus on form also.

Last but not least, “it depends on the grammar point being taught and the learning style of the students” that teachers uses inductive or deductive methods. We know that an inductive approach has many advantages:

1. The mental effort involved ensures greater cognitive depth so it makes students more memorable.

2. Learners are actively engaged in the meaning-making process. Therefore, students will be more attentive.

3. Working things out for themselves prepares learners for self-reliance. Hence, learners gain autonomy.

4. Collaboration provides opportunity for negotiation. Therefore students get co-construction of meaning.

5. Some learners like problem-solving activities of this kind. It would be a greater motivation.

However, it takes more time for the learners to come to an understanding of the grammar point in questions than with a deductive approach. It is true that there is no powerful method. That’s why I should integrate both inductive and deductive methods into my teaching. If the grammar point is abstract or hard to understand such as relative clauses, conditional sentences... I will use deductive method. Meanwhile I will apply inductive method to teach some easy grammar points like prepositions, adverbs of frequency ..

Change does not mean doing a different thing but doing the same thing differently. With all useful things I get from chapter 8, I think my belief in teaching grammar changes now. My teaching will turn over new pages applying CLT.

Reference

Nunan, D 1998. Teaching grammar in context. ELT Journal, 52/2, 101-10