Teaching and learning the English language effectively

*Points to Points (26)

          Teaching and learning the English Language effectively       200?

          There are 3 basic conditions you have to fulfil in order to master the language.

          1.  A good understanding of English grammar.

          2.  Acquire a rich stock of English vocabulary through extensive reading

          3.  Enough practice of the language skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading

              and writing in various scenarios.

1.  Why do you need to have a good command of English grammar?

          Grammar is the foundation of the language.  Without this strong foundation, you can’t achieve much especially in the aspect of written communication.  The purpose of any language is to communicate.  To facilitate communication, the rules are needed to guide the speaker and listener.

          A good knowledge of English  grammatical rules is a boost to one’s confidence.  It is especially true in written communication in the form of letters, memo, reports, advertisement, notice and the like.  These documents have  the written record to show how proficient you are with the language.  A good command of English grammar enables you to express yourself clearly and properly.  You error-free writing will definitely create positive and good self-image.

          On the other hand, if your written work were full of grammatical errors, it could be embarrassing and thus produce negative results.  If you wrote on behalf of your company, your poor grammar would create bad impression of your client on your company.  If you were asked to write a report about the progress of the project, your bad grammar would, no doubt, mar your presentation.  Thus, a good grasp of English grammar is an important benchmark to gauge your English standard, too.

a)  Why do you need to study English grammar in isolation and reinforce in

      context?

          Grammar is “the study of the forms and usage of words in sentences”(1).  In other words, it is the study of “rules about the use of words in a language”(2).  So, you have to know the different word classes in terms of form and function.  In order to study the rules of English grammar effectively, it is important to create the awareness of the forms and functions of different word classes. 

Like teaching and learning mathematics formulae, it is also necessary to present each grammatical items to be viewed and practised.  Only through teaching and learning English grammar in isolation,  you will create the consciousness / sensitivity and give enough emphasis through the explanation of the rules. Teaching grammar in isolation is a good way to sensitise students of the forms and usages of words in sentences because they have to go through a process of analysis repeatedly and the rules got ingrained gradually in the course of time.   Hence there must be enough awareness/ consciousness/ sensitivity to each of the grammatical items in order to get ingrained.

Enough repetition and rehearsal of the rules is only possible when grammar is taught in isolation (parts of the whole -----> context).  This intensive method is perhaps the shortest route to get acquainted and familiarised with the rules.  Of course, exercises for practice and other kinds of reinforcement in contexts are encouraged.  Besides, you may ask the students to apply the rules in speaking and writing.

          On the other hand, if you only teach grammar in contexts, you may not be able to repeat and rehearse the various rules enough.  When teachers teach grammar in contexts only, it is unlikely for them to do such intensive analysis of each grammatical item in details.  As a result, students are blurred with the various rules.  For example, they may not be able to differentiate the adjective form of ‘everyday’ from the adverb form of ’every day’.

 

  [Washing dishes] is /my everyday routine/.

                                       xxxxxxx 

  [I] wash (dishes) every day.

                             ~~~~~~~

First, teachers must sensitise students of the 9 word classes and explain to them their usage one by one.  In the case for the words ‘everyday’ and ‘every day’, if teachers have stressed enough that an adjective can be placed before a noun or after Verb-to-be (am/ is/ are / was/ were………).  If students knew ‘everyday’ is an adjective, they definitely wouldn’t use it as an adverb.

I wash dishes everyday. 

Errors are inevitable but if a person repeated the same mistakes all the time in written communication, it might produce undesirable results.  People may get the impression that your English is poor/ lousy.  Language learning is a life-long process with the purpose to improve / upgrade  one’s language skills and knowledge. 

b)  How to teach and learn  English grammar effectively

           I believe in teaching and learning English grammar systematically.  That means the presentation of each grammatical rule in a comprehensive way for easy reference and visualisation.  When the rules are presented in a systematic way, it is easier to remember like the English alphabet A – Z and Arabic numbers 1,2,3,4,5,……….. You may employ deduction and induction approach in teaching and learning the rules in forms and functions.

         
 For example, to teach Primary 4 students the Simple Present Tense, Present Continuous Tense and Present Perfect Tense in form and function one by one.  Then you provide the overview of the 3 present tenses to show them how they are related.

Overview of the 3 Present Tenses

Finite Verb Patterns

A.  Simple Present Tense

     a)  Verb-to-be

           am / is / are

           I am                                   We

          You are                               You           are

          He /She/ It is                       They

    b)  Ordinary Verbs

          He/She/It  F1 +s /es

         I / We/ You/ You /They   F1

Forms of the Verb

          F1                F2                F3                F4

         walk             walking        walked         walked 

         go                going           went            gone

Functions

To talk about an action, a fact and habit in the present as well as a general truth

Examples:

1.  Lilian and Joan are friends.

2.  They like to talk to each other.

3.  They often talk to each other in school.

4.  Sometimes they talk to each other on the telephone.

B.  Present Continuous Tense

     [S] am / is / are F2

functions

To talk about a continuous action at the moment speaking in the present

The subject and Verb-to-be (am/is/are) Agreement in the Present Continuous Tense remains the same as the Verb-to-be in the Simple Present Tense.

Examples:

1.  Look, they are talking to each other in class now .

2.  Helen is teasing them now.

3.  The teacher is scolding them now.

C.  Present Perfect 

     a)  Verb-to-be

          [S] have / has been

     b)  Ordinary Verb

[S] have / has F4

Functions

To talk about an action which took place in the past and the result /effect is still present / there.

To talk about an action which took place in the past and continues up to the moment of speaking.

1.  My parents have been to Japan.  (They have some knowledge / idea about Japan.)

2.  Tina has washed her sports shoes.  (Look, they are still wet.)

3.  Helen has read the book twice.       (She knows the content of the book well.)

To show how the 3 Present Tenses are related

1.  Tina washes her sports shoes every week.  She has 5 pairs of sports shoes to wash.

2.  She is washing her third sports shoes now.

3.  She has already washed two pairs of her sports shoes.   (They are still wet)

4.  She still has 2 more pairs of sports shoes to wash.      (They are very dirty.)

If students can master English grammar, more than half of the battle is won.  That means they have accomplished more than half of work to acquire the language.  The rest is about reading and practice to upgrade and refine the language.

2.  Reading intensively and extensively for vocabulary and refine your

     grammar

Reading intensively and extensively in English all the time is the most practical and meaningful way  to build up the stock of English vocabulary, familiarise language structures and upgrade your grammar in general.  There is no other better way to acquire English vocabulary and get familiarised with the language structures besides reading.  Acquiring vocabulary in contexts is the most effective way to know how words are used in different contexts and how the same word like ‘book’ is used when it functions in different word classes. 

For example:

This is a book.  (noun)

I need to book a ticket to Singapore.  (non-finite verb)

Reading widely is the best way to acquire English vocabulary and knowledge in varied contexts.  The versatile language experience through reading not only expose you to varied English words but also the different language structures.  It is the most effective and meaningful way to reinforce your grammar and gain knowledge.  Your constant exposure through reading will make it become spontaneous /  natural  to you in the course of time.  

Reading exposes you to how the rules  that you learnt in your grammar class applied in different contexts constantly.  For examples, the usage of nouns, they are used as a subject / subject complement / an object /an object complement in the sentence whereas adjectives are placed before nouns or after Verb-to-be /other linking verbs. 

For examples:

          Nouns                    Adjectives

          patience                 patient

          intelligence             intelligent

          importance             important

[Great patience] is needed to look after children. 

Tina is very patient with children.      

He has (the intelligence) to go for high technique.

He is very intelligent.

Vivian has become /a teacher/.           /subject complement/   

They elected him /president of the club/.  /Object complement/

3.  Enough practice in the language skills

Learning English grammar and reading are the input to prepare yourself for the output of what you have learnt.  So, being able to express yourself freely in spoken and written English is the result of your effort put in studying and learning English.  Before you can do so, you need enough practice in the classroom and real life situations.  The most common way is to do enough exercises for drilling, classroom-induced listening  speaking, reading and writing activities.  Of the 4 skills, I stress on application of the rules through writing to be most effective and economical in terms of time taken and number of students involved .

For example, after studying the rule, Simple Present Tense, you may ask students to write 10 sentences in Simple Present Tense as creatively as possible.   It is a good way to let them know and think that this tense is about a fact / a habitual action/  what a person does every day/ always /often / regularly does/.  They may use Verb-to-be (am/ is/ are) / Ordinary Verb.  They have rules handy enough to refer to.

Well, most schools in Malaysia have adopted the communicative approach in learning and teaching the English language and grammar is taught in contexts only.  I wonder how effective it is and how well students can learn in this scenario.  Why is the overall standard of English in Malaysia so low?  What are criteria to assess their English to be low-graded?  Is their knowledge of grammar an important factor in the assessment?  How important is the command of grammar in the assessment? 

Find out the difference between those with knowledge of English grammar through studying, learning, reading and practising and those with knowledge about English grammar through reading and practising only. 

Do you think it is time our Ministry of Education should review the English language teaching and learning in Malaysia?  Otherwise how can we expect Malaysians to compete well / be on par with other countries in the age of globalisation when English is widely used in various fields.