Importance of Teaching English Grammar

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Importance of Teaching English Grammar

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The importance of teaching grammar in English language is an ongoing debate. Where on one hand theorists and practitioners have felt that its significance in language learning cannot be mitigated, on the other hand it is seen as nothing but a set of arbitrary rules and merely an exercise in naming parts of a sentence; something that can easily be done away with.

An analysis of this ongoing debate has nevertheless brought to the fore the necessity of grammar teaching and its significance in language learning and enhancement.

That grammar has a positive and real effect on all the four skills of language learning is being gradually recognised.  Although the benefits of grammar on teaching and improving writing skills have been better accepted, its impact on reading, listening and speaking is also now being seen to be prominent.

Enhanced communication skills call for a high degree of grammatical competence.  Communicative proficiency involves knowledge and application of grammar and use of appropriate vocabulary of the language to convey meanings in a socially acceptable way.  This is also the reason why grammar teaching is considered imperative and has found its way into language teaching labs.

Grammar is the base of English language.  English especially as a second or a foreign language is not acquired naturally; instruction and structured learning are important. Through grammar, an ESL learner learns how to operate at the sentence level and studies the governance of the syntax or word orders that are the rule of the game in the language. While, it is argued that some learners ‘notice’ grammar rules and logic naturally, yet it cannot be denied that if one hopes to acquire and use English language accurately and fluently, grammar learning is necessary.

Though grammar teaching generally would involve the intervention of a teacher in the classroom, some language teaching labs have also introduced this feature in their teaching content.  Words Worth English language lab is one such digital language teaching lab that has an audio visual teaching content for grammar for schools.

To add punch to their contention of grammar being important for English language learning, grammarians talk about researches which prove that learners who received grammar instructions made marked progress within two weeks of tutored sessions as compared to those who tried to pick up the language naturally.  The three dimensions of grammar: form, meaning and use that tutored grammar learning brings to the learner’s attention enable him/her to progress in their language competencies. Their risk of hitting a learning plateau is largely reduced thus, in comparison to those who went through an untutored language learning process.