*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.
