UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

TECHNIQUES IN TESOL

Lecturer: Nguyễn Hoàng Tuấn, Ph. D

Student’s name: Nguyễn Đào Viên Phúc

Class: 13B

TEACHING GRAMMAR

Introduction

For many years in Vietnam, English has been teaching in schools and many English
language centers with the hope that it will be an efficient tool for learners to access to the
international community. However, it is an upset point that many teachers and learners
find English grammar a boring and dry aspect; as a result, grammar cannot provoke its
useful purpose in learners’ real life. Although many learners are very good at grammatical
points because they are taught with the traditional methodology which focuses much on
memorizing grammar rules than applying its usages, they fail interacting in conversations.
Consequently, I desire to make an effort to help teachers of English and learners to
recognize the role of grammar in a language and the interest of teaching and learning
English.

LITERATURE REVIEW

First of all, it is necessary to explicate what grammar is and its importance in language
learning. As defined in the Oxford dictionary (2008), “grammars are the rules in a
language for changing the form of words and joining them into sentences”. More clearly,
Fromkin at al. (2003) stated grammar of a language is composed of the sounds and sounds
pattern, the basis unit of meaning, and the rules to combine these factors to create
sentences with the meaningful context. They also stressed that “to understand the nature

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of language, we must understand the nature of grammar” (p14). However, what will be
useful for language learners if they want to apply what they learn in the real life. It is
similar to the question that Saville-Troike (2005) made “What is it that when we learn a
language?”(p32). Saville-Troike also mentioned that verbal features, function in
communication, and uniquely human character are three factors of a language we can find
in a dictionary. Therefore, he drew the conclusion languages share characteristics:
systematic, symbolic, and social. Because of languages’ system, it is impossible to speak
English without learning its construction which concludes rules or principles and orders.
Therefore how important grammar is to understand speaker’s speech. The knowledge
about English construction must be put in certain discourse because of the social
characteristics of a language, and also its reflection the social requirements. The ability to
achieve social tasks can prove the success of language learners as Saville-Troike stated.
He also mentioned level differences of a language can be divided into lexicon, phonology,
morphology, syntax (grammar), and discourse that is important for language learners
when they learn a language. However, we can see there is the fact that although many
students can form or comprehend a sentence very well, they fail in socializing with other
people in a conversation. Consequently, the distinguishing between competence and
performance is very necessary to solve this problem. Goodluck (1991) said that speaker’s
competence is the speaker’s unconscious, implicit knowledge of rules that helps him
judge the grammaticality and meaning of sentences, but it is far distinguished from a
speaker’s performance that can help him act in actual events accurately and
comprehensively. We can see that Goodluck (1991) used the word “speaker” here to
mention about one’s ability in using the language in the conversation. Fromkin at al.
(2003) also explained the differences between linguistic competence and performance:
whereas linguistic competence show people’s understanding about the language
construction, linguistic performance represents how well people use the target language in
the actual speech production and comprehension. Then they divided grammar into
descriptive and prescriptive. A descriptive grammar does not tell how a person should
speak, but it describe their basic linguistic knowledge (p14). When learning a language, it

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is paramount important that learners pay equal attention to both linguistic competence and
linguistic performance which help students understand how to apply certain linguistic
knowledge to actual speech production and comprehension. If language learners only
focus on linguistic knowledge, it must be difficult for them to transfer their thoughts
though they have a correct grammar as the given situation in the book of Fromkin at al.
(2003): a girl make a one hundred- word essay like this “George Washington could not
tell a lie. He was a very, very, very, very…, very honest man” (p12). This is a correctly
grammatical essay but it is also a ridiculous essay. Although, it is only a fun story, it puts
forward the truth that sometimes the sentences people make have a ridiculous meaning in
the actual situations. As a result, we can see that both linguistic competence and
performance are equally important.

Another point must be considered is how to teach grammar efficiently. Language is a

product to reflect human society, so it is very complicated and contains diversity.
Consequently, it is necessary to introduce to student the paradigm of language form and
meaning in English. We can see this viewpoint in the book How to teach English by
Harmer (2001). As mentioned in the book, we can see one form can convey many
meaning. For example, the present continuous can refer to both the present and the plan in
the future. Besides, one meaning can be expressed in many different ways through
different forms. For instance, to express the action in the future, we can use present
simple, present progressive or the structure with “will” as Harmer presented. From these
factors, we can draw the conclusion that grammar should not only be taught as rules
themselves but also its function when the speakers use that kind of grammatical points. In
other words, form and meaning are equal role in making sense of sentences. Variety of
English form and meaning can bring interest to students. When the meaning is put in the
discourse, learners will be enthusiastic to study because they know the language
construction’s implication in certain situations. They understand how to use it and how to
make it become their knowledge output in the real life. At that time, the grammar
replicates the real world and it is worth learning and remembering in students’ thinking.

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As a result, they can learn grammar emotionally, which can promise a more successful
result than the way only when students just learn the grammatical rules of themselves.

According to Harmer (2007), in order for developing learning a language, it is useful

when teachers let students have time to think about the target language (p57). If the
students themselves involve in the grammar they are studying, they are far more likely to
understand and remember the language clearer and better than they passively learn from
their teacher. In addition, if the learners are in charge of what they learn, the learning
progress can be easily promoted. In other words, after having time to think about the
language and receiving explanation from the teacher, participating in the activities to
produce the language construction students have just learned is very helpful and
important.

In his article, Ellis (2006) has raised many significant issues about teaching grammar.
Some of the considered points were how important of teaching grammar is and in which
way grammar should be taught. There are controversial opinions that learning grammar
can happen naturally more effectively than purposely learning or vice versa. Until now,
though this issue is still problematic, Ellis proposed that on the lessons and learners’
learning style, the teacher can be flexible in teaching grammar, sometimes it is good for
learning grammar occurs naturally by learners, and sometime the teacher teaches the
grammatical point on purpose. The procedures of grammar are also included in Ellis’s
article. Based on his research, teaching grammar often consists of presentation and
practice stage. However, sometimes one of these two can be omitted. Depending on the
certain conditions, lessons on grammar might consist of presentation by itself, or only
practice needed. On the other hand, learners can even discover grammatical rules for
themselves which is no need presentation and practice time. Another way in grammar
teaching is learners exposed to the contrived input by their teacher. Besides that, grammar
teaching can be conducted through feedbacks of the teacher on learners’ errors in their
communicative task’s performance. In this article, Ellis also mentioned whether teachers
should teach grammar focusing on form or on meaning. Although there are opposite

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viewpoints about form and meaning in teaching grammar of various teachers, Ellis
proposes that grammar teaching must serve the purpose of promoting communicative
competence. In addition, teacher should be aware of two kinds of inherent learning
difficulty of different grammatical structures. The first one is difficulty in understanding a
grammatical feature, and the second is in internalizing a grammatical feature so that they
are able to use it accurately in communication. To conclude his article, Ellis suggested
important notices in teaching grammar which must be very valuable for teachers. Some of
them have caught my attention are grammar teaching should be focuses on both forms
and meanings and uses that can give learners opportunity in communicative tasks,
selection of grammatical points which are problematic to learner to teach is far much
better than teaching the whole grammar, grammar can be learned better at about
intermediate levels than complete beginners, and grammar instruction should be taken
place in separate grammar lessons and also in integrated into communicative activities.

RECOMMENDATION

In the integrating period nowadays, I suggest that English must be taught in the way that
learners can be good communicators who can achieve not only the fluency but also the
accuracy of English. One of many ways that I prefer to teach grammar is the PPP which
stands for presentation, practice and production. The method was described clearly by
Harmer (2007, p66). In presentation stage, the situation in which the grammar rules used
is introduced by the teacher. By contextualizing the situation, the teacher gives students
the first notice at the grammatical point. After that, the teacher has students practice the
language by choral or individual repetition. Besides, the teacher can widen students’
knowledge by giving them more cue-response drills to practice with their friends.
Students can apply the language construction that they have just learned with more
situations through the given drills. Therefore, repetition is not boring anymore but asks
more thinking and challenge from students. To help learners develop in their own way,
the production stage is essential. Making the sentences and conversation in their own way
by using the new language structure they have just learned means that students can use

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what they learn follow the way they want. This can develop their reaction if they
encounter the similar situations in the real life. This activity replicates students’
understanding of the knowledge and also offers the teacher clear evidence about learners’
progress. Replying on the planed syllabus, the teacher does not always follow the process
of PPP in its sequence, he or she can be flexible to use the alternatives of PPP. The
alternatives of PPP are the different sequences of three stages presentation, practice, and
production. I prefer PPP in teaching grammar because it provokes students’ linguistic
competence and performance. As mention above, grammar might be boring for students if
they just focus on form, so the presentation stage in PPP can solve this problem when the
grammatical points are placed in clear situational contexts. By contextualizing the
grammar in the presentation, students have the first notice when to use the language’s
construction, and they can understand what is the meaning of the form in real situation. In
the step of practice, students have opportunity to engrave the lesson in their mind. Finally,
the production stage is very useful to build the fluency of using the grammatical point for
the students. While the presentation and practice stage help develop learners’ linguistic
competence, the production stage can help them achieve their linguistic performance.

Conclusion

Teaching grammar can be more useful and interesting for both teachers and students if
teachers know how to conduct it professionally to provoke learning process effectively.
This can be only achieved if teachers master what they are going to teach and recognize
who their learners are, and how and in what way grammar can help their learners in their
real life. There are many effective methods to teach grammar. However, because of the
time’s constraint, I only choose the PPP as a sample. What I want to do in this essay is
only want to make found it as a reminder for myself in English teaching philosophy that I
must pay enough attention to grammar teaching and recognize how it works for students’
learning to integrate in the international community. There are three points I want to
summary here. The first one is grammar teaching should be served to develop both
linguistic competence and performance. The second is when teaching grammar, teachers

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should pay equal attention to form and meaning of the grammar. Finally, teaching
grammar is very flexible that teachers can consider what and how they teach to give the
best benefit for their students. Follow this way, PPP and alternatives to PPP can be a
reference for teaching grammar. I hope that this essay can somewhat contribute to
bettering the grammar teaching in Vietnam nowadays.

REFERENCES

Ellis, R. (2006). Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA Perspective. TESOL
Quarterly, 40(1), 83-103.

Goodluck, H. (1991). Language acquisition. UK: Blackwell Publisher Ltd.

Harmer, J (2001). How to teach English. (7th ed). UK: Cambridge University Press.

Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. (4th ed). UK: Person
Longman

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., Hyams, N. (2003). An Introduction to Language (7th ed).
United State: Michael Rosenberg

Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current English (2008) (7th ed). UK: Cambridge
University Press

Saville-Troike, M. (2006) Introducing second language acquisition. Cambridge, England:

Cambridge University Press.