Teaching Grammar

Teaching Grammar

Introduction

Grammar is the system which helps us to express ourselves. People define grammar as a “rule” to write & communicate but in reality there are no such laws in any language. People who created languages never actually made rules. They created new sentences by evolving words and phrases which shaped a new language. Grammar is simply a reflection of a language which is continuously changing time to time.

We don't need to understand grammar to speak a language. People speak their natives without even actually knowing what the grammar is. But, if you are learning a foreign language, then you should learn their grammar. Understanding grammar would help in learning the language more rapidly and efficiently. It's like a map that will give you the directions to find your way in learning and speaking. Grammar is a general technique of referring to any phase of language that is opposed by people (Butterfield, J., 2008).

The Burmese students have better understanding in present continuous because they use it in their native language and also have fare knowledge about when to use once they know the form. However, it's been difficult to teach them the use of active and passive in sentences. Converting the words from their (L1) native language to (L2) English has been a difficulty for them and that's what I have been working on.

Causes of weaknesses in learning

There hasn't been such development in English language learning in Burma for the fact that they have poor socioeconomic background. Survey was held by Khattak et al (2011) explaining that one of the causes of poor performance is the nervousness due to their fear of failing in assignments, making errors in classes or due to the poor socioeconomic background. Besides this, many of Burmese students lack in vocabulary due to which they experience difficulty in reading a textbook and any comprehension.

Trawinski (2005), also explained few reasons that are effecting EFL (English as a foreign language) students:

Students hesitate to choose English as their subject.

No such environment is being given to those students, outside the classroom so that they can communicate in English.

Insufficient reading and learning material provided to increase their vocabulary skills.

Less motivation and reluctance to learning English.

Lack of efforts & learning tactics causes poor performances of a learner, whereas, an able learner is that who motivated and encourages the use of multiple learning tactics (Alderman, 2004).

Motivation for learning English

Motivation is one of the significant factors that has effecting my students in learning English. Lei (2012), said that motivation is believed to be the most critical factor that has influenced performances of secondary language learners (L2). My students have failed to show motivation due to many reasons such as socioeconomic background, lack of support from their family, negative environment and culture. As Zhou (2012) has said, motivation improves attention, attempt, learning tactics, freedom & their success.

I tried to investigate those factors that will motivate and develop their interest in learning. I planned a singing contest to boost their ...