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Krashen, Stephen. (1988). Teaching Grammar: Why Bother?
The importance of grammar to students
The importance of grammar to students
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In the past, the study of grammar has been investigated for centuries, it was also significantly role in language teaching and learning. The reasons for teaching and learning are different in each period. In some eras, a major aim of teaching and learning was making learners to be able to communicate. In others, it was essentially taught for the purposes of reading and writing. For these reasons, the studies of two linguistic theories, the traditional grammar and the structuralism were created. They can be viewed differences by views on language, language learning and teaching as well as strengths and weaknesses as follows. Traditional grammar is one of the most significant grammar teaching, this kind of grammar was influenced by the Greek scholars of the fourth and fifth century BC. Its views on language is prescriptive according to rules of correctness. For example, “ I did not do nothing” this sentence is exactly incorrect because in traditional grammar, one negative cannot overlap another negative. In nineteenth century, language was considered diachronically. Also, it is refer to Biology; language can be dead or alive it was the open-system which can be changed all the time as same as life’s development. Traditionalist believed that the current languages were considered to be degenerate; thus, studying language should be looked at the ancestor because it was a purest form. Also, written language should be studied more than spoken language because spoken language could be variously changed overtime. Some words were gone but some still exist. Therefore, traditionalist assumed that written language is more constant. In addition, traditional grammar analyzed feature of language as parts of speech or eight word classes: noun, v... ... middle of paper ... ...e Audio-Lingual Method is good at pronunciation practice, it may be inappropriate for some learners who do not know those meanings. They just imitate a text or dialogue; thus, there is no thinking. Another drawback of the structuralism is it emphasizes too heavily on the pattern (Slot and Filler); hence, the meaning is ignored. According to the stated above, there is no evidence shows that which method is the best way to learn L2. When the purpose is teaching grammatical rules and writing accurately, the grammar-translation method will be appropriate. On the contrary, if a teacher would make learner speak fluently, the audio-lingual method should be used. Thus, language teaching should depend on the particularly purposes. Or else, both two methods ought to be adapted in order to improve all of important skill for language teaching efficiently.
Computational linguistics is a discipline between linguistics and computer science which is concerned with the computational aspects of the human language. This area of computer science overlaps with the field of Artificial Intelligence. Basically, computational linguistics is a series of programs that interprets human speech into words and actions. There are a couple of different areas of computational linguistics and those areas are theoretical computational linguistics and applied computational linguistics. Each one of those areas are divided up into more areas.
While this adaption is always accompanied with a feature called “nativization”, in which English has changed due to the new sociocultural settings and its interaction with other languages. He examines the standard style of the non-native variety and the established style of the non-native variety. And these styles have been nativized to different degrees in non-native varieties. While Labov regarded the non-standard English as an integral part of the sociolinguistic structure of the English language rather than an isolated part. He analyzed the linguistic features on the nature of the language itself. He urged teachers to study and understand the dialects of English for better teaching children who cannot say “standard
When we begin to dive into the study of humans, also known as Anthropology, there are so many subdivisions we can learn about. One very interesting clump within the study of Anthropology can be classified as Linguistic Anthropology. In this instance, anthropologists study language and how the development and its use can be studied to understand culture. According to the department of Anthropology at California State University Long beach, Anthropologists are interested in learning “how many languages there are, how those languages are distributed across the world, and their contemporary and historical relationships. We are also interested in language variation, why variations exist, how the variations are used and what they mean when they are used in various context” (Linguistic Anthropology). This being said, there are multiple fields that the concept of linguistics can furthermore be broken into. With the study of different areas of language, scientists try to find a deeper meaning of our past and our present.
Harvey A. Daniels writes about common concepts surrounding human language in his “Nine Ideas about Language.” According to Daniels, language critics believe language is changing. The changes that are being noticed are the increase in use of jargon and the lack of people speaking a standard dialect. Consequently, some linguists are describing these changes in language as a “crisis.” To refute this claim, Daniels looks to explain how language has basic features, structures, and operations. He then continues with nine ideas that show ideas of what linguists believe identify errors and misinterpretations of language.
Encyclopedia Britannica (2009) claimed that Sir William Jones wrote various notes regarding similarities between Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Gothic, Celtic and Persian, and he believed that these languages derived from an older language, which yet to be discovered (as cited in Knapp). This encouraged other philologists to research more on the comparative linguistics or comparative grammar (see 3.2 Comparative Linguistics for discussion). Proto-Indo-European Language is a linguistic reconstruction, both internal and comparative, of Indo-European languages’ common ancestor, as there are 445 living languages if Indo-European to date. According to
It rejects the use of the mother tongue and both stress that speaking and listening competences preceded reading and writing competences. According to Lake 2013, the audio-lingual method typically includes drills and pattern repetition. There are four parts to this method: Repetition (the students repeat what the teacher says. Inflection (the teacher says a word; the students say another form of one of the words back to the teacher. Replacement (the teacher says a sentence and the students replace one of the words for a different word) and Restatement in which the teacher says a sentence and the students rephrase the sentence. This method uses dialogues as the chief means of presenting the language and stresses certain practise techniques such as pattern drills, mimicry. Listening and speaking were brought right to the centre of the stage in this
Any piece of human creation or human endowment gets its glamour from its structure, system and functional value. The internal grammar of a language is captured properly only when the linguist-grammarian or the teacher-grammarian first understands the ingredients that give grammar its glamour. We need not forget that
Linguistic relativity is the notion that language can affect our thought processes, and is often referred to as the ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’, after the two linguists who brought the idea into the spotlight. Whorf writes how “Language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual’s mental activity” (1956:212), and I will explain how it is able to do so. In this essay I will argue that certain ways of mental categorization, spatial cognition and reality interpretation, based on the characteristics of our specific variety of language, influence our perception of the world. I will discuss how languages divide up nature differently, and the cognitive repercussions of doing so, before identifying contrasting methods of thinking about space and location, and then will finish by looking at how grammatical differences have the power to predispose a particular vision of reality.
Nassaji, H., & Fotos, S. (2011). The role of context in focus on grammar: Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classroom (pp.121-134). New York and London: Routhdge
The English language as many other languages in the World has been evolving through time, and it passed through many stages including its nearly extinction. So where and when did this story begin? 2000 years ago in what now would be the United Kingdom, the language was incomprehensible. The Anglo-Saxon, wich is known also as Old English, was a language that sounded like the modern Frisian language. This language arrived when Germanic tribes invaded Britain and subjugated the native Celts. Nowadays some words have stayed more or less the same down the centuries, words like: buter (butter), brea (bread), tsiis (cheese) miel (meal), sliepe (sleep), boat (boat), snie (snow), see (sea), stoarm (storm). It was the west Germanic tribes which invented these words. Anglo-Saxon, we all speak it every day; nouns like: youth, son, daughter, field, friend, home and ground; prepositions: in, on into, by, and from. And, an; come from Old English, so as all the numbers and verbs like: drink, come, go, sing, like, and love.
In the article, “Current Developments in Research on the Teaching of Grammar” by Hossein Nassaji and Sandra Fotos two main issues had been discussed. The first one is whether grammar teaching make any differences to language learning where the questions raised are whether grammar should be taught or not. The second issue is what kinds of grammar teaching have been suggested to facilitate second language learning. If grammar should be taught, how much and should it be implicit or explicit grammar teaching? Lastly, the article discussed on the current approaches to grammar teaching in which formal instruction can be integrated with communicative activities which are processing instruction, interactional feedback, textual enhancement, task-based
They must participate in the activities of the lessons which keeps them alert and engaged in their learning. Another advantage of this method is that students are understanding what they learn. They don't connect it back to their native language but they are able to express their thoughts and ideas in correct English. The Direct Method works for all levels of learners. Whether it be level one beginning learners or higher level learners. It can be adapted for the whole range of learners. Since the main focus is the speaking and listening of the new language the students will become fluent speakers. They will have a lot of practice with pronunciation and expression as well. With this method, the teacher demonstrates the language instead of explaining the rules of the language and how to use
As the name suggests, linguistic learners most easily acquire information through words. They love to read, write, and tell stories. Memorizing names, places, dates, and trivia come naturally to these learners (Mantle, 2002). People with a linguistic preference have an awareness of the sounds, rhythms, and meaning of words. These students learn best by saying, hearing, and seeing words.
The Grammar Translation Method has been considered as the major factor causing to the low linguistic competence on the learners. However, the role of translation in teaching English cannot be ignored. Translation was an important part of English teaching for a long time, and then it was replaced by other methods. When the communicative methodologies arrived and then totally dominant, translation was consigned to the past. In spite of this, now it is used in many communicative classrooms and successfully assists to the learning. Duff (1989) supposes that teachers and students now not only use translation to translate the language, but also to learn the language. Nowadays, translation activities have clear communicative aims and real cognitive
Introduction: It is evident in the history that the origin of the English and Bangla languages is Indo-European language family. But with the passage of time, these two languages had undergone a lot of changes. Although English was dominated by Greek and Latin, Bangla had been greatly influenced by English, specially in some areas of grammar during the British regime in the Indo-Pak subcontinent. However, the earlier Bangla grammar was based on Sanskrit grammar. In English, the term ‘grammar’ comes from Greek meaning ‘study of words’, whereas the Bangla equivalent of the term is Ôe¨vKiYÕ /bækɔrɔn/ which receives the meaning ‘analysis’. The subject of this study is the comparative analysis of the structure of simple declarative sentences/statements