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More handpicked essays just for you.
The weakness and strength of grammar teaching methods
Krashen, Stephen. (1988). Teaching Grammar: Why Bother?
The importance of Grammar in Language Teaching
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Grammar: My Experience “Unfortunately, my experience with grammar is very minimal” is what I said at the very beginning of this class. And although I did learn a lot in this class, I also learned that I had a lot of previous knowledge that I wasn’t even aware that I had. The problem with the background knowledge that I have is that I have a hard time putting a name to the things that I already know. In grade school I was taught very little grammar. I can think all the way back to Elementary school and I have vivid memories of being taught how to read and write. In fact, the “Letter People” were my idols for a solid three years. However, I have almost no recollection of being taught much grammar at all. I recall some lessons about capitalization …show more content…
I think this could be due to two different reasons. The first being my lack of a grammatical background. Obviously, you can’t be expected to implement concepts that have never been taught to you. The other reason is that I have a really hard time editing my own work. I say to my students ALL the time, “PLEASE re-read your work. I know you don’t want to but I promise it’s going to help.” However, I am guilty as charged! Most of the time I just want to get the paper done and turn it in. I spend very little time going over my own work or reading it out loud. For some reason I have a mental block against going back to my own work and revising. I remember a specific comment that a professor left on one of my papers a year or two ago where he said that editing is the most important part of the paper. He explained that some of my errors were distracting from my writing and all of the points that I want to make. That was really an eye opening moment for me. I realized that I was sounding less intelligent because of my grammar (any somewhat laziness) mistakes. In the past year I have really tried to pay attention to my grammar and check my work more carefully but it is an ongoing …show more content…
I dread it. I find myself planning out the week/month and forcing myself to include grammar. To be very honest, I usually pick grammar topics that I am comfortable to teach. The format that I was teaching grammar in was to do grammar one week and then vocabulary the next. However, truthfully, the grammar started to go by the wayside by the end of the marking period. When it was a grammar week, I would teach one mini lesson on Monday for about fifteen minutes. Then on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday students would do small practice sheets. On Friday the students would take a small quiz (usually worth about ten points). In hindsight I now know that this kind of practice was pretty much pointless. The students retained very little information from quiz to quiz and I very rarely asked them to incorporate the new grammar that they learned in any kind of writing. By the middle of last year I knew I was doing something wrong. I started asking my colleagues for ideas and definitely knew that I wanted to incorporate grammar not only on a more regular basis but making it a key part of my writing
I never really considered myself an "acceptable" writer. I always would panic after realizing I have to write a paper because I never feel prepared or ready. After my semester of English 1102, I realized that I can spot good points for my argument, but I had difficulty analyzing them in terms of my thesis. My thesis and topic sentences were not my strong suits because I either don't dig deep enough, or I panic and add so much to my thesis/topic sentence that the syntax and diction is awkward and confusing. I would spend hours trying to fix these errors because of writer's block and anxiety; however, as the semester kept going, I found it to be easier to fix the errors in my paragraph by asking myself how to improve my paper and asking my peers
When I was in grade school and high school I was taught grammar everyday no matter what the subject. That is not the case anymore. Grammar is not taught like it used to. Teachers are avoiding the fact that they are not teaching grammar. They want children to write more about what they feel then write about facts.
When I read “Proficiency” by Shannon Nichols I really felt for her. I understood and resonated with her story perfectly, especially when she stated “After I failed the test the first time, I began to hate writing and I started to doubt myself. I doubted my ability and the ideas I wrote about.” (83). After I failed my writing assignment I was so embarrassed and didn’t want to write again but obviously, I had to. I always doubt the things I am going to say or which order I am going to organize the essay in. I try so hard to make sure all my sentences are cohesive and all my ideas connect to each other and the main concept but sometimes it just seems that when I keep messing with one little sentence or paragraph I just makes things worse.
In the beginning of English 101 I was what you call a novice writer a person who only wrote what they felt was required. However, certain techniques that I learned in English 101 made me realize that writing was not about filling requirements; it’s about speaking out, exploring and proving a point. “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” (Trimble, 17) In John Trimble’s quote he tries to point out that writing is something that you grow with and learn as you go along. I believe this growth was achieved with a technique that was introduced to me by my professor called repetitive revision. What I found out was that revision of your essays helps in recognizing your mistakes and enhances the flow of your essays. By providing me...
Throughout this semester, I was able to learn many writing skill and was able to develop as a writer. When I found out that I was scheduled to be in English Composition I, I was very nervous as I have always felt that writing was one of the skills that I needed to improve on. Although I usually received good grades on my essays, I did not like writing them since it would always take me more than five hours to write a one page essay. If I wanted a good grade in English Composition I, I knew that I was definitely going to have to improve on my grammars. The main skills that we learned in this class were writing a clear thesis statement, paragraph structures, and sensory details. Through this class, I was able to attain more knowledge in these areas and gain confidence in my writing skills. The areas that I have improved on over the course of the semester are staying in the same tense, using
I definitely need to improve on my grammar. I always have a hard time with grammar. My creative side is very strong and I wish I could get stronger in my grammar, but the rules do not stay with me no matter how long I study or try to apply them. I will not give up I plan to keep trying until I get used to the proper usage.
As I look back on my English 101 experience, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned some new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to apply them in my writing and how to look for them in a essay written by a author. I have also learned how to argue both sides of a argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and site the author of the essay. I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay.
In result I 'm a slow learner in my director 's eyes. English and writing classes have always been interesting to me I like to write but I have the worst time staying focus. Of course in sixth grade writhing was made up of mostly free writes on given prompts and english consisted of knowing how to spell and knowing where to put periods capital letters and commas. As English and writing got harder English began to become less about free writes. In a free write you can almost just let your brain fall onto the paper. As you get higher in grade levels english papers change, teachers often assign papers were we have to research or read something. Then understand the information we have crammed in our heads just to we write a shorter version without using the same words as the original text. For some this is easy. Being able to already have ideas and just make them your own words. For myself this is extremely difficult. In high school I can say that I got away with plagiarism a few times my freshman and sophomore years for research papers about elections, historians, books, current event. Over the summer I took english
I have come about what my strengths and weaknesses are in my writings. What I tend to do wrong in my papers is trying to get the topic to stay on the topic throughout the paper. I tend to jump around topic to topic and my sentences just start to run on and repeat the same things. My strengths in writing is making sure that I make sure that I always back up my points and make sure that my paper fits the topic. “Good start— the cookie description has nice sensory details to draw your reader in.” (Prof. Church) When re-reading my papers, I don’t seem to find mistakes that my revisers find. I believe that I just am use to the way I write and the in corrections don’t jump out for me. “Listen to this sentence aloud, and then re-word it more clearly.” (Prof. Church)
A quote that resonated with me was, “For the writing process, however, editing means highly focused attention to specific words or phrases or to the structure of a sentence.” Editing has always been a major problem of mine. I try my best to edit the paper I wrote, but somehow I always miss some of the sentences or phrases that should have been edited. Last year was the first year that a teacher harped on grammar, but it was so late in the year that it was hard to make the adjustments in a short period of time. Bad habits are hard to break and I am still trying to break them. My grammar skills are not as advanced as they should be, so in this class that is going to be one of my major focus
A large part of an English teacher’s job deals with helping students find their own voices amidst the many teachings of their parents and peers. A student’s voice can be their values, their interests, and their perspectives of the world in which they live. Their voice can be their critical questioning of the many situations they face, whether in a text, the school cafeteria, or a park after school. It is the job of an English teacher to aid in finding this voice through their writing. It is by putting words and thoughts down on paper that a student can sometimes feel comfortable enough to take risks and find their true voices. Although traditional grammar instruction has long been thought to improve this skill, this is no longer the case. Instead, by providing a classroom environment in which students are immersed in classic literature from many genres including poetry, short stories, and novels, students will learn how to harness grammar for their own purposes of finding their voice in their writing.
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
It is not uncommon to say that grammar instruction plays an important role in language teaching. Regarding the status and importance of grammar teaching, a variety of opinions have been made. Batstone (1994) states that “language without grammar would be chaotic: countless words without the indispensable guidelines for how they can be ordered and modified” (p. 4). More vividly, Wang (2010) makes two similes. She compares grammar to the frame of a house, which is a decisive factor to ensure the solidness of it. Additionally, she regards grammar as a walking stick, whose function is to help and support students to learn English. Thus, the nature of grammar instruction manifests its own significance as it helps students enhance their overall language proficiency by integrating grammar into other aspects of learning, like listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Humans are born with the innate capability and knowledge to learn any language. Children can construct mental grammar easily due to such innate knowledge of language. Mental grammar can be defined as unconscious rules/principles of a language a speaker has in his/her mind. However, the ability to learn language is constrained by critical period, a time period in development when the human brain is prepared to construct a mental grammar. After the critical period, our innate ability to learn language diminishes. Test situations centered on the critical period for language acquisition and the input received during such period is essential in furthering comprehending human language. They shed light on how mental grammar are constructed.
There is a certain level of humility involved in teaching and being a student. Providing students with the confidence to ask questions is important. This means making sure the appropriate tone is taken when presenting fact and answering questions. Teaching grammar only works if there is open communication between teacher and student. There will be questions because grammar and language can be messy. It is important for teacher to remember that there is no correct way to teach grammar and students should know that there it is okay to let the teacher know when they do not understand