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The role of grammar in the second language classroom
The role of grammar in the second language classroom
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The article talks about whether teachers should teach grammar or not. It talks about how correcting ESL/ELL students grammar fails because of Gray’s four reasons which are “grammar correction deals with “only the surface appearance of grammar and not with the way language develops” (par. 8), language and grammar acquisition occur developmentally and hierarchically: “if a student is given a correction for a [language/grammar] stage he has not yet reached, it would not be effective” (par. 8), teacher and student understanding of grammar comments vary greatly, students “only make mental note of the corrections they have understood, and if they have to rewrite their papers, regularly do not incorporate these corrections into their work” (Gray, …show more content…
In order for the students to understand grammar, they have to practice, practice, and practice some more. It is up to the teacher to see if they are up to the task of teaching the students correct grammar or not. English has always been one of the hardest subjects for me because I did not have an effective English teachers to teach me a lot of the rules that apply to grammar. So, I believe that teacher should teach the students grammar because this will help them become better writers in the long run. For the people who said that correcting student’s grammar does not help the students, I would have to disagree. If the teacher is consistent and constantly tells the students that they are making a certain grammar mistake on their paper, then the students might be more aware of their mistakes. The reason it is hard for students to break the habit of writing correctly is because they have written it incorrectly for so long. Also, their previous teachers never took the time to correct their mistakes. I know that I struggle with writing papers because my English teachers never sat down with me and discuss why my writing was incorrect and how it could be fixed. I did not get the individual attention I needed when I was in middle school and high school. So, if the teachers believe that correcting their grammar is a waste of time because the students do not fix it immediately, then I believe that the teachers are at fault for not helping the
In the article by Kyle Wein “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why.” explains reasons as to why the owner of a business only hires educated, employees. If someone cannot tell the difference between simple words such as there, their, and they’re, the manager will not hire that applicant. That’s not the only thing Wein looks for in an employee. He is looking for smart, educated, employees who use good grammar. “Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet.” Grammar is important no matter what the job is. According to the author, without good use of grammar you will not have a job. Without a job you will have no money, no satisfaction, and/or
In the article “I won’t hire people who use poor grammar here’s why.” published in Harvard business review on managing yourself, Kyle Wiens argues that he have a zero approach which does not allow for any grammar mistake because it makes people stupid, and he believes that people who made mistake in grammar do not deserve to have a job. Further, he supports his thesis by stating that people who made an error in their writing will do error in their work and their life. In addition, he claims that language is constantly changing, but that does not ignore the importance of the grammar. Thus, this claim is supported by stating that good grammar is credibility. For example, programmers who
I do not totally agree, nor do I totally disagree, with the point about grammar that Kyle Wiens’ argues in his article. As an employer, Wiens has the right to make any of his potential employees write a grammar test and deny jobs to those with poor grammar. In my own experience, I notice that people who have poor grammar skills tend to be less meticulous in their work, just as Wiens suggests in the article. Good grammar is virtually paramount for businesses such as the ones owned by Wiens, which are heavily language based. As well, especially in the new millennium, quality workers and employees are becoming increasingly harder to find among the expanding, figurative sea of qualified post-secondary graduates. Thus, I agree with Wiens’ policy of making all of his potential employees write a grammar test. His policy seems like an effective way of determining the best possible people to hire.
One of the blames claimed that “we have low-quality teaching because of low-quality teachers who never should have been certified in the first place.” (). Placing fault on teachers is inaccurate because not all teachers are to blame. There are teachers who push students to reach for their goals and to attend college so they can get a prominent job that makes them happy. Because a student fails, does not always mean it is because the teacher did not teach it well enough. It is possible that the student did not want to pursue further or rebelled against the teacher. There are students that do not want to be there, yet are being forced against their will due to the law. The teacher could be trying their best as well. Even though some may be low-quality, teachers want to see their students to succeed and grow into the person they want to be. Not to watch them fail and achieve nothing. It is sometimes that the students do not comply with their teachers. The one thing agreeable with Singleton is that if a student does not want to be in school, then let them
Perfection is not always the answer. I found myself wishing that I had Murray as a teacher. It would be interesting to see if writing badly actually makes ones writing experience different. Instead of policing the writing, Murray actually cares about what is actually being said and that shows that his students are important and that he cares about their voice. Readers can feel satisfied that there is at least one teacher who tries to understand and is actually doing something to change writing in his classroom. Murray finished his essay by saying, “What matters in the journey – at least initially – is not what kind of car you’re driving but where you end up.” This leaves the reader knowing that it is okay if you choose to write with perfect grammar the first time or write badly then go back and fix mistakes if you desire to do so. The readers leave with an extra tool to use when
Writing correctly is something that many people find hard to do! I know this, because I use to feel the same way. I have had many English classes in my time, where teachers would sit next to me, and correct my errors sentence by sentence as I went along. All the while asking me if I understood what why what I did was wrong. I remember saying that I understood, but I really didn't. That was something that I didn't like at the time, but I am now very appreciative of the fact that someone was there. With today's kids, most teachers don't take that needed time and help them to get on track with their writing. Because of this, I find that both Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, and Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace to be very helpful. After reading them, I know that they can both be used as "handy" reference tools for today's writers.
There are many reasons why good grammar is important at work. First of all, if an applicant has bad grammar, then he or she may not even get hired in the first place. Kyle Weins, CEO of ifixit, said in his “Harvard Business Review article” that he won’t even hire applicants who have bad grammar; his company has an English test that all applicants must take. Many other companies also have English tests in the hiring process. He also said that good grammar skills show how serious someone is about they’re work; someone with lazy grammar looks like a lazy worker. Plus, good grammar makes people look smarter; someone with a wide vocabulary and great grammar would do a better job impressing a client (Weins ). In her Frobes article, Susan Adams listed the reasons why she thinks good grammar at work is important. She says that good grammar show that an employee knows when to use context appropriate language. It also shows respect to the person they’re talking to and finally it shows that they’re organized people. Employers value an organized employee because they more dependable (Adams).
According to the Susan Adams and Kyle Wiens article writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Grammar helps people look very intelligent towards life, (Adams). It shows you how to organize your resume for a job, (Adams). The poor grammar shows sloppiness toward an essay or interview for jobs, (Adams). The writer’s integrity determines your reputation, (Adams). Always be serious about your subject matter, (Adams). One rule is to listen and pay attention to others, (Adams). They need to have respect for your readers because it shows that you are thinking about the topic and making an effort, (Adams). Grammar errors make people look unintelligent, (Wiens). People judge a person based on their grammar, (Wiens). Good grammar is credibility because of blog posts, Facebook status, and e-mails, (Wiens). Paints the picture of an employee that need to tell a good report of whom, or what was doing at the job, (Wiens). A person attitude can reflect on the company, business, and agency, (Wiens).
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.
Sekelj and Rigo (2011) stated that there are three phases of learning the English language. The first phase is the pupils of Year 1 to Year 4, where in this phase, pupils are preferably do a lot of mechanical drilling and practicing some patterns of grammatical features which occur in the context of dialogue that are related to their real-life without any metalinguistic explanation in order to allow them to participate orally and physically as much as possible in dialogues, role playing and dramatizing. It is because, in this stage, it is important to make them conscious of their progress and increasing their motivation to use the language. Teacher should use a variety of activities to teach grammar such as by using songs, riddles, games and stories because it could be very helpful and an efficient ways in teaching grammar as what had suggested by Long (2000) where this FonF approach is effective because it is learner-centered and tune to the learners’ internal syllabus. According to Sekelj and Rigo (2011), Vilke (1977) said that, at the early age, the unconscious acquisition process is superior to the learning one due to the child’s cognitive development. Next, the second phase is Year 5 to Year 6 where in this stage, grammar start to be taught explicitly but with simple and clear explanation and awareness of accuracy of grammar structure should be
However, there are two main types of feedback that teacher usually uses in the writing class. They are direct feedback and indirect feedback. Direct feedback is a technique of correcting students’ mistake by giving an explicit written correction (Srichanyachon, 2012). The teachers give direct feedback to the students, upon noticing a grammatical mistake, by giving the appropriate answer or the expected response above or near the linguistic or grammatical error. There are many ways for teacher to give direct feedback such as by striking out an incorrect or unnecessary word, phrase, or morpheme; inserting a missing or expected word, phrase, or morpheme; and by providing the correct linguistic form above or near the erroneous form (Ellis, 2008; Ferris, 2006), usually above it or in the margin. Direct feedback has the benefit that it provides explicit information about the correct. It is clear to see that direct feedback is suitable for beginner students, or in a situation when the students make mistakes but they cannot do self-correction such as sentence structure and word choice, and when teachers want to highlight error patterns that require student
Rather than teach grammar initially and hope that students connect their drilling exercises of subjects and verbs to the poem they’re working on, teaching the varieties of literature first allows students to gain first-hand experience and familiarity with grammar already in practice. This is not to say that grammar lessons and terminology should be lost altogether. A student will not be better off if they never learn subject-verb agreement. However, their exposure to examples of these uses should come first, leaving the labeling and grammar jargon to a time when their minds have already seen how these nouns and verbs can be used. That’s the key phrase: can be used. Students need to understand that they have control and authority over their work. They should have space enough to understand that although a sentence should be written in a certain way, it does not always have to be straightforward grammar if they’d like to change something stylistically. For example, while teaching a lesson on the poem "l(a" by E.E. Cummings, students might be confused and puzzled as to the form of this unusual piece. However, they should then be invited to challenge Cummings’s lack of traditional grammar and stylistic choices. Some may be angry at its unique appearance, while others may grasp the significance of the form and its effect on the reader.
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.
Susan Adams and Kyle Weins have both written articles on the importance of using good grammar in the workplace. Each article gives numerous compelling reasons why this is a good practice. Susan Adams’ article first reason for doing so is in regards to how other people would view someone who uses bad grammar. She brings out that someone’s image can be damaged when they have improper speech habits; consequently their chances of advancing at work could be limited. Second, she shows how using poor grammar could cause a manager to view an employee as unorganized or unable to perform more advanced tasks. Finally, she brings out that someone who has poor speaking habits could be perceived as not having a firm grasp on the subject they are speaking about (Adams). Kyle Weins article also brings out some important points on bad grammar in the workplace. First, he shows that in today’s world people’s intelligence is judged based on what they say or what they type. The second point relates to how a manager could perceive someone with poor grammar. A manager could see an employee who uses poor grammar as someone who struggles to concentrate on tasks and doesn’t show attention to detail. Finally, he shows that peo...