Grammar is how to put words together to form proper sentences. In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Grammar is the study of words and the ways words work together. It is also the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed; morphology and syntax. “The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English says that grammar is the set of rules that enables words to change their forms and combine into sentences. Two basic elements are mentioned here: the rules of grammar; and …show more content…
The process of describing the structure of phrases and sentences in such a way that we account for all the grammatical sequences in a language and rule out all the ungrammatical sequences is one way of defining grammar. It is the kind of definition assumed when we talk about the grammar of English as opposed to the grammar of Swahili, Tagalog or Turkish.Each of these languages has different ways of forming grammatical phrases and sentences. Studying grammar in this way has a very long tradition. In teaching language, the role of grammar has been the focus point of several researches recently. It was believed that grammar is the most important part of the lesson. However, new approaches and methods emerged and grammar took the backseat. Nevertheless, nowadays grammar has started to regain its throne and is being considered vital again. The teacher’s approach to teaching grammar differs greatly depending on the age of the learners. The younger the student is, the less they tolerate grammar explanation and exercises. A teacher focuses more on fun activities such as games, songs and movies instead of grammar drills, explanations, and exercises, depending on the students’ age. Moreover, young learners deduce the underlying rules of the language and make them their own much faster than adult learners. Thus, explaining grammar to kids seen of no use. Cook (1994) …show more content…
From most students’ point of view, at least in the Egyptian society, the English teacher someone who is able to answer all the relevant and irrelevant English questions. The utterance “I don’t know” is enough to shatter your image. Now, it is imaginable how crucial it is when a student asks about a grammar point and the teacher stalls for a moment. Consequently, a teacher should keep being a learner forever nourishing his or her knowledge of the latest changes due to the rapid development of language and teaching ideas. Cook (1994) believes that teachers must have knowledge of the latest new ideas about grammar and language learning in order to benefit from whatever they find
Children were taught to speak in a proper manner and because they were taught to speak correctly they wrote in a proper way as well. As technology evolved and texting came more profound grammar was becoming a lost art. In Dana Goldstein’s article ,‘Why Kids Can’t Write’, she talks about what teachers are doing about grammar. The teachers are not doing much about the grammar issue in schools.
2. Follett explains that the type of grammar we need is traditional. A traditional approach to grammar involves an emphasis on syntax. Syntax deals with how words relate to each other in a sentence. This knowledge of how words work together provides the type of logical analysis necessary to speak and write correctly. An emphasis on syntax demonstrates the conservative view that language is an art of expressing meaning.
In today's highly competitive and global business landscape, being able to communicate quickly and effectively gives employees and entire organizations an edge over less articulate competitors. Having good grammar in the workplace can show how much you care about your career, managers do not tolerate poor grammar usage and, can even be a key factor in a future promotion.
Grammar Matters “People are judged everyday by their grammar.” suggests Lynne Truss, the bestseller of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance approach to Punctuation. People are downgraded in the workforce or just in school if someone uses incorrect grammar. In spite of critics, grammar is critical to learn in school. Even though Brock Haussamen says grammar isn’t important, Mignon Fogarty, Douglas Rushkoff, Lynne Truss, and Kyle Wiens think otherwise.
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.
As children, we learn to read and write the typical English language taught to us by our elementary school teachers. Although we are fully capable of speaking and writing it, we are not fully aware of the ways the english language has been used to trick and deceive us. Language is misused in many different ways, and it is rarely identified by the average citizen. According to some known authors, like William Lutz, Donna Woolfolk, William Zinsser and others, language is being used to manipulate the minds of the average citizen. Average citizens should become fully aware of the language used around them. Many times, the language used is full of honest lies, that are being blindly believed. Commercials on television are constantly advertising their products, doing everything they can to convince their audience. Writers are constantly writing things to make things sound better than they really are. These writers tend to be the ones who end up working with advertising companies or political parties to increase their chances of being bought out. Big words seem to be doing the job when it comes to convincing people. Those who are fully aware of the ways language can be manipulated are constantly misusing it to their advantage, they find ways to deceive the average citizen. Being aware of the language used around us is a very important aspect of becoming a well informed citizen; if one is not fully aware of the tricks language can pull, they will quickly and foolishly be betrayed on a daily basis.
Many researchers like Krashen (1985), Harmer (2007), and Turnbull (2001) emphasise that in most EFL (English as a foreign language) environment, a teacher’s English proficiency ...
In this essay I intend to investigate how differently one of the closed word classes, determiners, are approached in a series of pre and post corpus-based English grammar reference books, course books and practice books. And the theme of my investigation is how corpus affects the development of English teaching materials. The grammar reference books I intend to analyze and compare are “A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language” (ACGEL) and “Cambridge Grammar of English” (CGE). The former is an indispensable grammar reference book first published in 1985, which has been widely consulted in researches in relation to English linguistic studies, while the later offers clear explanations of both spoken and written English grammar based on authentic everyday usage.
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.
Grammar is traditionally subdivided into two inter-related studies: Morphology and Syntax. Morphology is the study of how words are formed out of smaller units called morphemes. For example, Derivational Morphology is a word building process by which we generate (or derive) the Noun teacher from out of two smaller morphological segments: the verb stem {teach} + suffix {er}. Syntax, on the other hand, is concerned with how Words are strung together to form larger units of expressions such as (partial) @link Phrases, @link Clauses, and (full) @link Simple Sentences. As an example, it is owing to an infringement on syntax (and not morphology) which prevents us from speaking the ill-formed sentence *John likes to teacher (=John likes to teach).
Language, according to Owens (2012, p. 6), “can be defined as a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those symbols”. Language is thought to be a complex system; however, it can be broken down into three different components. These three components consist of content, form, and use. Within these three components, language has five main components which includes semantics, morphology, phonology, syntax, and pragmatics (Owens, 2012, p. 18).
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
Syntax is the study of how words are combined to create phrases and causes in the sentences of a specific language (Freeman and Freeman, 2014). Syntax helps us to make clear sentences that “sound right,” where words, phrases, and clauses each serve their function and are correctly ordered to form and communicate a complete sentence with meaning. The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences. Not only does it focus on the correct word order for a language, but it also helps show the relationship between the meaning of a group of words. Without proper syntax, a sentence can be meaningless. It is key to understand that while every language does have certain syntax, the syntax does vary from language to language. It