Using Effective Methods to Teach Grammar to the Adult ESL Learners

Using Effective Methods to Teach Grammar to the Adult ESL Learners

Language is one of the fundamental traits distinguishing human beings

from the lower orders of life on earth. Most people agree that the

ability of language use has helped mankind to climb the evolutionary

ladder; therefore, language use is an essential component to people's

life in society.

Grammar is a part of language and it plays an important role in

language use. According to Weaver (1979: 3), the study of grammar will

not only help people become better language users, but also effective

listeners, speakers, readers, and writers. As a result, grammar has a

traditionally central role in language teaching.

Recently, many researchers have focused on the notion of how to teach

grammar effectively to children and adults. However a learner's

variations may influence grammar learning and teaching such as age,

sex, previous language learning, literacy, socio-cultural background

and so on. For instance, unlike children who have cognitive advantages

in learning a new language, an adult ESL learner often tends to use

formal rules in language learning (Harley 1986:14).

Due to the uniqueness of each language learner, teachers have to

develop different methods in teaching grammar based on students'

needs. Therefore, this paper will focus on the area of teaching

grammar by using effective methods to the adult ESL learners.

Giving the grammar explanation to learners is the first effective way

to teach adult ESL learners. Adults can benefit more in grammar

learning with the grammar explanation. Teachers will provide clear and

simple explanations to clarify the grammatical terms such as the

meaning of Verb Phrase and Noun Phrase in classes. T...

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...xford University Press.

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