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Task 1 Grammar

The document discusses different approaches to teaching grammar to ESL students, including overt and covert approaches. The overt approach explicitly teaches grammar rules, and can be done through deductive or inductive methods. Deductive teaching presents rules first then examples, while inductive starts with examples for students to generalize rules. Both have benefits and drawbacks. Covert grammar teaches implicitly through activities without drawing attention to rules. The document also discusses issues around correcting student errors in grammar. Overall it argues both overt and covert approaches are useful and should be used complementarily.

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59 views5 pages

Task 1 Grammar

The document discusses different approaches to teaching grammar to ESL students, including overt and covert approaches. The overt approach explicitly teaches grammar rules, and can be done through deductive or inductive methods. Deductive teaching presents rules first then examples, while inductive starts with examples for students to generalize rules. Both have benefits and drawbacks. Covert grammar teaches implicitly through activities without drawing attention to rules. The document also discusses issues around correcting student errors in grammar. Overall it argues both overt and covert approaches are useful and should be used complementarily.

Uploaded by

Bryan Andrew
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Elsa Andrew Hilarion

930120-12-5598
PISMP TESL SK (1) SEM 4
Teaching of Grammar in Primary ESL Classroom

Task 1: Critical Response

According to Chernovaty (1990) in his paper, it is argued that the correlation


between covert and overt approach is very dynamic and depends upon a number of
factors. Ellis (1997) in Wong et. al (n.d.) opined that learners play a determining role as
they directly affect the way the teacher teach; that is the teaching approach. Hence, the
suitability of teaching approaches for language learners which yields the best learning
outcomes in language learners will be discussed further in this response. A comparison
between covert and overt approach in teaching grammar will be made. The issues in
teaching grammar will also be highlighted.

The overt approach, as suggested by Chomsky (2002) in Wong et. al (n.d.) can
help the students to rediscover their subconscious knowledge of English grammar and
bring it to consciousness, as the grammar of a language is acquired through abstracting
a set of grammatical rules from language data rather than through imitation. This is
because the main principle in this approach is the rules are explicitly explained by the
teacher when a new language is intended to be presented. There are numerous forms
of explicit instructions and the two most commonly used are the deductive and inductive
approach.

Deductive approach is defined as a process that proceeds from the presentation


of a rule by teacher to the provision of examples in which the rule is applied followed by
language practice that students can engage in (Thornbury, 1999; Norris & Ortega, 2000;
Erlam, 2003 as cited in Wong et. al, n.d.). As such, it enables the pupils to get straight
to the point without having to waste any time especially when learning rules of forms
because they can be quickly explained than elicited from examples. However, it is found
that this approach may not be suitable to teach young children as they may not have
sufficient metalanguage to be able to understand the concepts involved. Moreover, it
gives a sense of belief that language learning is simply a case of knowing the rules.
Deductive English learning is seen similar to behaviourism methodology which would
Elsa Andrew Hilarion
930120-12-5598
PISMP TESL SK (1) SEM 4
Teaching of Grammar in Primary ESL Classroom

not benefit the students in understanding grammar in a useful way. They will only
memorize the verbs for a period of time.

The inductive approach on the other hand is almost a reverse process of


deductive approach. It starts with exposing the learners to examples of language use
and then prompts them to generalize patterns of the language which involves inferences
from the particular instances to general and discovering rules. The way ones first
language is acquired through exposure to massive amount of input shows how amazing
human beings can be. If the students are able to find the grammatical rules by
themselves, it might be harder for them to forget the rules than just learning from a
teacher. From a students perspective, an inductive approach enables him or her to
think more before formulating some concrete ideas about a language item. Learning
acquisition should be voluntary where it gives the students the chance to think
compared to deductive approach. The independent thinking will hence benefit especially
those active students; without having to be too dependent on the teacher. This prepares
them for greater self-reliance and is therefore conducive to learner autonomy.

Having said all that, it cannot be denied that there are cons in using inductive
approach. As this approach enables them to discover their own learning, they may
hypothesize the wrong rule, or their version of the rule may be either too broad or too
narrow in its application which will be a danger when there is no overt testing of their
hypotheses, either through practice examples or by eliciting an explicit statement of the
rule (Thornbury, 1999). On teachers perspective, it may place heavy demands upon
planning a lesson as they need to select and organize the data carefully so as to guide
learners to an accurate formulation of the rule, while also ensuring the data is
intelligible.

Having understood both deductive and inductive approach, another issue


pertaining to the teaching of grammar in ESL classroom has been greatly debated.
Although there is now a clear conviction that a traditional approach to teaching grammar
based on explicit explanations and drill-like practice is unlikely to result in the acquisition
Elsa Andrew Hilarion
930120-12-5598
PISMP TESL SK (1) SEM 4
Teaching of Grammar in Primary ESL Classroom

of the implicit knowledge needed for fluent and accurate communication, there
continues to be disagreement regarding what should replace this (Ellis, 2006). Hence,
realizing this teachers should endeavor to focus on those grammatical structures that
are known to be problematic to learners rather than try to teach the whole grammar
which will only lead to confusion.

Covert grammar on the other hand holds a fundamental principle that the
grammatical patterns of language rather than telling them allows learners to become
aware of forms and rules become aware of forms and rules implicitly without the
necessity of having to verbalize them which either by-pass or complement the
development of explicit knowledge of L2. Different from overt, the techniques in this
approach include guided inductive learning in which students are purposefully led to
discover grammar rules through the physical manipulation of color-coded grammar
elements; in other words the teacher gets the pupils involved in using the structure
without drawing their attention to grammatical rules. Even though the students attention
is focused on the activity, they have ample opportunity to practice the question form.
Errors should be tolerated during the course of activity.

It is mentioned that errors should be tolerated during the course of activity; which
leads to another issue should teachers correct grammatical errors? Grammatical
errors are fundamental in improving ones language acquisition. However, often
students will feel demotivated if they utter too many grammatical errors which increase
their affective filter. Clearly, learners have expectations that their mistakes will be
corrected by teachers who also feel that they are responsible for any incorrect output in
classrooms. Teachers should not make overt correction as this is tedious for students.
Nevertheless, teachers can make notes of errors and write them on the whiteboard
without indicating who make them. Nonetheless, delayed correction is not also effective
because out of context errors do not make any sense to students in various activities
and learners may not understand what was wrong with the utterance.
Overall, teachers may choose selective correction and do not correct all mistakes as
Elsa Andrew Hilarion
930120-12-5598
PISMP TESL SK (1) SEM 4
Teaching of Grammar in Primary ESL Classroom

this is mission impossible because of time, energy and syllabus constraints. To sum up,
grammar correction depends on the gravity of errors that requires either immediate or
postponed feedback.

In a nutshell, these two approaches should be seen complementary as both


approaches will be able to encourage students to understand the rule as master the
correct use of English correctly in all forms of communication.
Elsa Andrew Hilarion
930120-12-5598
PISMP TESL SK (1) SEM 4
Teaching of Grammar in Primary ESL Classroom

References
Chitravelu, N. et. al. (1995). ELT Methodology Principles and Practice. Shah Alam,
Selangor: Oxford Fajar Sdn. Bhd.

Ellis, R. (2006). Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA Perspective.


TESOL QUARTERLY, Vol. 40, No. 1, 83-107.

Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach Grammar. Harlow, England: Longman.

Wong, C. et. al. (n.d.). Examining the Effectiveness of Adopting an Inductive Approach
to the Teaching of English Grammar. Retrieved August 15, 2014 from
http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc/download/eras/10-11/eras1011_r09.pdf

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