Grammar Teaching Aspects - Term Paper Example

Teaching Perfect Aspect Grammar is used to mean (1) a branch of linguistic study and (2) the subject matter of that study. Grammar is concerned with the elaborate systems which speakers use to build words into larger and meaningful units. It deals with the organizing of the smallest structural units possessing meaning and using it to form meaningful combinations bigger than words. “The of were room” is by this definition nongrammatical. As any American would say, “we don’t speak English that way”. Yet, “It ain’t here” is considered grammatical for certain group of Americans. In other words, Grammar is the study of sentence structure and the rules that govern it (Hahn & Hensley, 2000). Grammar teaching and learning proved to be difficult to both teachers and learners due to several factors rooted in teacher’s training and knowledge of grammar, teaching approach, and the differences in students’ interest, behavior, I.Q., and needs, which influences their ability to learn grammar. However, grammar teaching enables learners or students to discover the nature of language like it has predictable patterns that make reading, writing, and hearing understandable (Azar, 2007). Approaches/Methods to Teaching Grammar 1. Considering learning outcomes is another approach to teaching grammar. By deciding in advance what the teachers would like students to know and do after studying grammar lead to a Teaching Perfect Aspect 3 meaningful discussions in grammar teaching (Williams, 2005). For example, if the learning outcome is to get students to meaningfully and accurately use grammar structures, students should be provided with an opportunity to use grammar structures in activities that are meaningful and engaging (Perez-Llantada, 2007). Under this, the teacher may choose whether to focus on form FonF or go with grammar-based teaching or GBT. Based on the experience of Azar (2007) on Grammar-based teaching, Focus on Form works well with students who already have good grounding in grammar as they only need reminding unlike those who do not. Learners who have poor understanding of grammar need to be taught for a longer period of time because their ability to understand also takes time; in other words, time is the keyword. Thus, grammar-based teaching is better for these students. Furthermore, Azar (2007) stated that placing grammar structures within their larger conceptual framework proved to be more helpful to students than a random, piecemeal approach to explicit grammar teaching." For instance: "Students who understand that -ing denotes active meaning of a transitive verb and that -ed denotes passive meaning, without any knowledge of any word to be added with it, the difference between boring and bored becomes less difficult for the teacher to demonstrate or the student to get the meaning." 2. The Drill and Exercise Approach is the most common approach to teaching grammar. Drills on grammar terms such as noun, preposition, verb, and the likes; followed by exercises on identifying parts of a sentence. (Williams, 2005). Teaching Perfect Aspect 4 In a research conducted amongst students of CHIJ Primary School in Singapore, drills on grammar is the most common approach and is strongly believed to be effective because the teachers themselves were taught in the same way when they were little (Farrell & Lim, 2005). 3. Sentence Diagramming is one approach to teaching grammar structure and forms (Hahn & Hensley, 2000). It follows traditional standards. For instance: Whether or not to end a sentence with a preposition Problem words and expressions like feeling bad versus feeling badly Proper use of pronouns like "It is I" versus "It's me" 4. Mental Space Approach studies language by involving the study of domains that a person automatically sets up when talking or listening, and that these domains are structured with elements, roles, strategies, and relations. These domains are what is refers to as mental spaces. Although domains or mental spaces are not a part of grammar or language, they are always present. This approach entails "elements being set up mentally, pointed to, and identified by language forms; however, the language forms do not refer to such elements" (Fauconnier & Sweester, 1994). In other words, it is about relations between and amongst the elements. 5. Grammar-Translation method was first known as the Prussian method in the United States. This method of studying language is characterized by first approaching language through detailed analysis of grammar rules, followed by knowledge application. Application of knowledge can be a task of translating words and sentences in and out of the language being 6. Teaching Perfect Aspect 5 studied (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Example: sequences of sentences related to activities which would be learned. I walk toward the door I walk I draw near to the door I draw near. I draw nearer to the door I draw nearer I get to the door I get to Grammar-Translation method views language learning as more than memorizing grammar rules and facts for comprehension, it also manipulates syntax and morphology. The first language becomes and stays as the reference system of acquisition of the second language" (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). The major focus in teaching grammar using this method are reading and writing. Little or no systematic attention is given to listening and speaking. Choosing vocabulary is limited only to the reading text being used, wherein words are taught with the use of a bilingual word list, memorization, and study of the dictionary. Furthermore, Grammar-translation method, grammar rules are presented and illustration, including a list of words as vocabulary, along with translation equivalents (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). The basic unit of language practice and teaching is the sentence. Lessons are devoted to sentence translation. Grammar is taught deductively through studying the rules of grammar, practiced through tasks on sentence translation. Using the Grammar-translation method requires the use of a syllabus containing the sequences of grammar points. Teaching Perfect Aspect 6 7. Direct Method or the natural method is the application of natural language learning principles wherein the teacher encourages the "direct and spontaneous use of a foreign language than use analytical procedures. Example: The teacher is explaining new vocabularies using demonstrations or visual aids. Learning a foreign language becomes even more difficult with the use of Grammar-Translation method because learning grammar entails understanding arbitrary rules that make learning unnecessarily difficult (Swan, 2008), plus the fact that one needs to translate one’s own language to the studied language, and vice versa. Tense/Aspect System Tense is the form of a verb that is used to show the time at which the action of the verb takes place. Tense can be past or present. It is used to indicate an action currently going on or a state now existing. Aspect “refers to how an event or action is to be viewed with respect to time and not the actual location in time” (The Survey of English Usage 1996-1998). Traditional teachers often focus on grammar rules and structure than in meaning (Tran & Ha, n.d) leaving students to spend most of their time memorizing grammar rules and structures without any understanding on when to use such rule or structure. Teaching English grammar using verb tense-aspect demonstrates that language has a lot or great patterns and that grammar is not all about rules (Azar, 2007). Perfect Aspect teaches language learners the meaning of the sentence rather than the descriptions of noun, preposition, etc. It helps students grasp the Teaching Perfect Aspect 7 associations of form, meaning, and use. Aspects teach not about the time, but about the point of view of the speaker (Barrat, n.d.). Example: 1. Bopeep fell in love on her sixteenth birthday. This sentence is an example of a simple past tense verb; wherein the verb "fell" denotes that Bopeep fell in love in the past, specifically stating a time in the past, which is on her sixteenth birthday. 2. Bopeep has fallen in love. This sentence is also in past tense, but seems to have too place just recently; and the sentence implies that the event is still relevant at the time of speaking. This sentence is known as the Perfect Aspect 3. Bopeep is falling in love. In this sentence, the action of falling in love is still in going on; continuous Forms of Aspect 1. Progressive or Continuous Aspect is formed using an auxiliary verb plus the present participle (Hinkel, 2004). Example: John is singing Elvis' song. (is + singing) - this denotes that the action is not yet done now. Mel was having dinner when the phone rang. (was + having) - this denotes that at the time the phone rang, the action is still not finished. Teaching Perfect Aspect 8 2. Perfect Aspect is formed with an auxiliary verb and a past participle. Example: I have worked here for centuries. (have + worked) She has lost her car keys. (has + lost) 3. Simple Aspect is the simple form - simple present, simple past, and simple future (Xiao & McEnery, 2002). Simple aspects are usually used in presenting situations that happen once, or repeated, or habitual. Example: That man stole the car. The world is round. Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig (2000) outlined the Principles affecting the acquisition of Tense-Aspect morphology as follows: 1) Development of temporal expression is slow and gradual. Within the acquisition of morphology, there exists a "gradual development". Even if the teachers have the skill to clearly and simply describe language's tense-aspect system, learners by nature "acquire formal components and form-meaning associations in stages that take time to complete" (Bardovi-Harlig, 2000). 2) Form often precedes function. This is associated with the slow and gradual acquisition of the tense-aspect system wherein students have knowledge of the tense-aspect form, but students do not how to use tense-aspect morphology because of their inability to grasp its meaning (Bardovi-Harlig & Bofman, 1989; Bardovi-Harlig, 2000). Teaching Perfect Aspect 9 3) Irregular morphology precedes regular morphology. This is most evident on non-native speakers of a particular language - English, French, etc - based on cross linguistic studies. For example: a 6-year old German learning English showed to use more irregular past, than the regular past (Rohde, 1996;Bardovi-Harlig,); 10 and 14-year old Korean children showed that in the interlanguage, irregular past in English began earlier and included more tokens of irregular past than regular past (Lee, 1997;Bardovi-Harlig, ). 4) Learners tend to avoid considering discontinuous marking like aux+V-tense inflection and formulate an initial hypothesis that tense relies upon suffixed inflections. Use of progressives at the early stages is described by V-ing in English. Research and study on language acquisition show that learners seem to start the "acquisition sequence using the verb and a verbal suffix in cases where the target form is comprised of an auxiliary and the verb with a verbal suffix" (Bardovi-Harlig, 2000). In the case of Arab students learning English, a study about Arab learners of English (Rabab'ah, n.d.) shows that Arabs generally have difficulty learning the English language, both in speaking and in writing, because of the following reasons: Teachers are themselves Arabs, therefore, English is their second language too; and Arabs learn English in their own country where the native language is also their mother tongue, which is Arabic. In other words, there is little or no opportunity at all to naturally interact with others to learn and use English; an opportunity only possible when Arab learners of English encounter native English speakers (Rabab'ah, n.d.). Teaching Perfect Aspect 10 Several studies done amongst Jordanian school learners of English which focused on investigating lexical, phonological, and syntactical errors established that the standards of proficiency in English is deteriorating. As stated by Abdul Haq (1982; Rabab'ah, n.d.) "One of the linguistic areas in which students in the secondary cycle commit errors is in the writing skill. There are general outcries about the deterioration of the standards of English proficiency of students among school teachers, university instructors, and all who are concerned with English language teaching." Moreover, major findings in a study involving 77 first year students in a grammar course at the English Department of King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, include: the present progressive is found to be the most accessible English tense-aspect form for EFL Arab learners and the past perfect progressive is the least accessible; students' errors were found to be systematic due to unfamiliarity with English aspects, which is related to poor knowledge and mastery of English tenses; and that these results are indications that, for Arab learners, English tenses are found to be less difficult that English aspects (Al-Fallay, 1999). To address the matter, the Jordanian Ministry of Education, gave specific goals on teaching English at the secondary stage; one of those goals is that students should be able to write passage in English with correct punctuation, grammar, and organization (Rabab'ah, n.d.). Teaching Perfect Aspect 11 Bibliography Al-Fallay, I. (1999). "English Tenses and Aspects: Are They too Difficult for Arab Students to Master." ABHATH AL-YARMOUK: Hum. & Soc. Sci. Vol. 15, no.4, pp.9-29. Hinkel, E. (2004). Teaching Academic ESL Writing. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Revised Edition. Cambridge University Press. 29 April 2009. . Swan, M. (2008). "What is Grammar?" Oxford University Press. Hahn, P.R. & Hensley, D.E. (2000). Macmillan Teach Yourself Grammar and Style in 24 Hours. Alpha Books. 29 April 2009. < http://books.google.com/books?id=W5oilR2- 13MC&printsec=frontcover#PRA1-PA6,M1>. Teaching Perfect Aspect 12 Williams, J.D. (2005). The Teacher's Grammar Book. Illustrated 2nd Edition. Routelage. 29 April 2009. . "Tense and Aspect." The Survey of English Usage 1996-1998. Online Marketing U.K. Retrieved: 29 April 2009, from, . Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2000). Tense and Aspect in Second Language Acquisition. Illustrated Edition. Wiley-Blackwell, 29 April 2009. . Farrell, T.& Lim, P.C. (2005)"Conceptions of Grammar Teaching: A Case Study of Teacher's Beliefs and Classroom Practices. Volume 9, No. 2. Azar, B. (2007). "Grammar-Based Teaching: A Practitioner's Perspective." Volume 11, No. 2. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Perez-Llantada, M.C. (2007). "New Trends in Grammar Teaching: Issues and Applications." An Interview with Prof. Diane Larsen-Freeman. Atlantis Journal. Vol.29, no.1, pp.157-163. Universidad de Zaragoza. Teaching Perfect Aspect 13 "Term: Perfect Aspect." UsingEnglish.com. 11 January 2009. 29 April 2009. Tran, H.L. and Ha, T.L.H. "Teaching Grammar in Light of Communicative Language Teaching." Faucconier, G. & Sweester, E. (1994). Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. United Kingdom: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. Barrat, M. "The Perfect Aspect." nyelvmark.net. Retrieved: 29 April 2009, from, . "Teaching Tense and Aspect to German EFL-Learners from a CL Perspective: Empirical Findings." berkeley.edu. Retrieved: 29 April 2009, from, Rabab'ah, G. (n.d.). "Communication Problems Facing Arab Learners of English." Journal of Language and Learning. Volume 3, no. 1. King Saud University. Xiao, Z. McEnery, T. (2002). "A Corpus-Based Approach to Tense and Aspect in English- Chinese Translation. International Symposium on Contrastive and Translation Studies. Lancaster University. Read More