ITRODUCTION
Language is the chief means by which the human personality expresses itself and fulfills its basic need for social interaction with other persons.
Robert Lado wrote that language functions owing to the language skills. A person who knows a language perfectly uses a thousand and one grammar lexical, phonetic rules when he is speaking. Language skills help us to choose different words and models in our speech.
It is clear that the term “grammar” has meant various things at various times and sometimes several things at one time. This plurality of meaning is characteristic of the present time and is the source of confusions in the discussion of grammar as part of the education of children. There have been taking place violent disputes on the subject of teaching grammar at school.
The ability to talk about the grammar of a language, to recite its rules, is also very different from ability to speak and understand a language or to read and write it. Those who can use a language are often unable to recite its rules, and those who can recite its rules can be unable to use it.
Grammar organizes the vocabulary and as a result we have sense units. There is a system of stereotypes, which organizes words into sentences. But what skill does grammar develop?
First of all it gives the ability to make up sentences correctly, to reproduce the text adequately. (The development of practical skills and habits)
The knowledge of the specific grammar structure helps pupils point out the differences between the mother tongue and the target language.
The knowledge of grammar develops abilities to abstract systematize plural facts.
The name of my work is “Teaching Grammar”. And the main aim is to clearly recognize how to teach grammar right.
PART 1 WHAT IS THE GRAMMAR
The Importance of Grammar in Learning a Foreign Language
To judge by the way some people speak, there is no place for grammar in the language course nowadays; yet it is, in reality, as important as it ever was exercise of correct grammar, if he is to attain any skill of effective use of the language, but he need not know consciously formulated rules to account to him for that he does unconsciously correctly.
In order to understand a language and to express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of the language studied. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the relation between the words in the given sentence. And vice versa, a sentence may contain one, two, and more unknown words but if one has a good knowledge of the structure of the language one can easily guess the meaning of these words or at least find them in a dictionary.
No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism.
If learner has acquired such a mechanism, he can produce correct sentences in a foreign language. Paul Roberts writes: “Grammar is something that produces the sentences of a language. By something we mean a speaker of English. If you speak English natively, you have built into you rules of English grammar. In a sense, you are an English grammar. You possess, as an essential part of your being, a very complicated apparatus which enables you to produce infinitely many sentences, all English ones, including many that you have never specifically learned. Furthermore by applying you rule you can easily tell whether a sentence that you hear a grammatical English sentence or not.”
A command of English as is envisaged by the school syllabus cannot be ensured without the study of grammar. Pupils need grammar to be able to aud, speak, read, and write in the target language.
PART 2 MAJOR METHODS AND PRINCIPLES
The Direct Method
The Direct Method appeared as a reaction against the grammar-translation method.
There was a movement in Europe that emphasized language learning by direct contact with the foreign language in meaningful situations. This movement resulted in various individual methods with various names, such as new method, natural method, and even oral method, but they can all be referred to as direct methods or the direct method. In addition to emphasizing direct contact with the foreign language, the direct method usually deemphasized or eliminated translation and the memorization of conjugations, declensions, and rules, and in some cases it introduced phonetics and phonetic transcription.
The direct method assumed that learning a foreign language is the same as learning the mother tongue, that is, that exposing the student directly to the foreign language impresses it perfectly upon his mind. This is true only up to a point, since the psychology of learning a second language differs from that of learning the first. The child is forced to learn the first language because he has no other effective way to express his wants. In learning a second language this compulsion is largely missing, since the student knows that he can communicate through his native language when necessary.
The basic premise of Direct Method was that second language learning should be more like first language learning: lots of active oral interaction, spontaneous use of the language, no translation between first and second languages, and little or no analysis of grammatical rules. We can summarize the principles of the Direct
Method:
- Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language.
- Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.
- Oral communication skills were built up in a carefully graded progression organized around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers and student in small, intensive classes.
- Grammar was taught inductively, i.e. the learner may discover the rules of grammar for himself after he has become acquainted with many examples.
- New teaching points were introduced orally.
- Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas.
- Both speech and listening comprehension were taught.
- Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.
The Audiolingual Method
The Audiolingual Method (It is also called Mimicry-memorization method) was the method developed in the Intensive Language Program. It was successful because of high motivation, intensive practice, small classes, and good models, in addition to linguistically sophisticated descriptions of the foreign language and its grammar.
Grammar is taught essentially as follows: Some basic sentences are memorized by imitation. Their meaning is given in normal expressions in the native language, and the students are not expected to translate word for word. When the basic sentences have been overlearned (completely memorized so that the student can rattle them off without effort), the student reads fairly extensive descriptive grammar statements in his native language, with examples in the target language and native language equivalents. He then listens to further conversational sentences for practice in listening. Finally, practices the dialogues using the basic sentences and combinations of their parts. When he can, he varies the dialogues within the material hr has already learned. The characteristics of ALM may be summed up in the following list:
- New material is presented in dialog form.
- There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and overlearning.
- Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.
- Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.
- There is a little or no grammatical explanation: grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation.
- Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
- There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.
- Great importance is attached to pronunciation.
- very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.
- Successful responses are immediately reinforced.
- There is a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.
- There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content.
Conscious approach
This means that in sentence patterns teaching points are determined so that pupils can concentrate their attention on some elements of the pattern to be able to use them as orienting points when speaking or writing the target language. For example, I can see a book. I can see many books.
The teacher draws pupils’ attention to the new element in the form of a rule, a very short one. It is usually done in the mother tongue. For example: Помни, что во множественном числе к существительному прибавляется окончание –s [s,z] или –es [IZ]. Or: Помни, что в отрицательных предложениях ставится вспомогательный глагол “do not” (“does not”).The rule helps the learner to understand and to assimilate the structural meaning of the elements. It ensures a conscious approach to learning. This approach provides favourable conditions for the speedy development of correct and more flexible language use. However it does not mean that the teacher should ask pupils to say this or that rule, Rules do not ensure the mastery of the language. They only help to attain the practical goal. If a pupil can recognize and employ correctly the forms that are appropriate, that is sufficient. When the learner can give ample proof of these abilities we may say that he has fulfilled the syllabus requirements.
Conscious learning is also ensured when a grammar item is contrasted with another grammar item which is usually confused. The contrast is brought out through oppositions. For example:
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I get up at 7 o’clock.
It’s 7 o’clock. I am getting up.
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He has come.
He came an hour ago.
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Give me the book (you have promised),
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I like the soup ( you have cooked).
Rule for the teacher:
The teacher should realize difficulties the sentence pattern presents for his pupils. Comparative analysis of the grammar item in English and in Russian or within the English language may be helpful. He should think of the shortest and simplest way for presentation of the new grammar item. The teacher should remember the more he speaks about the language the less time is left to practice. The more the teacher explains the less his pupils understand what he is trying to explain, this leads to the teacher giving more information than is necessary, which does not help the pupils in the usage of this particular grammar item, only hinders them.
Practical approach
It means that pupils learn those grammar items which they need for immediate use either in oral or written language. For example, from the first steps of language learning pupils need the Possessive Case for objects which belong to different people, namely, Mike’s textbook, Ann’s mother, the girl’s doll, the boys’ room, etc. The teacher masters grammar through performing various exercises in using a given grammar item.
Structural approach
Grammar items are introduced and drilled in structures or sentence patterns.
It has been proved and accepted by the majority of teachers and methodologists that whenever the aim to teach pupils the command of the language, and speaking in particular, the structural approach meets the requirements.
Pupils are taught to understand English when spoken to and to speak it from the very beginning. This is possible provided they have learned sentence patterns and words as a pattern and they know how to adjust them to them to the situations they are given.
In our country the structural approach to the teaching of grammar attracted the attention of many teachers. As a result structural approach to grammar teaching has been adopted by our schools since it allows the pupil to make up sentences by analogy, to use the same pattern for various situations. Pupils learn sentence patterns and how to use them in oral and written language.
Rule for the teacher:
The teacher should furnish pupils with words to change the lexical (semantic) meaning of the sentence pattern so that pupils will be able to use it in different situations. He should assimilate the grammar mechanism involved in sentence pattern and not the sentence itself.
Situational approach
Pupils learn a grammar item used in situations. For example, the Possessive Case may be effectively introduced in classroom situations. The teacher takes or simply touches various things and says This is Nina’s pen; That is Sasha’s exercise-book, and so on.
Rule for the teacher:
The teacher should select the situations for the particular grammar item he is going to present. He should look through the textbook and other teaching materials and find those situations which can ensure comprehension and the usage of the item.
Different approach
Grammar items pupils need for conversation are taught by the oral approach, i.e., pupils aud them, perform various oral exercises, finally see them printed, and write sentences using them.
For example, pupils need the Present Progressive for conversation. They listen to sentences with the verbs in the Present Progressive spoken by the teacher or the speaker (when a tape recorder is used) and relate them to the situations suggested. Then pupils use the verbs in the Present Progressive in various oral sentences in which the Present Progressive is used. Grammar items necessary for reading are taught through reading.
Rule for the teachers:
If the grammar item the teacher is going to present belongs to those pupils need for conversation, he should select the oral approach method for teaching.
If pupils need the grammar item for reading, the teacher should start with reading and writing sentences in which the grammar item occurs.
While preparing for the lesson at which a new grammar item should be introduced, the teacher must realize the difficulties pupils will meet in assimilating this new element of the English grammar. They may be of three kinds: difficulties in form, meaning, and usage. The teacher thinks of the ways to overcome these difficulties: how to convey the meaning of the grammar item either through situations or with the help of the mother tongue; what rule should be used; what exercises should be done; their types and number. Then he thinks of the sequence in which pupils should work to overcome these difficulties, i.e., , from observation and comprehension through conscious imitation to usage in conversation (communicative exercises). Then the teacher considers the form in which he presents the grammar item – orally, in writing, or in reading. And, finally, the teacher plans pupils’ activity while they are learning this grammar item (point): their individual work, mass work, work in unison, and work in pairs, always bearing in mind that for assimilation pupils need examples of the sentence pattern in which this grammar item occurs.
Types of context
Context means the situation or body of information, which causes language to be used. There are a number of different context types, but for our purposes we will concentrate on three, the students' world, the outside world and formulated information.
The students' world can be a major source of contexts for language presentation. There are two kinds of students' world. Clearly we can use the physical surroundings that the students are in - the classroom, school or institution. But classrooms and their physical properties (tables, chairs, windows, etc.) are limited. The students' lives are not constrained in the same way, however, and we can use facts about them, their families, friends and experiences.
The outside world provides us with rich contexts for presentation For example, there is an almost infinite number of stories we can use to present different lenses. We can also create situations where people speak because they are in those situations, or where the writer describes some special information. This is especially useful for the practice of functional language, for example.
We can ask students to look at examples of language which show the new language in operation, though this last category can sometimes have no context. These three sub-categories, story, situation or language, can be simulated or real. Most teachers are familiar with 'made-up' stones which arc often useful for classwork: real stories work well too, of course. In the same way we can create the simulation of an invitation dialogue, for example. But here again we could also show students a real invitation dialogue. In general we can say that real contexts are better simply because they are real, but they may have complexities of language and comprehensibility which can be avoided by simulated contexts - life-like but clearly mode-up to some extent.
Formulated information refers to all that information which is presented in the form of timetables, notes, charts etc. Once again we can use real charts and timetables, growth statistics, etc. or we can design our own which will be just right for our students.
Teaching grammar patterns
We’ll examine "Teaching Grammatical Patterns" by Robert Lado (Chapter 10 "From Sentences to Patterns")
Robert Lado thinks that even children who have never studied the rules grammar make use of the grammar of the language. This is seen in the mistakes they make. When a child says, He goed, he is forming a "regular" preterite on the pattern: showed, weighed, served: "goed." His error reveals the fact that he has been applying the pattern even though he is not able to describe it.
- Patterns and Sentences
A grammatical pattern is an arrangement of parts having linguistic significance beyond the sum of its parts. The parts of a pattern are expressed by words or classes of words so that different sentences often express the same pattern. All the sentences of a language are cast in its patterns.
John telephoned, The boy studied.
We understood different sentences are expressing the same statement pattern in English.
A pattern is not a sentence, however. Sentences express patterns. Each sentence illustrates a pattern. To memorize a sentence does not imply that a pattern has been memorized. There can be countless sentences, each unique, yet all constructed on the same pattern.
- Patterns and Grammar
Children learn the grammatical patterns of their language before they study grammar in school. When a child says goed instead of went or knowed instead of knew, he is applying the regular preterite pattern on the analogy,
open: opened = go: goed
Patterns are learned in childhood. Adults no longer have to learn new patterns; they learn new words that are used in old patterns. That the old patterns are alive is shown by putting unknown words and phrases into them.
And what is the role of the native language in learning the patterns of a foreign language?
- Native Language Factor
The most important factor determining ease and difficulty in learning the patterns of a foreign language is their similarity to or difference from the patterns of the native language. When the pattern in the target language is parallel to one in the native language, the student merely learns new words which he puts into what amounts to an extended use of his native pattern. Since his word learning capacity is not lost, he makes rapid progress. When, however, the native language pattern does not parallel that of the target language, the student tends to revert to his native language patterns through habit.
- Grading the Patterns
There is no single grading scale for teaching the patterns of a foreign language. Any systematic cumulative progression, taking into account the structures that are difficult, would be satisfactory from a linguistic point of view.
- Pattern-practice
Approach The mimicry-memorization exercise tends to give the same amounts of practice to easy as well as difficult problems. It also concentrates unduly on the memorization of specific sentences, and not enough on the manipulation of the patterns of sentences in a variety of content situations. For those patterns that are functionally parallel to the native language, very little work needs to be done, and very little or no explanation is necessary. On the other hand, for those patterns that are not parallel in the two languages, more specific understanding of the grammatical structure points at issue is needed while the sentences are learned and not before or after. And more practice with the pattern is necessary before it is learned, that is, used without attention to its structure.
- Basic sentences
The memorization of sample sentences that contain the grammatical problems to he mastered is common to both pattern practice and mimicry-memorization. For this practice there is ample justification in linguistics and in psychology. The utterances have to become readily available if the student is to use them in the rapid sequence of conversation.
- Teaching the patterns
A sentence can be learned as a single unstructured unit like a word, but this is only the beginning. The student must acquire the habit of constructing sentences in the patterns of the target language. For this he must be able to put words almost automatically into a pattern without changing it, or to change it by making the necessary adjustments.
Teaching a problem pattern begins with teaching the specific structure points where a formal change in the pattern is crucial and where the student is not able to manipulate the required changes. The steps in teaching problem patterns are (1) attention pointer, usually a single sentence calling the students' attention to the point at issue; (2) examples, usually minimally contrastive examples showing a pair of sentences that differ only on the point or points being made; (3) repetition by the class and presentation of additional examples of the same contrast; (4) comments or generalization elicited inductively from the students and confirmed by the teacher; (5) practice, with attention on the problem being taught.
These steps an intended to clarify the crucial point of contrast at the time when sentences are being learned. They should take only a small portion of the class time—no more than 15 per cent.
Robert Lado accents that many teachers make the mistake of trying to explain everything at length while the class listens passively. Long explanations without active practice are a waste of time, and even with practice they are inefficient. Most of the class should be devoted to practice.
Correction
During the accurate reproduction phase there are two basic correction stages: showing incorrectness (indicating to the student that something is wrong) and using correction techniques.
- Showing incorrectness
This means that we will indicate to the student that a mistake has been made. If the student understands this feedback he or she will be able to correct the mistake and this self-correction will be helpful to him or her as part of the learning process.
There are a number of techniques for showing incorrectness:
§ Repeating: Here we simply ask the student to repeat what he or she has just said by using the word 'again'. This, said with a questioning intonation, will usually indicate that the response was unsatisfactory (although it could be misunderstood as only indicating that the teacher has not heard the student's response).
§ Echoing: We will be even clearer if we repeat what the student has just said, using a questioning intonation since this will clearly indicate that we are doubting the accuracy or content of what is being said.
Sometimes we can echo the complete student response, probably stressing the pan of the utterance that was incorrect, for example:
She go to school?
Another possibility is to echo the student's response, but only up to the point where the mistake was made,ftor example: She go …?
Echoing, in its various forms, is probably the most efficient way of showing incorrectness.
§ Denial: We can simply tell the student that the response was unsatisfactory and ask for it to be repeated. This seems somewhat drier than the techniques so far discussed; it may be a bit more discouraging.
§ Questioning: We can say 'Is that correct?' asking any student in the class to answer our question. This has the advantage of focusing everybody's mind on the problem, though it may make the student who made the mistake seem somewhat exposed.
§ Expression: Many teachers indicate that a response was incorrect by their expression or by some gesture. This is very economical (and can be quite funny) but can be dangerous if the student thinks that the expression or gesture is a form of mockery.
In general, showing incorrectness should be handled with tact and consideration. The process of student self-correction, which it provokes, is an important and useful part of the learning process. Showing incorrectness should be seen as a positive act, in other words, not as a reprimand.
Frequently, however, we find that showing incorrectness is not enough for the correction of a mistake or an error and the teacher may therefore have to use some correction techniques.
- Using correction techniques
If students are unable to correct themselves we can resort to one of the following techniques.
§ Student corrects student: we can ask if anyone else can give the correct response. We can ask if anyone can 'help' the student who has made the mistake. If another student can supply the correct information it will be good for that student's self-esteem. However, the student who originally made the mistake may feel humiliated if this technique is used insensitively.
§ Teacher corrects student(s): Sometimes we may feel that we should take charge of correction because the students are extremely mixed-up about what the correct response should be. In that case we can re-explain the item of language, which is causing the trouble. This will be especially appropriate when we see that a majority of the class are having the same problem. After the re-explanation we can move to choral and individual repetition (if necessary) before moving on.
The object of using correction techniques, of course, is to give the student(s) a chance to (know how to) get the new language right. It is important, therefore, that when we have used one of the techniques suggested above, we ask the student who originally made the mistake to give us a correct response.
When the children and teacher are confident that the children can form the new language correctly they will move to immediate creativity. Here they try to use what they have just learned to make sentences of their own, rather than sentences which the teacher or book has introduced as models.
It is at this stage that both teacher and student can see if the students have really understood the meaning, use and form of the new language. If they are able to produce their own sentences they can feel confident that the presentation was success.
Notice again that if the students perform well during elicitation the teacher can move straight to immediate creativity. If at that stage they perform badly the teacher may find it necessary either to return to a short accurate reproduction stage or in extreme cases, to re-explain the new language.
Recognition exercises
These exercises are the easiest type of exercises for pupils to perform. They observe the grammar item in structures (sentence patterns) when hearing or reading. Since pupils only observe the new grammar item the situations should be natural and communicative. For example:
- Listen to the sentences and raise your hands whenever you hear the verbs in the Past Simple.
Mike lives in Pushkin Street. I lived there last year. Ann gets up at 7 o’clock in the morning. She got up at half past seven yesterday. Etc.
It is desirable that sentences formed should concern real situations and facts.
Pupils listen to the teacher and raise their hands when they hear a verb in the Past Simple. The teacher can see whether each of his pupils has grasped the sentence.
- Read the sentences and choose the correct form of the verb. The following sentences may be suggested:
I (go, went) to school yesterday.
Tom (takes, took) a bus when he goes to school.
She (got, gets, gets) up at 7 o’ clock every day.
Pupils should read the sentences and find the signals for the correct choice of the form. Since the necessary form is suggested in each sentence they should only recognize the one they need for a given context.
Recognition exercises are indispensable as pupils retain the grammar material through auditory and visual perception. Auditory and visual memory is at work.
Drill exercises
They are more completed as they require reproduction on the part of the pupils. In learning a foreign language drill exercises are indispensable. The learners cannot assimilate the material if they only hear and see it. They must reproduce it both in outer and inner speech. The more often they say it the better they assimilate the material. Though drill exercises are those in which pupils have only one difficulty to overcome, they should also be graded:
- Repetitive drill. Pupils pronounce the sentence pattern after the teacher, in imitation of the teacher, both individually and in unison. For example:
Teacher: They are dancing in the park.
Class: They are dancing in the park.
Individuals: They are dancing in the park.
Or pupils listen to the dialogue and say it after the speaker.
-Is Ann dancing now?
-No, she isn’t.
-What is she doing?
-She is watching television.
Attention is drawn to the correct pronunciation of the sentence pattern as a sense unit, as a statement (sounds, stress, and melody).
- Substitution. Pupils substitute the words or phrases in a sentence pattern. For example:
The children are dancing in the park.
The children are dancing in the garden.
The children are dancing in the street.
The children are dancing in the yard.
The children are dancing in the hall.
The children are dancing after classes.
The children are dancing at the party.
A pupil substitutes a phrase, the rest may say it in unison. Then they are invited to replace the word dancing with other words.
They are singing in the park.
They are working in the park.
They are walking in the park.
They are playing in the park.
They are running in the park.
They are talking in the park.
They are watering flowers in the park.
They are planting trees in the park.
They are helping the workers in the park.
The use of a particular verb is stimulated with pictures (or a Russian word). Quick revision is achieved with a small expenditure of effort. In this way they review many words and phrases. As pupils have only one difficulty to overcome the work does not take much time. Or pupils are invited to replace the words in the dialogue with those given in columns (see the dialogue above).
There is one more advantage in performing this type of exercises—pupils consolidate the grammar item without thinking about it. They think of the words, phrases, but not of the form itself, therefore, involuntary memory is at work.
- Completion
Pupils complete the sentences the teacher utters looking at the pictures he shows. For example:
Teacher: Look at the picture.
Mike is ... ... .
Pupil: Mike is getting up.
Class: Mike is getting up.
Teacher: Mike is ... ... .
Pupil: Mike is dressing.
Class: Mike is dressing.
Attention should be given to the use of is in this exercise. The teacher should pronounce Mike is ... to prevent the typical mistake of the pupils (Mike dressing). This is essential structural element of the tense form of the Present Continuous; Russian-speaking pupils, however, do not feel any necessity to use it.
- Answering the teacher's questions
For example:
Teacher: Is Mike getting up?
Pupil: Yes, he is.
Teacher: Who is getting up?
Pupil: Mike is.
Teacher: What is Mike doing?
Pupil: He is getting up.
Drill exercises may be done both orally and in written form. Pupils perform oral exercises during the lesson and written ones at home. For example, they ate told to write five or seven sentences on the model given.
During the next lesson the work done at home is checked orally. In this way pupils have practice in pronunciation while reading their own examples, and in auding while listening to their classmates.
Grammar tests
A check on the assimilation of grammar material is carried out through:
- auding (if a pupil understands what he auds, he knows grammar);
- speaking (if a pupil uses the grammar item correctly, he has assimilated it);
- reading (if a learner understands what he reads, he knows grammar);
- tests.
Tests allow the teacher to evaluate pupils' achievement in grammar, that is, how each of them has mastered forms, meaning, and usage. Tests in grammar may involve: filling in the blanks; opening the brackets; transformation (e. g., make it negative, change into plural, etc.); extension (e. g., / like to read books — I like to raid English bocks in our library); completion (e. g., When I came home ...); making statements on the pictures given; translation.
CONCLUSION
In order to understand a language and express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of a language. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the relationship between the words in the given sentence. And vice versa, a sentence may contain one, two, and more unknown words but if one has a good knowledge of the structure of the language one can easily guess the meanings of these words or at least find them in a dictionary, No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism. Children need grammar to be able to speak, and write in the target language.
Our aim is to form grammar skills and prevent children from making grammar mistakes in their speech. The aim of foreign languages in primary schools is to develop pupils’ skills in order to understand speech and participate in conversation.
The method and techniques the teacher should use in teaching children of primary school is the direct method and various techniques which can develop pupils’ listening comprehension and speaking.
We have examined two kinds of grammar skills: the reproductive and receptive grammar skills. The reproductive grammar skills give pupils an opportunity to make up their own sentences in oral and written forms in other words to communicate and the receptive grammar skills give them an opportunity to read texts or aud and understand it.
To master the reproductive grammar skills one should study the basic sentences or models (grammar is presented as itself in the basic sentences), to master the receptive grammar skills one should identify and analyze the grammar item. We teach children to read by means of grammar. It reveals the relationship between the words in the given sentence.
We have such a conclusion that the forming of grammar skills depends on training. Training is of great importance to realize the grammar item. We must use a lot of training exercises for the assimilation of grammar. We should provide the motivation of learn English, encourage children to communicate and remember that the correction of errors in the early stages of a language course may foster the following negative aspects:
- children lose confidence when they have fear of making grammar mistakes
- children become reluctant to take risks: they only the say the information they know they can say
We should realize the importance of training exercises and the role of the individual approach to teaching the children. Besides, the teacher must have a clear idea of the grammar of the language, its structure and usage; everything he teaches must be based on it; he should always be conscious of introducing or practicing some point of grammar.
LITERATURE
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22 www.englishclub.narod.ru
ITRODUCTION
Language is the chief means by which the human personality expresses itself and fulfills its basic need for social interaction with other persons.
Robert Lado wrote that language functions owing to the language skills. A person who knows a language perfectly uses a thousand and one grammar lexical, phonetic rules when he is speaking. Language skills help us to choose different words and models in our speech.
It is clear that the term “grammar” has meant various things at various times and sometimes several things at one time. This plurality of meaning is characteristic of the present time and is the source of confusions in the discussion of grammar as part of the education of children. There have been taking place violent disputes on the subject of teaching grammar at school.
The ability to talk about the grammar of a language, to recite its rules, is also very different from ability to speak and understand a language or to read and write it. Those who can use a language are often unable to recite its rules, and those who can recite its rules can be unable to use it.
Grammar organizes the vocabulary and as a result we have sense units. There is a system of stereotypes, which organizes words into sentences. But what skill does grammar develop?
First of all it gives the ability to make up sentences correctly, to reproduce the text adequately. (The development of practical skills and habits)
The knowledge of the specific grammar structure helps pupils point out the differences between the mother tongue and the target language.
The knowledge of grammar develops abilities to abstract systematize plural facts.
The name of my work is “Teaching Grammar”. And the main aim is to clearly recognize how to teach grammar right.
PART 1 WHAT IS THE GRAMMAR
The Importance of Grammar in Learning a Foreign Language
To judge by the way some people speak, there is no place for grammar in the language course nowadays; yet it is, in reality, as important as it ever was exercise of correct grammar, if he is to attain any skill of effective use of the language, but he need not know consciously formulated rules to account to him for that he does unconsciously correctly.
In order to understand a language and to express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of the language studied. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the relation between the words in the given sentence. And vice versa, a sentence may contain one, two, and more unknown words but if one has a good knowledge of the structure of the language one can easily guess the meaning of these words or at least find them in a dictionary.
No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism.
If learner has acquired such a mechanism, he can produce correct sentences in a foreign language. Paul Roberts writes: “Grammar is something that produces the sentences of a language. By something we mean a speaker of English. If you speak English natively, you have built into you rules of English grammar. In a sense, you are an English grammar. You possess, as an essential part of your being, a very complicated apparatus which enables you to produce infinitely many sentences, all English ones, including many that you have never specifically learned. Furthermore by applying you rule you can easily tell whether a sentence that you hear a grammatical English sentence or not.”
A command of English as is envisaged by the school syllabus cannot be ensured without the study of grammar. Pupils need grammar to be able to aud, speak, read, and write in the target language.
Дата: 2019-07-30, просмотров: 447.
