01-12-2012, 11:22 AM
Challenges in Teaching Correct Grammar Usage in Indian Scenario
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Abstract
The dictionary defines grammar as the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences .Grammar, considered to be most unglamorous thing in the world, is most important to learn a second language. The aim of any grammar is to distinguish between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in a given language. Linguists are interested in studying language as a system of signs, how language is acquired, how it is comprehended, how it is produced and how it is used according to the cultural ethos in different settings. On the other hand linguists today talk about universal grammar which can be used to study all languages. Non–native speakers learn a language as a process of imitation which consists of basic information followed by a lot of repetitive, often mechanical drills. Grammar today presents a minimum of formal information but it mainly attempt to induce and reinforce the mastery of grammatical skills through a series of meaningful contextualized task. This paper is based on acceptability of expression and correct usage and examines the notion in Indian English. This paper also focuses on the errors committed by Indian students and discusses the challenges faced by teachers while teaching grammar to non-native speakers in classroom situation and provides the possible solutions.
INTRODUCTION
English has a status of link language; in fact it is the most important language of India. The great linguistic diversity found within our nation, English acts as an indispensable ‘link’ language. English symbolizes in Indians’ minds, better education, better culture and higher intellect. It is probably the most read and written language. English in India is used not only for communicating with the outside world, but also for inter-state and intrastate communication. Using a language to communicate is not easy because there are set of rules that must be followed, which is called Grammar. Actually grammar is used to mean the structure of a language. It is an essential part of the use of language process, both in spoken and written language. The study of English grammar is considered 'an important aspect in the learning of English'.
R.G.COLLINGWOOD: In the Book entitled The Principles of Art has oppositely states it [grammar] is of great use, but its use is not theoretical, it is practical.
Grammar according to Rutheford (1987) is “a necessary component of any language teaching programme” (p.9), and plays an important role in language teaching. However, the focus on grammar in language teaching has always been challenged with the emergence of teaching methodologies based on different learning theories, such a challenge influenced not only the content and the curriculum in language teaching, but also the implication for teaching grammar. Grammar is like field work, in which the investigators study a phenomenon in its environment, that is, the sentence or paragraph in its context or spoken in some real or imaginary social situation.
DiStefano and Killion (1984) are of the opinion that Usage of correct grammar, sentence variety, sentence-level punctuation, and spelling are applied more effectively in writing itself when studied and discussed in the context of writing, rather than through isolated skills instruction.
Errors and Mistakes
The different system of language could make learners to make errors and mistakes. In order to analyze learners’ errors in learning a foreign language, it is too crucial to make a distinction between mistake and errors.
As stated above, the different system of language could make us to make errors when using the target language. An error is noticeable grammar of native speaker, reflecting the inter-language competence of the learners. (Brown, 1980: 165).
Error, refers to the failure to use the system correctly caused by the lack of the learners’ competence.
Mistake is different with error. A mistake refers to a performance error that is either random or a slip of the tongue, in that it is failure to utilize a known system correctly (Brown, 1980: 165). The learner, who makes mistakes, will sometime use one form and sometime the others. This shows an inconsistency.
The Benefits of Analyzing Errors
Errors are normal and unavoidable during the learning process as Richard (1974: 95) mentioned that no one could learn without making errors. Meanwhile, Lengo (2003: 1) mentioned that errors are believed to be an indicator of the learners’ stages in their target language development. So, it is important to analyze the errors because there are many benefits in analyzing the errors, such as:
(1) a device which the learner uses in order to learn ( Selinker in Soesanti’s thesis, 1992: 150 )
(2) to fully grasp and understand the nature of the errors made, and
(3) instead of just being able to explain the rules and correct the errors ( Mei Lin Ho, 2003 : 1 ).
Thus, the assessment whether the learners have mastered some grammatical points should not be based on their ability to state the rules of grammar, but on their ability to use the grammatical points to share their ideas, emotions, feelings, or observations with other people. Systematic practice in combining and expanding sentences can increase students' repertoire of syntactic structures and can also improve the quality of their sentences. Students’ attitude towards correction is sometimes positive, especially in advance levels where students specially want to be corrected in order to improve their language and avoid errors to be fossilized.
METHODOLOGY
A sample of 50 students from classes VIII was taken. I have been teaching grammar to these students regularly for past one month with the help of educomp.To test efficacy of using educomp for teaching grammar was tested by giving a few topics to be written in about 150 words. Students were given 20 minutes to write a paragraph. The variable of this research is the grammatical errors which occur in the students’ writing. Parameters on which the data collected will be analyzed are : Subject verb concord, Preposition, Pronouns, Nouns and Conjunctions.
The students were already taught different parts of speech, verb forms, subject verb concord etc. They were given various examples of how to write a paragraph. The paragraph which was written by the students were evaluated and the errors were analyzed.
ERROR ANALYSIS
As stated above,the paragraphs were checked and were found that students committed errors in writing semantically and syntactically correct sentences. Inadequacy of lexical range, misapplication of words and phrases, grammatical faults, mis-spellings and faulty punctuation were the common mistakes done by the students. Common grammatical mistakes which were analyzed were of Subject Verb Concord, Preposition, Nouns, Conjunctions and Pronouns.