TESL 0110- unit 1- reflections

Grammar is the foundation for communication. When a message is relayed with the correct grammar, it is easier to understand the purpose and meaning of that message. In order to communicate, a learner should know the grammar of the language. It is important to be able to express yourself, but this should be done in a way that people find easy to understand. I believe learning grammar is the most challenging part of learning a new language. The ESL teachers have to have a solid knowledge of grammar and also have the ability to teach grammar. Teachers should be able to teach the reasons and facts behind the grammar rules; however, there might be some rules that teachers have to look for it and learn more about it. It is hard to teach grammar to a multi language class. When you are teaching the new language to the students that are sharing the same language with you, you can explain some rules and facts in your language whenever you feel the needs for that, but it could be really difficult to teach them to multi language students. Teachers must consider students background, as each language has its own rules, and teach grammar in the way that is understandable to all students and assess it with different activities.
Through grammar, an ESL learner learns how to operate at the sentence level and studies the governance of the syntax or word orders that are the rule of the game in the language. While, it is argued that some learners ‘notice’ grammar rules and logic naturally, yet it cannot be denied that if one hopes to acquire and use English language accurately and fluently, grammar learning is necessary. According to Thornbury (1998), there are many arguments regarding teaching grammar like the fossilisation argument; if you do not learn a new language fundamentally, it is possible that you would forget it. All these arguments are quit disputable, but I believe teachers should teach grammar to the students as it is the fundamental of English.


Resources:

Coelho, E. (2004). Chapter 4: No more red pen: Teaching English grammar. In (Eds.). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms (pp. 67-89). Pippin Publishing Co.

Thornbury, S. (1999). Chapter 2: Why teach grammar, In Harmer, J. (Ed.), How to teach grammar (pp. 14-28). Harlow: Longman.