LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:5 May 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Teaching of English Grammar in India –
Are We Sailing in the Same Boat?

Sugata Samanta, M. A., M. Ed.

Abstract

For centuries, importance and place of grammar teaching in second language learning has been a topic of hot debate. In the past centuries, language learning had almost been synonymous with grammar learning. However, at the beginning of 1970, the interest of ‘real language’ teaching emerged and more interest was taken in the social and cultural teaching of language. Consequently, it proved to be a shift from audio-lingual and grammar translation methods to the exploration of the communicative teaching of language. Current theories of L2 learning, however, suggest that an explicit knowledge of grammar is important in a number of respects. Naturally, Indian classrooms are also influenced by those developments regarding grammar teaching. This article is an attempt to explore the real classroom situations of the Indian subcontinent in relation to teaching ESL grammar

Keywords: English Grammar Teaching, ESL (English as Second Language), Inductive Approach, Deductive Approach

Introduction

In South Asian regions, grammar is one of the most obscure areas in ESL learning. In fact, all over the world, lots of debate and controversies exist about the role of grammar in language teaching and learning and, as Borg & Burns point out, perhaps, no area of second (L2) and foreign language learning has been the subject of as much empirical and practical interest as grammar teaching. (Borg, & Burns, 2008) Usually, debates about grammar often lie at the heart of various methodological orientations whether grammar should be taught inductively/deductively or implicitly/explicitly. Traditionally grammar is taught deductively, that is, by presenting a rule followed by example drills (from general to particular) whereas inductive grammar teaching is one in which learners are given many examples in different contexts and are asked to find out the rules by themselves (from particular to general), and then apply them to various exercises to learn how they actually work in real language use. A third alternative to grammar teaching is the golden mean of both inductive and deductive approaches to benefit from the advantages of both; it is grammar-based teaching (GBT). It is an approach recommended by Azar to grammar practitioners and believes that "placing specific grammar structures within their larger conceptual framework is more helpful to students than a random, piecemeal approach to explicit grammar teaching" (Azar, 2007). It takes the advantages of both inductive and deductive approaches.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Sugata Samanta, M. A., M. Ed.
Research Scholar
Techno India University
Kolkata 700091
West Bengal
India
sugata.samanta@gmail.com
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