Grammar critical response

TASK 1: CRITICAL RESPONSE

(a) Article 1: Teaching English Grammar in Malaysian Primary School by Ruth Wickham. This article is basically about the techniques and approaches that can be used to teach grammar in Malaysian Primary school. There is one section in this article where Wickham talks about covert and overt approach. According to Wickham, covert approach requires teacher to teach the grammar rules indirectly to the students. Instead of explaining the grammar rules to the students, teacher provides examples and revises some activity from it. Ample opportunities should be given and errors should be tolerated. Meanwhile for the overt approach, teacher presents the grammar rules directly to the students. There are two ways to practice this approach. The first one is deductive approach whereby the teacher presents the rules of grammar and let the students apply it. The second one is to provide the examples sentences and guide students into discovering the rules for themselves. Both approaches have their own pros and cons. Some might say covert is much more interesting because of the activities that derive from it. But, if teachers are able to catch students’ attention and deliver the lesson well, chances are the students learn, regardless of any approach that is applied.

(b) Article 2: Teaching Grammar in Context by David Nunan In this article, Nunan argues that second language learners do not acquire language step-by-step as suggested by the linear model. Basically, the linear model is based on the idea of mastering one grammatical item at a time before one can proceed to the next. However, Nunan thinks out of the box by suggesting that teachers should go beyond this approach. This is because linear model does not provide much opportunity for second language learners to apply their grammar knowledge into communicative use. Therefore, Nunan suggests another approach called the organic approach. Instead of introducing one grammatical item at a time, teacher is required to expose second language learners to authentic samples of language. Students are able to see for themselves how the grammar rules are actually applied in daily communication. Hence, students should be encouraged to explore the grammar in context as this will aid them in communicating effectively.
(c) Article 3: Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA Perspective by Rod Ellis Ellis writes this article based on eight different questions. All eight questions depict the popular issues in teaching grammar. The first question is “Should we teach grammar?”. Krashen (1981) argues that learners do not acquire any knowledge from grammar instruction. Learners will acquire as long as they have access to comprehensible input and constantly motivated. One of the many questions that Ellis raises is “What grammar should we teach?” If at all grammar teaching can contribute to the acquisition of second language, this issue still raise two different questions pertaining what kind of grammar and which grammar features to teach. Ellis is able to highlight the issues by raising these kinds of questions and could be remain unsolved if not given enough attention

(d) Article 4: The Current Situation and Issues of the Teaching of English in Malaysia by Saadiyah Darus. In this article, Darus states that the problem with learning second language occurs even before Malaysia gets its independence. Those who live in the rural areas are denied the opportunity to learn English language because English-medium schools are all built in the urban areas. During post-independence, Malay language is declared as the sole national language. Ever since then, the policy in education keeps changing. Starting from the riots in 1969 until the introduction of Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English. Darus raises few serious questions regarding this issue. Those questions should be taken seriously as it concerns Malaysia’s future generations. Other than raising questions, Darus also post a suggestion. He suggests making English as a compulsory subject to pass at Form 5. This way, teachers and students will give more serious attention toward the subject.