A RESEARCH ON TEACHING METHODS OF GRAMMAR

SHAIKH KHAMUR UNISA K. H.

ASSISTANT TEACHER
ABEDA INAMDAR JUNIOR COLLEGE FOR GIRLS
Pune
India

ABSTRACT

Teaching grammar is a serious issue because it is the web of a language which should be
clearly known by the user. At every level of education we see students struggling with
grammar. A class room comprises of verity students with different absorbing capabilities. So
it depends on a teacher to select the right method and teach the topic to everyone. This
research focuses on these methods of teaching grammar, its advantages and disadvantages. It
also presents a method to be used according to the class average level. This research is
conducted on a mixed group of students to find out which method may be preferable for Vth –
IXth level. Two groups of equal students will have to give a pretest, then using different

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teaching methods a grammar topic will be taught and again they will be examined on post
teaching test. The results of these tests will decide which method will be preferable for
teaching grammar to the secondary school level students.

Keyword: Teaching grammar, methods, advantages, disadvantages, pretest & posttest results
and analysis.

INTRODUCTION

In linguistics, grammar is a set of rules that controls the composition of clauses, phrases, and
words of any language. It also refers to the study of such rules, and this field includes
morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and
pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the term to refer to orthographical rules, although
usage books and style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and
punctuation.
Grammar is the study of words and the ways words work together. It is an invisible force that
guides us, as we put words together into sentences. Any person who communicates using a
particular language is consciously or unconsciously aware of the grammar of that language.
To speak in a clearer and more effective manner we study grammar.

DEFINATION OF GRAMMAR

The word “grammar” means different things to different people. To the ordinary citizen, it
connotes “correct or incorrect English.” To a school student, it means “an analytical and
terminological study of sentences.” To a linguist, it means “the total set of signals by which a
given language expresses meaning” or “the total structure of a language.”
The general English course in our schools comprises of „Grammar‟ and „Translation‟. So the
teacher should know about the teaching of grammar. Every language has its grammar and the
grammar of language is important because acceptability and intelligibility both in writing and
in speech depend on the currently followed basic notions and norms of grammar.

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TYPES OF GRAMMAR

1. PERSPECTIVE GRAMMAR
It is also known as formal or theoretical grammar. Its main emphasis is on rules and
forms. Its limitation is that it does not consider „Change in language‟, whereas change
in rule is must.
2. DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
It is also known as functional grammar. Its main emphasis is on functional side of
language. It changes along with the changes in the language.
3. STRUCTURAL GRAMMAR
It was founded by an American linguist C.C. Fries. It puts emphasis on the structure
of sentences. The descriptive linguists are much influenced by it. But it is not a
complete system.
One of the primary characteristics of structural grammar is its division of the study of
language into two basic parts: structure and meaning. In general, the structural
grammarian prefers to study the grammatical forms or structures of the language
before considering lexical meaning. Structural grammar has been an innovative and
important approach to the discovery of knowledge about English. Thus it is called
new grammar.
4. SCHOLARLY TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR
It is developed by the scholars using bibliographic references, critical evolution of the
work of predecessors etc. The weakness of that type of grammar is diversity; therefore
it did not influence the school of grammar.

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5. TRANSFORMATIONAL GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
It considers sentences as of two types: a) Basic sentences, b) Transformed sentences
Basic sentences cannot be derived from the other sentences whereas the transformed
sentence is derived from the basic sentences.
Transformationalists do not consider grammar as description itself; they consider it as
a particular theory that provides a complete, consistent explanation of the way a
language operates. The theory explains and describes what is in existence and also
predicts what will be.

CLASSIFICATION OF GRAMMAR
CLASSIFICATION OF GRAMMAR

FORMAL FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURAL

1. FORMAL GRAMMAR
Formal or theoretical grammar deals with terminology, definition or rules. It concerns
itself with the description, analysis and formulization of formal language pattern. It
offers a systematic classification of all the language forms. Its study enables the pupil
to describe the language. Its study cannot be dispensed with but it should be
commenced after at least two years of language. It is based on conscious study or
rules. It is meant for acquiring proper definitions used in grammar. Now it has been
realized that the most important aspect of any language learning is not grammar but
the sentence structure.
2. FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
Functional grammar is incidental grammar which is acquired by the pupils
unconsciously by imitation or consciously by observation and deduction. In the very
process of learning correct sentence patterns, the pupil is learning grammar. It does
not emphasis the form or the rules of grammar but the function of the word in a
particular context. It classifies words according to their functions and asserts that
there is no grammatical classification of certain words. It implies that whatever pupils
learn, they should use it immediately in real and written composition. Functional
grammar is strongly supported because of its practical value.

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 3. STRUCTURAL GRAMMAR
Charles Fries in his book entitled „teaching of English abroad‟ describes grammar as a
descriptive analysis system of devices to single structural meaning. The grammar that
deals with distinct features for conveying the structural meaning of language is called
structural grammar. It deals with the following three important features.
 It is the description of words upon which rules concerning structural forms can
be based.
 It is the systematic study of sentence patterns of English.
 It is the study of special meaning of the words.
According to F.G. French, the best time for the beginning of the study of grammar is
the fourth year of its study i.e. VIII class. No grammar should be taught before it is
because by this time, pupils acquire knowledge of essential vocabulary to understand
grammar of English language.

METHODS OF TEACHING GRAMMAR

Grammar is the important aspect of teaching and learning of a language. Learning grammar is
difficult for the learners of English as a second language. Traditionally, grammar was taught
by rules i.e. deductive way. Here the rules were taught first and then the examples were
given. First learners were expected to memories those rules and then learn the language. This
method was and is still practiced in our educational institutions to teach grammar. Teachers
and the students work very hard during their grammar period. The learners learn (to change
the form of the sentences, parts of speech, clauses, definitions etc) grammar and then
extensive exercises are given to them for practice. After this hard work learners get good
grades in grammar but they are not able to speak or write a single sentence correctly by
themselves. After all language is a tool for communication. But this does not properly serve
our students. With the changing communicative approach of language teaching we have to
change the concept, objectives and methods of teaching grammar.

Many researchers have written on how grammatical rules should be presented to the students.
Krashen argues that the deductive approach seems “much more reasonable – why make
students guess the rule?” (113) teachers should “present a clear explanation and have
[students] practice until the rule is internalized” (Krashen 113). Proponents of the deductive
approach, however, have argued that the best way to teach grammatical structures is for
students to discover the rule for themselves. Within this approach, the learner is given several

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examples, “a corpus,” and has to discover “the regularities” (Krashen 113). The inductive
approach bears strong resemblances to first language acquisition though the language is not
acquired subconsciously. Teachers and scholars have a wide range of views on both the
approaches, which one is the most effective? It has been suggested that some structures “are
most amenable to a deductive approach while others ... can be learned very well by an
inductive approach” (Hammerly 17). This view has been supported by Brown, who states that
“both inductively and deductively oriented teaching methods can be effective, depending on
the goals and contexts of a particular language teaching situation” (105).

DEDUCTIVE APPROACH

This approach takes less time for teaching. Students need

to concentrate on rules and its application. Teachers make
them aware of the rules and then explain it. So they are
well trained with linguistic terms.

As students are learning the rules they are passive

learners, so usage of this approach may be difficult for
them. They are dependent on the teacher to explain them.

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INDUCTIVE APPROACH

In this approach students are actively participating to

find out the rule. This will make the learners familiar
with the usage of the grammar. They are the independent
learners so they will not find grammar hard at all.

As students are trying to guess the rule it is time

consuming. It may make students loss their interest if the
instructor does not provide correct clues.

RESEARCH
To find out which method is more applicable for the students to understand grammar the
researcher conducts a small scale research on a mixed group (VIII & IX) of students. So the
easiest topic of grammar i.e. Preposition is taught with the help of deductive and inductive
methods.
ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTION PAPER
Two methods were used in this research, first the Deductive method and second is the
Inductive method. The question paper was objective.
In both the approaches there was a pre-test and also a post test to evaluate the knowledge that
students have and then which method helped the students to get the clear picture of the topic
Preposition.
In Deductive Approach and Inductive Approach, the test questions were same with different
sentences. Both the pre-tests and the post-tests were of twenty marks each.
The first question dealt with the easy and digestive material for the students so that they do
not lose their interest. It was like a game for the students to select the proper preposition from
the bracket and fill the blanks.
The second question was of little difficult. Here the students had to think a bit and fill in the
blanks with the appropriate prepositions. The sentences were both easy and difficult.

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Third and the last question were based on recognition. There were in all ten sentences that the
students had to solve. In this, questions were picked up from their English text, so again they
had few familiar sentences and few new one.

RESULTS OF DEDUCTIVE METHOD

Sr. Pre-test Pre-test Post-test Post-test Difference Percent
No. Marks Percentage Marks Percentage Between Pre &
Post Test
1. 6 30 % 13 65 % 7 35 %
2. 18 90 % 16 80 % -2 -10 %
3. 13 65 % 15 75 % 2 10 %
4. 14 70 % 15 75 % 1 5%
5. 10 50 % 17 85 % 7 35 %
6. 6 30 % 17 85 % 11 55 %
7. 13 65 % 13 65 % 0 00 %
8. 16 80 % 17 85 % 1 5%
9. 10 50 % 16 80 % 6 30 %
Total 106 58.88 % 139 77.22 % 33 18.33 %

ANALYSIS OF THE RESULT

With reference of the above table we can evaluate that, the pre-test was of the general
knowledge to the students and hence total scores of the students are 58.88 %. This is low as
compared to the post-test i.e. 77.22 %. The post-test was taken after the teaching of the
prepositions through the deductive methods. Therefore we could calculate the differences
between the two tests which are 18.33 %.
There could be many reasons for the individual differences between the students. As the
group which performed the activity was a mixed group. The students were of standard VII
and VIII.
The group is a mixture of both the genders where the numbers of girls are 3 and the numbers
of boys are 5.
We should also consider that the group members may not have a strong motivation behind
doing this test.

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RESULTS OF INDUCTIVE METHOD
Sr. Pre-test Pre-test Post-test Post-test Difference Percent
No. Marks Percentage Marks Percentage Between Pre &
Post Test
1. 6 30 % 11 55 % 5 25 %
2. 14 70 % 16 80 % 2 10 %
3. 15 75 % 16 80 % 1 5%
4. 5 25 % 9 45 % 4 20 %
5. 5 25 % 11 55 % 6 30 %
6. 8 40 % 13 65 % 5 25 %
7. 14 70 % 18 90 % 4 20 %
8. 14 70 % 15 75 % 1 5%
Total 81 50.63 % 109 68.13 % 28 17.50 %

ANALYSIS OF THE RESULT

With reference of the above table we can evaluate that, the pre-test was of the general
knowledge to the students and hence total scores of the students are 50.63 %. This is low as
compared to the post-test i.e. 68.13 %. The post-test was taken after the teaching of the
prepositions through the inductive methods. Therefore we could calculate the differences
between the two tests which is 17.50 %.
There could be many reasons for the individual differences between the students. As the
group which performed the activity was a mixed group. The students were of standard VII
and VIII.
The group is a mixture of both the genders where the numbers of girls are 3 and the numbers
of boys are 5.
We should also consider that the group members may not have a strong motivation behind
doing this test.

CONCLUSION
In both approaches, the students practice and apply the use of the grammatical structure, and
thus we can conclude that student found the Deductive method of teaching more interesting
and enjoyed it while it was being taught. Inductive method is also effective one but only few
students could manage to follow it. The students who could grasp the information were trying
hard to be active while teaching.
Thus on the basis of both the results of the tests we can conclude that, in the secondary class
level Deductive Method worked effectively in comparison with the Inductive Method. This

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can be seen on their marks as well student scored 68.13% through the Inductive approach.
While the other group scored 77.22% through the Deductive approach.

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Bibliography:

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