February 5, 2006

IF one is to analyze a piece of writing constituting of paragraphs and sentences one would be looking closely at its grammatical structure. The construction is governed by rules of forming words and placing them into sentences according to certain guidelines giving a sentence complete sense. This is necessary for proper language acquisition.

In order to converse or write well be it in English, science, social studies or even technical courses a grasp over the fundamentals of language is essential. Imparting knowledge of grammar appear to be relatively simple but that is usually not the case. It’s normally seen that a teacher will enter the class, write a sentence on the board, turn to look at the students and begin its dissection without any adequate background thinking that they are already well-versed in its rules.

All grammar items such as parts of speech, tenses, voice tones and speech implications will all be explained via this one sentence. Sometimes the teacher continues in such a monotonous drone of a voice that a student can’t help but get bored. It’s now the question of just patiently waiting till the next sentence appears on the board.

While studying in college, I had a teacher who was respected by everyone, but more for his age than his teaching methods. He had many years of language teaching under his belt. He would dress in attire that seemed right out of the time of British rule and spoke with such seriousness and authority that whatever he said no student dared ever contradict him. That was obviously not good because many times the students did not understand what he would be teaching but no one would have the courage to ask him to slow down or clarify a point.

Grammar basically involves rules by which sentences, then paragraphs and ultimately essays or compositions are constructed. It is vital that students are taught clearly the rules of grammar, especially with regard to words and their placement in sentences. If a sentence is divided into two parts — thought and construction — then grammar is the latter which is also called the syntax of a sentence.

If there is weak grasp over this the purpose of the sentence dies because the writer will be unable to be communicate the message across effectively. Grammar involves many areas that are overlap with each other and one link can lead to another. To begin with, grammar should not be taught by one textbook and a number of books should be consulted as it might be that if the theory is good in one book and practice exercises might be better in another. After reviewing a few textbooks one can get a fair idea about the topics and the rules outlined.

Once that is done, a syllabus needs to be devised which best handles the approach to grammar. Usually, a good way to begin is by thinking of the whole of grammar as a tree with visible roots beneath the surface. Then one can start labelling the different parts of the tree which would be the various grammar areas. Parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) would be the fundamentals. Then the bark of the tree can be the tenses with the branches being verb extensions such as auxiliaries and modals or prepositions, infinitives, participles and gerunds.

The leafy growth of this ‘grammar tree’ could be active/passive voice, direct/indirect narration, sentence structure, synthesis (joining sentences that also comes in the parts of speech) and punctuation. Finally, the fruits borne of the tree would be actual sentences and paragraphs formed by these sentences.

There are three different grammar levels: primary, intermediate and advanced. Whatever level is being taught, there will be a change as to the number of branches and the thickness of the leafy growth — the fundamentals will remain unchanged. The focus may shift depending on what grammar item needs to be emphasized on more accordingly to the learners’ needs. At all three levels grammar needs to be taught in a whole text form just as the real language is read, spoken and written. Conversations or texts can be taken in which one can omit a grammatical item which is then inserted by the learners. Material that is relevant to learners should be used which they can relate to and feel a connection with. For instance, at the primary level a paragraph from a story that students have read in class can be utilized and they can be asked to identify the different parts of speech in it.

Further, activities on tenses can be made using simple dialogue where one has to choose the correct tense. As the level goes higher so would the complexity of the material. For the intermediate level, comprehension passages or topical essays can be used for which grammar tasks can be devised. Global issues can be selected to be worked upon and newspapers and magazines can also be used.

There might be hiccups in the beginning but once the learners see the working of grammar in a whole text form the principles of grammar will be easier for them to grasp and that should lead to the improvement of their other language skills as well. They should practice in the above ways and this will prove to be effective in grammar acquisition.

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