Abstract
The role of grammar instruction is inevitably important for second and/or foreign language mastery. Unfortunately, in practice, many English teachers in foreign language contexts such as in Indonesia still teach grammar deductively; that is, learners are provided the grammar rules and examples, are told to memorize them, and then are asked to apply the rules to other examples. This particular method of teaching is believed to produce learners who cannot use the language communicatively although they have considerable knowledge of grammar rules. It has also been seen as contributing to learners’ passive participation and negative feelings towards grammar learning. The aims of this paper are to give an alternative solution to that problem by offering some ideas of game-based activities and to investigate students’ perception of the implementation of communicative game-based grammar learning. Using pre- and post-study questionnaire, the research study was conducted with 30 adult EFL learners taking an after-class English course. The findings indicated that these activities were effective in creating a non-threatening and more relaxing grammar classes, changing students’ negative perception of grammar learning and improving their perceived communicative skills.
Highlights
The teaching of grammar for language learners has been a long debate among the stakeholders; the English language teachers and students, researchers and practitioners
Celce-Murcia (1985) argues through evidences showing that no-grammar teaching will lead to the product of clumsy and impropriate foreign languages, which means that grammar plays a very important role in language learning
Cognitive Approach The cognitive approach considers the conscious study of language rules as central to the learning of a foreign language and practice will be meaningful if learners understand the rules involved in practice
Summary
The teaching of grammar for language learners has been a long debate among the stakeholders; the English language teachers and students, researchers and practitioners. Some argue that grammar is not necessary to be given a special focus on language learning as children learn their first languages without learning the rules of how the words are combined yet they are able to communicate with others. Lewis (1993) asserts that grammar is not the basis of language acquisition, and the balance of linguistic research clearly invalidates any view to the contrary. Celce-Murcia (1985) argues through evidences showing that no-grammar teaching will lead to the product of clumsy and impropriate foreign languages, which means that grammar plays a very important role in language learning. Learning grammar can help to furnish the basis of the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing
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