Diploma Students’ Perceptions about Their English Grammar Learnability at Umm Al-Qura University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine diploma students’ perceptions about their experiences learning English grammar as a general requirement course at a higher education institution- namely Umm A-Qura University (UQU) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during the first semester 2022-2023. Random sampling was used to obtain the subjects of the study, who were students from different diploma programs attending English language classes at the starter level. The textbook taught was Business Result Starter, which uses the deductive method of teaching grammar through introducing the rules with examples in each unit followed by a section for free practice at the end. Many studies were conducted on the perceptions about teaching grammar, focusing on the perceptions of instructors, with an obvious lack for studies to analyze students’ perceptions about learning grammar. The current study was carried out with qualitative methods to investigate the perceptions of the students and collect the information from their personal experiences regarding how they learned grammar in their English course during the first semester of 2022-2023. A number of ten students were selected as respondents for the study. Structured interviews were conducted whether face-to-face or on Webex. Data Collection techniques included individual discussion for more profound responses that helped in revealing their positive and negative perceptions about how they learned grammar. The study found that most diploma students held positive attitudes towards their experience learning grammar using the deductive method but it was not enough to achieve comprehensive learning or learning for all participants due to individual differences and learning styles. The main strengths of using the deductive method with the diploma students were straightforwardness, comprehensibility, meeting instructor’s expectations, building up learner’s self-confidence, self-learning, enjoyableness, time-effectiveness and building grammatical skill. For the negative perceptions from their experience in learning grammar that semester, the participants informed that they were contributed by obstructing fluency, difficulty to achieve a dual task on rules and free practice of EFL at the same time, attracting attention to rules rather than use of language, and the challenges some learners faced to learn the rules. Through these findings of this study, EFL lecturers at UQU would be able to know the challenges and learning techniques experienced by the students while dealing with grammar lessons, and eventually come out with student-oriented solutions for more effective grammar teaching and for opening new windows of grammar learnability for the students to join the diploma programs. In addition, this study is expected to enlighten both instructors and students about the potential strengths and weaknesses of the deductive method of teaching grammar on the one hand, and to consider students’ experiences and perceptions that might lead to new insights into adopting an integrated or blended method to better teach, and/or increase learnability of English grammar on the other.