English Grammar and Thai University Students: An Insurmountable Linguistic Battle?

Saksit Saengboon

doi:10.5539/elt.v10n11p22

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating English grammar knowledge of a group of Thai university students. The three main research questions revolved around their knowledge of English grammar, the kinds of difficulties they had encountered in using the grammar as well as their perceptions of the roles of grammar in using English. The participants were administered two types of grammar test: one was the grammar production test (20 items), and the other was the grammar recognition test (40 items). The average scores of the tests were relatively low: 7.30/20 and 21.13/40, respectively. The interview results suggested that the participants viewed grammar as important in learning and using English effectively. They also reported that appropriate teaching of grammar was beneficial as long as the communicative use of the grammar was emphasized. Further, a thorough analysis of sentence structures, which was one of the foci of the lesson learned, helped them to gain a better understanding of English sentences, enabling them to read academic texts more effectively. In short, the participants believed that grammar was essential and was something that was not insurmountable albeit the low scores reported above.

Highlights

1.1 Introduction to the ProblemConventional wisdom has it that communicative competence in a language is the ultimate goal of any language instruction programs
The dismal knowledge of English is a serious concern among educators, prospective employers or even among students themselves. This concern over low English proficiency is compounded by the fact that laypersons, encountering the word grammar, are misled into believing that it is a hindrance to one's willingness to communicate in an L2, especially given real-life communicative situations where grammar seems to play almost no role in getting one's message across
The participants were administered a paper-and-pencil test (60 items), comprising two main sections: one was a gap-filling task (20 items) and the other was the TOEFL paper-based test in which they were to fill in incomplete sentences and to identify correct answers relative to grammar points being tested such as subject-verb agreement, the use of pronoun, articles, adjective, adverb and so on (Appendix A)

Summary

Introduction

Conventional wisdom has it that communicative competence in a language is the ultimate goal of any language instruction programs. Thai students at all levels of education appear to be unable to communicate well in English. The dismal knowledge of English is a serious concern among educators, prospective employers or even among students themselves. This concern over low English proficiency is compounded by the fact that laypersons, encountering the word grammar, are misled into believing that it is a hindrance to one's willingness to communicate in an L2, especially given real-life communicative situations where grammar seems to play almost no role in getting one's message across

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Conclusion