Professional Documents
Culture Documents
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The practice of teaching grammar is a vital section that must be taught because it
actually interrelated with the other language skills teaching such as writing, reading, listening
and speaking. So, without learning the rule that governs a language which is the grammar of
that language is difficult. Therefore, there are many issues discussed concerning the most
appropriate method or approach in teaching grammar. Until now, there are many researches
and studies have been conducted in regards of the teaching of grammar in language
classroom.
There are claims that go against the use of traditional approach in grammar
teaching such as by Halphin. Halphin, an academician at the University of York stated that
teachers are actually “wasting their time explaining the meaning of nouns, verbs and
pronouns to pupils as part of the national literacy strategy in primary schools.”, (Halpin,
2005). This statement shows that the traditional way of teaching grammar that emphasizes
too much on the part of speech, the meaning and the function is a waste of time and less
effective for the empowerment of students’ communicative competence.
In this case, there are two different views that look at this issue. One view claims
that traditional language teaching in no longer relevant and another view claims that it is still
relevant. However, the teaching must be suitable with the types of the learner and the
situation. In relation to the second claim, Halpin (2005) added that “I am not saying that
grammar is not interesting in its own right, but there is no evidence over 100 years to show
that there is a strong connection between the teaching of formal grammar and improvement
in writing,” he said. “There will be better ways of teaching writing and our findings suggest
that the teaching of sentence combining may be one of the more effective approaches.”
Therefore, this review will look into two major point which are; what is
Communicative Language Teaching and the benefits of implementing Communicative
Language Teaching in English as a Second Language Classroom. This is because there are
many claims that Communicative Language Teaching is the most suitable approach for the
teaching and learning of second language acquisition.
1.1 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING
There are two main focuses in Communicative Language Teaching which are
accuracy and fluency. Both focuses have their own target that relate to Communicative
Language Teaching. In aiming for accuracy, deductive approach of teaching is selected
because deductive teaching focuses on the rule first. However, it is believed that in
Communicative Language Teaching actually promotes the students more on the fluency
and the usage of the language first without focusing on the rule and concept because
Fluency is a skill which uses the ability to process language speedily and easily”
(Thornbury, 2009). Therefore, Inductive teaching is the appropriate practice in order to
incorporate better Communicative Language Teaching instructions inside the language
classroom.
As what has been suggested by Thornbury (2009), deep-end approach proponents take this
way of learning based on Communicative Language Teaching by experiential learning where
the students learn to communicate by communicating. In fact, he further added that grammar
will be acquired virtually and unconsciously by means of activities that engage the learners in
life-like communication”, (Thornbury, 2009). By promoting Co-operative learning in
Communicative Language Teaching, the objective mentioned above can be achieved as the
learners will actually learn the language in the ‘life-like’ situation where in co-operative
learning, the teacher’s role will be more like a facilitator who facilitates the students through
activities conducted. The students are allowed to practice and help each other during the
lesson and that is how the ‘life-like’ situation can be created in Communicative Language
Teaching classes when the learners communicate among one another using the targeted
language with guidance and assistance from the teacher.
There are several types of learning styles. Visual, audio, and kinesthetic are
some of the types that usually, “with a specific instruction method or environment, some
people will learn more effectively than others due to their individual learning style” (Gilbert &
Swanier, Volume 1, Fall 2008). Reflecting on Communicative Language Teaching and
grammar teaching, it is the teacher’s responsibility on how he or she will ensure that the
instructions are effective and able to cater different learning styles especially when it involves
Communicative Language Teaching as approach in teaching grammar. Felder and
Silverman stated as cited in Gilbet and Swanier, (Volume 1, Fall 2008), “Teaching methods
also vary. Some instructors lecture, others demonstrate or lead students to self-discovery;
some focus on principles and others on applications; some emphasize memory and others
understanding”. Therefore, it is vital to realize that actually, Communicative Language
Teaching is able to cater different types of learning styles because in Communicative
Language Teaching, “teacher usually put students in situations where they are using the
language not merely in response to the teachers’ instructions, but also because they need to
use it in order to seek information, give information and solve a problem”, (Chitravelu,
Sithamparam, & Choon, 2005) for instance.
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