A conversation

The party script.

Some friends and I went to a party. It was right after an English exam. Some of us were

disappointed about the grade and some of us were happy because we were about to have a break.

We were seniors in high school, so we had to take SAT exam in a few weeks. We all knew that

there was a grammar section on SAT exam, but no one had a clue about that exam. We only

knew that we had to be careful about grammar in that section. The topic of our discussion shifted

from the winter break to what is the best way to teach grammar.

So what is the best way to teach grammar?

What is the most popular teaching method regard to grammar learning? Is there any research or

experiment on this topic? Who is interested in this topic?

Grammar is a crucial part of English language education. Everyone has some kind of grammar

learning experience. Nowadays, more and more scholars have been trying to find the most

effective way to learn grammar in English classes. Most people started to learn English

systematically in the first grade of elementary school. So by the time taking the SAT class, most

students would have taken twelve years of English education. As a student, I still wonder what is

the best way to teach grammar.

Martha Kolln is a professor at Penn State University, she is also interested in the topic what is the

best way to learn grammar. She wrote an article called Rhetorical Grammar: Grammar Choices,

Rhetorical Effects.

Martha: I think grammar is a rhetorical tool that you can use to express your idea more clearly

and accurately. Students should be taught the rhetorical effect of grammar so they would be able

to write something with a more complicated grammar structure while delivering messages more

accurately. Nowadays, there are so many students who think that grammar is a rule that they

need to follow, they feel like grammar is something that limits their expression. But actually,

grammar is a tool that is very helpful in the writing process.

Jinran: Yes, I totally agree with you. After reading your article, I feel the same way that grammar

should be a tool that helps students to express their thoughts. It should not be something that

students need to memorize in order to get a good grade in English class. We should truly

understand the meaning and function of each grammar structure in order to perform better in

writing.

Martha: That is what I’m talking about! You get my idea. If you read deeper about my article,

you would find some specific examples and you would definitely be a better writer!

Dilin Liu is a professor at the University of Alabama. He did a research experiment called

“Making Grammar Instruction More Empowering: An Exploratory Case Study of Corpus Use in

the Learning/Teaching of Grammar” trying to find whether problem-based learning is good for

students to learn grammar

Dilin: Problem-based learning is a method of teaching which put students in groups and let them

work together to solve an open-ended problem. I designed an experiment to test the effectiveness
of problem-based learning in English classes toward grammar. According to my data, I think

problem-based learning may be able to help students develop a critical understanding of

lexicogrammatical and broader language use issues.

Jinran: I have experience with some teachers who use this problem-based learning teaching style.

In those classes, the whole learning process was fun and engaging. We were all trying to find the

answer to the problem that the teacher gave to us, and after finding the answer by ourselves, we

actually learned something new. In other words, I also think problem-based learning is a great

way to learn grammar.

Zuhriyah: I agree with you, too. After reading your article, I did some research similar to your

topic. I also cited your work at the end of my article: Problem-Based Learning to Improve

Students’ Grammar Competence.

Zuhriyah is another scholar interested in the effect of problem-based learning. He used the

method of collaborative classroom action research, there were four steps: planning,

implementing, observing, and reflecting.

Zuhriyah: In my experiment, I put four students in each group, then I gave them a problem on the

first day of each week and let them work on that in the following week. After that, I let the

students do a presentation and make a written report so I could analyze the effectiveness of my

teaching.

Dilin: That seems to be a good idea! I want to know how did those students do? Is the result

similar to what I got?

Zuhriyah: They did pretty well, the whole procedure was fun and interactive for the students to

learn new knowledge about grammar. There were two classes of students, one used
problem-based learning and the other did not. I gave them a test at the beginning of the

experiment and I let them do a similar test at the end of the process. The class that used

problem-based learning did a better score in the end. So I could draw a conclusion that

problem-based learning was indeed an effective method for students to learn grammar.

Dilin: Brilliant! Your experiment is very rigorous, I think we are on the same side of this

problem.

Zuhriyah: Definitely!

Jinran: Ohh, looks like you guys agree with each other's result.

Yu-Chih Sun is a professor at Chiao Tung University. She wrote an article called Concordancers

in the EFL Classroom: Cognitive Approaches and Collocation Difficulty, Computer-Assisted

Language Learning.

Yu-Chih: I have another approach to this question, I think inductive learning is an effective way

to learn grammar.

Jinran: What is inductive learning?

Yu-Chih: Inductive learning means letting students observe examples first to discover the rules

by themselves. On the other hand, deductive learning means teaching the rule first then

examples.

Jinran: I see what that means now, but how exactly would that help us to learn grammar? Did

you also do an experiment?

Yu-Chih: Yes, I did an experiment with my colleague Li-Yuch Wang. We designed a website to

teach students grammar. We also divided students into two groups and taught them in inductive

and deductive ways.

Jinran: How was the result? Which group won?

Yu-Chih: The inductive group won. The result of the study showed that overall the students in

the inductive group had significantly more improvement than the deductive group. After

examining the data, we were pretty sure that the inductive approach was a great way to teach

grammar.

Jinran: That is understandable, I had experienced the inductive teaching style in my high school

English class. The instructor did not tell us the answer and rule first. Instead, the instructor let us

explore the rule by ourselves by providing us with examples and questions. Although the process

was a little bit challenging, we still learned rules and it made me want to learn more about the

topic. Personally, I prefer an inductive teaching style as well.

Yu-Chih: See, that is my point! The inductive approach let the student show their true potential

learning ability. Sometimes, students were much more capable of what we thought they could do.

We should not limit them. Instead, what we should do is just provide them with a space where

they can engage with the problem with their peers. The feeling of figuring problems out must be

very satisfying!

Dilin: After listening to your research, I feel like inductive learning is kind of similar to

problem-based learning. In both approaches, students are divided into groups where they were

able to exchange ideas and thoughts about the same problem.

Yu-Chih: Yes, it seems like the only difference would be your process is longer than mine.

Jinran: I’m very happy that we are here to exchange ideas about the question of what is the best

way to learn grammar. It looks like our conversation actually figured something out! I learned

that grammar is a powerful rhetorical tool to use, as it can make your writing more accurate.
Problem-based learning is a very effective way to teach grammar. While inductive teaching is

also a great way to teach it. I really enjoy talking with you guys!

Party ends.
Work cited

Yu-Chih Sun & Li-Yuch Wang (2003) Concordancers in the EFL Classroom: Cognitive

Approaches and Collocation Difficulty, Computer Assisted Language Learning

Zuhriyah, Mukminatus. (2017). Problem-Based Learning to Improve Students’ Grammar

Competence. Register Journal. 10. 48. 10.18326/rgt.v10i1.875.

Dilin Liu (2011)Making Grammar Instruction More Empowering: An Exploratory Case

Study of Corpus Use in the Learning/Teaching of Grammar. Research in the Teaching of English

45.4, 353-377.

Kolln, Martha.(2007) Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects.

New York: Pearson Education