Grammar Teaching in Schools and Colleges

Dr. Rajnish Mishra Email: rajnishmishravns@yahoo.in

Keywords: ELT, second language, grammar, syntax, language acquisition, translation

(I) India is a multicultural and multilingual country. The advantage of living in the country lies in the fact that nearly every state has a language spoken commonly by the majority and that language isnt English. English seldom happens to be the mother tongue of an average Indian. The first language , acquired as one grows up in the environment characterized by the use of that language, happens to be Hindi-Urdu, Tamil, Bangla, Telugu, Maithili, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Sema, Ao, Angami, Rajasthani, French, Punjabi etc. Theres a definite pattern in the life cycle of an individual in the societal machinery thats followed for the acquisition of the second or third language. These languages are acquired either in schools in a planned manner, or in the world, in an unplanned and uncontrolled and uncontrollable manner. The standard variety of English is taught through educational institutions in general. Although, there are instances of a complete English immersion through the creation of an overall cocoon of English in the school-home conglomerate, these cases are very few. The majority of English language users acquire it through various institutions and use it only in well defined situations, outside the circle of their close family and friends in most of the cases.

English language has a very special status in India: its the language most hated and loved at the same time. Its hated because of the difficulties that the acquisition of language skills poses. Its loved because of the various doors it opens for those who acquire it with various degrees of success. Listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking (LSRW+T) in the language are the five essential skills one needs to acquire in order to use the language in its totality. Grammar makes an essential element of language acquisition because whats semantically possible must first be syntactically correct. This paper is about practical problems faced in teaching grammar and various ways to teach it conveniently and effectively.

A students first exposure to grammar, i.e. a set of rules on using language with example sentences and exceptions, if any, is at primary school level. The beginning of grammar teaching is from parts of speech. Noun is the name of a person, place or thing is a childs initiation to grammar. Shes taught the rule, along with several examples to learn by heart. Later on, the same topic is expanded in various degrees with an introduction to the types of nouns, some more examples and some more complications. This goes on for around eight years, with each year bringing in some more complexity and complication. There are two streams or ways of grammar teaching in those eight or nine years in various boards. Some boards like the very well established U. P. Boards uses the grammar-translation method, whereas, CBSE uses the direct method.

Both the methods have their supporters, their importance, shortcomings and use. Using any one method generates a unique set of problems. The students of U. P. Board, who learn English through the grammar-translation method with emphasis on translation and on learning grammar in the form of rules and examples, find it out later that knowing rules and using a language confidently and correctly are not same. The students of CBSE Board, who learn English by the direct method, face problems with the soundness of their languages base, i.e. grammar. As the majority of Indians acquire English while in schools or colleges, itd definitely be beneficial if the process of acquisition is facilitated and made more productive in a planned manner. The language skills acquired at primary and middle school levels actually work as the foundation for levels upward secondary school. Therefore, full attention must be paid at that level. I used to teach English from classes three to twelve for nearly a decade, in addition to coaching adults in strengthening or honing their language skills. I have been teaching the language the language at the University level for four years now. Therefore, I have an experience of teaching English language and its grammar at all levels of the educational system in India in Nagaland, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. I observed that there are some similarities in the effective language acquisition patterns in the states I worked in. the central or crucial factor of bilingualism (minimum, that is) played a big role in English language acquisition. To take examples from my own experience, the first language of the Naga children is their tribal language, viz. Ao, Angami, Sema etc. Nagamese is a kind of dialectal variant of Assamese that they use as a lingua franca. They learn English in various educational institutions like schools, and at home too. Variants of Rajasthani e.g. Mewari, Marwari etc. are acquired as the first language in many parts of Rajasthan, Hindi comes a close second (or vice-versa). English is learnt in schools, and coaching centres. The instances of use of English at home in Rajasthan is significantly less than that in Nagaland (as far as I could observe in the years I spent there). Hindi or its dialectal variants (Bhojpuri, the most popular one) are acquired as the first language in Uttar Pradesh. English is a language taught in schools and is seldom used at average homes. Thus, English is not the first or primary language used in day to day life in the states mentioned above. As far as I know, the condition is same for the other states too. In many of the cases, its not even the second language. Its importance is because of its geographical reach, and upon its being the official link language of India. Various state and central boards give it a lot of importance. Teaching the language is a well emphasized

For technology or management students, English/ Communicative English paper is just some kind of inconvenience, to be given a negligible portion of their study and preparation time. It is mainly in schools where English grammar is actually and seriously learnt in the present scenario. In fact, the whole structure of language is erected and finished in schools for many, without any kind of maintenance or repair provision in future. Even in schools, English becomes a minor subject for the students taking their Commerce or Science stream preparation for their future professional life seriously. So, after class ten, not much attention is paid to English grammar in schools.

The grammar of English is best taught between classes three to nine. At senior levels, polishing the skills already acquired can be done. As the foundation of a persons English is laid at the primary and middle school levels, grammar ought to be taught in an interesting and adequate manner to these classes. Mnemonic devices viz. mind maps, using rhymes and songs, codes and formulas etc. may be used beneficially from the very beginning. I remember having used the rhythm of the famous nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to teach commonly used expressions to children of classes three to five. They sang it happily and learnt the expressions

with interest, quite effortlessly.

Verbs- forms and tenses present difficulty to many. The sentence construction rules for various tenses may be set in a mnemonically coded format in order to facilitate mastery over the tenses. The three forms of various irregular verbs (and remembering exactly which verbs conjugate in such a manner) is definitely difficult. Many users of English language

For technology or management students, English/ Communicative English paper is just some kind of inconvenience, to be given a negligible portion of their study and preparation time. It is mainly in schools where English grammar is actually and seriously learnt in the present scenario. In fact, the whole structure of language is erected and finished in schools for many, without any kind of maintenance or repair provision in future. Even in schools, English becomes a minor subject for the students taking their Commerce or Science stream preparation for their future professional life seriously. So, after class ten, not much attention is paid to English grammar in schools. (II)

The grammar of English is best taught between classes three to nine. At senior levels, polishing the skills already acquired can be done. As the foundation of a persons English is laid at the primary and middle school levels, grammar ought to be taught in an interesting and adequate manner to these classes. Mnemonic devices viz. mind maps, using rhymes and songs, codes and formulas etc. may be used beneficially from the very beginning. I remember having used the rhythm of the famous nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to teach commonly used expressions to children of classes three to five. They sang it happily and learnt the expressions with interest, quite effortlessly.

Verbs- forms and tenses present difficulty to many. The sentence construction rules for various tenses may be set in a mnemonically coded format in order to facilitate mastery over the tenses. The three forms of various irregular verbs (and remembering exactly which verbs conjugate in such a manner) is definitely difficult. Many users of English language persist in their erroneous language usage late into their life embarrassingly, at times. A methodical cyclic revision must be done in order to remember verb forms. There are only a couple of pages that the forms of commonly used irregular verbs can fill. I asked my students to marks those verbs with a dot whose three forms they got right in their first reading. They could safely leave these verbs out in their subsequent revisions. Now, different kinds of marks or colours were used to indicate the verbs that needed more revision. The resultant of the exercise was satisfactory command over the use of verb forms.

Prepositions present a very challenging task before the learner and the teacher. There are so many of them that it is nearly impossible to formulate rules for their use. There are some useful guidelines, very broad in nature; on how to use certain prepositions, but what actually works is practice. A person who would use English language competently must have good command over the use of prepositions. Translation does not help here, neither does finding equivalents in ones first language. Exposure to a large set of sentences that use these prepositions followed by highlighting the difference between the generally confused one

For a confident language use the teacher must create new and convenient ways for his students to understand and use the rules of grammar effectively. Instances from my own experience may shed some light on the point. Many of my students find the subject-verb accord quite tricky and difficult to master. Hence they commit mistakes. I discussed it with them and found out that the third person singular subject is the key to solve the problem. I instructed them to group the verbs ending at s/es together (including has and does) and then asked them to use these verbs only with he, she, it and singular nouns. With all the other types of subjects they had to use verbs that do not end at s/es. Taught in that way, many of them found it easier to reduce the number of mistakes that they used to make previously. Similarly, the subject-verb accord with will/shall was solved by using one simple and less used short-cut: ll. Another common mistake of using the past form of any verb after did took repeated reminders and corrections. Some problems, like not remembering or knowing the three forms of a verb, or getting confused while actually using it, took a methodical attack at the verb list.

I have found a method used by one of my colleagues, Professor Brij Mohan, just perfect for teaching formation of interrogative sentences. I had observed him teaching the same in one of his own classes. He kept the class spell bound till the very end. He began by telling the students that he was not going to teach any grammar that day and then asked them what kind of story they wanted. On that day they wanted a horror story. So, they got their story, but on one condition, he said. The condition was that hed stop suddenly at some important part of the narrative and would resume telling the story only when they asked him relevant questions in the form of valid and complete interrogative sentences. He was doing it with a class full of B Tech students and I was positive that itd fall flat. To my surprise, it succeeded in actually raising the students from their slumberous state. They did ask questions, and my colleague corrected the corpus of their mistakes once the story had reached its end.