Grammar can be taught using various approaches.

The most common

approaches that are being used in second language teaching are traditional method
which revolves around drilling and memorization. Another approach that has become
prominent in teaching of grammar is natural communication where the grammar
items are taught implicitly to the students through various activities. This approach is
also known as communicative language approach. Throughout years, people keep
questioning on the effectiveness of both methods. This article review will discuss on
three articles pertaining the issues and approaches in teaching English as second
language.
James M. Bourke in his article entitled A Rough Guide to Language
Awareness discussed on the approaches used in teaching grammar. He had
narrowed down to two approaches that are usually being used which are traditional
method which is direct teaching and natural method which is communicative
language teaching. James had highlighted that grammar should be taught naturally
as it provide more fun in learning for the students. He also mentioned that explicit
teaching of grammar is less effective compared to the natural way.
In the second article entitled Issues on English as Second Language
Pedagogy, Haliza Harun had discussed on the communicative language teaching,
one of the methods to teach grammar. She mentioned that grammar should be
taught in meaningful context and not in isolation. This can be supported by the
pedagogical principle adhere where learning should be fun, meaningful and
purposeful. The issue concerned by her is that pupils who focus on meaning solely
will forsake the form of the language. She believed that little explicit instruction will
provide minimum focus and form. The students will remained far from linguistically
competence and acquire low level of grammar. Thus she came with a conclusion
that learning grammar should be in dual focus which is form and meaning
simultaneously.



The third article which is Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA
Perspective written by Rod Ellies. He has pointed out several key issues regarding
teaching of grammar in second language. He did mentioned that the traditional
syllabus of teaching grammar emphasised on the teaching of grammatical form.
However, the situation has changed where the syllabus has given more emphasis
towards teaching grammar in context and less emphasis on form. He suggested that
to determine which approach is suitable to be used, we have to identify the students
difficulty in understanding and internalising the grammatical items. Ellies in his article
proposes that grammar should be taught in both explicit and implicit way. students
should be expose to the rules explicitly at the beginning of their learning as they do
not have much knowledge on the second language. Then only the teacher should
proceed with the implicit way of teaching in order to develop their further
understanding.

The most prominent issue that is being discussed in these three articles is the
effectiveness of the approach in teaching grammar. From the articles, I found out
that both traditional and natural method of teaching English have their own
advantages and disadvantages.