ESP Students’ Views Of ESL Grammar Learning

Sadiq Abdulwahed Ahmed Ismail

Abstract


Grammar has always been viewed as playing an essential role in the success or failure of formal communication. This research will show that grammar education should be ‘descriptive’ rather than ‘prescriptive’ in order to offer students a set of choices to make them effective speakers and writers. The main objective of this study was twofold. First, it focused on students’ views about a new grammar model that includes four stages: confrontation, clarification, confirmation and consolidation (CCCC) and students’ perceptions regarding grammar learning in general. Second, it investigated the recurrent patterns of interaction during the process of learning grammar within the framework of the model. The subjects of this study were forty female students from three ESP for education classes in the UAE University. Three research instruments (a questionnaire, classroom observation notes and semi-structured interviews) were employed to establish data triangulation and to attain validity. The results from the collective data demonstrated that students had positive views about the use of the CCCC grammar model. Another crucial result highlighted the students’ beliefs about the positive influence of explicit grammar teaching on learning the conventions of sentences and utterances. Finally, the study concluded with recommendations to direct future research.


Keywords


language, learning, grammar, perceptions, education.

References


Al-Jarf, R. (2005). The effects of online grammar instruction on low proficiency EFL college students' achievement. Asian EFL Journal, 7(4), 166-190.

Bos, E. & Poletiek, F. (2008). Effects of grammar complexity on artificial grammar learning. Memory & Cognition 36(6), 1122-1131.

Celce-Murcia, M. & Olshtain, E. (2000). Discourse and context in language teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Chen, L. (2006). The effect of the use of L1 in a multimedia tutorial on grammar learning: An error analysis of Taiwanese beginning EFL learners' English Essays. Asian EFL Journal, 8(4), 76-110.

Creswell, J. W. (2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. New Jersey: Pearson.

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Crystal, D. (2004). Rediscover grammar. London: Pearson, Longman.

Demo, D. (2001). Discourse analysis for language teachers. ERIC Educational Report, ERIC Digest. EDO-FL-01-07. (Online) Retrieved 27 October 2008, from http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/digest_pdfs/0107-demo.pdf

Ellis, R. (1997). SLA research and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R. (2006). Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 83-106.

Farrell, T. & Lim, P. C. P. (2005). Conceptions of grammar teaching: A case study of teachers' beliefs and classroom practices. TESL-EJ, 9(2), 1-13.

Goh, C. (2009). Perspectives on spoken grammar. ELT Journal, 63(4), 303-312.

Hawkey, R. (2006). Teacher and learner perceptions of language learning activity. ELT Journal, 60(3), 242-252.

Holliday, A. (2002). Doing and writing qualitative research. London: Sage Publications.

Ikpia, V. I. (2001). The attitudes and perceptions of adult English as a second language students toward explicit grammar instruction. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.

James, F. L. & Vanpatten, B. (1995). Making communicative language teaching happen. McGraw-Hill.

Kinder, A. & Lotz, A. (2009). Connectionist models of artificial grammar learning: what type of knowledge is acquired? Psychological Research, 73(5), 659–673.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (1997). Grammar and its teaching: Challenging the myths. ERIC Digest. Eric Clearing House on Language and Linguistics. Washington DC. ED406829.

Mazdayasna, G. & Tahririan, M. H. (2008). Developing a profile of the ESP needs of Iranian students: The case of students of nursing and midwifery. Journal of English for Academic Purpose, 7(4), 277-289.

Munir Shuib. (2009). Grammatical awareness among primary school English language Teachers. GEMA Online™ Journal of Language Studies, 9(1), 35-46.

Nassaji, H. & Fotos, S. (2004). Current developments in research on the teaching of grammar. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 126-145.

Nunan, D. (1991). Language teaching methodology. New York: Prentice Hall.

Pazaver, A. & Wang, H. (2009). Asian students’ perceptions of grammar teaching in the ESL classroom. The International Journal of Language Society and Culture, 27, 27-35.

Richards, J. C., Gallo, P. B. & Renandya, W. A. (2001). Exploring teachers’ beliefs and the processes of change. The PAC Journal, 1(1), 41-58.

Schulz, R. (2001). Cultural differences in student and teacher perceptions concerning the role of grammar instruction and corrective feedback: USA-Colombia. The Modern Language Journal, 85(2), 244-258.

Spada, N., and Lightbown, P. (1993). Instruction and the development of questions in the L2 classroom. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 205-224.

Sue-Hie Ting, Mahanita Mahadhir & Siew-Lee Chang. (2010). Grammatical errors in spoken English of university students in oral communication course. GEMA Online™ Journal of Language Studies, 10(1), 53-70.

Sysoyev, P. (1999). Integrative L2 Grammar Teaching: Exploration, Explanation and Expression. The Internet TESL Journal, 5(6). (Online) Retrieved January 15, 2010, from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Sysoyev-Integrative.html

Weade, R. & Green, J. L. (1989). Reading in the instructional context: An interactional sociolinguistic/ethnographic perspectives on classroom research. In C. Emihovich (Ed.), Locating learning across the curriculum: Ethnographic perspectives on classroom research (pp. 17-56). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Yarrow, R. (2007). How do students feel about grammar?: The framework and its implications for teaching and learning. Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, 14(2), 175–186.

Yoon, H. (2008). More than a linguistic reference: The influence of corpus technology on L2 academic writing. Language Learning and Technology, 12(2), 31-48.

Zhongganggao, C. (2001). Second language learning and the teaching of grammar. Education, 122(2), 326-336.

Zhou, A. A. (2009). What adult ESL learners say about improving grammar and vocabulary in their writing for academic purposes. Language Awareness, 18(1), 31-46.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2131

ISSN : 1675-8021