CC BY
8
DOI 10.46566/2412-9682_2022_95_36
Tangirov A.A.
English Language Teacher Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature
Uzbekistan, Tashkent
GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION PROJECT
Abstract. This article explores the importance of grammar in language learning and the need for new methods to make it more engaging. Despite the misconceptions about it being tedious and boring, mastering English grammar is vital for effective communication. The article also discusses a unique approach in research, where an individual student is approached to tailor the grammar lessons to their specific needs. This method has proven effective in ensuring that students grasp the grammar rules and can apply them confidently.
Keywords: a three-dimensional grammar framework, self-image, consciousness-raising technique, input stage, intake stage, output stage, prepositional phrases, phrasal verbs, error analysis, IELTS, introverted, productive skills, receptive skills.
Learner Profile and Error Analysis
Description of a personal profile
Komiljon is a 22-year-old student who is majoring marketing at national university in the capital city. His English language level is Intermediate. Firstly, he began to acquire English as an L2 when he was at school. Ushioda (2009) mentioned that knowing the background and identity of the ELs is primary concern for language educators. In his childhood, he was immersed into Uzbek in the family, outside the family and he gained the Uzbek language skills as an L1. When he goes back to his hometown, the whole family communicates in Uzbek. However, currently he is dwelling in completely another city where all the people surrounding him use different languages with an English teacher whose L1 is also Uzbek. Sometimes they keep talking with each other in English. Komiljon has been learning English for the last two years and two months taking it up seriously and he also applied his documents to different universities for his bachelor's degree.
Regarding the prior instruction, at first he was taught English using Grammar Translation Method by a teacher at a law college (Celce-Murcia, 2014). A month later, he began to attend to a course conducted by another female English teacher. During these classes, he got introduced with productive, receptive skills, grammar and vocabulary much closer and later he enhanced those skills in these classes. His grammar knowledge was not so good at that time, thus the teacher taught them main English grammar points more deeply so as to strengthen the knowledge he had. Certainly, he had certain limitations while learning and
performance since he had studied the structure of the English grammar very little (Norton & Toohey, 2011). There he studied English language for nearly 6 months. After that, as his main aim was to apply for a university in a foreign country, he took up an IELTS exam preparation course. Currently, he is getting ready for the IELTS exam which is held on May 5th. After the course, he does all the home tasks on time and studies very hard.
Last year (in 2022) in June he took the IELTS exam and achieved overall 5.5 band score which is B2 in CEFR. The results for each skill is as following Listening - 6.0
Reading - 6.0
Writing - 5.0
Speaking - 5.5
Generally, he is learning English as his motivation to learn something he enjoys always intrinsic motivation. (Brown, 1991) Like learning English language and he is also introverted by nature which makes it a little more challenging to interact with others in the classroom. Among peers, he is average in terms of participation. Having all the investment, symbolic resources and material resources, these both push him to acquire the language at all costs. The key elements of the identity development, ideology and capital enhances his activity in learning and for the beginning it is ideology - refers to education he will gain in a foreign country - then later on the second element also contributes to his language learning experiences (Waller et al, 2017).
Error analysis of the speech
1. Good afternoon. My full name is Kuziev Komiljon. I am 22 years old.
2. I started learning English in October, 2019. My first English teacher's name was Dilorom. I studied with her for 2 months. [correct version - she taught me for two months or I studied in her class for two months]
She focused on my grammar and vocabulary. After her, I attended course of Shoxruxmirzo for 4 months. [correct version - I attended to Shoxruxmirzo's language course for 4 months.]
He tought me general english grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, writing skills as well as speaking. [correct version - he taught me General English ... ] Next, I studied with teacher Azam [correct version -1 was taught by teacher Azam... ] for about 6 months. He give [correct version - gave - the action in the past] me lots of insights about english [correct version - English] language. I learnt how to write and speak in terms of IELTS. Besides that, he focused on my vocabulary base, [correct version - and - not comma] listening skills. And at the moment I am learning English at "Insight school" with a tutor because of [correct version - of comes when there is object, there should be because itself] I am living in Tashkent. His name is Jasur Kadirov. I am studying lots of books to learn English in a group. He is teaching us with his own methods to improve our listening, reading, writing and listening skills. We are learning from "Complete
IELTS 6.5-7.5" for all skills, "Inside reading" for vocabulary and "Grammar way" for our grammar.
3. Yes, of course. I took an IELTS exam in summer last year and I got 5.5 band score. Listening - 6.0, reading - 6.0, writing - 5.0 and speaking - 5.5 band score.
4. I am learning English language for my studies and my work. It is crucial for me to run my future business. It is the key to the doors of the world.
5. At the moment, I am planning to study abroad in business major. The classes at foreign universities will be tought [correct version - taught] in english [correct version - English] language. Besides that, I will need to use english [correct version - English] language during my work.
6. Well, I have a great chance to learn this language nowadays. Namely, I am fully free to learn it all day. I am living with an English teacher which is very good opportunity to improve my speaking skills by using english [correct version - English] language on a daily conversation. Additionally, I am watching english [correct version - English]TV-shows, videos on Youtube and in my spare time I listen to music in english [correct version - English]. Briefly, I am surrounded by english [correct version - English] atmosphere.
7. Alright, I cannot put it into words how much I enjoy learning English. I do really enjoy living in an English atmosphere.
Error analysis of a piece of writing
Topic: The first time I came to Tashkent.
It was 25th of June in 2021 when I visit [ed] Tashkent. The reasons why I came to Tashkent are [were] that I applied for foreign universities and collecting documents for the embassy of Poland, preparing for [the] interview in order to get an [a] visa. By the way, I came here with my friend, Zafar. While I got off the train which came from Khorezm, I was shocked [seeing] how beautiful Tashkent is [was]. During [the] preparation period, I visited lots of spectacular sightseeing[s] of Tashkent that I used to watch on TV or my cell phone. After coming to Tashkent, I have used the underground subway which was very amazing. On one of the initial days of my journey in here, even I got lost for 2 hours because of forgetting the way takes me home. Thanks the God, I could manage to find my apartment despite using alternative ways to [correct version -home is used without to preposition] my home. As far [correct version -So far], I met many interesting people, I saw lots of people from different culture and nation. By using the chances I had I visited nearly every well-known places [after every not plural noun] in Tashkent, including Magic city and the TV tower. Besides that, I made many friends who have [had] very good potential to achieve great success and still I keep in touch with them by phone or in person [face-to-face].
When it comes to Tashkent city's beauty, it is very [with adjective like wonderful very is not used] wonderful, especially at nights. The lights contribute significantly to the beauty of Tashkent's streets and fascinating public places. I
love to walk alongside the streets in the evening. Tashkent has all seasons of a year as my hometown has. The summer is very hot, [and not comma between sentences] the winter is very cold as well. There are more rainy days rather than in Khorezm.
Briefly, I have been living here for almost two years, if you do not count the interval between March and August in 2022. I love living in Tashkent due to having chances to progress.
In summary, the student in question has a problem related to prepositions ([correct version - home is used without to preposition]), verb tenses (visit [ed], [were], [seeing]), punctuation ([and not comma between sentences], [correct version - English]), parts of speech, plural nouns (every places [after every not plural noun]), adjectives ([with adjective like wonderful very is not used]) and word order ([correct version - she taught me for two months or I studied in her class for two months]). Thornbury (1996) argues that both ways of teaching grammar are effective they are deductive (rule-driven) and inductive (rule-discovery) path. In the former way of teaching grammar students are firstly taught the grammar rule and then they will explore the examples and understand the meaning in set of examples. However, in the inductive path they will not meet the rules at once, but they will see the examples initially then they will discover the rules. He also claims that the latter will provide students with a "massive amount of input the regularities and patterns of the language which become evident" and learners will have the chance to independently explore the sentences in order to locate and comprehend those new set of rules. Another example of alerting students to different and difficult patterns of English grammar is called consciousness-raising technique. It includes "focusing attention on correct grammatical forms by highlighting or emphasizing them in some way" (Hendricks, 2010). To put it simply, the way does not oblige any examples or rules need to be verbalized by the learners. It simpl4y makes turn on the light in students' mind this will ease to identify and be conscious while using and encountering grammar structures in context.
Grammar teacher, in this way, shed light on those grammar points that are misused by the learner as well as put forward contemporary approaches of teaching grammar to students in a more accurate way.
Grammar Explanation
Prepositions of position and movement
In English Grammar, there are two types of prepositions. They are prepositions of position and movement. ThE prepositions of movement are: to, at, away from, on/onto, on, off, in/into, in and out (of), along, across, under, round, up, down, through, over, past, towards and opposite. The prepositions mentioned above always come before nouns of places and common nouns. People use them when they want to talk about an action they have done with certain things and/or in certain places.
e.g. She ran to the gate. (The female person is moving towards the gate)
They are walking along the river (the people are walking on the path along the river to their destination - house, flat, etc.)
The second type of prepositions is prepositions of position. They are: at, on, in, below, against, between, above, on top of, near, behind, next to and in front of. These are applied when the verbs do not express the movement. They require verbs, like be, stand, sit, wait.
e.g. He is standing in front of the bank. (The male person is standing at certain and he is not moving)
e.g. The park is behind the block of flats. (The park is situated in a certain place and the place is always there.) Phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs consist of two parts verb + preposition/adverb. These verbs sometimes mean quite different meaning from the verbs that are used.
e.g. They are looking for their golden rings. (to look for means search for
smth.)
There some other phrasal verbs which mean the same meaning as the verbs
used.
e.g. My child has grown up in the countryside. (to grow up - be raised) There are also some phrasal verbs that they do not take between the verb and the preposition. They are called inseparable phrasal verbs (get by, pass away, sleep in, get along with, grow up, set off, take off (planes)).
e.g. He had a terrible shock when his mother passed away. (to pass away -
to die)
Another type of phrasal verbs is separable ones (pick up, cut down, slow down, give away, turn on, try on, close down, turn down, call off, etc.), which take an object between the verb and preposition.
e.g. I take off my shoes - I take my shoes off - I take them off
Note: If the object is pronoun, it always comes between the verb and
preposition. to take them off - not take off them Lesson Plan
Topic Phrasal verbs
Time 45 min
Materials Handouts, OHP, markers, stickers, textbooks,
Learning objectives - Students will be able to differentiate certain types of phrasal verbs - Students will be able to use phrasal verbs in oral and written contexts
Activities - Students will be divide the phrasal verbs written on the board in two separable and inseparable phrasal verbs - Students will listen to the audio and write down the phrasal verbs they hear. - Students will make up sentence using the verbs they have written down
Lesson Procedure
Input stage
- Teacher will write down several sentences on the board to check if students know anything about the grammar structure. [R, F]
- Students are instructed to write down the sentences in their notebook and they need to find out the meanings of the phrasal verbs used. [S, R, F]
- Teacher will also ask several CCQs about the new grammar point. [S, F, L] Questions:
1. What are the components of the phrasal verbs.
2. Do they mean the same or different meaning with the verb used?
3. What parts of speech can be used as 'particles'?
- After that teacher will provide visual on the grammar points and example sentences [F, S, L]
- The form, meaning and usage of phrasal verbs are introduced [F, V]
- The list of phrasal verbs and their meaning is provided in handouts [R, F,
V]
- It is followed by the exercises where students fill the gaps putting the phrasal verbs in the correct form. [F, W]
Intake stage
- Teacher will stick the stickers on the board. On the stickers there will be 30 phrasal verbs
- Students are instructed to divide them into two inseparable and separable phrasal verbs. [V, R]
- Students work in two groups
- After that they will be given set of definitions of those phrasal verbs [F,
V]
- They are instructed to match the phrasal verbs with their meaning. [F, V]
Output stage
- Teacher will play an audio for students using laptop and speakers [T]
- Students get a piece of paper and a pencil
- They are instructed to write down the phrasal verbs they hear while audio is playing [W, L]
- After that they will make up meaningful sentences by themselves. [F, W]
- Teacher will provide certain texts on handouts and students are instructed to guess the meaning of a sentence and fill the gap using phrasal verbs given in the box [R, V]
Reflection and Justification
Motivation is seen as the primary factory for the students' failure or success in language learning (Dornyei, 2014). Either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation lacks language learners and they start to lose their goals and day after day their performance also begins to get poorer and poorer. Taking into account all these contributing ingredients, pedagogue should approach their learners in a vast variety of ways which assist them to ease the language acquisition process
gradually. What I have experienced going through this error analysis stage has been absolutely fruitful not only for the current research but also I, as a language teacher, felt the advantageous effect on me. The paramount outcomes have been our students no matter who they are and what sort of personality they have, they are solely in need for a complete lesson that involves everything they can rely on in real life. As a clear illustration, I can state several points which were seen on my subject in question. He is generally attempting to acquire the language aiming for better education abroad. Hence, Dornyei (2014) claims that every "learner has a desired future self-image." Some people might generate and make effort to achieve this potential new identity or image. On the other hand, many other individuals fail while creating this new self with short-term trials. Once we notice such status in any of our learner, not wasting time we must counteract and as soon as possible.
One more significant aspect of having and controlling the language learners' circle who have different background is that "whetting the students' appetite and increasing the learners' expectancy of success" (Dornyei, 2013, as cited in Celce-Murcia, 2014). Motivation strategies should be applied so as to offer a grand successful path to language learning. one of these strategies is making the learning tasks more interesting. Even though there is a wide variety of task rich in information that has no sense cause students' disappointment. Therefore, educators should opt for contents which force learners to accomplish the tasks without any doubt.
With the respect to grammar point explained in the research writing, apart from "a three-dimensional grammar framework", pragmatics has been controversial to consider in the last few years of my teaching experience (Larsen-Freeman, 2007). Although language learners think that grammar is the skeleton of any language and dive into the ocean of grammar structures, most of the learners still find it difficult to employ those forms and oftentimes withdraw not even beginning to put ahead their initial footprint. Teachers should not provide feedback to every single detail on the writing or a set of sentences made up by learner, this could overwhelm them and this may at the end decrease overall motivation towards grammar learning (Frodesen, 2003).
In second language acquisition, lesson planning is inseparable portion of the teaching process. It provides full understanding for teachers and students. It also shows the right path and by staging the whole process, it helps us to gain those necessary language skills. The term scaffolding has been controversial among teachers who have a newcomer or even they have been teaching the same learners for a long time, they oftentimes need to consider the period when language learners who are failing to comprehend certain points in learning process. In this circumstance, pedagogues should be supporting and in order to take their students up to the next level they should be patient and work on their students feeling responsible and more careful (Purgason, 1991). The role of feedback is also compelling as well as this is another small branch of knowledge
in second language teaching. There are many types of feedback, such as overt correction, recast, questioning, denial, pinpointing, oral cueing and etc. (Brinton, 2001). What I have experienced and witnessed while teaching students at different educational setting, for example, school, college and university, is that they need someone who delivers their suggestion for improvement rather than criticizing their accuracy or any other detail. Language learners need their teachers' unbiased feedback but they do not always receive these reaction the same or with optimism. They might search for a friendly atmosphere where the teacher is knowledgeable and skilled, keeps the balance between entertainment and strict teaching and learning process (Brinton, 2001). Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident that the grammar level of a student plays a significant role in enhancing their writing and speaking skills in English. By analyzing and identifying the grammatical mistakes made by the student and taking the necessary steps to teach them, we can witness a significant improvement in their language proficiency over time. With consistent and effective grammar teaching, students can develop clarity and precision in their communication, which can greatly benefit them in their academic and professional pursuits. We must continue to prioritize the teaching of grammar to enhance the language skills of our students and prepare them for fulfilling their potential in the global marketplace.
References:
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