CC BY
29S -13.00.00
INNOVATIVE APPROACHES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR
Inomiddinova Dildorxon Ikramovna
Senior teacher of the "Foreign languages" department of Namangan Institute of Engineering and
Construction https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7855403
Abstract. In this article, the actual problem of the methods of teaching English as a foreign language for students of non-philological universities is considered. A system of teaching the category of the tenses of the English language by comparing them with the tenses of the Uzbek language is proposed. A variant of the practical implementation of the main components of the methodological system in the educational complex of exercises and tasks is presented, which allows to outline new and effective methods in teaching foreign languages.
Keywords: young audiences, methods, outlining, practical implementation, oral communication, non-language universities, technologies.
The teaching of grammar has always stirred controversy among researchers. Historically, the question of whether grammar should be taught explicitly or implicitly has always been hotly debated; while the deductive method is traditionally associated with the dreaded grammar-based approaches, the inductive method is closely linked to the communication-based approaches which have won momentum, nowadays. However, recent studies in the field of second language acquisition have revealed that, just like the grammar-based approaches were inadequate due to their sole focus on form, the communicative-based approaches, too, have many inadequacies, crucial of which is their mere focus on meaning-based instruction. Therefore, these negative reactions have resulted in the development of a new grammar teaching approach that combines both perspectives, namely focus-on-form instruction to cater for the weaknesses of each approach. This article seeks to discuss the issue of focus-on-form instruction in communicative language teaching. First, it aims at establishing a background to the issue. Second, it attempts to provide a definition of focus-on-form instruction and its main principles. Third, it gives some benefits of the focus-on-form instruction. Last, it presents some practical activities for implementing it.
Approaches to grammar teaching have undergone many changes and fluctuations. These changes that have characterized the teaching of grammar are ascribed not only to the changes in the research findings conducted on this issue, but also due to the movement from grammar-based approaches to communicative approaches. The latter put its primary focus on meaning and the implicit teaching of grammatical rules. As far as the grammar-based approaches, they are built on the assumption that through teaching grammar exclusively, the learners will be able to fully master the target language. Put differently, if the learner is exposed to the grammatical forms of a language in a sequential manner, he or she will end up acquiring the language. The most renowned grammar-based approaches are traditional translation and audio-lingual methods. Though they differ in many respects, these methods share the assumption that language is best learned through the explicit grammar instruction. These approaches have been put into question with the advent of the communicative movement.
Unlike the grammar-based approaches, the communicative approaches are based on the idea that language is best learned through communication, not via the mechanical presentation of
grammatical forms. The communicative approaches have disregarded the explicit use of grammar rules in teaching grammar. This has led to a shift from form-focused instruction to meaning-focused instruction (Nassaji & Fotos, 2011). The exclusive focus on grammar instruction has been found to be inadequate to develop learners' ability to perform in oral communication. Furthermore, many researchers have attested to the fact that language teaching cannot be limited solely to grammar teaching. This is so because the explicit teaching of grammar does not result in fluency. In the same vein, Hymes' theory of communicative competence (1972) has been very influential in the development of communicative language teaching, which puts the development of students' communicative competence as its primary goal. The communicative competence asserts that knowledge of a language not only lies in knowing the grammatical forms of that language, but also of knowing how to use them appropriately in different communication contexts.
It suggests some fundamental concepts for today's approach to language learning:
Teachers' Basic Principles
• Instead of leading the class, a facilitator and monitor is the key function of a teacher.
The teachers' task in class is to help students understand the discourse structure of what
they were learning. This is an efficient way to understand the given materials and get the main ideas"
• Lessons are built round situations/functions practical and authentic in the real world e.g. playing video segments, asking for information, complaining, apologizing, job inter-views, telephoning, etc. (plot of them must be authentic).
• The teacher's activities are important and intended for real life scenarios, and students can see the direct benefit of learning.
• Instead of artificial materials clearly created to feature the target language, realistic listening and reading materials are used more frequently.
• The use of songs and games to facilitate language and develop proper pronunciation and grammar is promoted and offers a natural environment.
• Feedback and correction are typically given during activities by the instructor.
Students' Basic Principles
• The learners are even more inspired if they have the ability to communicate through various lessons or themes.
• The target language is practiced many times by learners according to their own abilities and needs.
• Language is created by students independently based on their own work experience.
• Learners communicate in pairs or groups with each other.
Another linguistic feedback may be the identification of verb tenses and the recognition of synonyms, antonyms and homonyms of the selected terms and phrases for the lesson. The linguistic emphasis of the lesson can be demonstrated by students focusing on teaching tenses or verbs specific to the types of tenses (by matching them with the category of tenses in Uzbek), according to the poster presentations. Exploring language from the point of linguistic understanding has long been a priority, now realizing the pressing need to integrate linguistic comprehension into contact abilities, which is the success of the ELT system of our community.
As a linguistic definition, pay attention to the sense of communicative competence that applies to a language consumer's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge of how and when to correctly use utterances. Communicative
competence is a way of describing within this mechanism what a language speaker knows that allows him or her to effectively communicate with others. In order to encourage individuals to become communicatively competent, teachers should also give greater emphasis to teaching integration skills.
Even at the beginner level, all second language speakers possess communicative competence. I would like to cite as an example a message from one of my students sent to me via the attachment of telegram. I remember he wrote to me: " Matluba, why are our lectures in Uzbek language?" The student had heard from one of his school teachers that in American English when addressing to teachers, the person should use first names because American teachers preferred it that way.
However, he was not totally sure of how I felt about being called by my first name. It was a feeling of disrespect and even frustration, though I tried to restrain my emotions. This story conveys the complexity of language and conveys a message that it is important to use language properly, that is, to use the correct language at the right time, in the right sense, and that some cultural understanding is needed most of the time.
In Uzbek culture, my student seemed to forget that teachers are revered, and so he was not allowed to address them by their first names. As for me, proper use of language does not mean mere correct phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, but, as seen in the above example, requires pragmatic knowledge or, to be more accurate, cultural knowledge to prevent misunderstandings or breakdowns in communication.
Misunderstandings triggered by grammatical mistakes are more accepted than those rooted in different assumptions. At the level of language pedagogy, which is more than just grammatical or structural consistency, this poses a challenge. In the Uzbek context, the ambiguity is more pronounced where English is taught as a foreign language. In terms of practical focus in my communicative vocabulary lesson, I considered incorporating some simulations to act on the subject, offering advice and after observing to expose learners to understand questions and answers from a pragmatic perspective in two different cultural contexts. As we research languages, we also bring the language itself, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and so on into view. However, sociolinguistics offers an opportunity to look at the sense in which, instead of the mechanics themselves, the language is spoken. It has been said that if he or she does not know how to use it to effectively communicate, it does not matter how well a person knows the grammar of a language.
Conclusion
Nowadays teaching grammar rules has become traditional approach for teachers as they had been doing it for a long period of time but now everything is changed and teaching English as well. First of all we should change our methodology in teaching grammar rules especially tenses. Students of higher education institutes study tenses when they come to institutes but still they cannot identify differences between tenses. That's why it will be very essential if we compare tenses between English and Uzbek language. Some students had difficulties to identify tense and they were a little bit confused when they were doing exercises or practicing it on their own. That's why I used T-chart and Ven diagram to explain the topic. I also put my student in the center when I explained the grammar rules as it is called student-centered approach. In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.
While writing my graduation paper and implementing my experiences in the class I have found it easy to teach it with materials, hand-outs, visual-aids and teaching styles; different diagrams before explaining rules I started giving materials first as students have some pictures or ideas on their mind what we are going to do today. They started to guess and tried to think about the new topic. I have found enormously useful professional baggage for myself while performing the tasks and researching several books, and at the same time I realized that my difficulty is linked to the notion of evaluation and inputting sociolinguistic aim into my teaching process. In order to meet its goal, each lesson should cover these four communicative competencies.
As far as I know students understand the theme when they know it in their mother language first. By this way it will be very easy to compare new theme linked to their mother language. In addition, I have discovered for myself numerous ways of evaluation to check the awareness of students. This professional approach in teaching tenses and comparing them is really important as it is designed after a long study focused on the competences of language teaching in Uzbekistan. I was not aware of pragmatic competence, sociolinguistic competence and linguistic competence until I studied in-service teacher education. I could not reflect on these competencies when I was conducting classes. Not only do these competencies have a positive effect on awareness of jokes, greetings, storytelling, beliefs, and philosophies in the target language, but they also create a real English environment and inspire students to work together and engage them.
REFERENCES
1. Beresova, J. The impact of the CEFR on teaching and testing English in the local context. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 7(11), 2017.
2. Brown H. 2000. Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc
3. Penny Ur. 1999. A course of language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Thornbury Scott. 2006. How to Teach Grammar. England: Pearson Education Limited.
5. Anderson, N. (1999). Exploring second language reading. Boston: Heinle&Heinle.
6. Ikramovna, I. D. (2021). Specific features of professional training of foreign language teachers. International Journal of Human Computing Studies, 3(1), 78-82.
7. Ikramovna, I. D. (2020). Using interactive training aids foreign languages at university. Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research (AJMR), 9(3), 92-95.
