Inductive and Contextual Approaches to English Grammar Teaching

This paper introduces an inductive approach to English grammar teaching that can help students to rediscover their subconscious knowledge of English grammar and bring it to consciousness, as the grammar of a language is acquired through abstracting a set of grammatical rules from language data, rather than through imitation (cf. Chomsky, 1986;. The fundamental ideas behind this inductive approach can be summarized as the following four steps: 1) give students a set of English language data about an area of English grammar; 2) ask students to generalize a grammatical rule from the set of data; 3) ask students to test the grammatical rule against new English language data; and 4) ask students to revise the grammatical rule to accommodate the new data. The significance of this inductive approach lies in the fact that it actively involves students in their English grammar learning process because they have to formulate grammatical rules by themselves and to check, test and revise these rules, rather than to memorize them without understanding why, and that it will reform the traditional way of teaching English grammar by bringing a fresh perspective into this field to develop and enchance students' English grammar competence and skills.

This paper introduces an inductive approach to English grammar teaching that can help students to rediscover their subconscious knowledge of English grammar and bring it to consciousness, as the grammar of a language is acquired through abstracting a set of grammatical rules from language data, rather than through imitation (cf. Chomsky, 1986; 1995; 2002). The fundamental ideas behind this inductive approach can be summarized as the following four steps: 1) give students a set of English language data about an area of English grammar; 2) ask students to generalize a grammatical rule from the set of data; 3) ask students to test the grammatical rule against new English language data; and 4) ask students to revise the grammatical rule to accommodate the new data. The significance of this inductive approach lies in the fact that it actively involves students in their English grammar learning process because they have to formulate grammatical rules by themselves and to check, test and revise these rules, rather than to memorize them without understanding why, and that it will reform the traditional way of teaching English grammar by bringing a fresh perspective into this field to develop and enchance students' English grammar competence and skills.

2019

Grammar is considered as a complicated subject for most English learners. This makes the learners are not interested in learning grammar. Moreover, many teachers usually tolerate learners' weakness in grammar. Grammar has been a controversial topic for years; nevertheless, learners' grammar acquisition and awareness can improve the quality of their English skill. To have good acquisition and awareness in grammar, the learners need a long and continuous process. Therefore, learners are required to have autonomy in learning grammar. Learner autonomy refers to learner’s responsibility for their own learning process. This paper reports a study on how to foster learner autonomy in grammar class by combining learner-centered grammar teaching and explicit grammar teaching. Learner-centered grammar teaching is an inductive approach that was carried out through group discussion, presentation, and language awareness activities. Meanwhile, explicit grammar teaching tends to be deductiv...

LCPIS, 2019

Teaching English language started with using the traditional teaching methods in the educational system of Afghanistan. Teachers preferred such kinds of classical methods for teaching grammar as well. To the knowledge of the researchers, there is a lack of research conducted to indicate whether the two common methods for grammar teaching, i.e. inductive or deductive, is more effective within the Afghanistan teaching and learning context. The current study has been conducted to find out the effectiveness of using inductive and deductive teaching approaches to teaching English grammar in Afghan context. Using a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) approach for data collection as well as analysis, the study conducted a questionnaire survey of 218 students and 13 instructors and semi-structured interviews with 4 language instructors from both English departments (Education & Literature Faculties) of Kandahar University. The findings from the quantitative part indicate that students prefer both of the methods (deductive & inductive) in teaching grammar equally. Within that, the teachers in the quantitative part also prefer both of the methods that can be used in teaching grammar. However, the qualitative findings indicated that teachers preferred to use the inductive method of teaching grammar, rather than deductive, but they still rely on the classical (deductive) method of teaching grammar, due to the constraints of the ELT textbooks curriculum, in which most of the grammatical activities are organized deductively, (inductive) is not more time-effective, large class size and traditional manner of students toward learning grammar. The findings of the current study will help policymakers and curriculum developers, to organize the grammatical activities inductively in the ELT textbooks in order the learners to be able to not only master English grammar structures but to master using them communicatively as well which will help Afghan learners to overcome the problems of low proficiency in English. 1 Introduction English is considered one of the international languages and most of the people around the globe use English as the medium of communication. Meanwhile, it is one of the compulsory subjects starting from primary education up to advance level in Afghanistan. With the economic downturn in Afghanistan for the last three or four decades, the education system in the country has declined, but currently, many companies and educational institutions in Afghanistan have embraced cooperation regionally and internationally. Thus, more importance is given to the English Language. English is used as the means of communication, negotiation, and execution of the transaction by many participants inside or outside of the country between native and non-native speakers. However, Afghans' level of English proficiency is low in contrast with many other countries in Asia such as India, Malaysia, and Singapore. It can be stated that English language teaching in Afghanistan has not prepared Afghans for the changing world. In Afghanistan, the English language is taught mainly by Afghan teachers and English appears to be taught through the Afghan language(s) as the medium of instructions. The lessons are limited to grammatical points and comprehension reading which require heavy explanations in National languages. Moreover, many language teachers are used to the traditional style of language teaching as they themselves were taught via such a method at school. This is especially so with the teaching of grammar. For example, a teacher explains the rules of the language and tries to make learners understand and memorize them. Since the students only study English to go through school examinations, they are not well-motivated and consequently do not create opportunities to practice English in real life situations. They are not able to communicate effectively in English due to numerous factors. In this regard, the focus of this research is on grammar teaching and specifically on the two methods (deductive and inductive) generally used for grammar teaching in the classroom. Selecting the appropriate method of teaching grammar is difficult for instructors because students have various types of styles of learning a language,

Zbornik radova Filozofskog fakulteta u Pristini, 2015

This paper is aimed at investigating students' attitudes towards inductive and deductive approaches to teaching grammar of English as a foreign language. The study includes 134 students of Business School of Applied Studies in Blace. The research was conducted through a questionnaire which consists of 15 items concerning teaching English language, which students rated according to the Likert scale. At the beginning, different approaches to teaching grammar of a foreign language -inductive and deductive are presented. Namely, it has been a constant debate whether grammar rules should be explicitly explained and then practiced through numerous examples, or whether the acquisition of foreign language grammar is more efficient when students are exposed to a foreign language and, based on context and everyday situations, they induce the rules by themselves. According to the results of the questionnaire, over 70% of the students preferred the deductive approach to teaching English grammar, whereas over 40% of them acknowledged that the implicit approach is also important for grammar acquisition. Another conclusion indicates that the efficient acquisition of English grammar occurs when these two approaches are combined.

Abstract Adult learners‟ perceptions on inductive and deductive teaching approaches for English grammar were examined. The written performance of two student groups taught via an inductive and deductive approach, respectively, and created by random allocation was also contrasted. Specifically, the form, meaning and use of the past perfect were assessed on the day of explanation, and ten days later, using a reading text and practice and production exercises. Learners overwhelmingly preferred the deductive approach, but minimal differences between the inductive and deductive groups‟ performance were found, probably related to the underpinning use of local cultural contextualization while language teaching both groups. The study shows a deductive approach with terse explanations, and aided by the systematic use of concrete, meaningful examples during the procedure, particularly when drawn from a familiar local cultural context, is both successful and relates to learners‟ expectations. Teachers can therefore bring grammar „to their notice‟ deductively, through rules and socially-relevant examples. However, tasks that promote grammar-noticing and consciousness-raising „inductively‟ were generally shown to be as effective, and the inductive approach was used successfully if local contextualization was adopted. Importantly, teachers therefore need not feel constrained to predominantly use a deductive approach, assumed to be more suitable for non-BANA countries. Keywords:British-Australasian-North American countries (BANA), contextualization, deductive and inductive approach, noticing and consciousness-raising, tertiary, secondary and primary educational sectors (TESEP)

Academic Journal Perspective : Education, Language, and Literature

This study investigated whether the implementation of inductive approachincreases students’ achievement in teaching grammar at the seventh grade students of SMP N 16 Cirebon. Richards et al, 1985 in Chalipa 2013 often said that Inductive approach is learning in which learners are not taught rules directly, but are left to discover - or induce - rules from their experience of using the language; Ke (2008, p.1) stated that inductive approach helps students to rediscover their subconscious knowledge of English grammar and gives advantages such as makes the sentence wellformed and grammatical competence, actively involves students in their grammar learning process, and helps students to understand. This study employed quasi experimental design. The finding supported the research hypothesis that inductive approach is potential for students’ achievement in learning grammar, especially Inductive approach made classroom atmosphere actively, it seem when inductive approach was implemented in...

Metodicki Obzori, 2011

Many flaws of the traditional way of teaching have been overcome by applying functional procedures in approaching language phenomena and modern models of research; a new way of teaching is being created, more interesting and more effective. The model of teaching based on applying the inductive-deductive procedure offers a possibility to students to observe language phenomena within their function-in a live conversation or in a text. This kind of acting in the process of teaching helps students to build the strategy facilitating learning and remembering. By using their preknowledge on language phenomena, students are directed to individual analyzing of examples, comparing and sorting. Eventually they go to the next step of making conclusions and definitions. This text is dealing with the application of the model based on the inductive-deductive procedure on the study of the predicator in the fourth grade of Primary School.