English Language Teaching over the years has undergone many changes. With the focus shifting to communicative competence and learning centred approach, English courses have become more needs oriented. This change, however, is not visible in every English language course. Some courses are yet to reflect the communicative value of language teaching. They look like courses on grammar where the focus is on teaching the form and not on the communicative use of English. The situation becomes more complicated when such courses are introduced to learners studying specialized courses like engineering, law, management, etc. This paper investigates the need to teach grammar to the engineering students in the context of the communicative use of English.
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Engineering students come with a very specific set of English language needs, and the same may be true for students studying other specialized courses like hotel management, law, etc. Teaching grammar to these students may become a challenging job for various reasons. First, there is this danger of putting too much emphasis on teaching grammar. As a result, the course may turn into a grammar course and the real needs of the students, that is, performing communicative tasks successfully in their target field may not get …show more content…
Findings
5.1 Responses of the participants
The data indicated that majority of the learners desired a syllabus that could enable them to use English more effectively for a variety of communicative purposes. They were not in favour of a grammatically based syllabus. It was found that most of the learners found grammar teaching redundant in the present form. The learners said that grammar is important and they need to polish their grammar. However, they did not find grammar relevant in its present form.
Teachers said that they hardly got time to teach grammar. Moreover, the students did not show much interest in learning grammar. The teachers held remedial classes from time to time. In those classes they made the learners practice the forms, which was again a repetition of what they had already learnt in school and at the 10+2 level. Majority of the teachers, however, were of the opinion that the grammar component was not helping the learners develop their competence in English. It is to be noted here that most of the teachers were not aware of the best possible method to deal with
Engineering students come with a very specific set of English language needs, and the same may be true for students studying other specialized courses like hotel management, law, etc. Teaching grammar to these students may become a challenging job for various reasons. First, there is this danger of putting too much emphasis on teaching grammar. As a result, the course may turn into a grammar course and the real needs of the students, that is, performing communicative tasks successfully in their target field may not get …show more content…
Findings
5.1 Responses of the participants
The data indicated that majority of the learners desired a syllabus that could enable them to use English more effectively for a variety of communicative purposes. They were not in favour of a grammatically based syllabus. It was found that most of the learners found grammar teaching redundant in the present form. The learners said that grammar is important and they need to polish their grammar. However, they did not find grammar relevant in its present form.
Teachers said that they hardly got time to teach grammar. Moreover, the students did not show much interest in learning grammar. The teachers held remedial classes from time to time. In those classes they made the learners practice the forms, which was again a repetition of what they had already learnt in school and at the 10+2 level. Majority of the teachers, however, were of the opinion that the grammar component was not helping the learners develop their competence in English. It is to be noted here that most of the teachers were not aware of the best possible method to deal with