Grammar Instruction And Communication In The Classroom

The methods of teaching English have been changing over time. Discussion about focusing on either using grammar instruction or communication in classroom have been moving back and forward. People are slightly taking side with communicative classroom in nowadays. However, instead of only focusing on communication, educators have argued that communicative classroom must include grammar instruction in teaching. There are various reasons that teachers must include grammar instruction in English teaching, which are teachers’ believes, the grammar rules of first language, focus on form, and the P-P-P cycle. It is hard to teach English without teaching grammar. Since teachers are very adjusting with teaching grammar in non-native speaking class …show more content…
Focus on forms is basically learning the grammar rules, while focus on form is drawing learner’s attention to grammar in activities or tasks (Long, 1991). Moreover, there are many researches have shown that only focus on forms and drilling are not going to benefit students. According to the information processing theory, knowledge is only going to stay in student’s brain for a short period, and it will disappear after a while if it is meaningless. However, if learning process includes students’ attention, or it is meaningful to them, then information is going to store in long term memory. Furthermore, as Pekoz said that “mostly it is teachers that formulate the grammar rules. Grammar rules will be clearer and be remembered better when students formulate them themselves (inductive learning) than when teachers formulate them (deductive learning)” (2008). In communicative classroom, students are going to formulate the grammar rules by themselves through communication and activities, and it matches the information processing theory. Therefore, grammar is needed in a communicative classroom because it is useful to teach in a interactive …show more content…
After all the discussion, we know that learning English cannot only deliver the grammar structure to students or only rely on communicative class. Teaching only on grammar causes lacking of fluency while focus on communicative classroom cause lacking of accuracy. However, if these two both work together, students can benefit the most because of the meaningful learning goes to long term memory, which is supported by information processing theory, and the Presentation, Practice, and Production approach. Also, teachers do not have to completely change their teaching style from grammar instruction to