How Do I Teach Grammar?

Grammar is the system of languages. By interacting with people for a long time, since you were born, we have become able to speak our native language and have not needed to learn grammar. However, if you want to learn a different language from that of your native language, grammar should be taught. Why? The reason for this is that grammar aids as a shortcut in the learning process. You built grammar from your native language in your brain through living in your environment by trial and error. Thus, you do not want to spend as much time as when you acquired your native language, when you learn your second language, because you now have a purpose in learning the new language. It could be business or travel that leads you to this new found passion. However, when I started to learn English, I really did not like grammar, even English. It was due to the way my teacher taught the subject, he made it boring and I could not find the reason for why I was studying it.

Therefore, as for language teachers, it is very important to know why students want to learn the language. If it is a mandatory class, teachers need to provide enough reasons why they need to study in the class. Depending on the reasons, the way of teaching grammar will be different. If the person wants to go to Japan for travel, Japanese teachers can focus on grammar and expressions that will be useful while traveling, such as asking time, price, and directions, and ordering food. If the students’ purpose is for business, teachers may want to teach useful grammar to read and write business documents, and answering phone calls. In order to develop their comprehensive skills in the target language, moreover, it is essential to make classrooms communicative. Mechanical drills will be helpful, but they only know how to make sentences, not how to use them in the right context. Just as reading a score and playing the piano is different, just knowing grammar and using it in a meaningful context is different as well.

Even though, learning grammar in a related situation is better when students learn the target language, it is not easy for teachers to provide the environment. Practice of grammar sometimes becomes more mechanical than communicative. When I was observing a Japanese class in Japan, I almost feel asleep because of how boring the class was. Students were provided a handout to fill out conjugation of each verb in blanks. It will be helpful for them, but how do they know how to use them in a real life situation when they are faced with an opportunity? When I learned, “give me a break” and used it in a real life situation, I was laughed at because it is an old saying! I was so embarrassed. How can students know if it is right, or not? The classroom is a place where students learn grammar, but at the same time, it should be for knowing how to converse with people with proper expressions.