The Study of the Appropriateness of Communicative Grammar Teaching at Grade 10
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Date
2008-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study explores the appropriateness of communicative grammar teaching at grade 10. It
examines whether or not the techniques of grammar teaching used motivate learners to use
English communicatively, finds out teachers awareness in the teaching of grammar in
meaningful contexts and situations and ascertains whether grammar activities in the textbook are
appropriately designed to provoke learners to express their own ideas in the target language.
The study employed three government secondary schools in South Nations in Gurage Zone as a
sample .The questionnaires were distributed to 120 randomly selected students and 28 grade 10
English language teachers in the schools. In addition, three grade 10 English classes were
observed for two consecutive periods. On top of that, grade 10 English textbook was evaluated to
find out whether or not the teaching of grammar meets the principles of communicative language
teaching.
The results of the study revealed that though the participants recognize the basic principles of
communicative language teaching, the communicative grammar teaching is not effectively
applied. In other words, there is incompatibility between what the teacher and the students
believe about and the actual classroom application of grammar teaching. The data show that the
majority of the grammar lessons are not presented in meaningful contexts and situations. The
students are not also encouraged to express their own feelings, attitudes and interests using the
target structures. They are still given the grammar rules explicitly with one or two examples.
They also do several mechanical drills after detailed explanations rather than meaningful and
communicative activities.
Besides, the classroom observations showed that both classroom teachers and plasma TV do not
give enough time to the learners to do the exercises efficiently. The textbook analysis also
indicated that the majority of the grammar lessons are presented deductively. And mechanical
drills are more dominant than meaningful and communicative activities.
Consequently, the researcher has recommended some important solutions to make grammar
teaching communicative .It is hoped that issues raised in this work will provoke thought, inquiry
and future research.
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Grammar Teaching