by Parnaz Kianiparsa[1] and Sara Vali[2]

Payame Noor University In Iran

Abstract

Nowadays, the most important aspect of language learning is how to express your ideas fluently in the target language in order to be understood by native speakers. To reach this aim, foreign language learners should know how to use different words and phrases in sentences. In other words, they should be familiarized with the grammatical points in the target language which have been overlooked in the recent years. Grammar learning and speaking are two significant poles in foreign language acquisition. It seems they are nearly related activities, but various opinions are expressed about the underlying relationship between these two components of language learning. Some indicate a positive relationship between grammar learning and ability to speak a foreign language, and others depict no and even a negative connection between these two aspects of language acquisition.

This paper tries to have a brief review on the literature to investigate whether grammar learning and speaking influence one another. The results suggest that scholars have opposing views about this issue; however, most of them believe that grammar learning can have a positive effect on speaking a foreign language. At the end, the opinions of some Iranian EFL learners (about 30 boys and girls) are presented as well to clarify the purpose of the study better.

Introduction:

Nowadays, one of the hottest issues in the field of foreign and second language learning or teaching is how to converse fluently in the target language. Generally speaking, most of the EFL learners believe that their knowledge in English is nearly assessed by the way they can interact in the target language. They maintain that their linguistic knowledge and their abilities in other skills—reading, writing, and listening—are not that much important. What is significant is their ability in conversational situations. Of course, this belief belongs to lay and ordinary people. Unfortunately, a majority of EFL teachers and instructors follow this point of view in a broader sense, too. These instructors declare that in learning English EFL learners do not have to be trained from the grammatical point of view. Now, the question is that is it really no relationship between the grammatical rules and learning to communicate fluently in a foreign language?

The linguistic knowledge in English consists of the ability to analyze and recognize the structural features and components in the language. These abilities are concerned with phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic issues. The building blocks of the communication are grammatical points which make the structure of a language. Before starting to speak many factors and components must be formed in a person’s mind. First, the sounds should be matched with each other to shape different words. Second, these words need to be united together to form phrases, clauses, and at last sentences through which a particular meaning can be conveyed. Considering these facts, we can say that it is probably impossible to communicate in a foreign language without knowing the grammatical rules and structures of the target language. The focus of this paper is to review the literature in order to find any possible relationships between these two elements in the view of other researchers in this field of study.  Also, at the end of this article, the opinions of a group of Iranian EFL learners will be presented about this issue to clarify the aim of our research better.

Background:

Language proficiency is a multidimensional construct which consists of different levels of abilities and domains (Carrasquillo, 1994). Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that concerns producing, receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Speaking skill is one of the major abilities that is somehow troublesome for EFL and ESL learners. The ability to communicate in a new language –target language—based on its grammatical, contextual, social, and cultural rules, and variations are always difficult for EFL learners (Shumin, n.d.). As mentioned before, one of the current questions in terms of speaking ability is the effect of learning grammatical rules on the level of speaking in the target language.

Merriam Webster Dictionary defined grammar as “the study of the classes of words, their infections, and their functions and relations in the sentence.”  Canale and Swain (1980) suggested that communicative competence includes grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Thus, we can say that grammatical rules are one of the fundamental aspects of speaking skill. According to Scacella and Oxford (1992, p.141):

Grammatical competence is an umbrella concept that includes increasing expertise in grammar (morphology, syntax), vocabulary, and mechanics with regard to speaking, the term mechanics refers to basic sounds of letters and syllables, pronunciation of words, intonation, and stress.

This implies that our learners should understand English language structures accurately to become fluent. Swan (1998) believed that knowing how to build and use certain structures makes it feasible to communicate common types of meaning successfully. Without these structures, it is difficult to make comprehensible sentences. He stated that in some social contexts, serious deviance from native-speaker rules can put off integration and arouse prejudice—a person who speaks badly may be considered uneducated or stupid.

The language competence means that one has a good command of grammar and words, and can speak, read and write in grammatical foreign or second language. In conversation, if someone made mistakes in his pronunciation, grammar or words spelling, it will lead to misunderstanding and tedium to others, and even spoil their relationship. Therefore, we should try to develop the students’ ability of using language in communication in a correct

way ( Zhong-guo & Min-yan, 2007).

Nakagawa (n.d.) stated that we have two points of views in speaking. One view is that the learner should make himself/herself understood regardless of the grammatical mistakes in the target language, whereas another view insists on correctness in every aspect of language. The former is known as the fluency-oriented approach in which the small grammatical or pronunciation errors are unimportant, especially in the early learning stages. In fact, too much emphasis on correcting them is considered harmful since it may impede the natural acquisition of spoken skills (Ebsworth, 1998).

The latter, in contrast, places most emphasis on accuracy by pursuing mainly grammatical correctness. This view is called the accuracy-oriented approach. Stern (1991) said that the teachers using this approach complained about the lack of success in the long run and the boredom they endangered among the students.

As Ebsworth (1998) said, a fixed stream of speech which is highly incorrect in vocabulary, syntax, or pronunciation could be so difficult to realize as to break a fundamental aspect of fluency being understandable. On the other hand, it is possible for the speaker to be stumbling but accurate… Sentence level grammatical accuracy that violates the basic rules of discourse and correctness is also probable.

The fluency-oriented approach, however, is not free of flaw. Possibly, the most fundamental is fossilization, errors that have become a stable part in the manner a learner speaks (Nation, 1989). Although the accuracy-oriented approach is fairly ignored among the present EFL pedagogues, one can still see in it some advantages over the fluency-oriented approach, especially concerning the points stated above. Firstly, feedbacks from the teachers provide learners with chance to correct errors. They will become aware of frequent mistakes before fossilization happens. It is true that modification of errors that are provided unconsciously may discourage learners from speaking. But correction itself can also be motivating, given in an appropriate manner, because it enables learners to make sure where exactly the problem happens in their speech (Nakagawa, n.d.).

Speaking requires that learners not only know how to construct particular points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they recognize when, why, and in what ways to produce language (sociolinguistic competence). Finally, speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996; Florez, 1999).

However, Krashen (1981) suggested that

What theory implies, quite simply, is that language acquisition, first or second, occurs when comprehension of real messages occurs, and when the acquirer is not ‘on the defensive’… Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill. It does not occur overnight, however. Real language acquisition develops slowly, and speaking skills emerge significantly later than listening skills, even when conditions are perfect. The best methods are therefore those that supply ‘comprehensible input’ in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‘ready’, recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production. (6-7)

Beside Krashen, Johnson (2004) believed that nowadays, English language teaching methods or approaches have some problems. These problems are: (1) lack of exposure to vocabulary ( EFL learners, most of the time, encounter unknown words), (2) early emphasis on speaking (in the early stages of learning, the emphasis need not be on speaking since working on listening skills will ultimately carry over to speaking (Bradlow et al., 1997; Rvachew, 1994).

While speaking is eventually essential for communication, developing good listening skills is required for students to comprehend what the teacher is saying.), (3) failure of automatic processing (the only way for processes to become automatic is through practice and repetition (Gray, Mulhere, & Neil, 2000; Segalowitz, Segalowitz, & Wood, 1998)), and (4) dependence on translation and grammar-oriented approach (generally, the use of the native language and the study of grammatical rules interferes with the acquisition of a second language (Gabrielatos, 1998; Green, 1998)).

However, Corbett (2009) stated that learners and teachers describe grammar and its significance in different ways. English learners believe that grammar is a rule which helps them to make a sentence in order to talk with others. They use grammar as an instrument to form meaning. But, grammar is not an ideal factor to produce a meaning. On the other hand, teachers define grammar as what they should say, do say and what they teach. The principal goal of teaching is to realize combined goals, permit restructuring, focus on accuracy and increase fluency.

Buhary (2009) mentioned that you don’t need a good knowledge of grammar to obtain your aim across in English. We see children achieve knowledge of new languages naturally because they learn that particular language without bothering about grammar. They may not even know what grammar is. Virtually, most of us learn grammar instead of learning to speak English. The only way is to practice the everyday English instead of worrying or fearing about grammar.

Reynaud (n.d.) claimed that while children learn English without paying any attention to grammatical rules completely, adults require more than sixty hours of teaching per year. She said that the better a learner knows the grammar of a language the easier it will be for him to get knowledge of correct usage, and the easier it will be for him to communicate in the language and not be misunderstood by others.

Runmei Yu and Suzhen Ren (n. d., p. 54) claimed that “grammar, on the one hand, seems not so appealing to foreign language learners. Whenever the word ’grammar’ is mentioned, the learners will relate it to the complex sets of rules, which are boring and require a great deal of memorization. On the other hand, it has always been their No.1 concern in the process of learning. Grammar is regarded as one of the key components in language.”

As Palmer (1971, p. stated “it is grammar that makes language so essentially a human characteristic. For though other creatures can make meaningful sounds, the link between sound and meaning is for them of a far more primitive kind than it is for man, and the link for man is grammar”. Batstone (1994, p. 3) also emphasized the importance of grammar when he declared that if there were no grammar, language would be disorganized, leaving us seriously handicapped.

Thus, knowledge of grammar is usually considered to be the essential area of the language system around which the other areas revolve. Cook (1996, p. 14) emphasized this point when he claimed that “however important the other components of language may be in themselves, they are connected to each other through grammar. Grammar is often called the computational system that relates sound and meaning, trivial in itself but impossible to manage without.” In this case, grammar is known as an important coordinator of other components of language.

In a study by Wu, Ching-Hsuan (2007) on the effects of an explicit grammar teaching method on a group of English teacher candidates’ spoken grammatical accuracy in Taiwan, it was found that grammar teaching could improve spoken grammatical accuracy of English teacher candidates in Taiwan, who are advanced English learners. Furthermore, the increased grammatical accuracy was not acquired at the cost of fluency.

As mentioned above, aside from some opposing views, most studies in the field of learning grammar and speaking indicate that grammar is one of the influential factors in speaking fluently. However, most EFL teachers do not pay attention to this issue, and believe that speaking a foreign language is just a reflection of first language acquisition; thus, in learning a foreign language we should consider our learners as children who want to learn their first language. In this case we do not need to learn grammar and it is necessary to add new words to our learners’ vocabulary knowledge. In the rest of this paper, we are going to take a look at the framework of our study.

Our study:

The design of our study is mostly descriptive. In other words, as mentioned before, the concern of this paper is to have a short review on the literature about the issue of grammar and speaking. However, to clarify this subject better, we try to ask the opinions of some Iranian EFL learners in this regard. We chose our subjects or participants from a group of students who were studying English at one of the institutes in Iran. They were selected from different levels with different command of English. All the students were learning English through ‘Interchange’ system. They were asked to write about the influence of learning grammar on speaking English. No time limit was imposed on the learners; thus, they had enough time to write about their opinions in this regard at home. They were supposed to write about 2 or 3 paragraphs to express their ideas. As mentioned above, these 30 students were from different levels of English, but each level was considered separately in terms of their English to observe the homogeneity of the participants. Here, you can find the opinions of the subjects in various levels:

Most of our students believed that speaking is the most important skill in learning English or it’s better to say a foreign language. They said their main aim is to learn how to speak; however, in order to reach this goal they have to learn grammatical rules and points because observing grammatical points is essential for putting words into proper sentences. However, none of them considered this issue, and they tried to speak in such a way that every body can understand their speech. Our subjects believed that learning grammar is always troublesome for them because most of the rules are very difficult to be learnt by the EFL learners, and sometimes EFL teachers are not qualified enough to teach grammar so that they ignore grammar, and try to work on other skills—writing, listening, and reading.

Having studied the frame work of our research, now it is the time to discuss the results of the paper, to conclude the article with the overall views in this issue, and maybe to suggest future studies in terms of grammar and speaking a foreign or second language.

Conclusion:

In line with the literature, the result of the paper depicted that in some Iranian EFL learners’ point of view, learning grammar is effective in speaking English as a foreign language. As shown in the background section of this research, most of the time, it was stated that in order to speak a foreign language fluently it is necessary to learn grammatical rules. It has been suggested that vocabulary knowledge and grammatical knowledge are complementary for speaking a language.  However, we do not have a lot of studies to investigate the relationship between grammar and speaking. Thus, it is recommended to conduct more studies in this issue to write appropriate materials for helping students speak easily. These kinds of descriptive researches can introduce new ideas in ELT to improve EFL teachers’ knowledge in different aspects of language learning. Also, more studies can be done in finding the effect of grammar instruction on learning other skills, such as reading, writing, and listening.

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[1] M. A.-TEFL and instructor at Payame Noor University

[2] M. A.-TEFL and instructor at Payame Noor University

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Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian, Reader (Retired), Postgraduate & Research Department of English, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Coimbatore-641018.

This paper intends to present a discussion on ways to apply web resources for effective teaching of English Language and Literature; how far the multimedia resources are used in our colleges and universities; suggestions to improve teaching of English Language and Literature by using multimedia as an innovative tool and also some of the problems encountered while introducing multimedia as a tool for imparting education.

Multimedia uses combinations of text, graphics, sound, video and animation controlled, coordinated, and delivered on the computer screen. Multimedia encourages inter-activity involving the user to get actively engaged in the presentation of information but not to remain a passive observer.

Multimedia affords communication of information in a more effective way and it becomes an efficient, useful and result oriented medium for delivering instruction. The learner uses shorter learning time and retains information effortlessly. “Multimedia, defined, is the combination of various digital media types such as text, images, sound and video, into an integrated multi-sensory interactive application or presentation to convey a message or information to an audience.” (Agnew, Kellerman & Meyer, 1996).The conventional system uses the (text) book as the basic material evolving gradual improvement and addition of structures and contents. This does not offer much scope for student participation and involvement and results in the same dull lectures repeated year after year without any addition or improvement, whereas in teaching/learning with multimedia, the printed text takes the back seat allowing the audio/video materials to play a major role. Multimedia instruction encourages need based changing of the content structure and allows self-paced and interactive exposition a realistic and distinct possibility. Multimedia data-base uses whatever comes handy with a rich variety of audio visual content enriching the subject by making it an experience alive and immediate. In this connection it is important to realize that a change in the mind set of teachers and authorities is a must where they will be willing to experiment with multimedia methodology of teaching with a view to making the process of teaching/learning a pleasant experience for the stake holders. They must also have a critical ability to analyze and decide what is best for our students in a given environment.

Though Internet has been used by teachers for nearly forty years, one has to realize that multimedia and Internet are merely tools and as such they cannot replace the teacher; they cannot interact with the teacher/learner and by themselves they cannot add to the process of teaching/learning experience. H.Gardner states:

The new technologies make the materials vivid, easy to access, and fun to

use, and they readily address the multiple ways of knowing that humans

possess… Clearly a marriage of education and technology could be

consummated. But it will only be a happy marriage if those charged with

education remain clear on what they want to achieve for our children and

vigilant that the technology serves these ends.

Hence it is obvious that flexible, easy-to-adopt methods of delivery be devised by the teachers making use of multimedia an experience of enthusiastic involvement for the learners. The learners develop a liking for learning through multimedia since there is an active participation and involvement for them. It is a fact that “the teaching presentation, topics and texts have been well received by students”, states Lloyd Davis in “Teaching Literature through Flexible Learning”. In course of time even the slow learners give up their hesitation and naturally join with the mainstream. Multimedia products (BBC packages on Shakespeare and the like) remain limited in the sense that they can be consulted and searched but not reworked by the students. Such packages offer authoritative view points and answers but do not encourage critical questions. Internet on the other hand may not provide answers to a set of questions but provide connections to information, images and details. An innovative and imaginative team of teachers/learners can play an important role for making application of multimedia and Internet an exciting tool in English Language and Literature teaching. The team consisting of students, guided by the teacher will have the advantage of using Internet for collecting the relevant materials for their project, do research, exchange notes and also evaluate each other’s work as their project progresses. The anonymity of individual students and different groups involved with the same project can also be maintained. Internet and the multiple formats communicated over the World Wide Web offer several new and exciting avenues to present and share information. The scope automatically increases for student participation and teacher-learner interaction. Use of multimedia enables information to be shared/conveyed quickly to all concerned and sustains their interest for learning. Multimedia can keep the team focused and alert to the project on hand. Computer oriented multimedia can help the technical, analytical and research skills of the learners and recording the input of the learner provides a method to evaluate the individual learners scientifically and objectively. This evaluation can be initially started by the teacher and in course of time the teacher assumes the role of a coordinator allowing the learners to make objective assessment of individual’s and the teams’ contribution for the development of the project.  Multimedia tools can consist of print and non-print media texts such as the books, magazines, journals and news papers on one hand and audio/video tapes and equipments, films and filmstrips, news films and the like on the other. After the team acquires a certain level of efficiency the programmes recorded by the team can become the source material for succeeding batches of students and in course of time it becomes a reality that the Department (of English) has its own multimedia library which can be used by the other departments as well.

Language Laboratories equipped with computers and multimedia have become a reality in universities, colleges and even in schools. To have a Language Laboratory is a mandatory requirement in the Engineering Universities in Tamilnadu. Arts and Science colleges have commenced the process of establishing Language Laboratories in their institutions to help the non-English medium students from the rural areas. With Language Laboratories becoming a part of the Language learning environment, it would be better for the teachers/learners to familiarize themselves with certain common terms used:

Hypertext is a text providing a network of links to other texts ‘outside, beyond and above itself’, making possible a dynamic organization of information through links and connections. It involves multisequential and multilinear writing.

E-Book being the shortened form for Electronic Book is a conventional book available in the digital media.

E-Mail is mail sent/received using electronic media and Internet.

Power Point Presentation is a presentation technique to attract the audio-visual attention of the audience.

They should be aware and capable of using Internet, E-mail and connected facilities. It would be useful if they can handle audio and video recording equipments.

Use of multimedia for effective teaching of English Language: By using multimedia the basic language skills such as listening, reading, comprehension and writing can be nurtured. An audio tape or CD played with ‘surround sound’ will have a telling effect on improving skills of listening and comprehension. A video cassette or Digital Video Disc (by also involving the sense of sight) will have an added impact in improving the skill sets of the learners. Incidentally they learn proper pronunciation and stress as well. Children of pre KG classes grasping the nursery rhymes quickly and more easily when exposed to the use of audio/video cassettes/ discs comes to our mind as an obvious example.

Vocabulary of the learner can be increased by a simple device capable of flashing words on a screen. Each word is flashed on the screen for ten seconds and the students are asked to write sentences using the word. A maximum of ten words can be flashed during a session and incidentally the students improve their vocabulary quickly and the increase in vocabulary levels is retained by the learner for a longer time.

This can be further modified to suit the students’ requirement. A small picture depicting a scene will kindle the creative instincts. It will be an interesting observation for the teacher to note that each of the students has come out with an individual and sometimes even a unique reaction/story of his/her own. Such methods of teaching help the students to face interviews with confidence and react properly in a real situation. The purpose of teaching vocabulary, writing sentences, completing a short story, report and dialogue writing and the like as a part of the language skills to be learnt by the students will also be fulfilled. An innovative group can develop dialogue writing into a group discussion. By making use of simple multimedia instruments such as microphones, assigning different roles to students and the teacher many dialogue writing situations will not remain dull and lifeless on paper but will be transformed into situations throbbing with life, excitement and reality. Allowing a group discussion on similar lines will make even the shy and hesitant to come forward to present their view points overcoming their initial passivity. As a group the students are exposed to learning multimedia technology, project planning and execution, stages of development of the project, experiments/observations/field trials made during the project and these leading to reliable data based results being ably and effectively presented with multimedia tools.  With whole-hearted and active involvement of the learners, the language classes get transformed from uninspiring and boring lectures into a place throbbing with life, learning with enthusiasm and bubbling with youthful activity. The opportunity kindles the latent Leadership Qualities and nurtures able and well-informed leaders. A more resourceful team can attempt video graphing the dialogues and group discussions and the recorded material can becomes an indigenously made resource material for future students. Mock interviews prepare the students to face their future interviewers with a positive mind set. Teaching language with multimedia can go beyond the classroom when students practice as debaters and public speakers what they had learnt earlier in the classroom. Debates can also be modified as mock Assembly/Parliament sessions, making it a training ground for future parliamentarians and also enlarging the expectations for their elected representatives by the public. Extra curricular and co-curricular activities such as NCC, NSS, Rotaract and Leo clubs and the like are society oriented. The multimedia exposure of the students combined with their youthful enthusiasm will result in educational programmes such as Adult Literacy, AIDS awareness, Basic Health and Hygiene, Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and many more reach the masses more easily through a more attractive medium.

Teaching with multimedia provides a realistic approach to learning, leads to lateral thinking and multi-dimensional approach, multi-disciplinary learning, team work and improved communication skills. This also provides the learners the opportunity to be active participants without remaining passive learners of the contents taught. Agnew et.al mention, “Student-created multimedia projects are beneficial, in addition, because they often involve substantial work, open-ended assignments, theme-based activities, and knowledge and experiences that the students draw from a wide variety of sources.”(p.9). Students “achieve high self-esteem”, increase their ability to function as self made and independent learners, learn to think quickly and differently and develop their abilities of “problem- solving and decision-making”. (Agnew et.al, 1996). An innovative teacher can think of various possibilities of preparing students as commentators, critics, writers, editors, amateur actors, graphics/animation artists and people playing many other roles with nonchalant confidence and efficiency. Some of the projects on the drawing table of the students will have the pregnant possibility of maturing into schemes/inventions that may alter the fate of mankind and improve its life style.

More can be added to this section but suffice to remind ourselves that one of the definitions mentions language as thoughts. The refinement of thoughts/language fruitions as literature. Without a language strong in its basics, grammar, usage for thousands of years and experience resulting from generations of observations no literature is possible. Thus the transformation of a refined, cultured language into rich literature is a natural process of evolution of mankind. In other words language and literature are closely associated twins and any attempt to differentiate the two as different entities will be a futile exercise. This also reminds us of the older concept of teaching/learning ‘Language through Literature.’

Multimedia for teaching Literature: At the outset, one has to realize that genuinely good literature has no barriers of language, geographical boundaries, race or time. In other words all great literatures are concerned with the welfare of man and mankind and hence the well known legends have the most common themes of Love and Valour. The gifted have presented the experience of mankind and also the lessons they had learnt by observation in their Literatures. Parallel and identical themes unite Ramayana and Maha Bharatha with the legends of Greek and Latin. Valmiki, Thulsidas,  Kamban and Vyasa  on the one hand and the Greek and the Latin creators of Europe on the other never had the possibility of seeing, meeting, hearing or reading the works of each other as they were separated by time, space and language though their literatures speak with one voice leading to Archetypes of Literature.

As early as late sixties resourceful teachers used LP records and film strips as instructional aids for teaching drama and poetry. Some of Shakespeare’s plays such as Hamlet available as LP records were played in the class room. Similarly T.S.Eliot’s “Waste Land” read by the poet himself and played in the class room was immensely appreciated by the students of English Literature. Some other films based on Shakespeare’s plays made effective impression in their minds.

Use of multimedia for teaching literature implies changes in teaching methodology from the traditional text based teaching/learning to text-plus-multimedia methodology. The teachers are provided with an opportunity to refresh their own understanding of the text in the process of teaching/learning. Through multimedia a new and attractive approach more preferable to the conventional methods is offered. This is more challenging and interesting than the text book based teaching/learning developed on verbal approach. The learners have an opportunity of interactive/inter-group study of authors, texts and critical texts using multimedia available in (God’s) plenty. Group tasks involve collaborative studies and collaborative learning. The individual contributions made by different members of the group and coordinated by the teacher become the products of the entire group. The natural competitive instinct of the learners propels them for more lively participation and making new contributions. The learners go through a wide range of experiences, comprehensive interpretation, understanding and evaluation of the text.

Use of multimedia also leads to multi-disciplinary and cross cultural approach and the man-made mental barriers and prejudices get eliminated with the learners completing their task as better human beings. This beautiful transformation – very much the crying need of the day – takes place as the learners share their resources, admire the abilities of the members of the group and gradually realize that every one is gifted in some way or other. A member who may not contribute much by his studies may contribute excellent pictures/paintings/photographs and other visuals for a better presentation of their product. This artistic talent of the individual not previously known to the other members but revealed only now draws instantaneous appreciation and recognition.

A student oriented teacher would not stop with informing the students that a nightingale is shy, nocturnal and non-Indian but will give additional information on how people waited for many nights to record the song of a nightingale and will try to play the recorded song of a nightingale, making the experience different, informative, and interesting. Just a photograph, better a video unfolding a vast field of blooming daffodils, swaying gently in the breeze shown to the students prior to the teaching of Wordsworth’s “Daffodils” can make all the difference between a lecturer sweating to explain the mood of the poet (the mood of the students always remaining a varying factor) and an enthusiastic teacher making the class lively and memorable.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays are available in Videos and in shortened versions. Use of such multimedia aids before commencing the teaching of a play and periodical replays of the relevant scenes from the play will make the classes more interesting and lively. The teachers can also try to find visual aids on plays like The Glass Menagerie, Winslowe Boy, Death of a Salesman, All My Sons and possibly many more. Students provided with an opportunity to see, listen, comprehend and appreciate the play fall in love with such innovative methods of teaching and they realize that learning can be pleasant and rejoicing too. An innovative team of teachers and learners can produce plays/ parts of plays such as the Trial scene in The Merchant of Venice, abridged versions of Glass Menagerie, Death of A Salesman, and many more in English and even in local Languages so that the process extends beyond the classroom. Importance of Being Ernest has been successfully played by teams consisting of college teachers and students. With the cooperation of students/staff from the Department of Visual Media these can be brought out as video versions.

Films such as Troy, Helen of Troy, Hercules, Hercules Unchained and audio/video recordings of one act plays present the possibility of understanding the text in a totally new dimension. Films based on Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra are more informative and bring the characters live before the students by their specialised visual and sound effects. Some of the greatest novels such as A Farewell To Arms, The Old Man and The Sea, War and Peace and many more like The French Lieutenant’s Woman shown as films will have a greater impact than many hours of lectures. Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai’s Chemmeen and R.K.Narayan’s Guide made into films had a great impact on the international audience. Swamy and Friends, produced as a TV serial brought Malgudi to the drawing room of the audience.

Films on war demonstrate that in modern war there is no victor or loser as both sides lose heavily, their men and materials. Wars also result in untold, avoidable suffering of the innocent masses. Films showing the effect of atomic holocaust and the dilapidated waste of buildings and cities can make the students realize more the horrors of war than a hundred hours of lecture on the theme of futility of war. “The Longest Day”, “Great Escape”, “Battle of the Bulge” “Guns of Navorone”, “Force Ten from Navorone”, “The Lonely Frontier”, “HMS Ulysses” and “One Who Got Away”  were some of the memorable films depicting the World Wars and the post-war world. The films based on Nazi aggression causing suffering to millions of people will make the dictators think not twice but two hundred times prior to making any wrong moves! The photograph of an eight year young girl running naked revealed the chilling horror of dropping Napalm bombs on the defenseless civilians. A photograph of a hand clutching the iron fence (only the hand clutching desperately remained, all other parts of the body of a once living man or woman being completely vapourised due the intense heat caused by Napalm) published in ‘Life’ magazine fetched not only the best war photograph award but also brought to one’s mind the horrors of war-machine where everyone becomes “expendable”. The cluster bombs and mine fields on the land and on the high seas kill and maim years after the wars have ended.   Films like Kurukshetra in Malayalam prove that terrorism used as a tool by the hard-line war mongers create more havoc than the war, and terrorism combined with war can be demoralizing on the fighting troops and also remind the brutal fact that the soldiers who had sacrificed their “today” for our “tomorrow”, have been conveniently forgotten, unsung and unremembered.  Films on Ramayana, Mahabharatha and The Bible have sustained the interest of viewers at all times.

Contemporary Scenario of English Language and Literature teaching in our Colleges and Universities: Having explored some of the possibilities of using multimedia resources for effective teaching of English Language and Literature, it is necessary to have an objective analysis at the prevailing scenario of English Language and Literature teaching in our colleges and universities. An unbiased observation will reveal that much has been discussed; resolutions passed and promises made but more remain unimplemented. Many governments though they do not openly acknowledge the truth, have nurtured a hatred for English Language, resulting in false promises for betterment of teaching the language resulting in non-implementation of even the easy-to-implement schemes.

Most of the appointments in colleges and universities connected with framing policies and decision making have been filled by people for their political leanings but not for their academic achievements or contribution to knowledge. Even the so called Autonomous colleges do not have much scope for autonomy. Such colleges are ‘advised’ to toe the line of the powers that be. In the academic councils, senates and syndicates there is always a representative of the Government and such an environment does not encourage experimenting with introducing new and innovative syllabi or teaching methodology. Combining research with teaching is invariably discouraged under a highly illogical premise that these two are totally different entities which can never go together.

With all these restrictions not much change has taken place in the Language Departments of our colleges and universities. In most of the universities the Department of English has been established only after prolonged pleadings with the authorities. The realisation that one cannot do without English in any field has dawned on the people only recently. This has resulted in giving importance to the nurturing of basic language skills in the learners and this in turn leading to the appreciation of literature.

A cursory glance at the syllabi of English Language and Literature for students enrolled in under graduate courses and students enrolled in under graduate and post graduate classes for specializing study of English Literature reveals that almost all of them follow the same pattern not allowing much scope for nurturing the creative skills of teachers/learners. Again most of the universities have a distribution of 70:30 or 65:35 or 60:40 for the literature-language based questions. Most of the universities have a system where marks ranging from 15 to 25 % have been allotted for Internal Assessment.  The same texts with minimum or no changes are recommended year after year by different Boards of Studies. Even the so called Language Laboratories remain dusty and idle with the costly equipments there not even being touched and the rooms kept under lock and key. (Probably with the key thrown out and conveniently forgotten!)

Unit based syllabus which offers a lot of flexibility for not teaching/studying certain texts, combined with the pressure of completing the syllabus in time prior to the commencement of terminal examination induces examination oriented and passing percentage based teaching/learning. Most of the self financing colleges paying a pittance as salary for their teachers also serve as a non-incentive even for the sincere teachers.

These practical problems for teaching/learning of English Language and Literature and effective ways to encounter and overcome such problems will also have to be discussed and right answers elicited to make the process of teaching/learning English Language and Literature a pleasant experience for the stakeholders.

Summary: Beginning the presentation with an invocation, the introductory part dealt with multimedia and the relevance of use of multimedia for effective teaching of English Language and Literature. Some definitions also have been given.

The next part dealt with making use of multimedia as a tool for teaching English Language and how an innovative teacher can make Language learning highly interesting.

A brief feature explaining the close link between language and Literature had been given followed by suggestions for making use of multimedia for teaching/learning Literature.

An attempt to present the existing conditions in our colleges and universities for teaching English Language and Literature has been made with the earnest hope that it will ring bells in the thought process of powers that be. A sort of analysis of the English syllabi existing in various universities has also been made.

With the powers that be and educationists on the mood to realize the importance of teaching English Language and Literature, it is hoped that such conferences involving experts, students and teachers of English, will fruition in changes for growth and betterment of all the stake holders.

Works Referred:

1. Agnew, P.W., Kellerman, A.S. & Meyer, J (1996). Multimedia in the Classroom, Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
2. Davis, Lloyd, “Teaching Literature through Flexible Learning.” Flexible Delivery Initiatives, Teaching & Learning at the University of Queensland. (Internet)
3. Lynch, Patrick J, “Teaching with Multimedia.”

http://jeffline.jefferson.edu/CWIS/OAC/mediabytes/spring93/mediabyt…

The author gratefully acknowledges all the contributors whose concepts and ideas on the role of multimedia in teaching which might have proved useful for preparing this paper.

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The author can be contacted at: (+91) (422) 2315038; (+91) 94437 09681;

E-mail: pancharishigothran@rocketmail.com

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by Soiferman, L. Karen; Boyd, Karen; Straw, Stanley B.

Background: The need for improvement in writing instruction in schools is dependent on teachers being aware of evidence-based procedures in writing and implementing them on a regular basis in their classrooms. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the frequency with which teachers in Western Canada employed evidence-based procedures in writing instruction in the classes. The data were gathered on the eleven elements identified by Graham and Perin (2007) in their meta-analysis of the most effective procedures for teaching writing.

Setting: Writing classrooms in Western Canada. Study Sample: Seventy-five teachers randomly selected participated in the study. Intervention: none. Research Design: Statistical Survey. Control or Comparison Condition: none. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected on the frequency with which teachers employed the eleven effective elements identified by Graham & Perin (2007).

They were: Direct Strategy Instruction, Summarization Instruction, Collaborative Writing, Setting Specific Product Goals, Word Processing, Sentence Combining, Engaging in Pre-Writing Activities, Engaging in Inquiry Activities, Process Writing, the Study of Models, and Writing for Content Area Learning. Two other elements, Formal Grammar Instruction, and the Use of Writing Rubrics were also investigated.

Findings: We found that approximately a quarter of the teachers surveyed employed the most powerful elements for teaching writing on a regular basis. The notable exceptions were in collaborative writing, teaching summarizing, and sentence combining which a small number of teachers utilized. Between and third and a half of the responses for the eleven elements were in the “seldom” or “never” categories.

Conclusion: This study makes no claims to why some teachers employ evidence-based techniques in teaching writing and why others do not. It is clear, however, that the percentage of classroom teachers who need to employ, regularly, evidence-based techniques need to be increased, at least in Western Canada. A concerted effort on the part of provincial ministries of education and teacher education institutions may be needed to keep teachers better informed on what strategies are most effective in teaching writing and how to implement those in their classes. Citation: Soiferman, L.K., Boyd, K., & Straw, S. B. (2010, Janaury 7). With What Frequency Are Teachers Employing Evidenced-Based Procedures in their Writing Classrooms? A paper presented at the 8th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education, Honolulu, Hawaii. (Contains 3 notes.)

Download the ‘With What Frequency Are Teachers Employing Evidenced-Based Procedures in Their Writing Classrooms?’ research paper by visiting http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal

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by Dr.N.V.Bose, Institute of Language Teaching, Jamnagar.

Introduction

Literature itself has been greatly enriched by recent developments in the field of critical theory. Structuralism, Deconstructionism, Reader-response theory, Feminist and Marxist criticism are just some of the branches of critical theory which have been challenging the ways in which we read and understand literature. The sole aim of this paper is a practical one; it is to find ways of using literature which will help learners to achieve their main purpose for being in the classroom, that is, to improve their English. For most teachers this is the compelling goal when selecting and designing materials, and there is not really sufficient time to think about critical theory as well.

Literary text as resource

Literary texts are seen as resource-one among many different types of texts-which provide stimulating language activities. The advantage of using literary texts for language activities are that they offer a wide range of styles and registers; they are open to multiple interpretations and hence provide excellent opportunities for classroom  discussion; and they focus on genuinely interesting and motivating topics to explore in the classroom (Duff and Maley,1990). Studying the language of the literary text will help to integrate the language and literature syllabuses more closely. Detailed analysis of the language of the literary text will help students to make meaningful interpretations or informed evaluation of it. At the same time, students will increase their general awareness and understanding of English. Students are encouraged to draw on their knowledge of familiar grammatical, lexical, or discourse categories to make aesthetic judgements of the text.

Literary Texts: Valuable Authentic Materials

Literature is ‘authentic’ material. By authentic we mean that most works of literature are not fashioned for the specific purpose of teaching language. In reading literary texts, students have also to cope with language intended for native speakers and thus they gain additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses, forms and conventions of the written mode: with irony, exposition, argument, narration, and so on. Literature is perhaps best seen as a complement to other materials used to increase the foreign learner’s insight into the country whose language is being learnt.

Another positive aspect of literature is that it provides a rich context in which individual lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. Reading a substantial and contextualised body of text, students gain familiarity with many features of the written language-the formation and function of sentences, the variety of possible structures, the different way of connecting ideas-which broaden and enrich their own writing skills. The extensive reading required in tackling a novel or long play develops the students’ ability to make inferences from linguistic  clues, and to deduce meaning from context, both useful tools in reading other sorts of materials as well (Collie ad Slater 1987).

Traditional Approaches to Teaching Literature

In recent years the approaches to teaching language mainly aim at promoting the learner’s communicative competence. However when it comes to teaching literature, this communicative ideal often vanishes. The way literature is presented often has a number of typical features. Sometimes the teacher falls back upon more traditional classroom role in which he or she sees him or herself as imparting information about the author, the background of the work, the particular literary conventions that inform the text and so on. Learners are somehow expected to have the ability to take all this in and make it their own. Besides, the sheer difficulties of detailed comprehension posed by the intricacy or linguistic subtlety of the language turn the teaching of literature into a massive process of explanation by the teacher or even of translation, with greater proportion of available classroom time devoted to a step by step exegetical exercise led by the teacher.

At more advanced levels of work with literature, the teacher may resort to the metalanguage of criticism and this may both distance learners from their own response and cause them to undervalue it, whatever the gain in analytical terms (Collie and Slater 1987). The time-honoured technique of question-and-answer can provide some help. But unless questions are genuinely open-ended, there is often a feeling on the part of the students that the teacher is slowly but surely edging them to particular answers that he or she has in mind. There is little room for either their own responses or their involvement during such sessions. In short, personal investment is minimal.

Language based Approach

A language-based approach is quite a broad approach which covers a range of different goals and procedures. Generally speaking, this approach focuses on a closer integration of language and literature in the classroom, since this will help the students in achieving their main aim which is to improve their knowledge of, and proficiency in, English.

Techniques and procedures

A language based approach to using literature includes techniques and procedures which are concerned more directly with the study of the literary text itself. The aim is to provide the students with the tools they need to interpret a text and to make competent critical judgements of it. Stylistics analysis is one of them. Stylistics involves the close study of the linguistic features of a text in order to arrive at an understanding of how the meanings of the text are transmitted.

Stylistics in the classroom

Stylistics has two main objectives: firstly, to enable students to make meaningful interpretation of the text itself; secondly, to expand students’ knowledge and awareness of the language in general. Thus, although the aim of using stylistics is to help students to read and study literature more competently, it also provides them with excellent language practice.

For the language learner, stylistics has the advantage of illustrating how particular linguistic forms function to convey specific messages. Stylistic analysis can also provide a way of comparing different types of texts (literary or non-literary) in order to ascertain how they fulfil different social functions. For example, students may be asked to compare the description of a character in a novel with information about someone given in a letter of reference or a medical form (Widdowson,1975).

The students will then be able to examine how these texts differ and the reasons for this difference. The teaching of literature can thus be integrated more fully into the classroom, since literary texts can be studied alongside other kinds of texts.

Activities

A number of language-based activities for exploiting literature with the language learner can be conducted in the classroom. A few examples could be:

Activity 1.

Different section of a dialogue from a play are given to groups of students, and each group has to rewrite the dialogue in reported speech using a range of verbs (e.g. suggest, mumble, wonder etc.) when they are finished, they give their reported versions to members of another group to transform into dialogues, which are then compared with the originals from the paly.

Activity 2.

After they have read it, students are given three different summaries of a short story. They have to decide which summary is the most accurate.

Activity 3.

Students are given three different critical opinions of a play or novel they have read. They have to decide which they find the most convincing or accurate.

Literature and self-access

A literature self-access centre could be a small collection of texts for students to read on their own with minimal supervision. The self-access centre could consist of: literary texts such as novels, plays, short stories, anthologies of poetry and a collection of video recordings of plays or films based on novels, and audio recordings of literary texts which students are encouraged to work through on their own perhaps after reading the original literary text.

A self-access centre would provide students with a choice of literary texts to listen to or to read, foster the students’ enjoyment of literature, promote language acquisition, develop reading and listening skills and to enable students to become more self-confident and independent as learners. A sample self-access worksheet could be:

Self-access Worksheet

PLAYS

Facts about the play

Title:

Author (playwright):

When published

Type of the play/genre

CONTENT

1. 1. Setting (where the action takes place)
2. 2. When is it set
3. 3. The plot: The play is about…………….
4. 4. Characters: Write down the names of the main characters, the role of each one on the story, and 2 or 3 adjectives to describe them.
5. 5. Message : Has the pay got a message?

If so what do you think it is?

LANGUAGE

Write down 3 or 4 words, phrases or expressions you have learnt from this play.

OPINION

1. 1. Choose from the following adjectives to describe the play:

Hilarious      gripping    moving    powerful    tedious    tragic   amusing

What other adjectives could you use to describe the play?

1. 2. The play is going to be performed and you are the director. Describe the costumes, scenery, lighting, etc. you want for each act.
2. 3. Would you recommend this play to anyone else? Why?

Does this play remind you of any plays in your own language? If so, what?

Conclusion

The overall aim of language-based approach to using literature is to let the students derive the benefits of communicative and other activities for language improvement within the context of suitable works of literature. All that the teacher needs to do is to keep a balance between literature and language and select the activities and tasks and presents them confidence.

Reference:

1. Brumfit,C.,Carter,R.(ed) (1986) Literature and Language Teaching, Oxford University Press.
2. Carter,R (ed)( 1982). Language and Literature: An Introductory Reader in Stylistics, Allen and Unwin.
3. Collie. J, and Slater, S.(1987). Literature in the Language Classroom, Cambridge University.
4. Duff, T.(ed).(1988). Explorations in Teacher Training- problems and issues. Longman.
5. Lazar,G.(1993). Literature and Language Teaching.

Widdowson,H.G.(1975). Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature. Longman.

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by Liaw, En-Chong

Abstract

This study aims at examining the differences between native and nonnative foreign language teachers at a major northeast university. The primary areas of investigation are “teacher efficacy” and “teacher perceptions of language teaching.” The results of this study suggested that both nativeness and wide repertoire of teaching experience and strategies play the significant role on efficacy in teaching higher-level classes. Beside, the results also revealed that teachers of less commonly taught languages seemed to be more conservative and cautious in evaluating their efficacy levels, while those of more commonly taught languages appeared to be more open in doing so. (Contains 2 tables.)

Download the ‘The Study of Foreign Language Teachers– Teacher Efficacy and Native Speakership’ research paper by visiting http://www.eric.ed.gov

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Grammar teaching in English as Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) pedagogy has always been a contentious issue. In fact, there has been a pendulum swing regarding whether grammar should be taught or not. Before the advent of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the 1970’s, for instance, grammar was in a position of domination in language education, with curricula being organized around it. However, the supremacy of grammar was questioned when developments in the field of Sociolinguistics in the seventies challenged the traditional notions about the nature of language and learning. One of the primary reasons for the rejection of a narrow focus on grammatical forms and structures in language learning was the blurring of the notion of ‘correctness’ of language thanks to the investigation of language varieties. Also, sociolinguists like the American Dell Hymes went on to put forward a broader concept of ‘communicative competence’, which drew attention to language use in social context. This had a tremendous impact on language teaching, encouraging a more critical look at language and sharpening an awareness of the need to make language relevant to students’ needs and to provide opportunities for language use in the classroom.

However, these developments led some theorists, methodologists, teachers and syllabus designers to go overboard so much so that many of them started advocating a ‘no grammar’ approach in second and foreign language teaching and learning as in their opinion grammar teaching didn’t produce proficient second language users. But should grammar be blamed for such a predicament? The failure actually stems from the inadequacy of the methodologies that have traditionally been used to teach grammar, the methodologies which have failed to recognise the crucial distinction between teaching about language and teaching the use of language which in turn has led to a sort of an unbridgeable chasm between the true goal of language teaching and the means employed to achieve the goal. The true goal of all second language teaching is to produce students who can communicate well in the second language, comprehend and create at will novel utterances that conform to the grammatical system of the language (whether in speech or writing). What this entails is that we, as the teachers of English, should facilitate “free and unfettered language use, by providing our students with the linguistic means to create novel utterances through a carefully designed and presented program they can digest and enjoy.” (Rivers: 1983, p.33). But traditionally the language teacher has been focusing primarily on the “means” only, failing to recognise the need to encourage students to use these means to express meanings they themselves wish to communicate. For instance, the language teacher traditionally has been teaching discrete points of grammar in separate lessons, focusing mainly on the formal features of the language at the expense of encouraging students to use the language. This sort of an approach, perhaps, has its germ in the belief that the purpose of all teaching is to simplify learning and one way of doing that is to break down the contents into smaller parts and then present them in a sequential and graded manner.

However, research has shown that learners do not learn one thing perfectly one at a time, but learn numerous things simultaneously (and imperfectly). Hence traditional language teaching has been found to be defective on at least two counts: first, for treating language learning as a system of accumulating structural entities, and second, for neglecting language use. This inconsistency between the goal of second language teaching on the one hand, and the views regarding second language learning and the instructional actions of the teachers teaching the second language on the other, has led to a great dissatisfaction in the pedagogical circles because the methodologies adopted have not been able to yield the hoped-for results. This dissatisfaction, perhaps, was at the root of the reaction against grammar teaching, and this was occasioned also by the rise of CLT? the ‘strong’ version of which shunned grammar teaching altogether, believing that grammar would somehow take care of itself when the learners engaged themselves in communicative activities. This non-interventionist position with regard to grammar teaching was also given weight by a belief that what is ‘necessary’ and ‘sufficient’ for second language acquisition is comprehensible input in the target language, thereby implying that grammar instruction is not required.

However, numerous studies have proved it beyond doubt now that grammar-focused teaching is indeed required for increasing the proficiency of second and foreign language learners. For instance, a study conducted by Lightbown (cited in Devaki Reddy, 2006) points to the significance of grammar-focused instruction. Lightbown conducted an experiment with two groups of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners ¾ one group received comprehensible input through listening and reading without any teacher intervention, and the other group had the guidance of a teacher and were also given ample opportunities for language production. It was found that the group which had the guidance of a teacher, who made the students aware of the various grammatical structures in meaningful contexts, performed better than the other group. This study and many other similar ones resolve one of the great dilemmas of language pedagogy: whether or not grammar teaching is required. Surely grammar-focused instruction is a necessity, but does it mean that one is justified in using the traditional grammatically structured syllabuses (which are still ubiquitous in many parts of India!)? The answer is a loud ‘No’ because these kinds of syllabus and the teaching which accompanies them do not produce communicative competence. These are good enough only for presenting explicit rules and paradigms, providing as they do little or no scope for language learning activities in which communication among learners can occur. So between the two extremes ¾ traditional grammar teaching in which grammar rules are presented as models to learners in a linear fashion on the one hand, and the ‘strong’ version of CLT which neglects grammar teaching altogether on the other¾is there a middle-ground position possible, a position where learners could be involved in communicative tasks with a focus on meaning while at the same time there would be an ample opportunity to focus on form as well? One interesting option is the flexible model for task-based learning, proposed by Jane Willis (1998), which consists of a ‘pre-task’ phase, a ‘task-cycle’ phase and a ‘language focus’ phase. In this model, tasks are, of course, the central component but grammar is not forgotten altogether as in the last phase there are both analysis of the language used and practice of new structures. In the first phase, the ‘pre-task’ phase, the teacher or rather the ‘facilitator’ introduces the topic to the learners and gives instructions for the task that the learners have to perform.  In the next phase, the ‘task-cycle’ phase the learners begin by carrying out the communicative task with the liberty to use any language structure they want. This allows them the freedom to focus on the meaning of their message thereby making it akin to real-life communication. In the final phase, the ‘language focus’ phase, the teacher initiates an analysis of the language used in which the learners should be encouraged to participate actively as well. However, much of the technical grammatical jargon associated with traditional grammar teaching may best be avoided while at the same time, learners should be made aware of which structures are ungrammatical or inappropriate by providing them with grammatical or appropriate counterparts.

In the ultimate analysis, it could be said that this model of grammar teaching is an attractive one as it liberates people from the drudgery of traditional ‘transmission’ approach to grammar teaching and learning in which the learners, rather passively, acquire knowledge from the teacher? Moreover, it’s great fun to do and, therefore, motivating as well.

References:

Devaki Reddy, S. “To Teach or not to Teach Grammar.” Contemporary Themes and Issues in Language Pedagogy. Ed. V. Narang.   New Delhi: Books Plus, 2006.

Rivers, W. M. Communicating Naturally in a Second Language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1983.

Willis, J. 1998. “Task-Based Learning: What Kind of Adventure?” The Languag Teacher.12October2007.‹http://www.jaltpublications.org/tlt/files/98/jul/willis.html.

About Author:

Anindya Syam Choudhury has an MA in English and a PGCTE and a PGDTE from EFL University, Hyderabad. He has also completed the Trinity College Certificate in TESOL at London recently. Presently, he is with the Department of English, Assam University, Silchar, as an Assistant Professor. His areas of interest include Grammar Pedagogy, Task-based Language Teaching and Learner Autonomy.

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Although there are many websites designed and published on the Internet for learning and teaching English, little use of them is done by both Egyptian EFL teachers and students. The textbook is usually their main concern and focus. That is why the present study draws more light on the importance of language teaching and learning websites and evaluates some of them so as to introduce them to both for use.

This problem was tackled through answering the following questions:

(1) What are the websites available online for learning and teaching English as a foreign language?;

(2) What are the points of strength and weakness of some of these sites?; and

(3) How can these sites be utilized by the Egyptian teachers and students for teaching and learning English as a foreign language? A 63-item evaluation criteria checklist was used to assess the six selected websites.

It covered eight dimensions as follows: Authority, Purpose, Coverage, Currency, Objectivity, Accuracy, Technical Aspects (navigation, design and structure, and access), and Usefulness for TEFL Teachers and Students. The participants (n=17 – post-graduate students at Benha University) visited them and responded to the evaluation criteria checklist for identifying the points of strength and weakness of each website.

The six websites, as a whole, were reported by the participants very useful for learning and teaching English. Based on the findings of evaluation, educational implications and recommendations for the utilization of these sites for teaching and learning English in Egypt were suggested. (Contains 7 tables and 7 appendices.)

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Access ‘FUEL, Functional and Useful English Learning, An EFL Teaching System’ by Joe Drakos from ERIC

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By Dr. Ravi Bhushan, Assistant Professor & Head, Learning Resource Centre, Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidayalaya Khanpur Kalan (Sonipat), Haryana.

Learning Resource Centre at Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidayalaya, Khanpur Kalan (Sonepat), Haryana was established in August 2007. This paper raises the following issues:

1. Are learning resource centers successful/failure.

2. f they are successful, what and how much learners benefit from it?

3. If they are failures, what are the reasons that make the learning resource centre unviable.

This paper reports on the performance of thirty learners (30) over a period of 15 hours in a Learning Resource Centre (Language Lab).The data in Learning Resource Centre was collected at two stages i.e. at the Ist hour and at the 15^th hour, when the learners leave the learning resource centre. The interpretation of the data together with questionnaires and structured interviews with learners reveals the following:

A. There is a sense of fear at the beginning of the use of learning resource centre.

B. Fear gives way to cautious reciprocation to what the learning material demands.

C. Progressively learners understand the advantages of the learning resource centre and begin to like it and learn from it.

Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidayalaya, Khanpur Kalan (Sonipat), is a young women’s university, established by the government of Haryana in November 2006. It became a sub-center of the University of Cambridge in August 2007.   The prime motto, rather the fundamental vision of the university is to empower and add value to the lives of women/girl students. One of the means to achieve this grand objective is through improving the communication skills of the students, grooming them for better job opportunities in their future careers.

There are approximately 3000 girl students enrolled in the different courses run by the university. The good thing is that proficiency in English language has been made compulsory for all of them. Teaching of English is divided in two parts. On the one hand, in order to cater for their aesthetic sensibilities, conventional items like prose, poetry, fiction etc are taught in a classroom. On the other hand, to hone their communication abilities, training is imparted through learning resource centre.

Objectives of Learning Resource Centre:

1. To improve communication competency of the learners.
2. To prepare the target learners for job market.
3. To prepare the target learners for international certificate courses like Business English Certificate.

Three fundamental issues pertaining to the viability of Learning Resource centers:

A.  Are Learning Resource Centers successful or   failures:

Undoubtedly language resource centers are successful. At least language resource centre at Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidayalaya, Khanpur kalan (Sonipat), is a grand success. In terms of proficiency enhancement of any language, the role of language resource centre is paramount. It gives learners a structured pattern of language acquisition. The paraphernalia makes the whole process standardized and easy to acquire. Language resource centre at Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidayalaya, Khanpur kalan (Sonipat), is a success because this is the first of its kind and the first instance for the learners to learn English this way. The response is overwhelming. The data shows that once the learners come out of the language resource centre, they try to identify themselves with the speakers and the dialogues they come across while in the language resource centre. The data indicate that after the learners put in certain number of hours in a language resource centre, there is a marked improvement in their pronunciation.

B.      If Learning Resource Centers are successful, what and how much learners benefit from them?

It goes without saying that learners are greatly benefited from a language resource centre. The difference between the two stages i.e. pre and post language resource centre is quite obvious. It clearly indicates that language resource centre gives a tremendous ignition to the desire of a learner to speak English. The learner’s accent, pronunciation, stress, tone etc are controlled and modified according to the standard pattern.

In order to analyze the success of a language resource centre, I have collected the data of 30students. These 30 students were selected at random and they were observed over a period of 15 hours. The comparison was made between the stage when they just started using the language resource centre and the stage they reached at they end of the 15^th hour.

The procedure adopted for collecting such data is as following:

1. Listening for specific information test was administered.
2. Students were asked to listen and were made to respond to the questions given.
3. A list of words spoken in Received Pronunciation was transmitted for listeners.
4. Then they were asked to repeat the pronunciation.
5. Whatever was spoken by the learners, it was recorded and listened by the teacher.
6. The tests were repeated once again, the responses were once again recorded and corrected.
7. This way all the responses were compared over a period of time.
8. It was found that there was a marked change in the pronunciation, stress and intonation.

Based on the above test, it can be concluded that even the slow learners perform very well when they are exposed to learning resource centre. Because in a learning resource centre the individual space allotted to each student gives enough opportunity to a learner to feel confident to make mistakes with out being ridiculed by others.

C. If learning resource centers are failures, what are the reasons that make the learning resource centre unviable?

Learning resource centers are not failures but there are certain limitations which at times hamper the smooth and targeted performance of a learning resource centre.

The limitations faced by the learning resource centre at BPS Mahila Vishwavidayalaya, Khanpur Kalan are varied; a few of these are as follows.

1. The first and foremost problem is that of uninterrupted power supply. At times the electricity supply is so low that it becomes totally impossible to run any system.
2. Faulty equipment dampens the whole process.
3. The demand for English learning is so high that it is in fact very difficult to accommodate each and every student of the university. Moreover teaching/non teaching staffs too want to come to the learning resource centre.
4. The trained manpower/teachers are not very large in number which at times affects the quality of instruction.
5. Computer literacy of the students is very poor, which is a stumbling block in the handling of learning resource centre paraphernalia.
6. At times many functions of the teacher’s console do not work properly, which defeats the very purpose of smooth transference of data from the teacher to the learners.

It becomes imperative to carry out a comparative study of teaching through learning resource centre and conventional mode. It is observed that there are certain advantages of conventional teaching which are really not covered under teaching through learning resource centre.

Advantages of conventional teaching:

1. Eye contact is maintained between the teacher and the student. Teaching is synchronized with the student’s mind. Immediate remedial action such as repeating the material already taught or altering the pace of teaching can be executed.
2. Doubts on the part of the student are immediately cleared by the teacher.
3. The teacher does not spend time grappling with technology.
4. Rapport and bonding develops between the teacher and the student through regular face to face interactions in class. The teacher acts as a role model for the student, thereby enhancing the learning process.

Based on this comparative analysis of two types of teaching of English, some questions were asked to the students in the form of a structured interview; a few of them are as following:

1. Do you feel the need of learning English?

Response: Single answer was, yes.

1. Do you consider learning resource centre, a success or failure?

Response: Definitely, a success.

1. Are you satisfied with the learning material used in a learning resource centre?

Response: the response was mixed, 60% said yes and 40% were in a dilemma

1. Are you satisfied with the pronunciation and the teaching style of the teachers?

Response: Again the response was mixed.

e. Do they feel confident in using the learning resource centre equipment?

Response: Gradually fear gives way to smooth handling of the equipment.

Based on the interpretation of the data together with the questionnaires and the structured interviews with learners reveal the following:

• There is a sense of fear at the beginning in the use of learning resource centre.
• Fear gives way to cautious reciprocation to what the learning material demands.
• Progressively learners understand the advantages of the learning resource centre and begin to like it and learn from it.

Though, initially the students are hesitant and afraid of even touching the state of the art learning resource centre paraphernalia, but gradually it was observed that the learners adopt the technology and started participating in the process of learning English through learning resource centre. They respond and reciprocate favorably to the demands of the learning material. The responses of the learners indicate that, learning resource centre really helps in expediting the whole process of teaching English language. The learners show a marked change in their behavior towards learning of English skills, especially listening and speaking.

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 by Prashant Mishra, Professor and Head, Department of English, Government S.V.P.G. College, NEEMUCH(M.P.) 458 441

Introduction:

Learning of mother tongue is an unconscious process. People learn their mother tongues from the socio-cultural surroundings. They do not learn the grammar of their mother tongues consciously and deliberately. But learning of a second language proves to be a difficult and complex exercise. In spite of making extra efforts, non-native learners find it difficult to acquire proficiency in the use of a second language. An L2 learner comes across two main obstacles in the learning of a second language. One is to acquire linguistic competence and second is to extend linguistic competence to communicative competence i.e. to use grammatical items appropriately in various real-life situations while communicating with the people. Most of the teachers are accustomed to teach grammar rules in isolation. They follow prescriptive approach by first acquainting the students with the grammatical rules and then providing practice to them in their uses and applications. Even teachers who follow descriptive approach too divorce the teaching of grammatical items from the real life situations. Therefore, it becomes necessary for a grammar pedagogue to associate teaching of grammatical rules with their uses in real life situations. Here a teacher has to adopt a strategy to create such situations in the class room which provide ample opportunities to the students to use grammatical items meaningfully in different types of real life situations. As class rooms are divorced from the lives of the students due to imposition of curricula, examination pattern and time constraints, it becomes difficult for a teacher to match the class room situations with the real life situations they encounter outside the class rooms. But a resourceful teacher can easily maneuver class room situations to extend teaching of rules to their appropriate uses in various socio-cultural situations.

Earlier Approaches to the Teaching of Grammar:

Earlier ‘Grammar Translation’ method was used in the class room. This method emphasizes on teaching of rules of language through translation from mother tongue to a target language and vice-versa. Practice to use a language was provided through translation and explanation of the rules of grammatical items needed for translation. As teaching of classical languages was the main and not fluency, so this method employed bilingualism. Contrary to Grammar-Translation Method, Direct Method abolished the use of mother tongue altogether from the English Language Teaching class-rooms. It also banished teaching of grammar rules in isolation which seems pedantic and does not lead to fluency in the use of language. Structural Linguistics that came into vogue in the first half of the 20^th century made some modifications in the Direct Method. It regards language as a highly structured system in which language items are arranged in a hierarchy. It advocates teaching of language items in a graded manner through drilling in meaningful situations. The Oral Approach or Situational Language Teaching which was developed between 1930 to 1960 by British Linguists Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby necessitates the presentation of all language items in ‘situations’. It requires contextualization of the language items and their practice. Further modifications in this approach paved the way for communicative language teaching. Transformation Generative Linguistics that came into existence in the second half of the 20^th century rejected Structuralist’s premise of language learning as repetition and drilling. It regards (Chomsky1957) language learning as a cognitive activity. When children are exposed to language, they internalize the rules of language and develop intuitive knowledge which enables them to create infinite number of sentences. All the aforementioned approaches confined themselves to the teaching of rules or rules of usage directly or indirectly. Hymes(1972) discovered this fallacy in Chomsky and regards language learning as an ability to use language appropriately in various communicative situations to convey meanings. Hymes’ criticism of Chomsky initiated the movement of communicative language teaching that regards communicative competence as the aim of language teaching than the earlier approaches which stopped at structural or grammatical competence. The present paper is an attempt to explore the application and viability of the situational approach in teaching of grammar.

Teaching of Grammar in Indian Class Rooms and the Need of the Situational Approach:

 In India English is taught as a second language and not the mother-tongue of the students. Three different types of programmes are taught in India: (i) General English or English Language (ii) English Literature or Special English course which is optional at the undergraduate level in Indian Universities and can be opted along with two other subjects. It aims to develop literary and aesthetic sensibility among the students. (iii) Functional English which is introduced at the graduate level as a three years job-oriented programme aims at training young boys and girls to use English proficiently in real life situations. However, Functional English and Special English programes are offered by only few selected students. Majority of the students study English Language or General English as a compulsory subject under either Language component at the school level or under Foundation course component at the undergraduate level. The General English course comprises of a prescribed textbook containing some lessons followed by comprehension questions, vocabulary items and exercises in grammar and composition. The exercises consist of ‘fill in the blanks’ with suitable articles/prepositions/pronouns/modals or change of voice/ narration or combine the sentences. Examples given in the exercises do not have any correspondence with the communicative situations which students come across in their daily lives. The result is that even after learning rules of grammar for so many years, our students fail miserably in acquiring fluency in the use of language. It has therefore become necessary to rethink and to reorient the material and methodology of grammar teaching in order to equip our students to use the language items not only correctly but also appropriately in different real life situations. 

Creating different communicative situations in the class rooms for teaching grammar:

Due to prescription of text-books and curriculum, teachers are restrained to confine themselves to the completion of the curricula and to follow the methodology accordingly. The text, curricula and the examination pattern dictates them to aim at assisting the learners in scoring good marks in the examination rather than facilitating them to gain fluency in the use of language. They follow prescriptive approach and emphasize more on teaching of rules than their use in different communicative situations. This results in limited exposure and makes the class room closed-ended for communicative activities. The main challenge before a grammar pedagogue is to make the class room open-ended by creating enough scope in the class room for the students to participate in the communicative activities. A grammar teacher should create such types of learner-centered communicative situations in the class room which enable a learner to repeatedly use different frequently occurring grammatical items in various life-like situations. This language exercise will not only aid the learners in developing grammatical competence but also contribute to the achievement of communicative competence.

A resourceful teacher can explore creation of different types of situations in the class room. Although a few types of situations are mentioned in this paper, a competent teacher can create situations spontaneously depending on the level of the students, the grammatical item he is teaching, and the topic. A teacher can create personal as well impersonal situations. Personal situations may be related to the personal lives, likes and dislikes and family background of the students and the teachers. Impersonal situations may be related to any area and theme currently in debate and discussion in the media and the society. Apart from personal and impersonal situations even imaginary situations may also be created by a teacher for communicative purposes. Even while teaching the prescribed text for the purpose of reading comprehension, a teacher can select some interesting passages from the text and can create some communicative situations based on them for teaching and providing practice in the use of a grammatical item.

Creating personal situations:

Grammar pedagogy in the traditional methodology and class rooms was confined to mere prescription of rules. The priority of a grammar teacher was to prescribe rules and to ask the students to first memorize them and then to apply the rules on the sentences given to them for practice. Even Structuralists who found the traditionalists guilty of prescriptivism and who advocated descriptive approach have made the teaching of grammar mechanical by following analytical methods of breaking language items into small isolated units. The result is that both the traditionalists and structuralists failed in creating communicative activities in the class room. To encourage communicative activities in the class room and to integrate grammatical rules with their uses, it becomes necessary for pedagogues to create some interesting situations in the class room to facilitate the learners to use the grammatical items in them.  A teacher can create various types of situations – student-centered as well as teacher-centered on different subjects like ones hobbies, likes and dislikes, routine activities, habits, friends, relatives, family professions, health etc. to provide sufficient opportunities and time to the students to participate in the meaningful situational dialogues. For example, while teaching simple present tense, a teacher can initiate discussion in the class room by asking some questions about the daily routine of the students:

Teacher: What do you do at night, Mohan?

Mohan: I study at night. Sometimes I also watch movies.

Teacher: At what time do you study at night?

Mohan: Sir, I study from 9 to 11.30 at night.

Teacher: And when do you go to sleep?

Mohan: I go to sleep at 12.

Teacher: When do you wake up in the morning?

Mohan: I wake up at 5’O clock in the morning.

Teacher: Then what do you do in the morning?

Mohan: I go for a walk in the morning.

Teacher: Where do you walk in the morning?

Mohan: I walk on the Park Road.

Similarly a teacher can also create situations related to himself. For example while teaching Present Continuous Tense, a teacher can initiate a conversation in the class by putting some questions to the students about the activities in which he is presently engaged:

Teacher: What am I doing, Mohan?

Mohan: Sir, you’re teaching tenses.

Teacher: Which tense am I teaching, Sohan?

Sohan: Sir, you’re teaching present continuous.

Teacher: And what else am I doing?

Shyam: You’re also walking.

Teacher(Sits down):  And what am I doing now?

Ram: And now you are sitting, Sir.

Teacher: (Starts writing on the blackboard): And what am I doing now?

Dinesh: Sir, you are writing on the blackboard.

Creating impersonal situations:

It is not necessary that a teacher always creates personal situations to initiate conversational exchanges in the class room. Apart from personal situations, creation of impersonal situations can also be explored for communicative purposes. Impersonal situations that cover topics related to politics, sports, cinema, theatre, fashion, books, celebrities, finance, transport, vehicles and any other topic in which students have some background knowledge and information should be explored for creating communicative situations in the class room. For example, a teacher can make use of impersonal situations for communicative purposes while teaching clauses:

Teacher: Oh! Boys. I’m so sorry that India lost the series against Australia. It’s very unfortunate.

Students: What is very unfortunate sir?

Teacher:  It’s very unfortunate that India lost the series against Australia by a very narrow margin.

Or

What’s very unfortunate is that India lost the series against Australia by a very narrow margin.

Teacher: What’s the main reason for India’s defeat?

Students: We’ve not bowled and fielded well.

Teacher: Do you all agree that our weak bowling and batting is the reason behind India’s defeat.

Students: No, sir. I don’t think so.

Teacher: Then what do you think Mohan?

Mohan: I think that our batsmen failed in scoring big totals.

Text-centered communicative situations:

There is also a scope for creating interesting situations in the class room for providing practice in the use of some grammatical items from the text taught for the purpose of reading comprehension. From the primary to under graduate level, for all the classes a text book is prescribed. The text contains some lessons – essays and poems for reading comprehension. Contents from the lessons from the text may also be used for creating situations and activities in order to provide practice in the use of grammatical items. However, the situations created from the content given in the text should not be directly copied from the prescribed text but should be modified to create communicative activities in the class room. For example, Nissim Ezekiel’s poem ‘Night of the Scorpion’ (prescribed for B.A. III rd Semester students in M.P.) can be fruitfully used for teaching ‘May’ as a Modal Auxiliary. Ezekiel in the poem has repeatedly used ‘may’ to express desire or wish. Through the repeated use of ‘May’ in the poem, the villagers express their wish and pray for the recovery of the mother who was suffering from Scorpion’s bite. The teacher may create the same type of situation by depicting one of the student suffering from some ailment or problem and asking the rest of the students to wish and pray for his recovery by using ‘may’ as used by the peasants in the “Night of the Scorpion”.

Teacher: What happened to you Mohan? It seems you are not well today and feel very nervous.

Mohan: Sir, for the last few days I‘ve been suffering from malaria. I also couldn’t complete my assignments.

Teacher: May you recover soon! May you soon complete your assignments and score good grades!

Mohan: Thanks for your kindness, sir. May you live long!

Sohan: May all the germs of Malaria be killed altogether!

Shyam: Don’t worry Mohan. May the best doctors attend you!

Ram: May the malarial parasites go to dogs!

Creating Information based situations:

“Since second language teaching should help learners achieve some kind of communicative skills in the second language, all situations in which real communication occurs naturally have to be taken advantage of and many more suitable ones have to be created”(Klippel1995:4). A teacher can create communicative situations in the class room to initiate students to participate in the discussion on some current and familiar topic relating to some festival, current problems prevailing in the college, town and the country, some important sports event currently taking place, some debatable policy of the government, T.V. serials, fashion shows and famous celebrities and personalities by inviting them to share their views and exchange information on the topic. For example adjectives and degrees of comparison can be used for creating situations in the class room to describe some objects, persons, places and things and to make comparison between the same.

Teacher: Who do you think are the three great cricketers of India.

Mohan: Sachin, Anil Kumble and Yuvi.

Teacher: Do you agree with him, Sohan?

Sohan: I do agree on Sachin and Anil. But I have some reservations for Yuvi.

Teacher: What do you say Ram?

Ram: Sachin is the greatest batsman. He scored the highest runs in both Test and ODI.

Teacher: Who do you think is a better baller , Anil or Harbajan?

Shyam: Anil is better than Bhajji. He took the highest wickets in ODI.

Teacher: Who do you think is a better hitter Dhoni or Yuvi?

Ashok: I prefer Yuvi. He is a better hitter than Dhoni.

Conclusion:

Students, thus, can be exposed to various grammatical items through their contextualization in various real life situations. As discussed above a teacher can create situations of different sorts to provide practice and exposure to the students in learning grammatical rules in order to achieve communicative competence. Hymes, Searle, Austin, Halliday and Leech who are the exponents of Functional Approaches in one or the other way stressed the situational use of language. Critics of the situational Approach who criticize the situations created in the class room as mechanical situations and not the real life situations, forget that even if the class room situations are divorced from the spontaneously and naturally created real life situations, they have enough potential to provide exposure needed for learning a language. According to Professor Krishnaswamy, “Learners know what to say in the mother tongue in a given situation; they do it everyday……In order to do similar things in English, what they need is words in English, and understanding of how the words in English are put together to form larger units, and meaningful practice in contexts in which English is required to be used in India” (Krishnaswamy1995:33).

References:

Chomsky,N.1957.Syntactic Structures.The Hague:Moulton.

Hymes,D.1972. “On Communicative Competence”, in Pride J.B. and Holmes J. (Ed.).       Sociolinguistics – Selected Readings. Harmondsworth:Penguin Books.

Klippel,F.1995. Keep Talking. Cambridge:CUP.

Krishnaswamy,N.1995. Teaching English Grammar.Madras: T.R.Publications Pvt.Ltd.

About the author:

Dr. Prashant Mishra did his Masters in English and Ph.D. in criticism on “John Keats as a Critic: His Theory and Practice” from Vikram University Ujjain(M.P.). He also had his education at CIEFL Hyderabad from where he did Post Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of English, Post Graduate Diploma in the Teaching of English and M. Phil. in Linguistics and Phonetics.

Presently, he is a Professor and Head in the Department of English, Government P.G.College NEEMUCH(M.P.). He specializes in Linguistics, Criticism, Postmodern Theories and Pedagogical Issues. His publications include 35 research papers published in scholarly journals and anthologies. He also edited 5 anthologies of English Literature published by M.P. Hindi Granth Academy Bhopal(M.P.).He participated in 21 national seminars organized by different institutions and academic bodies in India and also acted as a resource person in some of them. He has also delivered talks on Linguistics, Stylistics, Grammar, Human Rights in various colleges of M.P. and Rajasthan. He is on the editorial board of ‘Reflection’ a prestigious journal published from Bhagalpur (Bihar) and also an executive member of Rajasthan Association of English Studies.

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