Pedagogy of Grammar 1

PEDAGOGY OF GRAMMAR

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Pedagogy of Grammar

Pedagogical grammar is a grammar version that seeks to find the best criteria for the use of

language and language education. Pedagogical grammar identifies the means of teaching

grammar and learning of the second language in classrooms (Boer, J2018). The virtue of

education has continuously been used to build many ideas and evoke emotions. Human

consciousness has the capacity to give the education process a distinctive character that

enables teaching process to become a process to enjoy. In the classroom set up, the teacher

acts as the model for learners who the latter try to imitate their behavior. Most of the

myriad of grammar definitions provide justifications that it is not just much easy and

possible to describe grammar in terms of the morphologies or the language syntax. This is

because grammar has close links with meanings and aspect of relaying information from

one media to another (Frodesen 2018, pp1-7). Grammar can be defined as just mere

strategic rules that people employ to come up with grammatical match up of statements,

rather it is a strategy that people decide to employ in achieving proper transfer of

information coherently.

There are two major views on grammar that tend to oppose each other. There is the

prescriptive grammar and the descriptive grammar. These two views provide the models of

grammar that are necessary for teaching of English. The prescriptive grammar is a

traditional model of grammar that solely puts more focus on the expectations of how

individuals need to communicate grammar to each other or write correctly. The descriptive

model of grammar concerns more with the mechanisms with which people use language in

their daily activities and communicational process (Kiss and Lin, 2016). This is a concept of

the functional view of grammar. It is noteworthy to state that the pedagogy of grammar is
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branch of grammar that attempts to satisfy the concerns of the learners using second

language. The thesis statement for this paper therefore is to compare and contrast

prescriptive approach of grammar and the descriptive approach of grammar, along with

their corresponding advantages and disadvantages. However, also other approaches of

grammar include transformational or generative grammar, historical grammar, comparative

grammar, structural grammar, and non-comparative grammar.

The Prescriptive Approach of Grammar

This grammar type is also called formal grammar, theoretical or normative grammar. This

approach introduces the concept of Intermediate English Grammar for the English second

Language learners (Li and Li, 2015). The main point of concern here is to focus on the

accuracy level of grammar for the ESL learners rather than the notion of fluency. This is to

say that accuracy compost of the deeper understanding of the content of grammar rather

than the flow (fluency). This grammar approach gives prescription for the use of correct

language, both in the contexts of writing and speaking. The grammatical rules here judge

the comparisons between the wrong and the right. Prescriptive grammar classifies words

into parts of speech, basing on the form. Prescriptive grammar enables efficiency through

merely trying to make rules through, in language (Li and Li, 2015). It is worth noting that the

prescriptive grammarians hold that rules must always come first then the use of language

comes next. This trend has prevailed in many schools in recent educational forms

(McDonough and Shaw, 2012). Most of the grammar that are taught in the classroom set up

are formal and rules are normally laid down at the start and the use and practise of the

language follows.
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In addition to that, grammar was used to lay down rules for each occasion and never took

into any account the usage of English that kept on changing from time to time (Keck and

Kim, 2014). This language prescribed rules for every individual that used the language,

without questioning the rules. In classroom, it was called a formal language because they

proceeded from rules, instructions and definitions to the use of examples.

Descriptive Grammar

Descriptive grammar is also called the functional grammar or Incidental grammar (Andrews,

2007). Here, the grammatical rules were collected from the native speakers and then

encoded, to get a description for use in functional context. The rules are however not rigid

but are always subject to the changing languages. Precisely, descriptive language describes

the manner with which a particular language can actually be applied by the native speakers.

The learners must first learn how to use the language of interest and later becomes aware

of the rules.

Comparison between Prescriptive and Descriptive Grammar

i. Prescriptive grammar does prescribe grammar usage in the same manner it

should be while the descriptive grammar prescribes grammar usage the way they

are found, without questioning (McDonough and Shaw, 2012).

ii. Prescriptive grammar is a traditional approach that has been followed for long

while the descriptive grammar is a recent approach that came with the

advancement in linguistics (Atar, 2018).

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iii. The prescriptive grammar is deductive in its teaching approach while descriptive

grammar is inductive in nature during teaching.

iv. Prescriptive grammar is more preferred for the case of dead language while the

descriptive approach can be used for the language that changes with time.

v. Prescriptive grammar believes in the grammarians’ word as correct while the

descriptive grammar is used by the native speakers, and as such, the usage of the

language is its basis (McDonough and Shaw, 2012).

vi. The rules in prescriptive grammar are inviolable while the rules in descriptive

grammar are flexible for changes.

vii. Prescriptive grammar considers form as the most important aspect, while

descriptive grammar believes on the importance of meaning.

viii. Prescriptive grammar solely considers correct expression of ideas while

descriptive grammar is interested in fluency in speech (McDonough and Shaw,

2012).

ix. Prescriptive relies on the writings while the descriptive grammar depends on

speech.

x. Prescriptive grammar centers on the subject hence can be a termination to its

structure. Descriptive grammar on the other hand focuses on the student as the

center and can only be terminated by the form of communication (Li and Li,

2015).

xi. Prescriptive language has the belief that through the correct study of the

language rules, then the language must develop. However, descriptive grammar

holds that the use of correct language will always develop naturally without the

influence of other external forces (Li and Li, 2015).

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Advantages and Limitations of Using Prescriptive Grammar

The following are the advantages of using prescriptive grammar:

i. The knowledge of prescriptive grammar is applicable to non-native teachers and

students.

ii. It contains language rules that tend to reduce the level of confusion during

learning. It also reduces on the level of ambiguity of words.

i. Because of the syntax and rules, prescriptive language draws the system of

language into the mind of the users, thus creating certainty that enables the

language users to learn with ease (Atar, 2018).

iii. This grammar creates better writers because it is a map of language

The following are the limitations of using prescriptive grammar:

ii. It is very time consuming- in the essence of trying to know the rules of the

grammar (Atar, 2018)

iii. It is not economical.

iv. It is also unnecessary.

Advantages and Limitations of Using Descriptive Grammar

The following are the advantages of using descriptive grammar:

i. It reduces the level of confusion to learners because of the different forms of

usage of this grammar for advanced learners (Murray & Christison, 2019)...

ii. Flexible and changeable because there are no fixed rules

iii. It is never time consuming because there are no strict rules to follow.
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Limitations include:

i. It might be ambiguous for the beginning learners.

ii. The ambiguity might cause confusion among beginners.

iii. At some point, teachers have difficulty in choosing the dialect and grammar

usage to teach (Murray & Christison, 2019).

A Teaching Resource to Teach Vocabulary, Structure, and Pronunciation

Learning English grammar is infamously challenging to both English Native Language

and English Second Language speakers. Bound to its anonymously wide range of obscure

rules and principals, teachers of English grammar find it challenging to teach effectively and

efficiently literate skills to their learners. Initially, teaching techniques such as memorization

made it easier for the learners to memorize certain concepts in English (Palumbo, Kramer-

Vida, and Hunt 2015, pp. 109-115). However, the current society seems more appealing in

terms of embracing the emerging strategies and approaches to teaching and learning

English language. Citing to this, the advancement in technology has eased almost every part

of the world activities including education sector. Students are today able to learn non-

formal and informally form their homes without necessarily coming to school or planning to

learn. Talking about non-formal learning is the learning without laid down sequence in the

form of curriculum and syllabus. Students can sometimes willingly search concepts from the

internet without any prior planning thus contributing to what is referred to as the non-

formal learning (Cahyono and Widiati 2015, pp.1-17). The learning also occurs even during

the news announcement in radios and televisions.

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When listening to music or watching videos and cinemas, English is greatly used.

Through these concepts passed through the videos and music, certain vocabularies, phrases,

and sentence structures and patterns are used. Students unconsciously learn to use the

same styles of sentences, phrases, and sentence structures without being taught to use

them. This occurs majorly when there is repetitive encountering of the English items from

the music and movies they watch on their daily basis. The advancement in technology has

also promoted learning of English grammar through the informal ways (Gilakjani and

Sabouri 2016, pp.195-208). For example, most children of the twenty first century are

digitally oriented. Thus, in some circumstances, students who fail to undergo through the

government curriculum finds themselves using the information and technology gadgets

such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, and laptops. Most of these IT gadgets are

programmed in such a way that they use English Language as their instructional language

depending on the origin of the gadget. Through constant and repetitive use of these

gadgets, one may find himself or herself learning to use English language without prior

planning or intention of learning the language (Jensen, 2017). Therefore, we find technology

contributing a lot to the teaching and learning of English language to many people across

the world. All these are brought about by the traditional methods of memorization and

constant practicing. In this article, I would be presenting the use of music (a song) as a

learning resource of English language.

Using Songs as a learning resource to teach English Language

Incitingly, learning of English language has today become easier with technology.

Since most students like associating with the technological gadgets, they unwillingly learn

the language through the songs and movies they watch. However, there more resources
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that can be used teach the language (Nunan and Richards, 2015). These may include use of

the advertisements published by various companies or organizations, using English spoken

in the local area, and bridging English spoken inside and outside the classroom. However,

the use of songs is chosen because of the popularity of music entertainment that almost

every child loves in their daily lives. Songs are used in most of the literature works such as

poetry, drama, movies, and spoken words among other genres. This fact that songs are

omnipresent in most genres makes it a suitable instrument to be used as a teaching and

learning resource for English language (Chun, Kern, and Smith 2016, pp.64-80). Besides,

many songs played in radios and televisions are written in English thereby increasing the

contact most students have with the English.

English language is incorporated in songs written in different other languages thus

making it more common. For example, when listening to Indian songs such as those of

Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, English words are incorporated and this makes the listeners of

these songs learn the language. The trend is not exceptional when referring to the African

songs. Lots of English words, sentences, and phrases are highly deployed in the most songs

from the countries using English as a second language. Therefore, as a teacher of English,

using songs makes the learners feels livelier and more attached to the lesson than ever

before. The use of the songs makes them feel that the concepts are real and dislodge

boredom in them during classroom instructions. This would motivate the learners and

makes them practice the English phrases and sentences used in the songs most informally

thus learning by memorization.

In the teaching and learning of the English grammar, songs are very useful in

memorization of vocabularies and pronunciations. In more intense manner, teaching and

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learning by songs enhance listening and speaking skills in the learners, as they would sing

the songs outside the classroom settings. This tendency facilitates mastery of vocabularies,

sentence structure, phrases, and pronunciations of the various different English words.

Moreover, songs are also very useful in enhancing speaking and writing skills as through

them students get to learn the structure of sentence used in writing songs. Besides, the

songs provide the learners with the artistic knowledge of writing sings by unveiling to the

some of the patterns of words in the line of a song. This may help some few talented

students to start writing their own songs out of practice and eventually becomes good

songwriters in the world just like others. In this paper, I would use the written by one of the

American artist Michael Jackson about man in the mirror (Vogel, 2019). The text box below

presents some part of the song’s lyrics.

I’m gonna make a change,

For once in my life

It’s gonna feel real good,

Gonna make a difference

Gonna make it right …

According to the song’s lyrics presented in the text box above, the students are able

to read them and memorize the song at their own will. When a song like this is selected for

the lesson, the learners feels more agitated since they find a lesson basing on what they

know and like. I chose on this song from the American singer Michael Jackson hoping that

majority would be proficient with it. In addition, perhaps would enjoy singing along with it

as it has quite soothing melodies loved by most young people. The song itself has several
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things to be learnt by in an English class lesson. First, the sentences are very short. This

provides the learners with the insight of the structures of sentences used in the genre

works. Most of the artistic writing takes forms of short structured sentences, which are so

direct into the points they are highlighting. This form of sentence structures provides good

captions to the readers, listeners, or viewers of the work. Another insightful item from the

resource is the mixed up of languages. The songwriter, Michael Jackson used his native

English language together with the correct English grammar to convey his feelings and ideas

in the song. For example, the use of words like ‘gonna’ is not accepted in grammatical

English and it is an incorporation of the Native American language in the English grammar.

The learners are as well capable of learning literature skills such as shortening of words to

enhance rhythms in the music. Moreover, the insightful concepts of repetition and rhymes

both within and end rhymes that makes the song so rhythmical and lovely to listen to.

Conclusion

Therefore, learning of English grammar has been made quite easier due to the

technological advancement. With technology, teaching and learning resources are easily

available to every person who wishes to use them in teaching and learning English grammar.
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References

Andrews, S. (2007) Teacher Language Awareness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Atar, C., 2018, October. Prescriptive versus descriptive grammar: Do prescriptive rules

actually reflect the reality?. In ICPESS (International Congress on Politic, Economic

and Social Studies) (No. 5).

Cahyono, B.Y. and Widiati, U., 2015. The teaching of EFL vocabulary in the Indonesian

context: the state of the art. TEFLIN journal, 19(1), pp.1-17.

de Boer, J.R., 2018. The Allusivity of Grammar: Developing theory and pedagogy for

linguistic aesthetics (Doctoral dissertation, Institute for Christian Studies).

Frodesen, J., 2018. Grammar and Second Language Writing. The TESOL Encyclopedia of

English Language Teaching, pp.1-7.

Gilakjani, A.P. and Sabouri, N.B., 2016. Why Is English Pronunciation Ignored by EFL

Teachers in Their Classes. International Journal of English Linguistics, 6(6), pp.195-

208.

Jensen, S.H., 2017. Gaming as an English language learning resource among young children

in Denmark. Calico Journal, 34(1).

Keck, C. and Kim, Y. (2014) Pedagogical Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing

Company.
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Kiss, T. and Lin, C., 2016. Beliefs, knowledge and practices of grammar pedagogy: Teaching

dyslexic learners.

Li, J. and Li, Q., 2015, January. Comparative Study between Traditional Grammar and

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