Teaching English Vocabulary, Grammar, Reading and Writing

 

Dr. R. Kannan¹*, Dr. Sarika Tyagi²

 

¹Associate Professor, Department of English, Fatima Michael College of Engg. and Tech., Madurai – 625 020, Tamilnadu, India

²Assistant Professor (Senior), English Division, School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT University, Vellore-632 014 (Tamilnadu)

 

ABSTRACT:

Arabic language is one of the international languages, because it has Teaching vocabulary involves far more than looking up words in a dictionary and using the words in a sentence. Vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words and intentionally through explicit teaching in specific words and word-learning strategies. Teaching grammar plays an essential role in every classroom. We might think that teaching grammar is just a matter of explaining grammar rules to students. Indeed, teaching grammar effectively is a much more complicated matter. As far as the teaching reading is concerned, everyday materials such as bus/train schedules, newspaper articles, advertisements, etc. become appropriate classroom materials. Reading such materials will develop communicative competence among the students. Change has been taking place due to technological developments, from pen and paper, to typewriter, to word processor, to networked computer, to design software capable of composing words, images, and sounds.  These developments not only expanded the types of texts that writers produce, they also expanded immediate access to a wider variety of readers.  Hence writing is an increasingly multifaceted activity. It needs to be practiced consistently in order to become a good writer.  Hence, this paper attempts at explaining some methods involving in teaching vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing as they are essential parts of language teaching at every level.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The primary aim of teaching English to students is to impart four basic skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW). Teaching vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing in a language classroom will certainly enhance students LSRW skills. Thus, this paper suggests some methods in teaching vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing.

 

1) Teaching Vocabulary:

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. Vocabulary knowledge can never be fully mastered. It can be enhanced gradually over the period of time. There are a number of direct and indirect methods in teaching vocabulry. Here are two methods suggested namely, intentional vocabulary teaching and incidental vocabulary learning.

 

 

a) Intentional vocabulary teaching:               

To develop vocabulary intentionally, students should be explicitly taught both specific words and word-learning strategies. Specific word teaching will deepen students’ knowledge of word meanings.  Research shows that seeing vocabulary in rich contexts provided by authentic texts, rather than in isolated vocabulary drills, produces robust vocabulary learning. Such teaching often does not begin with a definition, for the ability to give a definition is often the result of knowing what the word means. Rich and robust vocabulary instruction goes beyond definitional knowledge; it gets students actively engaged in using and thinking about word meanings and in creating relationships among words.

 

There is a general view that there are more words to be learned than can be directly taught in vocabulary teaching.  Explicit teaching in word-learning strategies gives students tools for independently determining the meanings of unfamiliar words that have not been explicitly introduced in class. Since students encounter so many unfamiliar words in their reading, any help provided by such strategies can be useful.

 

b) Incidental vocabulary learning:

Linguists argue that vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words. Students can acquire vocabulary incidentally by engaging in rich oral-language experiences at home and at college, listening to books read aloud to them, and reading widely on their own. Some researchers opines that reading volume is very important in terms of long-term vocabulary development. They also point out that extensive reading gives students repeated or multiple exposures to words and is also one of the means by which students see vocabulary in rich contexts.

 

2) Teaching Grammar:

The misconception of teaching grammar is that it is a collection of arbitrary rules about static structures in the language. It is not so. There are views regarding teaching grammar. Some argue that grammar is acquired naturally and it need not be taught. It is true that some learners acquire second language grammar naturally without teaching.

 

Teaching grammar does not mean asking students to repeat models and it does not mean memorizing rule. Such activities can be boring and do not necessarily teach grammar. This does not mean there is no place for drills, but drills should be used in a meaningful and purposeful way. For example, to practice past-tense yes/no sentences in English, the teacher may ask his students to close their eyes while he changes five things about himself. He takes off one chalk piece, takes off his book, puts on his glasses, puts on his sweater, and takes off his bracelet. Students are then asked to pose questions to figure out the changes he has made. Students may ask, "Did you take off a chalk piece?" or "Did you put on a sweater?" This kind of activity can be useful, more importantly, engages students in a way that requires them to think and not just provide mechanical responses. Teaching grammar in a way that engages students may require creativity, but the teaching need not and should not be boring.

 

Most grammar books make clear the fact that progressive aspect is not used with stative verbs; therefore, the following would be ungrammatical:  "I am wanting a new car." For some English speakers, the sentence is not ungrammatical, and even those who find it so would be more inclined to accept progressive aspect when it co-occurs with perfective aspect, as in : "I have been wanting a new car" (for some time now).

 

The fact is that languages change, and any textbook rule should be seen as subject to change and non-categorical. Just as grammar learning is a process so grammar itself.  The teacher should realize this and he should also know about form, meaning and use of a particular grammar structure.

 

When the goals of language teaching include teaching students to use grammar accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately, a compelling case can be made for teaching grammar. Instead of viewing grammar as a static system of arbitrary rules, it should be seen as a rational, dynamic system that is comprised of structures characterized by the three dimensions of form, meaning, and use.

 

3) Teaching Reading:

The communicative approach to language teaching has given teachers a different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in teaching.

 

Before teaching reading to students it is mandatory to be a good reader at first. A good reader reads extensively and integrates information in the text with existing knowledge. He has a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading. Motivation is essential for a reader. Different skills like perceptual processing, phonemic processing and recall are needed for a good reader. Above all, reading for a purpose considers vital.

 

When the goal of teaching is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become appropriate classroom materials. Reading them develops communicative competence among students to some extent. Teaching in reading and reading practice thus gain significance in language teaching at every level. 

4) Teaching Writing:

In this module, teaching writing holds up students’ activities outside the classroom. Writing should not be viewed as an activity that happens only within a classroom.  Teachers need to support students in the development of writing lives, habits, travel planning, articles, and preferences for life outside school. It is a fact that scores of students do extensive amounts of self-sponsored writing such as emailing, keeping journals or doing creative projects, instant messaging, making Web sites, blogging and so on. Teaching should focus toward making sense in a life outside of school as much as possible. Only then, writing has sufficient room to grow in individuals’ lives.  Teachers should consider the kind of course students select in their self-sponsoring outside of school. Eventually, those activities will produce more writing.

 

To provide quality encouragement and constant support for student writing, teachers should teach on to interpret curriculum documents, including things that can be taught while students are actually writing, rather than one thing at a time to all students at once; Social structures that support independent work; to confer with individual writers; to assess while students are writing; to plan what students need to know in response to ongoing research; to create a sense of personal safety in the classroom, so that students are willing to write freely and at length; and to create community while students are writing in the same room together.

 

CONCLUSION:

Vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing plays a predominant role in classroom teaching. They enhance students’ knowledge gradually. The methods presented in this paper will definitely prove successful when one practices them inside the classroom. The students will not only gain more knowledge but also their involvement will be more as these methods present rather practical aspect of teaching than mechanical elements of teaching.

 

REFERENCES:

1.       Chomsky, C. “Linguistics and philosophy”. In Language and philosophy. S. Hook (Ed.), New York: New York University Press, 1969.

2.       Larsen-Freeman, D. Grammar dimensions: Form, meaning, and use. Boston: Heinle and Heinle, 1997.