The Place Of Grammar

The Traditional and Tacit Teaching of Grammar _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Muhammad Bilal Ashraf Lecturer in English, Govt. Imamia College, Sahiwal.

Irving M. Copi, a famous logician, wrote in the first chapter of The Introduction to Logic, “it would be a mistake to suppose that only the students of Logic can reason well or correctly, just as it would be wrong to suppose that only the athlete who studies physiology can run well”. The same approach can be applied to the learning of grammar of any language. The place and importance accorded to grammar in the process of learning a language is exaggerated in the pedagogical circles. The teaching of Grammar in the class rooms is mistakenly considered as the first step to teaching a language, which it is not, especially, when the language being taught is not first but second. The grammar in its very essence is burdensome for the learner, when it comes to learning it manually with the traditional methods. The ease with which a native speaker expresses himself in different situations is an ample proof of the fact that, although perfect in the use of grammar, he makes no conscious effort to follow the rules correctly and, hence, never loses the semantic aspects of the speech. He is usually free from the burden of using correct parts and structures of the speech in their actual places, whereas, the speaker of second language is always in a stress and, hence, shifts his focus away from meanings to the structural perfections which, even if achieved, are useless, for they do not conform the meanings of the speech which they are actually for. This difference of expression between the native speaker and the second language learner owes much to the approach of the both while learning the grammar. The former’s grammar is more tacit in nature than explicit, whereas, the latter’s case is the flip side of the former. This difference is clearly understood if we look at the process of learning in the speakers’ lives. The native speaker learns the complex structures of the language unconsciously by listening to the speakers around him in the real environment while trying to understand what they mean to say. The linguistic encoding and decoding take place in his brain instinctively without the involvement of his conscious which is busy in understanding the meanings and preparing what to respond. By the age of five he is exposed to a variety of situations and has developed certain habits of linguistic encoding and decoding. At this stage, if someone catches him by the arm and starts telling him about the different classes of words and grammatical structures he himself uses, he will sure understand and also will make up the deficiencies in him to improve his communication. All would be easy for him because of the human habit of association. Moreover he has a lot of material to associate with and it all happens quickly without straying the brain away from meanings. On the other hand, the second language learner is confused all the time. He is the one who has to put his feet in different boats while sailing through the ocean of learning. The major problem he has to face is bilingualism. The first language always resists the progress of second language. The speech habits

developed during the first language allow little flexibility; however, the linguists suggest the learning of second language in the earlier age to minimize the interference of first language. The younger you are, the better you learn. That is the stage where our language teachers commit a blunder by putting their students to learning the grammar of that language. Grammar is, no doubt, important but the traditional method of teaching it in the fake environment of the class room is more harmful than beneficial, merely because the learner does not have the sufficient raw material to manoeuvre and associate with. As a result he takes a lot of time in discerning the meanings of the speech. It is difficult for him to keep focus on the meanings of what he is reading or listening. Here, it is, by no means, stressed that grammar should not be taught; rather what concerns here more is that before undertaking the task of teaching grammar to the students, one ought to make sure that the learner is ready to get the benefit of it. The learner of traditional grammar must already have enough exposure to all the four skills of the language as to provide him the platform where he can stand. Ideally the basics of grammar are best taught in the actual environment where a learner corrects himself by the examples from the real life and never loses his grip on the meanings of the speech in this process. The best a language teacher can do is to provide an environment where the students get exposed to different skills of the language and learn themselves by example and association because confidence and concentration on meanings are more important than the knowledge of different parts of speech. A native speaker of a language never knows whether he is using reflexive pronoun or a countable noun during his speech.