There is a question “How do children learn grammar?”
It is not easy to answer. According to Schrivener (2003), learning is a slow, messy business.Itis better to acknowledge that, because then you will not come out of class angry with yourself and saying things like I taught it well, but they did not learn it. There are two different ways of teaching new grammatical structure. The grammar can be covert or overt. There is a fundamental difference between teaching grammar through these two ways.
Covert/inductive grammar - indirect grammar teaching, teacher does not provide grammar rules. There is a text where new grammatical structure is introduced. Children read the text and find out the new structure. Childrena
ttention is not
focused on the structure, but on the text. Children work with the text, they practice new language and the focus does not have to be on the grammar. Children play with the words, sentences and they can take the new grammar in incidentally.
Overt/deductive grammar - explanation of the new grammatical rules and structures to children. Teachers of young learners tend to focus on vocabulary and pronunciation the most, and these are certainly important areas. However, it is important not to neglect grammar in the classroom. It is important that children develop all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), and grammar, along with vocabulary, will allow them to do this. At the other end of the grammar spectrum, a huge population of communicative language teachers opposes the explicit teaching of grammar.They object to isolating grammar as a system within a system. In line with what Pinter (2006) assumes that teaching grammar in isolation can be a dry and boring activity. Grammar should be learnt intuitively through context and should be inferred through meaning and task. However, it is important to keep in mind that children are often not able to think in abstract terms, and are still developing mental concepts. This means they may not be able to analyze language through a grammatical perspective. Try to avoid using metalanguage (e.g. passive verb, subject, object) and focus instead on what grammar can do to achieve communication.
Teacher’s lesson plans should include tasks which use grammar to achieve a goal. For example, teacher can ask children to describe a picture, which will involve using present progressive, e.g. “The man is walking with his dog”.
He can ask the children to guess what object is in a bag, which will require them to formulate questions. Activities which embed grammar and teach grammar indirectly motivate children much more than drills or explanations. Teacher should make sure all new grammar is taught before the activity. The focus of this, however, should be that the children understand the meaning of the grammar. Teacher can use Indonesia to make sure they understand. Keep in mind that children may learn easily but forget quickly. Recycle new grammar frequently to help them remember.
