Why Learn Grammar In The First Place?

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I notice that nowadays, many agencies have been organizing English camps and short courses for students and youngsters. This is good because it provides our children with opportunities to improve in the language. However, there are some organizers who promotes modules which concern less on grammar while trying to encourage their participants to speak in English. Their reason is that grammar has been constraining people from speaking in English; they are too scared to make grammar mistakes that they choose not to speak at all.

In my personal view, the blame should not be put on grammar. I believe that it is the attitude of the people that makes it difficult for one to speak in English. Malaysians are basically very shy people and they are really concerned about what others think of them. At the same time, they have this fondness of looking for other people's mistakes so that they could laugh at them. Based on my personal experience as an English teacher, I could clearly see that this attitude has been the main constraint and not the grammar.

I could not deny that many people think grammar is confusing. Well, it depends very much on how their English teachers had taught them grammar at school. If it was not well planned and the approach was not suitable, learning grammar could become students' worst nightmare. Besides, when teaching grammar teachers should always relate to writing and speaking. It is okay to teach grammar in isolation but the purpose of learning grammar is to enable us to write and speak grammatically, so make sure our students get this message clearly.

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