Argumentative Essay
Teaching Grammar with an Inductive Approach
“Your grammar is a reflection of your image. Good or bad, you have made an impression. And like all impressions, you are in total control” (Jeffrey Gitomer). Grammar is defined as the study and description of the arrangement of words and sentences in the language (Brown, 2000, p. 362). The main approaches applied in the teaching of grammar are deductive when the rules are presented directly, and inductive when students discover the rules, which is the focus of the present paper. Teaching grammar following an inductive approach allows students to be active participants of the class since it encourages them to develop their critical thinking skills.
The inductive approach leads students to analyze the information in order for them to develop a deeper understanding of the language. This approach follows a natural acquisition of the language process (Brown, 2000, p. 365). Learners absorb the rules unconsciously, and it builds motivation since students are allowed to discover them instead of being told (Brown, 2000, p. 365). When teaching grammar inductively, the learning process centers its focus on the students; they are the ones who analyze the language, form hypothesis, and get to a conclusion. As a result the knowledge acquired becomes meaningful, because teachers encourages an autonomous learning. But as the inductive approach has lots of benefits, it also deals with some disadvantages.
Using the inductive approach causes misunderstanding in more complex grammar structures. If grammar is not taught in an explicit way, students are likely to make false assumptions when they still have a limited knowledge about the foreign language (Farhan, 2009, p. 321). The application of the inductive approach with beginner learners can cause not only confusion among them, but also frustration since they are not able to infer structures because of their narrowed schemata of the language. In addition, teaching grammar explicitly favor a quick and clear delivery of grammar learning since students receive the information as it is (Farhan, 2009, p. 321). The deductive grammar can be useful in certain situations such as time, to present grammar explicitly allows students to progress with grammar with a faster and easier rhythm.
The inductive approach promotes students´ interest and that they feel the language of their own. The deductive grammar has proved ineffectiveness, and to be boring for learners of the foreign language (Ke, 2008, p. 2), since not through imitation but through abstracting a set of grammatical rules is how a language is acquired (Chomsky, 1977, as cited in Ke, 2008, p. 3). Inductive grammar makes the process of learning interesting yet meaningful, because in order to discover a rule students need to have a process of reasoning between their previous knowledge, and the new information to be able to establish a new grammatical rule. Furthermore, the inductive approach “allows students to get a communicative feel for some aspect of language before possibly being overwhelmed by grammatical explanations” (Brown, 2000, p. 365). In summary, when the teacher presents something totally new for students, this approach leads learners to first get familiarized with the language for its future analysis and comprehension.
Inductive grammar advantages students´ autonomy, and grants a real and deep comprehension of the language itself. When teaching grammar teachers must allow, and encourage leaners to be conscious of what they learn, this makes the process of learning interesting and engaging since teachers let students discover grammar for themselves. Even though, deductive grammar can be effective in some contexts such as beginner learners, the better way to claim a deep understanding of grammar for students is to help them to develop their critical thinking. Something that teachers need to keep in mind is that, if something is effective in the learning process is when the class is centered on the students instead on the teacher.
References
Brown, D. (2000). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. New York, New York: Pearson, Longman.
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