As we know, the teaching of grammar plays an important role in language learning. However, it seems that most children don’t like to study grammar. Why? Maybe they think grammar is difficult, abstract, complex and boring. At the same time, the problem of teaching grammar to children has aroused a lot of discussions and debates among teachers and language educators. Then, let’s have a look at the first question.
In fact, there are different views about teaching grammar to young learners. Some people regard grammar as a list of rules in its technical forms, such as ‘ tense , ‘voice and so on. In addition, they think children do not need to learn grammar rules when they acquire their L1, so they do not need them either when learning a foreign language. In this sense, they would say that grammar should not be taught to young learners. But here grammar is viewed in a narrow sense .
Some other people think grammar is a system that helps make meaning more precise (accurate精确的) in real communication, so grammar is important for children to learn a foreign language and should be taught in primary classroom. And we generally agree with this opinion.
For older children in grade 5 or 6 in primary schools, learning some grammar rules may help them produce more accurate sentences. What’s more, if students can apply grammar to meaningful communication, their grammar knowledge will be consolidated.
However, we should consider how to teach grammar. Then, let’s look at the next question.
Generally speaking, there are two ways to present grammar knowledge in the classroom, i.e. deductive method and inductive method归纳法. With deductive method, teachers introduce a rule first and give students some examples. On the contrary, with inductive method, teachers provide students with examples (or real language data) first, and help them notice the rule without any obvious explanation or ask them to summarize the rule later.