Week 5 - How should the relationship between accuracy and fluency be dealt with in primary English teaching?

From what I gathered, learning English in Hong Kong is very different from learning English in an English speaking country. English grammar is heavily emphasized even from the kindergarten level. My daughter, who is now in K3 had her first grammar lesson this week, learning about the gender pronouns.

Knowing the grammar of the English language helps students to accurately construct a sentence. Hence, grammar is very important. Knowing grammar leads to the accuracy of the language, but does it lead to the fluency of the language? I don’t think so.

Accuracy in the head is different from accuracy through the mouth. Head knowledge is important maybe for writing, but for speaking, students must open their mouths and try speaking out the sentences. The more the students practice, the more fluent they become in speaking the language.

In order to be fluent in English, the students must be immersed in an English environment, with ample opportunities to speak what they have mastered from their grammar lessons. Students need to practice speaking within the English environment, building on their confidence. If necessary, correction can be made fine-tuning the imperfect sentence structures. Once the students are confident with speaking English regardless of accuracy, then they are on a road to fluency.

I think accuracy and fluency complement each other, that is, we must have accuracy and fluency. They are circular. We will still teach primary students grammar, and at same time expose as much as possible the students to English surroundings, people, cultures and arts, which can provide plenty of opportunities for students to practice speaking using the learnt grammar structures.

In primary schools, maybe English language can be made the social language, where students and teachers must speak English even during recesses, lunch hours or anytime when verbal interactions take place. I was impressed when Paul showed us a class demonstration, in which the students spoke English throughout their group work. Without making a conscious effort, the students switched to speaking English, and it became a second nature to them to use English in their conversations. This was successfully done, because the class teacher made it a rule that students must speak English to each other in the English lesson. Over a length of time, the obligation to speak in English became a norm, and it seemed that students became accustomed to the requirement. Perhaps, this rule can be enforced beyond the classroom, into the playground, during lunch hours, and anytime where verbal interaction is taking place.

Speaking fluent English with accuracy is like driving a car safely. Students need much practice in speaking, like a driver he needs much practice driving on the road before driving becomes a second nature to him, that is, driving without consciously thinking of what to do next. You just do what needs to be done, so is with speaking English, you eventually just do it.

Week 4 -How-can-learners-be-helped to master grammatical accuracy?

Successful learning of anything requires motivation and interest. If one is not interested in a topic or there is not a valid reason to gain a specific knowledge, then one would not go about in departing with one’s own effort.

To me grammar is something, which is very rigid, structured, and not at all interesting to learn. Since joining Paul’s class, he surely motivated me to self learn and gave me a new light to English grammar. Paul learnt his English grammar, not formally through a teacher, but by reading books and finding out answers by himself.

I believe English grammar is very difficult to teach, because it can be perceived as a very dry and uninteresting subject. Although, we still need to relay the formulas of the sentence structures, and explain the reasons behind such structures, we can present in ways, which will keep the students interested.

As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, our five senses together can play a big role in helping us learn. Each sense enforces each other in retaining information. Learning grammar structure requires us to memorise the order of words, which one goes where, and when to use such structure etc.

In addition to using our five senses, individual involvement and personal experience are also important to learning and retaining information into our memory. Individual involvement and personal experience allow us to associate with a piece of information, in this case a grammatical structure.

For example, let’s teach the verb element. Maybe the teacher can ask each student to do an assigned action, read a book, drink from a bottle of water, or chew a gum, or sing a song, etc. A student is then required to say what he /she was doing. From there, the teacher can explain what a verb is. The teacher then gives examples of sentences including the verbs, which were used and performed by the students. Each student takes turn to give an example of a sentence using his/her verb. Hopefully, from the sufficient examples shared within the class, students can see the trend of sentence formation and ‘feel’ how verbs are used. The teacher enforces their learning with other activities.

As a teacher I would like to give students a good impression and a good experience of the English Grammar. I think this would help them to enjoy, first of all, acquainting with this aspect of the English language, and then hopefully, the students can develop an intimacy with it.

I believe a student’s participation in specifically designed activities is important, in addition to the other elements for learning, as mentioned above. So, how can teachers help students to engage in interesting, enjoyable and meaningful activities, which will enable students to learn and retain what they have learnt? Repetition or drilling is still necessary for mastering grammar accurately. The question here is how teachers can facilitate students to drill with enjoyment and effectiveness. This would be a call for creativity on the teachers' part.

Week 3 – How did I learn English grammar in school?
How important is grammar learning for primary students?

To be honest, I haven’t the faintest idea of how I learnt grammar. In fact, I do not have the slightest memory of learning English through grammar. Therefore, I believe I didn’t explicitly learn grammar as part of the English language. Now, I speak and write English according to whether a sentence sounds ‘right’. I do not think about sentence structures, for example, whether the verb should go after the subject or the object, etc. I think this approach of communication comes from having heard similar sentence structures again and again over a long period of time. Maybe a little similar to rote learning.

From my English learning experience and the availability of an all-English environment, I can suppose that explicit learning of grammar is not necessary for basic everyday communication. However, for more complex and academic writings, grammar is essential. Knowing your grammar would seem to complete the ‘package’ of the English language.

Since the session with Dr. Paul Sze lecturing on an English writing test, I am now more sensitive about how a sentence can be structured. In addition, I am more conscious of where each word/word phrase should be positioned in a sentence. This means that my awareness for grammar is now increased.

I escaped the labour of learning grammar when I was young, but now I have to catch up. However, the good news is that I am now learning grammar with enjoyment, and to learn with appreciation this aspect of the English language. It was very encouraging to hear Dr. Paul Sze shared how he learnt his English (included grammar) through his own effort, and the secondary school, which he attended carry no credit for his success in mastering this universal language.

Don’t we wish all kids were like Dr. Paul Sze, with a self-disciplined mind and a heart to learn? We know very well that many children for various reasons are unable to learn on their own. In Hong Kong, where an all-English environment is not available at all time for the majority of children to be ‘immersed’ in the language, which leads to less opportunities for natural rote of sentences. Therefore, explicit learning of grammar is necessary, which can provide a complete picture of the English language.

I think the concern is not whether we teach grammar in the primary school, but whether the method of teaching allows primary youngsters to enjoy learning this facet of the English language. If an effective teaching approach is available, for these primary school children, it would be a start to grammatical learning, and for us, that would be an art of grammatical teaching.



Something interesting…….

1) I asked my husband (who was also educated in England) if he learnt grammar in school. He said, “no, I just know it”.

2) I looked up the word “rote” in the Longman Dictionary of Comtemporary English, and interestingly the following definition came up: “a method of learning that involves repeating something until you remember it, without having to understand it. A phrase “learn something by rote” means old-fashioned grammar teaching and learning by rote.

Week 2 – Was my English teacher good or bad?

My secondary school English teacher was a woman, who was plump and had big hips. These hips would sway from left to right as she walked. Plus, she had a secret. She was baldy and wore a wig. Since her secret was discovered, she would change her hairstyle almost weekly if not every two or three days.

My English teacher had a unique way of teaching us. First, she took the register after we entered the classroom, then distribute to us a passage of writing, then told us to answer the questions relating to the passage.

While each of us was slowly digging into our passages, the English teacher took out her own work. She took out paper patterns, laid a pattern piece on her table, and then she started to cut around the shapes. She was working very hard on making a dress or some kind of clothing for her daughter. Once the teacher’s little ‘project’ was finished she then proceeded to her next little ‘project’ of knitting another garment for her beloved child.

All I remember was the image of my teacher enjoying her little ‘projects’ during our English lessons. I literally did not learn much English from her class. I did not learn anything from her, but I did learn something about her. She did not take us students into her own interest, but rather she took her daughter’s interest into our English lessons.

So, was my English teacher a good teacher? That’s for you to decide.

Week 1 - How I learnt English in primary school?

The way I learnt English in primary school was a little out of the ordinary. For most of the English lessons, I was the only one to be drawn out of the class and was taken into another classroom. An English teacher would enter the classroom and produced pages and pages of worksheets for me to do. She taught me the basic nouns and pronunciation of words.

During those years at primary school, my only memory of learning English was mainly through pen, and paper with drilling of new vocabularies, and perhaps short phrases. I do not have any recollection of stories told to me or any other activities taken place in the classroom, which could have been used to reinforce learning.

I have always wondered why I have been the odd one out among my English classmates. Why was I selected to take private lessons? The only reason I could think of was that the school considered my English language skills needed brushing up, therefore, provided the private tuition free of charge.

Do you get private lessons for free? Most probably not, well at least not in Hong Kong. Was I the lucky one or was I the isolated one?

10 Sep 07 – What is the purpose of learning a second language?

It is very interesting to see the evolution of different methodologies of teaching a second language. From the structural approach to the communicative language teaching, we see the shift of focus on how we teach a second language to learners. This shift seemed to be due to the re-definition of learning a second language.

The emphasis of learning a second language is no longer on knowing the structure of the language, but rather on the ability to communicate using the newly learnt language. Without question, the ability to communicate is one of the utmost important elements for survival. However, to be able to communicate in a second language would require much time and effort. So, how does one master a second language effectively?

I personally believe the best way to learn anything would be to fully utilise all your five senses, which are freely given; hear, see, smell, taste, and touch. Each of the five senses enforces each other, which in turn, can enforce knowledge input and digestion. In addition, another element, which can give an extra boost to learning is the engagement in activities and events.