whole.
5
Thus, grammar deals with three dimensions i.e. form, meaning and use. This assumption leads teachers to teach grammar that should be meaningful in
context and also teach students how to use it. As a result, students can connect grammar with their lives and their motivation to learn grammar will increase.
In short, the two different main streams for the term grammar are traditional and functional views. The former more focuses on structure rather than meaning
and use whereas the last focuses on not only structure but also meaning and use. In this study, the functional view is preferred to be used to define grammar that is
described as a set of rules on how language can be formed and used as an acceptable and meaningful language in context.
2. Importance of Grammar
Grammar plays an important role in language teaching and learning. The importance of grammar is so many. The followings are the five importance of
grammar. First, it is the function of grammar as a structural foundation of language
skills.
6
Grammar is regarded as a structural foundation of language skill because of an assumption which states that learning language skills is like build a building.
Students have to build its foundation first before building its higher parts. If they do not make a strong foundation, the building will easily break and cannot be built
into a higher one. The foundation of this building is grammar. So, to develop students‘ language skill, teacher needs to teach grammar since the teaching of
grammar is so important for students as a foundation for their language skills. Second, it is the existence of grammar in language curriculum. As a language
element that is needed to develop and measure students‘ proficiency in English, grammar becomes to be a subject that has to be taught and tested in language
curriculum. It is on the language curriculum whether students like it or not. They
5
D. Laser Freeman, ―Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring,‖ in Shu Yun Yu Ed., The Effects of Games on the Acquisition of Some Grammatical Features of L2 German on
Students’ Motivation and on Classroom Atmosphere A Thesis Published in Australian Catholic University, October 2005, p. 11.
6
K. Lynn Savage, et.al, Grammar Matters Teaching Grammar in Adult ESL Programs, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 3.
have to pass this subject in order to graduate and be considered as having enough proficiency in English. Consequently, grammar is a must and important to be
learnt by students. Third, it is the function of grammar as a sentence-making machine. Grammar
becomes to be important for students because it can function as a sentence-making machine for them. It can describe the regularities of language behaviors and
provide students with patterns to generate enormous number of new sentences.
7
So, by knowing grammar students will be facilitated to produce new sentences. Fourth, it is the function of grammar as a tool for language monitoring.
Grammar enables students to self-monitor. It can assist students in becoming aware of a structure that they encounter and help them continue to notice it in
subsequent encounters.
8
Once students have internalized the structure through repeated exposure, they can use this knowledge to monitor their own language
use.
9
It then improves their proficiency in creating polish and acceptable English sentences. In short, knowing grammar can help students monitor their language
use. Last, it is the function of grammar to prevent students from fossilizing early.
It is assumed that students who receive no grammar instruction seem to be at risk of fossilizing early because they cannot monitor their own language use. They will
easily feel satisfied with their current ability. It then makes their language progress stop and fossilize early. Therefore, grammar is so needed to prevent
students from fossilizing early. To sum up, grammar is so important in language teaching and learning. It is
because grammar functions as a structural foundation of language that enables students to develop their language skills. Consequently, grammar should be taught
in language curriculum since it can function as a language-sentence machine for
7
Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman, 1991, p. 13.
8
S. Fotos, ―Cognitive Approaches to Grammar Instruction,‖ In K. Lynn Savage, et.al Eds., Grammar Matters Teaching Grammar in Adult ESL Programs, New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2010, p. 4.
9
Savage, et.al, Grammar Matters Teaching Grammar in Adult ESL Programs, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 4.
students because it describes the regularities of language behaviors so that students can use it as a pattern to make an enormous number of new sentences and
help them monitor their language use. Finally, it will prevent them from fossilizing early.
3. Grammatical Aspects of Language
To explain the grammatical aspects of language, inevitably, it has to involve the explanation of the nature of grammar itself. If tracing back the history of
grammar, it will be found that there are two approaches which can be used to describe the nature of grammar.
The first is a descriptive grammar. It is a grammar approach which describes the nature of grammar as a description of the language grammar that exists in the
minds of its speakers.
10
It considers that every human being who speaks a language knows its grammar. So, by describing the language grammar that exists
in the speaker‘s minds, someone can know about the nature of grammar itself. On the other hand, prescriptive grammar comes with a different perspective.
According to this approach, language always changes by the time and the change of language itself is regarded as a corruption. So, instead of describing the
language grammar which is then regarded as a corruption, prescriptive grammar tends to prescribe grammar rules that are regarded as correct forms that the
speaker should know.
11
However, nowadays, the approach that is widely used is a descriptive grammar. Although, there will be some differences among speakers‘ knowledge,
this approach believes that there will be a shared or common knowledge too. Such knowledge is then regarded as laws which can represent the universal aspects of
all languages or what is called as a universal grammar. So, universal grammar is defined as principles that characterize all human
language such as grammatical aspects of language itself.
12
And, to discover the
10
Victoria Fromkin, et.al, An Introduction to Language: Seventh Edision, Boston: Wadsworth, 2003, 14.
11
Ibid., p. 15.
12
Ibid., p. 19.
