Definition of Grammar Teaching the present perfect tense by using the game (FIND Someone WHO); a classroom action resarch at VIII grade students of MTs Soebono Mantofani Jombang Ciputat
or bits of words in order to form longer units of meaning.
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In addition, Richard Veit points out:
A grammar is a person‟s subconscious language knowledge. You use your
English Grammar whenever you speak or write English or understand someone else‟s speech or writing. A grammar consists of principles or
rules that allow you to create an infinite number of possible sentences out of a finite number of words.
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Moreover, Jim Scrivener said in his book Learning Teaching: When
thinking of “grammar”, many people probably first picture a book full of explanations and rules that tell them which verbs have what
endings, how to use adverbs, how to make superlative, etc.
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From those definitions above, it can be concluded that grammar is knowledge about the rules of language. It explains how to combine words or a
little bit of words in order to make something understanding or meaningful sentences both written and spoken. For example, to explain about something
occurred in the past, the verb of past tense form is used, thus, a sentence likes: Joe was sick yesterday is acceptable because it is grammatical. In contrast, if the
sentence is like: Joe will be sick yesterday is unacceptable because it is ungrammatical.
B.
Organization of Teaching Grammar
The teaching procedures of teaching grammar mainly play in the three or four stages, they are: presentation, explanation, practice, and test. In line with this
teaching procedure, Penny Ur suggested four stages: a
Presentation, the aim of the presentation is to get the learners to perceive
the structure – its form and meaning- in both speech and writing and to
take it into short-term memory
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Penny Ur, Grammar Practice Activities: A practical guide for teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988 p. 4
10
Richard Veit, Discovering English Grammar, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986 p.6
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Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching: a guide book for English Language Teachers 2
nd
edition, Oxford: Macmillan Books For Teachers, 2004 p. 252
b
Isolation and Explanation, the objective is that the learners should
understand these various aspects of the structure. In more academic classes, or where structure is particularly difficult for students to grasp,
this stage may be take sometime.
c
Practice, the practice stage consist of a series of exercise done both in the
classroom and for home assignment, whose aim is to cause learners to absorb the structure thoroughly; or to put it another way, to transfer whet
they know from short-term to long-term memory.
d
Test, learners do test in order to demonstrate – to themselves and to the
teacher – how well they have mastered the material they have been
learning. The main objective of test within a taught course is to provide feedback.
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Meanwhile, Marianne Celce-Murcia and Sharon Hilles mention four stages too about the organization of teaching grammar procedures, there are:
a
Presentation, in this stages teachers introduce the grammar structure
either inductively or deductively b
Focused practice, in which the learner manipulates the structure in
question while all other variables are held constant. The purpose of this step is to allow the learner to gain control of the form without the added
pressure and distraction of trying to use the form for communication.
c
Communicative practice, in which the learner engages in communicative
activities to practices the structure being learned.
d Teacher feedback and correction. Although this is usually considered a
final step, it must take place throughout the lesson.
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