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.
