The Nature of Grammar

a. The Nature of Grammar

Larsen and Freeman 2003: 13 – 19 proposed some statements of the nature of grammar which are relevant with this study as follow 1 Grammar has to do with accuracy. Grammar accuracy involves the accuracy of form and that of meaning. Larsen and Freeman 2003: 14 say, “Grammar is not simply about form; it is about meaning as well. It is not incorrect, but it is insufficient, to say that grammar has to do with accuracy of form; it relates to meaningfulness and appropriateness as well.” For instance, when a student produces the sentence The day is shiny , while its intended meaning is The day was shiny, he creates a correct form of sentence but he fails to convey his intended meaning. 2 Grammar has to do with rules and reasons. Rules serve the generalization about the form of language. However, rules have exceptions. Knowing the existence of exceptions in grammar learning, Larsen and Freeman prefer to think of teaching rules and reasons. By teaching reason, a teacher helps the students to realize the underlying logic to the language they are learning. If they understand the logic of the language, they will be able to understand rules and their exceptions. 3 Grammar is non-arbitrary. Grammar seems arbitrary since the same rules of form may produce different meanings. For instance, the existential there which fills the subject position in the sentence There is the snowstorm coming. When someone says There is the snowstorm , he might be warning listener of the snowstorm. By giving PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI stress in the word there, it is a locative adverbial there. However, Larsen and Freeman 2003: 16 believe that “once a form has been settled upon to convey a particular meaning, then arbitrariness is less of an issue.” Generally, Larsen and Freeman 2003: 142 formulate that “Grammaring is one of the dynamic linguistic processes of pattern formation in language, which can be used by humans for making meaning in context- appropriate way.” However, the nature of grammar can not be defined by considering only one expert’s opinion since different experts may have different definition of what grammar is. Grammar is considered as the rules of a language, which concerns the way where the language user or learner can put words together in order to make sentences Collins, 1990: 632. Meanwhile, Jackson 1990: 3 considers grammar as the structural or organizing principles of language which include syntax and morpheme. Based on the definitions proposed by some experts above, grammar is a tool for creating a meaningful unit derived from combination of words. Grammar deals with rules of constructing sentences in order to be acceptable in form and meaning. In this study, the design of grammar materials focused on sentence construction by considering the accuracy of form and meaning based on the rules and the reason follows.

b. Grammar Learning