T1__Full text Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: Teachers’ Beliefs in Teaching Grammar T1 Full text

TEACHERS’ BELIEFS IN TEACHING GRAMMAR
THESIS

Submitted as a partial fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

SarjanaPendidikan

Kristian Nugraha A
112013003

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
SALATIGA

2017
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TEACHERS’ BELIEFS IN TEACHING GRAMMAR
THESIS

Submitted as a partial fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

SarjanaPendidikan

Kristian Nugraha A

Kristian Nugraha A
112013003

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
SALATIGA

2017
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other
person except where due reference is made in the text.

Copyright @2016: Kristian Nugraha A and Anita Kurniawati, M.Hum.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the prior
written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language Education
Program of SatyaWacana Christian University, Salatiga.

Kristian Nugraha A:

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE ..................................................................................................... ii
PERNYATAAN TIDAK PLAGIAT ................................................................. iii
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN AKSES ...................................................... iv
APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................................. v
PUBLICATION AGREMENT DECLARATION ........................................... vi
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ........................................................................... vii
TABLE OF CONTENT.................................................................................... viii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................... 2
THE STUDY......................................................................................................... 8
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................................... 10
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 19
TABLE 1. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ............................................................ 21
TABLE 2. LIST OF LENGTH AND DATE OF INTERVIEWS .................. 22

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................. 23
REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 24
APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 26

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TEACHERS’ BELIEFS IN TEACHING GRAMMAR
Kristian Nugraha A
Abstract
There is no doubt that many educators teach grammar to the students is one of the major aspect
in language learning and teaching process. However, there aresome different beliefs in how
grammar need be teach to the students from teachers and experts.Some of these educators
believe in explicit grammar teaching while some others believe in implicit grammar teaching.
Hence, to respond such problem the researcher make this study to find about teachers’ beliefs in
teaching grammar. The research purpose is to find out about what is their purpose or reason in
teaching using one of particular way of teaching. In this aspect, the way of teaching will be
explicit and implicit grammar teaching. Ten teachers from Faculty of Language Literature
Universitas Kristen SatyaWacana, Salatigaare going to be interview with semi-structured
interview. The participants are teachers from English language education program and literature
program. The researcher will identified the reasons of one particular way of grammar teaching

itself and the two different beliefs based from the data,which gained from the participants. The
result show two different beliefs from participants with their own reasons. In addition, the
researcher found that most of the participants is in explicit grammar teaching side.
Key words : Belief, Grammar, Grammar Teaching, Explicit, Implicit

INTRODUCTION

Grammar is an inseparable part of a language. It gives possibility for people all across the
globe to communicate with each other and grammar reduce miscommunication that occur in
communication. In addition, there are experts such as Christensen (1967) as cited in
Mc.Nalleyand Moerman (2001). That pointed out “Grammar maps out the possible; rhetoric
narrows the possible down to the desirable or effective” (p. 39). Therefore, it is very important
for a teacher to teach grammar to the students.
Although in grammar teaching world there are some differences. One of this dereference
is about two different beliefs in teaching grammar. Some people who believe in explicit grammar
teaching while some other believe in implicit grammar teaching. These two beliefs led into some
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debates of experts. Some of the experts believe in explicit grammar teaching, Moeler and
Ketsman (2010) argued, in maximizing grammar learning, students need to be taught about

grammar rules and given examples in how grammar is used. In the other hand, other researcher
support implicit grammar teaching, Jezperzen (1949) believe that grammar should be study by
analyzing it in the context to make students utilizing the language better. In addition, providing
grammar in context make teachers can expose and improve students to a new language.
Based on the differences of implicit and explicit belief, this study is going to find out
about what is teachers’ beliefs in teaching grammar. Also, this study is trying to discover the
following research question: what is teachers’ beliefs about explicit and implicit grammar
teaching? In this context, teachers are lecturers of the Faculty of Language and Arts (FLA)
Universitas Kristen SatyaWacana, Salatiga. Study of teachers’ beliefs in grammar teaching is
very important because, first grammar is the foundation of a language. Debata, (2013) say that
without a good grammar a person cannot fully utilize a language. Second, teachers’ beliefs are
going to affected their teaching and decision. In addition, this study is significant for both
students and lecturers, because students could have a better knowledge of teaching beliefs. The
last one is, it is a good reflection for the lecturers and students to realizing their own beliefs.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Grammar and Its Importance
Grammar is the rule of a language. Every languages have grammar and without a good
grammar, a person cannot fully utilize a language. Also, grammar helps leaners to see how
languages works. According to Crstal (2005), grammar is a business of taking a language to
pieces to see how it works. Second, Grammar helps us to name the types of words and word

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groups that make up sentences, not only in English but also in any language. Everyone can
arrange sentences together even as a child we all can do grammar. In the other hand, to be able to
talk about how sentences were built or about the types of words and word groups that make up
sentence that knowsabout grammar. Third,grammar can help someone see clearly on how a
pattern is used. Debata (2013) illustrate grammar as two cars and grammar as their machines. For
the first car who do not know about grammar will always find a difficulty in proceeding each
time he got a machine problem. The second car who know grammar will go smoothly even
though it faces trouble with his machine. The fourth one is grammar make people communicate
in a proper way. Johnson (2012) add that without good grammar, clear communication is nearly
impossible. Proper grammar help the people to not to be misunderstood by the others while
expressing thoughts and ideas. Johnson also add that good grammar make a good impression. He
said that other people consider the speaker as a mark of educated person. Educated person talk
differently compare to less educated person. For example; there are 2 persons one is a professor
and the other one is street seller, both of them are talking to each other. In that conversation, they
can understand each other well, but how a professor talk and how a street seller talks in that
conversation is different. In conclusion, grammar is a vital aspect to learn any languages. It
provides rules that can help people arrange words and it help people to properly expressing what

is inside their mind with less misunderstanding.
Teaching grammar
Grammar play a vital role in language learning. Thus, grammar and language teaching
cannot be separated; Chomsky (1950) as cited in Wang (2010) said that grammar could be
thought of as a theory of a language. As for that, a foreign language teacher cannot separate
grammar with a language. Many researchers support Chomsky idea such as Freeman, Hudson,
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Rimmer, etc. They found that grammar should be teach inside the classroom. Freeman (2003)
said that grammar is important because, in teaching a language we should first learning the
grammar or the rule therefore, we can fully utilize a language. In addition, Hudson (2008) and
Rimmer (2008) mentioned that teaching grammar to the students could help students learning
their contextual skills such as writing or speaking. It is true that grammar can help students
perform better by enhancing their knowledge on certain language and to help them arrange the
words they know. In addition, Leifstein (2009) say that teaching grammar inside the classroom
can help the students to control the language. As we know that grammar can help us to
understand a language, it helps us to control the output of our words. Therefore, less miss
communication and the outcome of our communication will go, as we want to.
Teachers’ beliefs
Generally, belief mean a state of habit where the mind trust or confidence in a particular

aspect. Nespor (1987) and Borg and Burns (2008) mentioned that teachers’ beliefs are significant
in guiding the classroom. Some also add that teachers’ beliefs shaped by prior experiences of
teaching and being taught, influence how and what they teach Poulson et al (2001); Twiselton
(2002); Hadjioannou and Hutchinson (2010). Beliefs is very important to determine where the
classroom is going to go and how will the teacher make decision. The teachers’ decision is going
to shape the classroom thus; the belief is an important role in teachers’ classroom. Even though
explicit and implicit beliefs are different, both of them are not wrong beliefs depend on the
circumstances.

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Explicit and implicit grammar.
The concept of “explicit grammar teaching” and “implicit grammar teaching” are well
known for quite some time in educational world. The concept of explicit grammar is where
approaching students from general into more specific. In other words, it start with a general
notion or theory, which then narrow and applied. In the other hand implicit method is more of a
bottom-up approach, moving from the more specific into more general, in which we make
specific observations, detect patterns, formulate hypotheses and draw conclusions.
Explicit grammar teaching make students work on the form. In explicit method, students
learn rules that arrange a sentence for example; teacher that teach writing. If that teacher belief is

in explicit grammar teaching, s/he might spend more in teaching grammar to the students rather
than teach writing itself. Students might find themselves become aware of grammar rules.
In the other hand, implicit is focusing on the context, which students need to analyze to
find out how a sentence was form. Teachers tend to make the students doing the lesson as usual
for example; a reading teacher is going to give students with a lot of text, which contain grammar
rules. Teacher will not take too many times in explaining grammar; s/he chose to let the students
to explore the grammatical rules and applied in a context by him/herself.
Advantage and disadvantage of teaching grammar with implicit method
Implicit grammar teaching or learning through context has several beneficial effect on the
students. One of this beneficial effect on the student is it can bring more communication between
teacher and students. Ling (2015) mentioned that implicit grammar teaching classroom
atmosphere is relatively active, which can provide more interaction between teachers and
students through the interactive feedback, thus the output of students is more efficient and
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accurate. Therefore, students in this atmosphere might find this is a good place to polish their
skill in communicating with the others.
The next one is it gives more opportunity to practice therefore grammar might acquire
naturally. Krashen, (1982) as cited in Basoz, (2014) mentioned that grammar be acquired
naturally through process of practice. Implicit classroom provides a place where students can

practice their skill in the context because students not only learning the grammar rules, but they
apply it.
Even though implicit grammar teaching is indeed has some beneficial effect it also has
some flaw in it. The first flaw of implicit grammar teaching is, it does not have clear
grammatical rules. Research conducted by Basoz (2014) pointed out that students got difficulty
in finding grammar rules by themselves. Only putting grammar in context and tell the students to
find the rules is hard. Not every student has capabilities in finding grammar rules in context, for
example; we can speak our own mother tongue because we practice it from the day we are born
but, not everyone can answer about the grammar rules of our mother tongue.
The second flaw is to explain the Illogical and dissimilar grammatical rules. Some rules
in English grammar might be different from the rules in student’s mother tongue. By simply put
it into a context will be hard for non-native speaker and not everyone can link their language and
the new language especially in this circumstances. This new rules need to be explained to reach a
better comprehension of a language.
Implicit grammar teaching has its own flaws to be consider. It is hard to set students mind
in a good grammatical way and to explain some irregular rules that second language have.

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Therefore, teachers need to use the implicit grammar teaching wisely to maximally utilizing its
potential.
Advantage and disadvantage of teaching grammar with explicit method
Teaching grammar as an explicit subject has some beneficial for the learners. The first
benefit in has is, explicit grammar teaching is more controllable. Ling (2015) stated that teaching
grammar as an explicit subject make the learning becomes controllable. Focusing on one
particular aspect make the students conscious of what they are learning and teacher can easily
monitor to their progress. Therefore, when the flow become controllable it will become easier to
appropriately teaching the students because, we know their progress and students know what to
learn.
Second, it is easier to understand the grammar concepts. Ling (2015) mentioned that
explicit grammar teaching can make students more profoundly understand the grammatical
items, and it has strong systemic. Explicit grammar teaching goal is to master grammar by
studying grammar rules, emphasize the awareness purpose and controllability in the process of
learning grammar.
Third, teachers can explain illogical and dissimilar grammar rules clearer. Some basic
features of English grammar structure are illogical or dissimilar to speaker of other languages
and hard to understood, for example; V1 and V2 does not exist in Indonesia. Lynch (2005) said
that explicit grammar could help the students to understand through a clear rule of grammar and
not just simply put the illogical or dissimilar rules in context.
Fourth, it is helpful for adult learners. Brown (2000) and Ellis’ (1996) as cited in
Andrews (2007) said that adult learners get benefit from explicit grammar teaching. Adults tent
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to learn from a structured lesson; they can learn from a clear rule and they can relate the new
information with their L1.
Explicit grammar teaching has many strong points but it also has one major problem. The
problem of explicit grammar teaching is the application of the grammar rules in context. Ling
(2015) the teacher pay less attention to the practical application of language, which is not
conducive to cultivate the students' communicative competence in an all-round. Explicit
grammar teaching, which makes teachers as the center in classroom teaching and forms the
teaching mode whose center is grammar activity. With this teaching method, most of the students
can make grammatical and correct sentences, but cannot use English for practical in the field.
THE STUDY
Context of the study
The researcher conducted his study in English Language Education program of the
Faculty of Language and Arts in Universitas Kristen SatyaWacana, Salatiga for two main
reasons. First, Universitas Kristen SatyaWacana, Salatiga is awell known for the quality of both
teachers and the university itself. Second English language education program and literature
program were programs that specialized in educating young learners to become language role
models in the future.
Participants
The participants were grammar lecturers from faculty of language and arts (FLA) in
Universitas Kristen SatyaWacana, Salatiga. The researcher take them as participants because,
they have a first-hand experienced in teaching. In addition, to obtain varies result the researcher
made two criteria in choosing the participants. The first one is gender and the second one is how
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long they have teach in FLA. The list of participants are listed in table 1. List of participants
(p.22).
Data collection instruments
A set of semi structured interview questions were design to gain information about what
teachers’ perception about implicit and explicit grammar. To capture the data, the researcher
combined the two methods: using tape recording and note taking during the interview at the
same time Zacharias (2013). To get a rich, valid data and to avoid misunderstanding, the
researcher used Indonesian during the interviews.
Below is the list of the questions that the interviewer used to ask the interviewees:
1. How long have you been teaching?
2. What lesson do you teach?
3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar?
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why?
5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom).
Data collection procedure
The researcher conducted a piloting that take one of the teacher in Universitas Kristen
SatyaWacana as the subject, before he begun with his research. The researcher take the subject
for the piloting because the subject is one of the teacher in the same faculty and he is in teaching
for quite some time and that make him as a good subject to test the interview. The researcher
conducted the piloting in may-3-2017 for 15 minutes and the researcher fixed several unfit
questions thanks to the piloting.
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As for the interviews, the researcher informed participants about the purpose of this study
and why the participants chosen. During the interview, the interviewer recorded what the
interviewee said and took notes based on their answers. In addition, the interviews were
conducted in Indonesian language to avoid miscommunication. Also the list of length and date of
interviews are listed in table 2. List of date and length of interviews (p.23).
Data Analysis Procedure
For analyzing the qualitative data and categorizing themes found in the data, the
researcher begin with, making clean transcriptions of the interviews data. Then, the researcher
coded the findings into several themes.
To present the data, the researcher gave several points that consists of data description,
data display, data analysis and data interpretation. Firstly, the researcher wrote the data
description. Afterwards, the researcher displayed the data in the form of participants’ interview
excerpts. After that, for the data analysis the researcher highlighted the important findings
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this discussion and findings researcher put what he gains from the interview into 3
themes. The first part is teachers’ belief in grammar. He put it as the first theme because
teachers’ belief in grammar teaching will affect by their view on grammar itself. Hence,
researcher put this on my first section of finding and discussion.
The second theme is teachers’ belief and reason in choosing explicit way. Explicit
grammar method is a method that put more weight in the grammar. For example; when a teacher
teach writing and s/he tells about grammar. S/he will discuss it deeper for example will discuss
about how it’s use, make clear examples and how or when that grammar pattern is used. The
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researcher chose this second points of findings and discussion because the main point of this
research is to find out teacher’s belief in teaching grammar and explicit and implicit grammar
beliefs is one of the main point of this thesis research. Hence looking for teachers’ belief in
grammar in explicit grammar is important. Also, researcher find out that most of the teachers are
in favor with explicit way.
The last theme is teachers’ belief and reason in choosing implicit way. Implicit grammar
method are grammar goes with context. For example; when a teacher teach reading, s/he will not
really discuss the grammar, but s/he will let students read a text with a particular grammar
pattern and let them analyze first. The reason researcher chose this third point of findings and
discussion is almost the same with the second theme. Implicit belief is also one of the main point
of the research hence it looking for teachers’ belief in implicit grammar is important.
Teachers’ beliefs on grammar’s role in language
After conducting several interviews on some teachers at Universitas Kristen
SatyaWacana, the researcher found that there are several different opinions regarding to how
important grammar’s role in language. There are two different opinions about grammar. The first
opinion is some teacher said that grammar is important for a language and it cannot be separated.
The second one is grammar might be consider important to be taught. Most of the subjects (8 out
of 10) had positive feeling towards the first statement. Also Sik (2015) he said that grammar is
important subject to be taught to the students. Some of them are participant D and I.
Excerpt 1
Personally I think grammar as basketball, basketball is a very flexible game the better the
player the better flexibility he/she has. All of those flexibility that player gain came from
the basic training. If the basic is good then everything will be fine. It almost the same
literature where you need to express your feeling in many different way but if you
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grammar is not good that will be shameful. You can express your feeling the way you
want but, your basic need to be strong. (Participant D, March, 29th 2017)
Based on excerpt 1, participant D describe grammar as basketball, because if someone
want to be good at basketball s/he needs to master the basic such dribbling or running. In
Participant D’s point of view, grammar is like the foundation or the basic and basketball is
language. Therefore, in order to master a language and do many things with a language a person
needs to master the grammar. More over participant I also adds another opinion about how
important grammar is.
Excerpt 2
Grammar is inseparable part of English, hence you cannot learn English without learning
grammar. Because grammar got 3 parts; form, meaning and usage. For that reason
grammar is very important and if you learn language you must learn grammar.
(Participant I, May 31th 2017)
In excerpt 2, participant I declared that learning grammar is very important because,
grammar got 3 usages. First is the form, how person can construct word to word into a sentence.
Second is the meaning, a well form sentence is going to have a meaning, but those which do not
follow the rule of grammar may not have a meaning. The last one is the usage, how people is
going to use grammar is different, but by simply following the rule can make the speaker
becomes understandable in expressing speaker thought or in another aspects.
The statements above showed that participant D and participant I belief that grammar is
very important because grammar can give flexibility in language and grammar can make speaker
becomes understandable. Moreover, participant H also mentioned that grammar is needed to be
taughtto the students. She mentioned about the condition of some of the current students who do
not have the ability to use grammar properly.

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Excerpt 3
I think grammar is needed to be taught because students need to become a teacher or
script editor or other. If their grammar is bad then what can they do.Also most of the
students here got accepted because of their grade in High school. (Participant H, may 28 th
2017)
Participant H is trying to say that as a role model such as teacher or writer students need
to be taught English because role model is person that give examples on how language use. If
that person give a wrong example this might affect people that follow his example. Therefore,
grammar is necessary to be taught.
In the other hand, some participants (2 out of 10) agree that grammar is might be
considered important to be learned. One of the participants that say so is participant J. She
mentioned her previous experienced when she is a student in Australia and based on that
experienced of her she said that grammar might not be that important.
Excerpt 4
When I was in Australia, I have a landlady and she came from Indonesia but she has
become an Australian. Her grammar is not that good but, she can life there just fine.
Hence, is grammar that important? But as for us professionals we need to learned
grammar. Students here will become teachers or litterateur or perhaps for business or role
model. Grammar will show how professional we are and if students become a teacher
they can explain to the students why this phrase using this grammar pattern and so on.
(Participant J, may 23th 2017)
Based on participant J experienced when she was a student we can say that grammar does
not really matter. In her experienced, her landlady is an Indonesian before she went to Australia
and prevail in that English native language country despite of the fact that her grammar is not
that good. But regardless of the fact that her land lady survived in Australia, participant J also
mentioned that schools that is going to produce role model such as teachers or businessman in
the future need to teach grammar because it is very important to show how professional a person
is and they can become a good example for others. Hence, it is very important to teach grammar

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here. With the data above, we can conclude that every teachers’ belief that grammar is important
to be taught.
Teachers’ beliefs and reasons in explicit grammar teaching
After conducting the interview, the researcher found that most of the teachers is in favor
of explicit grammar. There are varies reasons that shape this belief on the teachers. One of the
reason that make teachers belief in explicit grammar teaching is because first many of the
participants said that they are growing in explicit grammar teaching environment. Participant F
for example, mentioned that she grow up with explicit grammar teaching.
Excerpt 5
I grow up with explicit grammar from elementary school to high school and I feel helped
by explicit grammar teaching. (Participant F, May, 10th 2017)
Participant F means that she is growing in this method and it helped her to master a
grammar by explicit way. She also mentioned that she learned English by this means since she
was in elementary school until she went to high school, which make her learn grammar explicitly
for 12 years since her tender age. This also happened to the most of teachers in researcher’s place
who most of the subjects are product of explicit grammar teaching who got the same treatment as
participant J.
Second reason is the students. One of the teacher that so is participant A. In her point of
view, students need to be teach explicitly because there are not really exposed with English
language.

Excerpt 6
If we look at the current students, they lack of exposure from the outside. Hence in my
context when I was in India I speak using English, watch television in English and other
things using English but, they are not. They go outside the classroom and speak using
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they mother tongue, watch TV in Indonesian language. They rarely get any exposure in
the other hand they watch program with other language such as Korea. Therefore, I think
that teaching by means of implicit is rather not suitable. (Participant A, March, 21th 2017)
Participant A said that students who live outside of English speaking country are lacking
of input from the outside. It is true that most of the students might not get a big input outside the
classroom consider that students live in a society that English is a foreign language. In addition,
it cannot be denied that television program and what students watched might not enhance or give
their input to their English language.
The third reason is some teachers pointed that student need grammar for at least their
basic. Participant D for example, he mentioned about the need of the students to be taught
grammar explicitly for at least the basic knowledge.
Excerpt 7
I think we need to put more grammar based learning in the classroom for at least the
basic. Learning while doing it might sounds good but, I think that we need to put more
structure in the lesson. (Participant D, March, 29th 2017)
By the interview from participant D the researcher found that, participant D want to put
more explicit grammar base on the classes for the students. Participant D is trying to say that
Students need to be provided with more teaching in grammar because they need a strong
grammar.
Fourth reason is explicit grammar is important for the students for accuracy and fluency.
Participant I believe that explicit grammar teaching can give more proficiency on students’
accuracy and fluency.

Excerpt 8
I prefer explicit grammar model because if we want to graduate role models in language.
We need to make them a good example for others and explicit grammar teaching can give
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more understanding in grammar. Which will be very beneficial for their accuracy and
fluency. (Participant I, may, 31th, 2017)
We can look at Participant I statement, that grammar can affect students’ accuracy and
fluency that will make them a good models in language later on and it can be achieve through
explicit method.
Fifth reason is beginner students might need more attention on their grammar. Like
participant B in her classroom. She use explicit grammar teaching on her skill courses because,
most of the students there are new students.
Excerpt 9
I tent to give grammar to my writing classroom because students that takes my class are
new students and usually they got many grammatical errors. (Participant B, March29th
2017)
Participant B tend to that teach grammar in their classroom. She said that grammar is
necessary to this classroom because students are currently new and got many grammatical errors.
Skills courses might become trouble beginner learners especially if they got grammar problem,
which make things more complicated.
Also other teacher such as participant D put explicit grammar teaching in his writing
class. He mentioned that beginner students need more attention on their grammar.
Excerpt 10
Usually I put input about grammar on the left side my students’ paper and I used to fix
the phrase but, now if things gotten too hard I will just give mark on the students’ paper
such as WF or wrong form or others. (Participant D, March, 29th 2017)
Participant D is giving more hint and sometimes give the correct form to the students in
students’ paper. He is trying to give students the example of the correct form which very helpful
for some of the students and he is an explicit person.

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Other teacher that use explicit method in teaching skill course is participant F. She said
that by using explicit method could give a clear explanation of grammar items.
Excerpt 11
I will point out which grammar pattern that is wrong for example the use of nor and or.
After that, I will explain it in the classroom. (Participant F, May, 10th 2017)
After a detailed interview with participant F, the researcher also found that the
explanation that is going to be deliver by participant F is a detailed explanation, which is very
explicit way of teaching. The detailed explanation is the combination of how to use the pattern,
the different of nor and or, when to use it and examples.
Teachers’ beliefs and reasons in implicit grammar teaching
While other teachers said that grammar, need to be learn in implicit way. Brown (2008)
as cited in Ling (2015) also mentioned that knowledge from implicit learning can be adsorb well
by the students because they focus on form and meaning in the same time
The researcher found that some teachers belief in implicit teaching and they got some
reasons for putting their belief in it. The first reason is to developing participant autonomy skill.
Participant E for example she is confident in teaching students in implicit way because of this
reason.
Excerpt 12
My reason to conduct grammar teaching implicitly because I want to make the learners
become autonomy learners or independent learner. I want them to stand by themselves
when facing problem and to make them become more aware with the phrase that they
made. (Participant E, April, 4th 2017)
Participant E stated that implicit learning could make the students become independent
learners. She also mentioned that it is good to face the problem by themselves because they will
become more aware with the mistakes that they have done and make up for it themselves.
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Second reason why teachers agreeing in this method is it can create non-boring classroom
for the students to learn.
Excerpt 13
When we teach them with the same material times to times they might get bored. If we
taught them again for example in writing. We need to make sure it is briefly taught. We
got many materials to teach therefore, we cannot make grammar become hindrance.
(Participant C, March, 30th 2017
Participant C imply that, teachers do not need to teach grammar way too deep but, as
necessary as possible. She also mentioned that repetitions in teaching grammar repeatedlycould
make students bored. For that,reason grammar need to be teach briefly and do not make it into a
hindrance for the lesson.
Third reason is to make students analyze first. Participant E mentioned use implicit
method in her speaking class. She said she belief implicit can make students become more active
and analyzing the data.
Excerpt 14
Usually I write down mistakes that made by students in the white board. Then I ask them
which part of it that is wrong. I did that to make them think if they are not capable of
finding the mistake then I will explain. They need to try first and not always counting on
me. (Participant E, April, 4th 2017)
In Participant E point of view, by putting mistakes on the white board and ask the
students will make the whole class to analyze. Then when they think by themselves, it is good
and can make them help themselves later on if they make mistakes.
The fourth reason is the content courses classes which most of the teachers agree in using
implicit method. In the content courses we have grammar which is all teachers agree to teach it
in implicit way. Participant J for example, she does not really pay too much attention on her
students’ grammar rather than make students figure how to solve the problem their own.
18

Excerpt 15
I ask the students to be more independent, revised your own language use your tool or
ask your friend. (Participant J, may 23th 2017)
Most of the content courses students are all senior students. Also based on what she said,
if we related this with grammar teaching participant J is somehow show implicit grammar
teaching in her method because she want the students to analyze. What is more is, participant J is
more explicit teacher. Other also think less of grammar for example participant H
Excerpt 16
I do not really pay much attention on grammar,but still I give mark on the wrong points
and because they are already pass the grammar class. Hence, I expect less mistakes from
them. (Participant H, may 28th 2017)
The researcher also found all of the teachers have same opinions regarding this content
courses and regardless of their own belief. The teachers mostly put mark on students’ works and
let them think for themselves, which we can categorize it as an implicit method. Most of the
reasons this happened is because students already pass grammar class and they are now higher
students who are hopefully know about grammar.
CONCLUSION
The aim of this research is to find out about teachers’ beliefs in grammar teaching and
after point out the important things in the studyresearcher found several important things in it.
First, every subjects believe that grammar is necessary to be teach to the students. Most of
subjects think that grammar can provide students with abundant of benefits. In addition, some of
them mentioned about the grammar use, because one day a language learners might become a
role models in language. Therefore, to show the professionalism and become a good role model
student need to master the grammar.

19

Second important point is, most the teachers are in favor of explicit grammar
teaching.Most of the participants think so, because of several facts such as experience,most of
the participants grew in explicit grammar environment and they felt that their current grammar
level is the fruit of the explicit environment. In addition, the subjects think explicit grammar is
necessary because of, students’ condition. They think that students need a clearer explanation for
grammar rule because they are not living in English environment.The last one is a personal
taught that said that students’ grammar would become better because of explicit grammar
teaching.
In other hand some teachers goes for implicit because they want the students become an
autonomy students. Teachers that goes for implicit hope that students can solve their problem
without help from the others.The researcher himself sincerely hope that teachers need to look
more into the students. Students are different from place to place and it is teachers’ job to guide
the students into a better person. Hence, teachers need to teach students in a way that students
can get things better despite of teachers’ beliefs. Also, with this finding researcher hope that this
study becomes significant for both students and lecturers to have a better knowledge of their
teaching beliefs. In addition, it is a reflection for the lecturers to realizing their own beliefs.
Although, it is a pity that the limit of this research is, its’ limited participants and the area
research is only around Faculty of Language and Arts.The researcher hope that, further study can
be conduct with this research as its reverence.

20

Table 1
List of participants’ data
Participant

M/F

Language
program

Teaching
experience

Education background

Subjects

A

F

Education 5

S1 UKSW, S2
Foreign Language
university (India)
S1 UKSW, S2 UPH

Interllingual communication,
Psycolang, IC, Structure of
language, translation
IC, writing, speaking,
reading, ESP, ELTM
Basic grammar, advanced
grammar, writing, listening,
academic listening, gender
and literature
IC, Reading , speaking,
writing, intro to literature
journalism, interprenting
multi culturalism, listening
Speaking, IC, TEAL,
Advanced grammar, TLS,
Semantics
IC, Syntax and morphology,
grammar for language
teacher, learning strategy,
introduction to language
education, speaking,
listening, writing
Skill and content courses

B

F

Education 6

C

F

Literature

11

S1 UNIKA
Soegiyopranoto, S2
UI

D

M

Literature

11

S1 UKSW

E

F

Education 14

F

F

Education 11

G

F

Both
program

19

H

F

Literature

29

I

F

Education 5

J

F

Education 14

S1 UKSW, S2
Chong Yuan
university (Taiwan)
S1 UKSW, S2
university of Widya
Mandala

S1 Diponegoro
university, S2
SanathaDarma
S1 JPBS UKSW, S2
SanathaDarma
S1 UKSW, S2
SanathaDarma
S1 UKSW, S2
Mascafin Education
(Australia)

21

IC, Creative writing, drama
class, post -colonial
literature, classic classroom.
TBLT, speaking, writing,
extensive reading, tutorial IC
IC, Extensive reading,
listening, writing, psyco
linguistic, phonetic
phonology, micro teaching,
current issue on second
language acquisition, English
for young learners, English
language management

Table 2

List of date and length of interviews
No

Paticipants

Date of interview

Length of interview

1

A

May-3-2017

20minutes 16 seconds

2

B

May-29-2017

22 minutes 28 second

3

C

May-30-2017

21 minutes 43 second

4

D

May-31-2017

21 minutes 3 second

5

E

April-4-2017

22 minutes 40 second

6

F

April-10-2017

22 minutes 15 second

7

G

April-18-2017

23 minutes 43 second

8

H

May-23-2017

23 minutes 35 second

9

I

May-23-2017

20 minutes 57 second

10

J

May-31-2017

21 minutes 51 second

22

Acknowledgement
First, I am grateful to the God for the good health and wellbeing that were necessary to complete
this thesis. I offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Anita Kurniawati, M.Hum. who has
supported me throughout my thesis. Without your guidance, patience, advice, and time, my
thesis will not be accomplish. In addition, I would like to thank the examiner of my thesis, M.
Ch. Eko Setyaruni, M.Hum. for your time and patience in examining my thesis.
I thank my fellow ELEP students, especially 2013’ers. Thanks for everything that we have
shared together during studying in FLA. I would also like to thank to my fellow ELEP students
who has supported and helped me in writing my thesis. Last but not the least; I would like to
thank my parents and my close friends (Febri, Timothy, Azka, Alip, Adrian, Adi, Ricky, Edwin,
Ivan, Nico, Christopher) for supporting me spiritually throughout my life.

23

References
Al-Mekhlafi, A.M. and Nagaratman, R.P. (2011). Difficulties in teaching and learning
grammar in an EFL context. International journal of instruction, 4(3): 69-92
Andrews, K. (2007). The effects of implicit and explicit instruction on simple and complex
grammatical structures for adult English language learners. Journal of TESL-EJ, 11(2).
Basoz. (2014, December 19). Through the eyes of prospective teachers of English: explicit or
implicit grammar instruction? Procedia-social and behavioral sciences 232, 430-438.
Borg, S., and A. Burns. (2008). Integrating grammar in adult TESOL classrooms.” Applied
linguistics 29: 456482.
Dakmouche. (2008;3). Integrative grammar in teaching academic writing. Unpublished magister
dissertation, University of Constantine, Constantine.
David Crystal. (2004). Rediscover grammar .Retrieved March 22, 2017, from
https://www.bookdepository.com/Rediscover-Grammar-David-Crystal/9780582848627.
Freeman. (2003).Teaching language: from grammar to grammaring. freNewbury house teacher
development. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from http://ihjournal.com/teachinglanguage-from-grammar-to-grammaring
Hudson, D. (2001). “Grammar teaching and writing skills: the research evidence. Syntax in
the schools 17: 1-6.
Jezperzen (1949).A modern english grammar on historical principles (Vol 7).Copenhagen:E.
Munksgaard.
Johnson (2012).The importance of grammar . Retrieved March 24, 2017, from
https://www.johnson.edu/docs/library/The-Article-Review.pdf.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition, Pergamon: Oxford
Lynch. (2015). Grammar teaching: implicit or explicit. Retrieved June 12, 2017, from
http://www.eslbase.com/teaching/grammar-teaching-implicit-explicit.
Moeller, Aleidine Kramer and Ketsman, Olha. (2010)., "Can we learn a language without
rules? " Faculty publications: department of teaching, learning and teacher education.
170.
Nespor, J. 1987. “The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching.” Journal of curriculum
studies 19: 317328.
Poulson, L., E. Avramidis, R. Fox, J. Medwell, and D. Wray. 2001. “The theoretical beliefs of
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Rimmer, W. 2008.“Putting grammatical complexity in context.” Literacy 42 (1): 29-35.
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Sik (2015). “Tradition or modernism in grammar teaching: deductive vs. inductive
approaches.” 7th world conference on educational sciences, (WCES-2015), 05-07
February 2015, Novotel Athens Convention Center, Athens, Greece
Weaver, Constance, McNalley, C., and Moeler, S. (2001). To grammar or not to grammar: that
is not the question! voices from the middle 8.3 (March 2001): 17-33.

25

APPENDICES
Appendix A
Name : Participant A
Sex

: female

Date

: May-3-2017

Interview
1. How long have you been teaching? Around 5 years
2. What lesson do you teach? I teach interlingua communication, structure of language and,
translation
3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar? I think grammar affect the output of the students.
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why? Yes I did, because in translation you
need to know grammar to make your translation become better.
5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom). Usually I
explained the rules first then I gave students examples in how to apply itin the context.
Appendix B
Name : Participant B
Sex

: female

Date

: May-29-2017

Interview
26

1. How long have you been teaching? I teach here since 2011.
2. What lesson do you teach? IC, writing, speaking, reading, ESP, ELTM.
3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar? I think grammar is very important to be taught to
make learners arrange a meaningful words.
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why? Yes I did, because students need to be
reviewed and some of classes such as IC include grammar inside it.
5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom). Usually I gave
marks on students paper whenever they got grammatical errors and gave some clues to help them
solve the problems.
Appendix C
Name : Participant C
Sex

: female

Date

: May-30-2017

Interview
1. How long have you been teaching? I teach here since 2006.
2. What lesson do you teach? Grammar, writing, listening, and content courses.
3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar? It is important, but it also depend on the need.
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why? Yes I did, because every subjects need
grammar.

27

5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom). Usually I include
grammar in the classroom when students got grammatical errors.
Appendix D
Name : Participant D
Sex

: male

Date

: May-31-2017

Interview
1. How long have you been teaching? I teach here since 2006.
2. What lesson do you teach? IC, reading, speaking, writing, intro to literature, interpreting, multi
culturalism.
3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar? Teaching grammar is very important, because
grammar affect the flexibility of a language user in using certain language.
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why? Yes I did, I want students grammar to
be good.
5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom). I tried to make a
fun activity or tell them the rules directly.
Appendix E
Name : Participant E
Sex

: female

28

Date

: April-4-2017

Interview
1. How long have you been teaching? I teach here since 2003.
2. What lesson do you teach? Speaking, IC, listening, grammar, CISEL, TEAL.
3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar? Grammar is important to be taught and it cannot
stand alone.
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why? Yes I did, because some students have
bad grammar comprehension.
5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom). Usually I discuss
the error with the students and make them think first.
Appendix F
Name : Participant F
Sex

: female

Date

: April-10-2017

Interview
1. How long have you been teaching? Since 2006.
2. What lesson do you teach? Grammar, ICM, English language teaching classrooms, teaching
learning strategy, translation, listening, writing.

29

3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar? Very important, because grammar is the system
of the language.
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why? Yes, because students still got
problem with grammar even though they already passed grammar classes.
5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom). I look at the
errors and teach the pattern which most of students did wrong.
Appendix G
Name : Participant G
Sex

: female

Date

: April-18-2017

Interview
1. How long have you been teaching? Since 1998.
2. What lesson do you teach? Skill and content courses.
3. What is your opinion about teaching grammar? Grammar is the pattern of a language and it is
important.
4. Did you introduce grammar inside your classroom? Why? Yes I did
5. How you introduce grammar inside your classroom? (Skill/content classroom). I explain part to
part an