ISSUES IN GRAMMAR

PREPARED BY:NURLIYANA

NOR HAZIQAH NUR AL FHATIHAH

MISMATCH BETWEEN FORM AND FUNCTION

• There is no one to one correspondence between form and function

• It is very often possible to use a number of different forms to express a similar function.

TENSE FORM EXAMPLES FUNCTION

SIMPLE PRESENT he she + verb +-s it

He always reads the vacancies in the newspapers.

First he reads the vacancies in the newspapers, then he does his work.

The moon goes round the earth and the earth goes round the sun.

The "simple present" gives expression to ... - a repeated action that often happens

- to a list of facts.

- to an "eternal truth".

• For example:• I am going tomorrow - present continuous• I go tomorrow - simple present tense• I will go tomorrow - simple future tense• I will be going tomorrow – future perfect

continuous

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE

• There are many exceptions to the grammar rules.

• For example; when students has learnt that the past tense of a verb is formed by adding –ed to the root words but they will become confuse with past tense form such as read, began, went and sat.

• This is because of the regular and irregular verbs.

• REGULAR VERB - change their form very little.• For example: The past tense and past participle of

regular verbs end in –ed.walk walked walked

• IRREGULAR VERB – we sometimes need a dictionary to help us write the different forms of irregular verbs.

• For example: see saw seen

INTERFERENCE FROM THE LEARNERS’ OWN LANGUAGE

• The influence from children’ mother tongue will give impact on their grammar.

• Example 1:• The rules of SVA in English does not have a

parallel in BM or Mandarin.

English Bahasa Melayu

I drink Saya minum

He/she drinks Dia minum

We/you/they drink Kita, awak, mereka minum

• Example 2:• In BM, a sentence with although, in it also have

a but.• For English, we can’t put although and but

together in a sentence.• Most of the pupils write:

• Although he is clever but he is lazy. x • He is clever but he is lazy √

• Example 3:• The third person singular(he, she, it) is not

distinguished for gender in BM and Mandarin.

Bahasa Melayu English

Dia seorang penjaja He is a hawker

Dia pergi ke pasar She went to the market

Ia terjatuh It felt down.

LACK OF MOTIVATION

• Grammar learning requires multiple repetition and this is BORING

• It also requires the perception of rules which may be difficult and abstract for some children.

• Therefore, very few children enjoy learning grammar.