TESL 0110 Unit 1 Reflection/ aha moment

(Source: http://optimizingimmersion.com/teaching-grammar-and-telling-stories/ )

My "aha" moment in unit one was going through the chapter "Why teach grammar". It was very interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. As I was going through the arguments, I could not agree more with these as. All the arguments seem to be valid for me.

Here, I would like to mention my thoughts on a few arguments.

The first one is The advance-organizer argument. I agree with it. While I was developing my English vocabulary(still working on it), I add a new word to my vocabulary diary and after that suddenly I start to notice that word being mentioned at various places, can be in news, book, movie etcetera and it gets retained in my mind. I don't feel like I had to put much effort into remembering that word and I learned it in context as well. 

The second argument I want to talk about is the communication argument. I read the two schools of thought. The first one says, to learn the rules and then apply them in communication while the second one says to directly engage in communication to learn the language. It was mentioned that studying the rules of grammar is simply a waste of time and I do not agree with it. I think learning the grammar develops confidence that you are using the language correctly and I think that confidence is very important in order to become fluent in that language. 

The third argument I want to talk about is the acquisition argument. I agree that second language can be acquired in a way we acquired our first language that is by exposing ourselves to the environment where the target language is spoken. I think getting that environment is not always possible. When I used to teach in India, I used to teach grammar, the students were very well aware of the rules but they just used to get the English speaking environment in the class because outside the class, they used to speak their own language as they do not get many English speakers to communicate to. Hence, the lack of application of those rules and difficulties in getting hold of the language. I once had to write an essay on the topic that " the best way to learn English is to move to the English speaking country. Do you agree or disagree?" I agreed with this. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. 

Resources:

Thornbury, S. (1999). Chapter 2: Why teach grammar, In Harmer, J. (Ed.), How to teach grammar (pp. 14-28). Harlow: Longman.