Teaching and Learning of Grammar at the Basic Level of Education: Revisiting Inductive Teaching Approach

Abstract

Literature on approaches to teaching grammar favours the inductive approach as a better strategy for building students' grammatical and communicative skills than the deductive approach. This present study investigated whether pupils who were taught grammar through the inductive approach would do better than those taught through the deductive approach. The design chosen for the study is the quasi experimental placed in a mixed method paradigm. Data were collected from a sample of 99 participants (comprising 27 Junior High School English Language teachers and 72 pupils). Data were collected using class tests and observation. Data was analyzed by the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings indicate that those who were taken through inductive teaching showed better skills than those who were taken through the deductive method. Finally, it is recommended that teachers of English Language adopt the inductive teaching approach to teach grammar because it helps students to grasp grammar rules easily.

Students’ perceptions and experiences about the combined inductive-deductive approach in intermediate grammar class

“…Further, when investigating the students' perceptions and attitudes, most of students prefer the deductive approach to be used in the classroom [10], [16]. However, the deductive approach has the disadvantage of being a teacher-centered approach [17], [18] which affects negatively the students' participation and interaction [16]. On the other hand, other studies indicate that teaching grammar using the inductive approach, through which the students have the opportunity to discover the grammatical structures by themselves, shows more effectiveness than using the deductive approach.…”

“…Such studies point out the significant role played by the inductive approach in improving the students' skills and academic achievement in learning grammar as teachers using this approach have to involve students during the learning process and thus increase their interaction in the classroom [4], [17], [18]. Based on studies investigating teachers' perceptions and perspectives, teachers prefer to use the inductive approach during teaching grammar to activate their students' production in the classroom [19], [20].…”

“…Further, Gorat and Prijambodo [24] reveal that the students have positive perceptions towards the inductive approach as they feel satisfied to be taught inductively. Although such studies indicate that teaching grammar inductively is effective, the inductive approach has the disadvantage of being time-consuming for whether students, teachers or both of them [5], [9], [16], [17], [25], [26].…”