Abstract:
Grammar instruction in learning and teaching English encompasses many
challenges and is perceived by students to be a burden. The already existing
resistance towards the language learning process intensifies when grammar
instruction takes place in class. However, in undergraduate courses which
focus on English for Academic Purposes (EAP), helping students master
grammar structures in order to better produce and perform in language
related contexts is compulsory. Therefore, sugar coating grammar lessons
could be considered one of the best methods to use in order to refrain from
building resistance towards the language learning process. Hence, this study
aims to help students master Reported Speech by creating an enabling space
using texts/examples which are not necessarily academic, but which provide
interesting and entertaining real-life scenarios, and thereby attempt to remove
the sense of overburden, anxiousness prevalent in understanding grammar.
This study presented EAP students of a state university with a grammar lesson
designed in the following steps: 1) Ice-breaker: the introduction to Reported
Speech; practiced with real life scenarios 2) Engaging activities to practice
usage: role-play, script writing, summarizing dialogues, 3) Concluding
activities: peer review and feedback. The key feature of these activities is that
they are designed based on a dramatic approach, specifically focusing on Sri
Lankan plays and movies, embedded with a variety of local flavours. These
activities are also used as scaffolding to help students generate their own
ideas and practice the actual language usage on their own. The study also
incorporates existing scholarly literature on lesson material preparation and
development by scholars such as Arjuna Parakrama and Suresh Canagarajah.
By acknowledging their contribution to the discourse on ELT, this study
promotes the importance of the usage of context-sensitive material which is
linguistically as well as culturally relevant, referring to local knowledge and
lived experience. The findings of the study indicated that the students enjoyed
the process of learning the Reported Speech. Their feedback suggests that
they learnt the grammar not knowing that they learnt it. In other words, the
activity-based approach helped sugar coat an otherwise daunting task of
learning the grammar structure/ formation, and usage.
Therefore, it can be concluded that presenting grammar lessons as activity
based lessons decreases resistance to learning them.
