Investigating the problems associated with the teaching and learning of English grammar-a case study at Aduman Senior High School

Abstract

Teaching and learning of grammar have become a major problem among students and teachers in Ghana. To be able to communicate very well in a language in written and spoken form, one has to master its grammar. It is in this view that the researcher conducted this study to find out the problems associated with the teaching and learning of grammar and identify means through which this problem could be solved. The problems that make it difficult for students to learn English included the teaching learning materials, using grammar in communication, availability of learning materials and the techniques for teaching grammar. Further analysis revealed that students find it difficult to use the grammatical rules so they feel shy to use thinking that they will be laughed at. Such students have lack of self-efficacy and feel more difficulty in understanding English. According to teachers, students’ knowledge of the English language is low. So, teachers use the explicit method in teaching. Again, the use of teaching learning materials and self-confidence were also perceived to contribute toward the problems in learning English. The school used for the study was Aduman Senior High School. The population used for the study was seventy (70); sixty-five (65) students and five (5) teachers. The instruments used were questionnaire and interview. The stratified random sampling method was used for the study. With this method, the population was divided into smaller groups known as strata and a random sample form each stratum was taken in a number proportional to the stratum’s size when compared to the population. The researcher used data collection procedure to collect data from the respondents, this data collection procedure was in three stages thus: pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervention data collection. The data collected were then analyzed and recommendations relevant to the problem investigated were made.