CRITICAL JOURNAL REPORT

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

CREATED BY :

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
MEDAN STATE UNIVERSITY
2022

TABLE OF CONTENT

TABLE OF CONTENT ...................................................................................................

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PREFACE..........................................................................................................................
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................
1.1 Purpose ................................................................................................................................
1.2 Background Information.....................................................................................................
1.3 Benefit...................................................................................................................................
CHAPTER 2. SUMMARY...............................................................................................
2.1 JOURNAL IDENTITY........................................................................................................
2.2 JOURNAL SUMMARY.......................................................................................................
CHAPTER 3. DISCUSSION ...........................................................................................
3.1 Strength ...............................................................................................................................
3.2 Weakness..............................................................................................................................
CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION....................................................
4.1 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................
4.2 Suggestion.............................................................................................................................

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 PREFACE

First of all, thanks for Allah SWT for his love and grace for us. And thanks to
Allah who has given us his grace, guidance and gifts as well as health sustenance so
that it can be completed and we can finished this assignment timely. And i would like
to say “ thank you” to Sir Bahagia Saragih as a lecturer that always teaches us and give
the knowledge and teach us about English grammar
This paper is to complete the one of Assignmen English grammar, that is
Critical Journal Report. We hope that it can be useful for the reader. Due to the limited
knowledge and experience of the authors, the authors believes that there are still many
weakness in this paper, therefore the authors really hopes for suggestions and

constructive criticism from readers for the perfection of this paper. We hope the readers
are able to understand it. And hopefully this Critical Journal Report can add insight and
other benefits for all readers.

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Grammar is an important element of a language. Grammar is generally thought
to be a set of rules specifying the correct ordering of words at the sentence level.
Grammar explains how the language should be structured. To speak in a clearer and
more effective manner, we study grammar. A person who has unconscious knowledge
of grammar may be sufficient for simple language use, but the ones who wish to
communicate in an artful manner and well, will seek greater depth of understanding and
proficiency that the study of grammar provides.
Mastering the grammar of a language will affect the mastery of language skills.
Therefore, in studying language formally, grammar is a subject that should be studied in
depth. The students need to be given adequate provision of grammar so that they have
good language skills.
There are several definitions of grammar. First, according to Richards and
Schmidt (2010: 251-252) grammar is a description of the structure of a language and
how language units such as words and phrases are formed into sentences. Dr. Johnson
in his book English Grammar states that “Grammar is the science of speaking correctly:
The art which teaches the relations of words to each other”. The Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English defines grammar as “the study of use of the rules by which
words change their forms and are combined into sentences.” In fact, grammar is “multi-
dimensional” and has multi-meanings. It is generally thought to be a set of rules for
choosing words and putting words together to make sense.

1.2 Purpose

This critical journal report (CJR) is making as a reference to give the writer and
the reader an abroad insight about strength and weakness from journal, as consideration,
and to complete my individual English Grammar task in English education department
in University State of Medan.

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1.3 Benefit
 Helping the reader know the illustration and judge assessment from a journal or
scientific work summary report.
 Know the strength and the weakness of the journal.
 Knowing the background and the reason why this journal published
 Giving a critics and suggestion to the journal writer.

CHAPTER 2
SUMMARY

2.1 Identity of Journal

Main journal
Title : A Study on Grammar Teaching at an English Education
Department in an EFL Context

Authors : Muh. Saeful Effendi, Umi Rokhyati, Uchti Al-Muchanifah

Rachman, Aulia Dwi Rakhmawati, and Dati Pertiwi
Publisher : International Journal on Studies in English Language and
Literature (IJSELL)
Year of publisher : 2017
City of publisher : Yogyakarta
Volume : Fifth Volume
ISSN : 2347-3126

Comparison Journal
Title : The Importance of Grammar in English Language Teaching
Authors : Dr.M.Sudhakar and Syed Fatima Farheen
Publisher : International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
Year of publisher : 2015
City of publisher : Manila, Filipina
Volume : Fouth Volume
ISSN : 2277 - 8179

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2.2 JOURNAL SUMMARY
SUMMARY JOURNAL 1

LITERATURE REVIEW

Learning Grammar

Grammar is one of the language aspects. Therefore someone who learns a new
language formally, in general, will be given grammar lessons. Of course this depends
on the level of the students who are learning. Learning Grammar is an important
activity in language learning. According to the study of language learning which
includes a focus on learning grammar (form-focused instruction), grammar teaching
convincingly shows more effective results than teaching focusing only on the meaning.
Learning focuses on grammar, according to Long can be divided in two. The first FOFs
(focus on forms) and FoF (focus on form). The first model of learning focused on
studying grammar. In this model, the grammar is taught separately from the context.
The second model of learning is focused on the meaning and on the grammar that
appears on the material being studied (Nassaji and Fotos, 2007: 11-12).

Problems in Learning Grammar

According to Ellis (2009: 144) the difficulty in learning grammar can be grouped
into three, namely: the difficulties associated with environmental factors of language,
with linguistic factors, and psychological difficulties. Factors related to language
environment are how often the input obtained from the environment. Linguistic factor
refers to the nature of the grammar of a language and psychological factors refer to
the ability to learn.

METHOD

The study is descriptive in nature. The data obtained are analyzed using
quantitative and qualitative analysis. The research population is English department
students in semester 2, 4, and 6. Samples were taken randomly

RESULT

Students’ Difficulties in Learning Grammar

The study aims to determine the mastery of grammar and the problems
experienced by students in the study of Grammar. The study was conducted in
Advanced Structure class in Semester 4. The number of respondents was 123 students.
The instrument used was a test (to determine the ability of grammar) and interviews
to explore problems faced. The results revealed that the students have a good mastery

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of grammar. The difficulties encountered by the students were linguistic and non-
linguistic ones. They comprise: 1. The difference in structure of the English and
Indonesian languages makes the students get difficulty to understand the structure of
English and to write in English 2. The occurrence of interference in using the English
language. Students write sentences in Indonesian first before writing a sentence in
English. 3. Some students (20%) stated they learn in English department not because
they want to. So, they lack of the motivation to follow the course. 4. Students are less
active in asking questions in class (59%).

DISCUSSION

Students’ Difficulties in Learning Grammar

The findings from this study indicate that students find difficulty in learning the
grammar. Of the 123 students who was studied, 92% said that the structure of the
English language is very different from the structure of the Indonesian. However, only
56 % state that they get difficulty in understanding the English structure. This means
that differences between the two languages led to complications for 56% of the
students. They are still experiencing difficulties related to the morphology and syntax
of the English language. The results also indicated that students still had difficulties in
grammar although they have completed the grammar courses. The main difficulties
are in adverb, prepositional phrases, noun clauses: subjunctives, tenses, and complex
sentences with adverbial clauses.The next difficulty related with interference. Here the
concept of automaticity in learning a language is not running at 100%. This is evident
from the amount of 48% of respondents who wrote the sentence in Bahasa Indonesia
first before writing into English. These difficulties are indeed part of the difficulty in
learning a foreign language grammar. As noted by Ellis (2009: 144) the difficulty in
learning the grammar can be grouped into three, namely: the difficulties associated
with environmental factors of language, with linguistic factors, and psychological
factors. Based on this theory, students of English Education encountered difficulties
associated with linguistic and environmental factors when learning English grammar.
Psychological factor is not a problem for students in learning it.

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 SUMMARY JOURNAL 2

Principles of Teaching Grammar:

a). Integrate both inductive and deductive methods: In the deductive classroom, the
teacher gives a grammatical explanation or rule followed by a set of exercises designed
to clarify the grammatical point. In deductive grammar one moves from rules to
examples. Inductive procedures reverse this process. Examples are presented to the
learners and through a process of guided discovery; they work out the principles
themselves. This leads us to the question, which is better? It depends on the grammar
point being learnt. A combination of both is needed; however inductive techniques
appear to result in better retention in the long term.
b). Connect grammatical form and communicative function: Many grammar based
courses are relatively ineffective because they teach grammar as an abstract system and
fail to give learners a proper context for the grammar point. Teaching was limited to the
form of the new grammatical item. For example, when the passive voice was introduced
students were given a list of sentences in the active voice along with a model of how to
form the passive. Such a procedure did not give students any insights into the
communicative contexts in which they should use the passive. Therefore, when teaching
the passive voice, show why the passive voice is used-to place emphasis on the action
rather than the doer, to hide the identity of the doer.

A few techniques in the teaching of grammar:

(1) Motivation: Fun should be an element in any class, especially one that deals with
grammar. Usually as soon as the word G-RA-M-M-A-R is announced, there is a sense
of doom that looms over the students. The immediate reaction is an inward groan or --
turning off due to a lot of apprehension. It is also the same for any teacher, especially a
one who is new and less experienced, therefore the one and only weapon that can
diffuse the situation is FUN. (2) Games. (3) Songs. (4) Mime. (5) Poems. (6) Audio
visual aids are all potential ways to have fun and introduce almost any topic on
grammar.

Creating different communicative situations in the classroom for teaching grammar:

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 Due to prescription of textbooks and curriculum, teachers are restrained to
confine themselves to the completion of the curricula and to follow the methodology
accordingly.
A Competent Teacher can create situations spontaneously depending on the
level of the students, the grammatical item he is teaching, and the topic. An Effective
Teacher is the one who can inspire and motivate the students by creating personal as
well as impersonal situations in the classroom.
a). Personal Situations: These may be related to the personal lives, likes and
dislikes and family background of the students and the teachers. The teacher can create
various types of personal situations - student-centred as well as teacher- centred on
different subjects like ones hobbies, likes and dislikes, routine activities, habits, friends,
relatives, family professions, health etc. to provide sufficient opportunities and time for
the students to participate in the meaningful situational dialogues. For example, while
teaching simple present tense, we initiate discussion in the classroom by asking some
questions about the daily routine of the students.
b). Impersonal situations: It is not necessary that a teacher always creates
personal situations to initiate conversational exchanges in the classroom. Apart from
personal situations, creation of impersonal situations can also be explored for
communicative purposes. Impersonal situations that cover topics related to politics,
sports, cinema, theatre, fashion, books, celebrities, finance, transport, vehicles and any
other topic in which students have some background knowledge and information should
be explored for creating communicative situations in the classroom.
c). Text-centred communicative situations: A grammar teacher can also teach
grammar with the help of a poem or a paragraph from the text. This will create the
textual centered communicative situation. While teaching the prescribed text for the
purpose of reading comprehension, a teacher can select some interesting passages from
the text and can create some communicative situations based on them for teaching and
providing practice in the use of a grammatical item. For example a teacher can ask the
students to find out the prepositions! main verbs/auxiliary verbs etc. from the given
poem or paragraph. In conducting this, the teacher can try to create interest in the minds
of the students so that they use to consider this practice to be a kind of game.

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 CHAPTER 3
DISCUSSION

3.1 Strenght
STRENGHTNESS
Both of this journal has a good explanation, and easy to understand in what case they
discussed. In the main journal they did a study case on grammar teaching. The journal
have literature review about the grammar, the aims of the study and discussion how to
face the problems, and the proof on the study. In the comparison journal give the reader
a new insight in teaching grammar. The journal disscuss about what a teacher should do
in teaching grammar, principles of teaching grammar, and give a few techniques in the
teaching of grammar.
So that readers can know and understand the explanations that have been attached by
the journal, because sometimes many journals that only provide a vague meaning and
only contain the important core points of the topics attached.

3.2 Weakness
WEAKNESS
The main journal don’t have many weakness because that is a research result, what in
the journal it’s about the result. But the journal don’t provide example in the discussion.
In the comparison journal it’s only like give the suggestion to the readers how to
teaching grammar without does a study about it. The journal need a study to make the
journal more complete. The journal lack of the result, because the journal only discuss
about the important things.

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 CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSION
4.1 CONCLUSION
The conclusion of the two journals can be concluded that the main journal has a
good explanation because the journal have a result of the study. The comparative
journal has a good suggestion what must teacher should in teaching grammar but the
main comparative journal lacks the proof that if the readers do what in journal, can it
work? The readers haven’t got any proof. So it can be concluded that the main journal is
better than the comparative journal.
4.2 SUGGESTION
The suggestions for this journal is the second journal should include several
proofs to support a better and better understood explanation such as the main journal,
the main journal should have a more attractive cover so that it can attract readers
interest as well as the comparison journal.

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