brown 22 kumar 7&8

        After reading these three chapters I realized how difficult deciding what to teach to your second language learners and what not to teach is very difficult to decide. Every teacher, researcher, and person is going to have their own opinion on what is important to teach their second language learners and what is not important; teaching grammar is one of those situations. There have been many debates about whether teaching grammar is important or whether they should focus more on speaking, reading, writing, and listening.

         I have found through my experience in taking a second language that learning grammar in a second language can be very difficult to comprehend and I can only imagine how difficult it is to teach it. It is hard to decide what is “the most important” to teach when teaching a second language because there are so many aspects of the language that need to be taught for the learner to become fluent in the language. Personally, I think speaking, reading, listening, and writing are more important than learning specific grammar details. I know grammar is important to learn in order to write and speak, but learners can learn the gist of the language without knowing too many grammar rules. Grammar gets very complicated, especially in the English language. How do you teach all of this necessary content to second language learners and decide what is the most important to teach them first?

           The chapters talked about language awareness and how it is essential for the realization of an individual’s full potential (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). A language is collections of different aspects of it to all come together. There are so many components that go into speaking a new language and they need to all be taught to a learner to become fluent. It is important to pull everything together in order for a learner to fully understand the components of their second language. Input and classroom interaction when used correctly, can help learners understand L2 grammatical systems. Teaching grammar and components of language at the right time and doing it correctly can be another challenge for teachers. Not only do you have to decide whether or not if you should be teaching it, but how and when is it appropriate?