English Grammar Awareness Facilitates L2 Learners’ Writing

Abstract

“Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them”, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). It is true that from just words can become a phrase then a sentence but what we may need to realize is how hard and challenging it is to make the sentence right. To face the real world, writing is the most challenging skill to teach for language teachers mainly because students take time to grasp and digest the knowledge of writing skill. To make matters worse, writing test is also the most popular means of test for placement in entering schools and universities. Due to this reason, L2 learners crave to write clearly and accurately in English. Undeniably, how a person writes with acceptable choice of words and correct grammar represents the L2 learner’s competency in English Language. This study is done to explore the importance of having English grammar awareness to facilitate L2 learners in their writing activities. The study thus aims to determine how grammar awareness amongst the L2 and other support systems such as English classes & facilities help facilitating L2 writing. 84 undergraduate students answered the questionnaire. The quantitative data have been analysed at the end of the research. Some of the findings are 75% of the respondents indicated that they were still unsure on the use of proper grammar in writing despite 94% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that they understood when the instructor/teacher taught them English Grammar. The mix-up results in the findings have shown some drawbacks in the teaching and learning practices. Moreover, only 63% of the participants answered agree and strongly agree that their learning institution has an English classroom that is conducive for learning (self-access centre), which can be considered as not satisfactory since English Language is the second language in Malaysia. It is hoped that the government of Malaysia could provide complete conducive learning centre for schools and universities. 
 
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