Concept Mapping – A Pedagogical Tool for Grammar Lessons

Introduction Grammar is the description of the regularities in a language. Knowledge of these regularities provides the learner with the means to generate potentially enormous number of original sentences. Grammar teaching can proceed in two ways: covert grammar teaching where the rules are taught to a communicative syllabus and overt grammar teaching where the rules of grammar are presented explicitly using the grammar syllabus. Looking at the prescribed textbooks and the teacher handbooks used in Indian schools, one can infer that the pedagogy of English grammar teaching in India, by and large, follows the overt method. The teaching relies heavily on explicitly stating the concept and the rules governing it. The inductive or deductive approach is then used to understand the syntax of the language and solving examples strengthens the rules hence learnt.