Deductive learning is made by introducing the rules of grammar to learners directly. The deductive rules will be given to the learner right after the topic is introduced. Then the rules will be explained clearly and followed by supportive examples which allow learners to apply them in their own writing. Many teachers use this approach to teach in their classrooms.

In deductive learning, the teacher will give the rules to the learner at the beginning of the lesson and explain how to use them by giving examples. If the teacher uses a deductive approach to teach how to write a question, for example, first the teacher gives a rule that says the learner must replace the subject of the statement with the pronoun “Who”. The statement is, “My mother washed the car.” The interrogative sentence is, “Who washed the car.” The learner has to make an interrogative sentence or question from the statement by replacing the subject of the sentence which is “My mother” with a new subject which is “Who.” That will change from the statement to question sentence. Then the learners understand the question must start with “Who” to get a person in the answer. As a result, the learners learn to substitute the word to get the right question. This approach is customarily related to Grammar-Translation which is now not popular.

The Grammar-Translation approach which was used in teaching grammatical items and emphasized the ability to “analyse” language rather than the ability to “use,” has fallen out of favors because it fails to deliver the knowledge of using a second language in real communication. The problem of Grammar-Translation is that usually it is taught in a first language so the examples are in a mother tongue. This is the problem because learners don’t practice as often in the second language. Also, the practice of grammar involved a lot of reading and writing, and not as much speaking and pronunciation. This can easily be corrected by providing speaking and speaking and listening exercises in the second language. For example the teacher could be a native speaker and lessons could have recordings in the second language that learners can listen to. 

Most teachers believe that teaching grammar by using deductive rules is the solution for learners to learn language and it works very well with the learners who enjoy learning by analyzing the language in order to improve their reading and writing skills. However, there appears some strength and weakness in teaching language through the rules. 

There are some points considered as the advantages of teaching rules by using a deductive approach. First, teaching the rules or the formula is quick, easy and gets to the point. This way can save time from getting examples of the rules from learners and their examples may not fit the rules. Second, it is good for the learner who learns a certain way, adult learners in particular, because learning this way shows respect for their knowledge and ability to acquire language. Some learners learn best by being given direct rules. Next, learners who come to a classroom believing that the teacher has all the answers will be satisfied when the teacher provides the rules because they understand that is the way learning happens. Also, it’s good for learners who learn best by analysis, the rules give them the tool to analyze the sentences. Furthermore, the learning process is controlled because the given rules help the teacher to get ready for immediate answers if the learners have questions.

There are some disadvantages when teaching grammar through the rules. First, too difficult technical terms or grammar terms such as prepositional phrases, subordinate clauses, etc., may be used when teaching grammar. The learners would not want to learn because they may not understand the concepts of the language and that will turn their minds off, especially with young learners. Secondly, it is a kind of teaching focused on teacher-centred learning which means the teacher always stands in front of the learners, giving learners the rules and explaining them. Learners see the rules, write them down and memorize them. There are no learners involved in the learning process. Next, the deductive rules given by the teacher are not kept in the memory because the learners are not getting involved in the learning. The learners need to be active in their learning. Finally, applying this approach makes the learners believe that this is the best way to learn language by knowing the rules. It will stop the learners from creatively thinking on their own which means they will not progress in learning the language.

There are six points to be considered when explaining grammar rules to learners. First of all, rules should be true even though sometimes they are simplified for the understanding of the learners. Then, the teacher must explain the limit of each rule which means that the teacher will explain to the learners so they know in certain situations how and when to use the rules. Next, rules should be written clearly so the teacher can avoid using difficult words. Rules should be simple and the teacher should not, at this point, try to explain the exception to the rules because it will confuse the learners. In addition, the teacher should explain the rules using familiar terms and concepts if not learners may become confused and focus on learning new terms rather than the rules. Finally, rules need to be relevant or meaningful to the learners. This varies according to what language is being taught because each language does not have the same structures. Rules must be meaningful to the language being taught. For example, in the Lao language, we say, “no have” which means “I don’t have.” This sentence doesn’t make any sense in English.

This is a sample lesson on using the deductive approach to teach in a classroom. The topic is “Using a rule explanation to teach how to make a question from question word ‘who.” This is for the pre-intermediate level. Firstly, the teacher introduces a rule by writing it on the board “My sister is talking to Mr. Mohan.” The teacher asks learners to analyze the sentence such as subject, verb and object. Then the teacher takes away the subject of the sentence “my sister” and substitutes “who” to make the question form, “Who is talking to Mr Mohan?” The learner's answer is, “my sister.” Then the teacher does the same thing with the object of the sentence by taking away the word “Mr Mohan.” by asking the question, “Who is my sister talking to?” The answer is, “my sister.” Finally, the teacher explains the rules again after giving them out. The learners jot down the rule and memorize it.

The teaching of grammar deductively through the rules is, therefore, one way of teaching language that many teachers around the world apply as a teaching approach in their language classrooms, in a second language class in particular. In inductive learning, learners discover the rules themselves. For example, the teacher teaches simple past tense. The teacher does not give the rule of the past tense to the learners straight away after introducing the topic. But he or she gives many examples of sentences in past tense. Then teacher asks the learners to figure out what tense it is by themselves. Then the teacher explains why it is past tense and checks to ensure that their rule is correct.

Inductive learning includes learning by immersion and the Situational Language Teaching approach. Researchers believe that inductive learning works for learning a second language. They also believe that language is best learned without access to translation because if learners keep translating into their first language, then they learn the language at a slower pace. There is also a “Natural Language Acquisition” which is a method of learning a language. School children who are immersed in a second language situation such as an ‘Immersion Program” in Canada, learn very well because they can not keep translating back into their mother language. In this program, the learners learn a target language through school subjects. As well, they are not taught grammar rules so they learn from the context of the materials and discover the rules by themselves. In inductive learning using the “Situational Language Teaching Approach” means that the teacher prepares a lesson in order to get example sentences of grammar structures from learners. This approach allows learners to learn when to use a certain structure in a suitable situation. For example, the teacher sets a situation in a class about reporting what people say. The learners say something that others can report on. For instance, one learner says, “I want to be a lawyer.” Then another learner reports the sentence, “She said that he wanted to be a lawyer.” The rule can be repeated by the learners by using the same form, “She or He said that.” Then they have to find out the rules and how to use it. In a second language, discovering learning or inductive learning means that people will want to learn when they have discovered by themselves rather than when someone gives them the rules. The rules are kept in their memories if they are involved in trying and making errors themselves with the correction and the feedback given by the teacher [1]. 

Discovering learning requires the critical thinking of learners since different learners have different styles of learning. This approach may not fit the needs of some learners and the teaching situation of each classroom. Therefore, there appear some advantages and disadvantages to using inductive learning.

There are six advantages of inductive learning that encourage learners to figure out rules for themselves. First, rules become more meaningful, memorable and useful when learners discover for themselves because they get involved in the learning process, whereas the rules given by the teacher may not kept in their minds long. Secondly, it takes more effort through the process of learning. Learners work hard through thinking to find out the rules so they likely remember the rules in the long term. Next, learners are more involved in their learning so they are more attentive and interested and do not become passive during the lesson. As well, inductive learning is attractive to learners who like to problem-solve and realize patterns as a way of learning. It is a difficult way of learning for learners who like to be given the rules. In addition, if learners do their problem-solving in a group using a second language, then the learners have more chance to practice their target language. Finally, learning to think for themselves and be resourceful makes learners better prepared to learn in the future and become creative thinkers. 

Apart from the six advantages, inductive learning also has six disadvantages.

First, it takes a long time to figure out rules so learners may think that the rules are more important than what is to be learned from the rules. Next, the time it takes to find out rules might be better used in practicing the rules. Some people would argue that inductive learning is a waste of time. The following disadvantage is that some learners may work out the wrong rules or their idea of the rules is not useful enough to answer the teacher’s questions. When there is not enough time to practice the correct rules, the learners will use their incorrect rules. More practice means there is time to get rid of faulty rules. Also, it takes more time for the teacher to plan an inductive lesson in order to organize the information carefully so the learners will create accurate rules. The next disadvantage is that no matter how carefully the teacher plans and gets the data ready for the lesson, there may still be errors in the data given for the learners to create the rules. On the other hand, when the teacher gives the learners deductive rules, there are no errors. The last weakness is that inductive learning can be frustrating for some learners because they have different learning styles and experiences. Some learners just want to have the deductive rules without figuring them out [2]. 

This is a sample lesson using an inductive approach to teach grammar elements. The topic is “Teaching imperative through actions.” This is for the beginner level. The teacher uses the Direct Method, which was developed from the Total Physical Response (TPR) method to teach this lesson. This method allows learners to get involved in the learning process both physical and mental. First, the teacher demonstrates by giving commands and acting at the same time. For example, the teacher says, “Sit down, stand up, walk slowly, run fast and stop, (don’t) point to the board etc.,” and the teacher acts. Next, the teacher gives commands and asks all learners to act. Then the teacher asks two or three students at the front of the class to act while he or she is giving them commands. After that the teacher lets the learners practice in pairs or in groups. Each learner takes a turn to give commands and act in their own pairs or in groups. Finally, the teacher writes the vocabulary or phrases that are used in the activities on the board. The teacher reads the sentence aloud and the learners repeat after the teacher. Then the learners write all of them down in their notebooks. In this lesson, students learn language in imperative forms without the rules given. The teacher does not give them any grammar rules but demonstrates the meaning of the language by acting instead. The learners then learn the rules by doing and following the examples. In consequence, the learners understand how to use commands and remember the rules easier and longer after being involved in the inductive learning process.

Teaching grammar through texts is done by using the whole context to comprehend the meanings. Since one word has many meanings, it depends on its function such as it can be a noun, verb and so on. Learners can not give the right meaning when they are asked for the meaning of a word in a text. The context of the text can give the answer to that question rather than a word because such a word has different meanings in different texts. And those meanings can be understood if learners have the context of the text where the word is placed by using rules to help. For instance, the word “book” has many meanings. If you say, “I read my book,” it could mean you read a written or printed work. But if you say, “I book a single room at the Taj Palace Hotel? Then the meaning here is not a printed work anymore but it means “to reserve a room.” It really depends on the context of each sentence or text to help learners know what the word means. 

“Language is context-sensitive.” It is very hard to understand the meaning of a single word or phrase without context. Learners learn grammar best when they practice in the context. If words or sentences are taken out of the context of texts, they do not make any sense. As a result, teaching grammar should be made by using entire texts as contexts. For example, this is a sentence that is taken from a text, “Maybe, I am not sure about that.” This sentence is from the following text, “There will be a party tomorrow night. It’s my classmate’s party. I don’t really know him very well because we don’t talk to each other much. I wonder if I should or should not go. I will wait until tomorrow morning to think about it again. What do you think, Mohan? Are you going? Mohan responds, ‘Maybe, I am not sure about that,’ The extract utterance will make sense if looking at the sentence before it. In this context, this sentence is the answer to the question “Are you going?” which comes before it. 

For “decontextualized” words, utterances and texts which are divorced from their context appear hard to interpret and understand the meanings because their meanings are absent. Even the sentences are complete and not taken from other texts. However, if there is no context, their meanings are not clear and comprehensible. The following is the example: “No computer is available.” This is the sentence said by my computer teacher when I was trying to use one of the computers in my lap. As a result, there are three levels of the context that can be used to comprehend the meanings of words, phrases or utterances. They are the co-text which is the rest of the text surrounding it, the context of situation which is the situation in which the text is used, and the context of culture which is the understanding of the culture in which the context is used to help make the meaning of the words, sentences and the texts within the whole texts clear and understandable [3].

Using the sources of texts, the teacher has to consider two points. The first is that if the text provides learners a good sense of grammar learners are able to figure out grammar items from its context. Secondly, to be able to attain a functional command of a second language, learners have to know and create not only isolated sentences but also entire texts in the target language. However, teaching grammar by applying a text-based approach has some problems related to the type of text. The sources of texts can come from the “course book; authentic sources such as literary texts, the Internet, newspapers, songs, etc; the teacher; and the learners themselves.” 

The texts in a course book have precise grammatical features which emphasize easy understanding. This makes the texts a little unreal and uninteresting. The people who support authentic texts claim that the particular texts written for English as a Foreign Language do not motivate the learners to learn the language and do not show the learners the way to use language in real-life contexts. However, the authentic texts have problems themselves when the solid newspaper article is introduced to the beginner level by some teachers. The new vocabulary and complex grammar items within the texts turn them into demotivating. Therefore, to make the authentic texts and the course books remain effective sources. The texts need to be simplified in a way that they can still keep their genuine flavour. The teacher’s text is another type of authentic text which works well in the typical classroom practice. The teacher’s story about travelling plans, holidays, etc., is more interesting to the learners than any characters in a course book or important people in a newspaper. The teacher uses language that is easy for learners to understand so the teacher can check their understanding right away during the lesson. Finally, the text produced by the individual learners helps them learn a language very well because it is real and interesting for them. There is evidence to show that learners remember better when they raise their own topics in the classroom than the topics given by teachers or course books.

The following sample lesson uses learners’ text. The topic is, “Using student language to review ways of talking about the future (Intermediate).” For this lesson, a cassette recorder with a microphone on an extendable lead is used. A small group of learners are asked to sit in a small circle with a microphone set in the circle centre. The teacher stands outside the circle operating the cassette recorder [4].

First step

The teacher introduces the topic, “the coming mid-term holiday.” The teacher does not start to record until the learners are ready with their conversation. The teacher acts as a facilitator who provides the language to the learners when needed. When the learners are ready, the teacher tells them to start their conversation but do sentence by sentence naturally. The teacher indicates when it is time to record. The conversation begins like this: A student says, “John, what will you do this summer holiday?” The teacher corrects the sentence, “John, what are you going to do this summer holiday?” Then the learner repeats the sentence. After that the teacher tells the learner to say the same sentence again but this time she records it. The teacher does this process with each sentence in the conversation until the whole conversation. Second step: the teacher and learners check if the conversation recorded is fine then the teacher plays the tape and listens to the whole conversation which allows the learners to appreciate their own texts. Then the teacher writes all the utterances in the conversation on the board. Third step: the teacher focuses on the grammar form in the conversation recorded by underlining the future expressions. For example, “John, what are you going to do this summer holiday? I am not sure. Maybe I’ll stay at home.” The learners are asked to point out the different forms and explain the use of them in this context. For example, she directs them to the basic rule that they can use “going to” with the things that are planned, and use “will” when the decision is made without planning. For the last step, the teacher plays the learners’ recorded text again and points to the words on the board. Then she erases the board and allows the learners to improvise their original sentences in the dialogue again from their memory. This time more details can be added if needed [5].

In teaching grammar through texts, there are some advantages and disadvantages that appear while teaching. The first advantage is the “co-textual” data provided in the text helps learners work out the meaning of the new grammatical elements. Secondly, using authentic texts helps learners learn and use new words and rules in their real meaningful communication. Next, the texts provide grammar and vocabulary inputs, the skills practice and discovery elements of text organization. The next advantage is language inputs that learners learn in the classroom give them good preparation for their self-study. And finally, the texts produced by learners themselves help them learn a language effectively. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages. First, if the text is too difficult, the authentic text, for example, may affect some of the advantages mentioned above. Secondly, if many simplified texts are used then the learners may be misleading and think that the way they learn is natural for speaking and writing which is not the purpose of the texts use. The next disadvantage is that learners are not interested in all texts equally. The final disadvantage is that learning through texts takes too much time for learners to discover and understand the language and the learners who prefer the answer quickly will lose their patience and interest in learning language acquisition.

In conclusion, teaching grammar through rules, examples and texts has some advantages and disadvantages that affect learners in learning a language. Teaching grammar through rules using a deductive approach saves time and is straight to the point. The learners feel comfortable with the lesson because the learning process is familiar to them and they always have correct answers by using the given rules. However, difficult grammatical terms used in teaching rules may stop learners’ language creativity and the rules are not memorable to the learners because they are not involved in the learning process. By the way, teaching grammar through example using an inductive approach allows learners to discover the rules themselves and encourages them to be creative thinkers. The rules become meaningful and memorable for them because they are  included in the learning process. Learners have more chances to practice the target language and become active learners. But, this kind of teaching takes too much time to figure out the rules rather than practicing the rules and the results may be incorrect. Learners may get frustrated because they can not work out the rules, then they do not enjoy learning this way. It wastes a lot of time for careful planning which can not avoid errors anyways. Finally, by teaching grammar through texts using the context to learn grammatical items, learners work out the meaning of new grammar rules from the provided “co-textual” data. The texts provide learners with language inputs which help them to learn effectively and prepare them for self-study. However, difficult text such as authentic text may take away learners’ interest in learning language because learners become passive after taking too much time to discover the rules and understand the context of the text. The text may not interest the learners to find out so they lose their enthusiasm for learning the language. Finally, teaching grammar is still essential when learning languages, second languages especially.

1. Lado, Robert. Linguistics across cultures: Applied linguistics for language teachers. University of Michigan Press, 1964.

2. Nguyen, H. and D.R. Terry. “English learning strategies among EFL learners: A narrative approach.” IAFOR Journal of Language Learning, vol. 3, no. 1, 2017, pp. 4–19.

3. Safford, Kate. “Teaching grammar and testing grammar in the English primary school: The impact on teachers and their teaching of the grammar element of the statutory test in spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG).” Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, vol. 23, no. 1, 2016, pp. 3–21.

4. Thornbury, Scott. How to teach grammar. Pearson Education Limited, 1999.

5. Thirusanku, J. and M.M. Yunus. “Status of English in Malaysia.” Asian Social Science, vol. 10, no. 14, 2014, p. 254.