A Study on the Understanding of Grammar among English Major Students at the University of Tripoli, Faculty of Languages

Résumé

This action research, intended to improve the grammar and performance of English major students at the University of Tripoli, presents a review of the current status of English language education, with an emphasis on the need for urgent reforms in the
teaching of English in Libya.

In this study, the researcher made an attempt to identify the common weaknesses of English major students in grammar. The researcher tapped 50 students to answer a 20-item test questionnaire on which they would simply correct the sentence
construction of the items.

The writing exercise enabled the instructor to be exposed to the grammatical errors in the sentence construction of the students.
Some of the striking grammatical errors identified were highlighted and discussed to enable students to take note of the correct forms of the sentences in order to avoid the errors when they are writing. The findings reveal that the students were weak in parallelism, use of modifiers (adjectives and adverbs), capitalization, correct use of punctuation marks, and spelling.

Teaching grammar is one of the important components in learning English for students at school.

The theories and methods of language teaching has developed various techniques of teaching English. The accuracy in the choice of teaching techniques will support the success of language learning. As observed, there are many English language learners who have difficulty in mastering grammar. One study even noted that most foreign students view the learning of grammar as a difficult task.
It is recommended that teaching strategies should be updated to the interest of the second language learners. Innovative
methodologies such as games, role play, reading English newspaper, watching English shows, referring to dictionary, should be used as tools in the classroom.