In-service english teachers’ beliefs of grammar teaching at primary schools in Selangor, Malaysia / Azrina Abu Bakar

The study of English teachers’ beliefs about grammar teaching has been subjected to many discussions and empirical research in second language education. The issue of whether grammar should be taught or otherwise is not the only concern, but also some teachers encounter the issue of the best way to teach grammar, either teaching grammar explicitly or implicitly. This paper reports on a study which investigated the beliefs of in-service English teachers at primary schools in Selangor, Malaysia about the importance of the grammar component in learning English and its roles in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) as well as the approaches to grammar teaching either explicit or implicit. For this study, the researcher employed a quantitative approach and randomly selected 50 in-service English teachers to obtain information regarding teachers’ views of grammar teaching and classroom. The findings revealed that most of the in-service English teachers believed that the grammar component is significant in learning the English language and it should be taught at primary schools. In addition, the study found that most of them preferred to employ the implicit approach compared to the explicit approach in grammar teaching. Hence, it can be concluded that the teachers in the study had their own set of beliefs about grammar teaching. The involvement of various stakeholders such as ESL teachers, curriculum designers in ESL, and the Malaysia Ministry of Education plays essential roles to enhance the English education system and support pupils’ achievement, especially at the primary school level.