Grammar assignment which I write in 2013.

1. INTRODUCTION
Teaching grammar for children is challenging. I learn from all these wonderful years
that grammar should be taught creatively. I prefer to teach the pupils learning grammar
through writing activity. Therefore, the pupils gain two types of knowledge at the same time.
Although the preference is improving writing skill, the pupils still benefit the lesson through
learning grammar indirectly. In this simple analysis, I am going to focus on adjectives errors
from year 6 pupils. The level of pupils is moderate and weak. Hence, I group the errors into
three groups; adjective order, misconception between adjectives and adverbs and quantifying
adjectives
ADJECTIVES ORDER
There are many levels of difficulty in understanding adjectives as a whole. Normally
pupils understand adjectives as words that modify the noun. Thus, I use lexical item in proper
way to describe adjectives. For instance, one of the pupils describes the book as: Red,
expensive, and thick book. In term of lexical, the word choice is correct. Anyhow, the word
arrangement seems to be incorrect due to its order. The correct answer is expensive, thick and
red book. I refer to several books for better understanding of the topic.
According to Jagjeet Singh and Adrian Holden if there is more than one adjective then
applying the rule would be necessary. It stated “The first thing you have to do is to decide
whether the adjectives are expressing opinion or fact.” Example of opinion is ‘it’s beautiful’
whereas the fact may be different such as ‘it’s big’. It can be shown as:
Adjectives
Opinion Fact
Name : NOR ELYANA BT ZAINAL
Matriculation number: D20102041229
Group : UPSI 01(A121PJJ)
Course code: BIL3013
Course title: ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Semester: 4
Task title: ERROR ANALYSIS

2. He is a nice old man
Apart from this, Singh and Holden also state the adjectives order should follow a rule
of OSACOMP.
O= Opinion
S= Size
A=Age
C=Colour
O=Origin
M=Material
P=Purpose
Thus example of sentence that follows the right order is ‘A beautiful, little, old, pink,
Chinese, plastic, hair clip.’
I refer to Justin Chang in his book Grammar For Good English. Adjective order or
Adjective string as mentioned by Chang is also used to modify one noun. The book has very
little information about the order.
I find interesting information about adjectives order in these two books. What most
important is how I can deliver extra knowledge to my pupils. It also gives me understanding
on the whole idea of the order. Before this, I keep asking my pupils to memorise the order. It
is not so authentic though. After reading, I know how the order started and I am going to
apply the knowledge in my lesson.
MISCONCEPTION BETWEEN ADJECTIVES AND ADVERB
As the topic moves deeper the tendency for pupils to engage with wrong concept is
quite high. I always find pupils get confused for words like; happy(adj)- happily(adv),
slow(adj) -slowly(adv). In addition, pupils find fast(adj) and fast(adv) are the same. Apart
from lexical, the pupils could not differentiate much on the syntax. For instance; he is writing
good(adj) is considering as the same for; he is writing well(adv).
For the matter of purpose, I refer to Milon Nandy in his book Correct English. He
states “Adjectives and Adverbs agree in one respect: both are qualifying words. The
difference is that adjectives go with nouns, while adverbs go with verbs.” I find interesting
explanation more on this topic. There are certain adjectives like cowardly and gentlemanly
cannot make adverbs by adding ‘ly’. There is no such word for cowardlily. The solution of
this problem is by making an adverbial phrase such as in a cowardly way.

3. In addition, I refer to Singh and Holden once more. In my view, I think both Singh
and Holden explain about this confusion explicitly. They drew my attention on the mistakes
whereby some of the mistakes always make by pupils. For instance, he works hard(adj) is
different from he hardly works(adv). Both sentences are different in terms of function and
meaning. According to them, there are three main points of confusion between adjectives and
adverb. First, some adverbs are not necessarily add –ly to the adjectives when they are
formed. For an example the work is hard(adj) and the boys tried hard to win the game(adv).
One of the learning objectives for English Language primary is to acquire vocabulary
in a context. Misconception is normal but to one extend it can be fossil. Apparently, it is
teachers’ responsibility to help the students. The reading is to benefit teacher in term of
knowledge and competency.
QUANTIFYING ADJECTIVES
The hardest part of adjectives is about quantifiers. Normally, quantifiers also are well
known as countable and uncountable nouns. The pupils learn quantifiers under grammar
lesson of noun. When it comes to construct sentences whereby all the adjectives phrases,
noun and verbs are linked together then the problem begins. Pupils do this mistake a lot in
section A of paper 2. Normally, they could not differentiate between much and many as well
as a few and little. Examples of sentences are; there are much sauce on the table; there are
many bread on the table; there are a few spoons on the table. Hence, I refer to four books for
this purpose.
I refer to Betty Azar in her book Fundamental of English Grammar. She states that
many is used with count nouns whereas much with noncount nouns. For example, How
many apples did you buy? and How much fruit did you buy?
Then I refer again to Justin Chang. I could not find much information in his book
except for the listed phrases of quantifying adjectives for instance five apples, many apples
and all apples.
On the other hand, Singh and Holden give precise examples on this matter. According
to them, words that applied with countable nouns are many and few while words applied to
uncountable nouns are much and little. Thus, they give a few examples for better
understanding such as; She lent me a few paper in class(incorrect);she lent me a little paper
in class (correct). In addition, they also mention about awareness of using much and little in
positive and negative statement. Much is usually used in negatives sentences and a question

4. while a lot of is usually used in positive sentences. For example: There wasn’t much coffee
left in the pot.(Negative);There is a lot of coffee left. (Positive).
In addition, Singh and Holden mentioned ‘little and few are used when the idea is
negative. A little and a few are used when the idea is positive’. For example: There were few
people in the queue.( So I didn’t have to wait long); There were a few people in the queue.
(So I had to wait quite a long time).
Milon Nandy also gives necessary information needed. He stated that a few indicates
there were some things even if the number was small. Few on the other hand indicates there
were not many or scarcely any. The few means all that there were. For instance: A few boys
saw the snake; Few boys saw the snake; The few boys saw the snake.
Back to Azar, she indicates a few is used with a count noun whereas a little is used
with a noncount noun. For example: a few songs; a little music.
This topic is very wide. I need to refer to other books for extra information.
Sometimes, as teachers we neglect some important part of the lesson. It is not about
competency but we seldom use it widely due to curriculum syllabus. By reading, at least we
back on track. The input is familiar but it is just long forgotten.
CONCLUSION
I do a lot of monologue in finishing this task. The pupils’ mistakes sometimes are due
to carelessness and misconception. It is my duty to correct their mistakes. By doing reading I
can relate the mistakes and the whole idea of grammar teaching. It is very beneficial for me
as an English Language teacher.
REFERENCE
Azar, B.S., (1992). Fundamentals of English Grammar Second Edition. New York.
Longman.
Chang, J,. ( 2008). Grammar For Good English. Petaling Jaya. MPH Group Publishing Sdn.
Bhd.
Jagjeet Singh & Holden, A,. (1995). Remedial English Grammar for KBSM. Shah Alam.
Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn.Bhd.
Nandy, M,. (2002). Correct English. Subang Jaya. Pelanduk Publications Sdn.Bhd.