Effectiveness of using picture description technique for grammar: An experimental study

Learning and teaching grammar seem to be a challenge for most of the English as Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners and teachers. There is a need to use creative and innovative techniques to teach grammar and tense. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the effectiveness of using picture description technique to teach grammar and in particular the present continuous sentence pattern. This study was a descriptive survey research and mixed methods were applied in data collection. In this study, 25 students of Grade 10 and 10 ESL teachers of T/Mu/Al Hilal Central College, Mutur were randomly selected as sample population. The data collection instruments were an interview and a questionnaire. According to the opinions survey among the students and teachers, majority of the students express their lack of interest in learning grammar since interesting and creative games and techniques are not used in grammar lessons, and they accepted that the use of picture description technique can improve their ability of constructing sentence pattern and understanding the use of present continuous tense. Further, according to the findings of the questionnaire, majority of the teachers accepted that many English teachers do not use any techniques to teach grammar and tense, and the use of picture description technique can improve students’ proper understanding of present continuous tense. In general, in teaching and learning English, both teachers and students encounter various difficulties such as lack of teaching materials, students’ lack of interest, students’ insufficient basic knowledge in English, lack of facilities to apply different techniques and games, over-crowded classroom, use of deductive method to teach grammar and tense and teaching tense with less use of interesting games and techniques. This problem can be overcome and students’ proper understanding of present continuous tense can be improved when the suggested recommendations in this study are implemented.