The Effectiveness Of Some Free Linguistic Activities In Developing Primary School Pupils Use Of English Grammar Rules

The present study aimed at developing the fifth year primary school pupils’ useof grammar rules through the use of some language activities. Thus, the problem ofthe study was stated in this question: “How can some free linguistic activities beused for developing the use of grammar rules for primary stage pupils?”The study adopted the quasi-experimental pretest-posttest experimental group/control group design. Subjects in the present study were fifth year primary schoolpupils. Two classes were randomly selected from El Fath Primary School in Belbeis,Sharkeya governorate in the school year 2003-2004. Then, they were randomlyassigned into two groups, experimental (37 pupils) and control (32 pupils). Theexperimental group pupils received training through a program based on using somecommunicative activities and the “Focus-on-Form” approach for developing their useof grammar rules. On the other hand, pupils in the control group received regularinstruction.To determine exactly the grammar rules whose use will be developed throughoutthe program, a list of the grammar rules included in the fifth year primary schoolpupil’s book was made. Based on these grammar rules, a grammar test was developedand used as a pre-post test.A program was developed by the researcher based on the focus-on-formapproach and some communicative activities. This program aimed at developing theexperimental group pupils’ use of grammar rules. The program was taught over aperiod of seven weeks.By the end of the experiment, a post-test was administered to both theexperimental and control groups to find out the effectiveness of the program indeveloping the experimental group pupils’ use of the grammar rules.