On babies and bathwater—the case of grammar instruction in second language acquisition: Implications for the teaching of Xhosa

Abstract

It is argued that paying attention to grammar actively impedes communicative competence (Krashen 1982). Competence is being sacrificed together with grammar-translation method. Grammar is thus clearly a thorny issue. In every methodological discussion which touches on linguistic or grammatical rules, the point is stressed that knowing the rules is not enough, the learner must be able to “use” them. But we have no theoretical basis for claiming that linguistic rules are “used”. Sociolinguistic and discourse rules mediate between grammatical knowledge and actual performance. The point is that just as knowledge about grammar does not itself constitute the ability to produce correctly, knowledge about sociolinguistics, discourse and pragmatic constraints docs not constitute the ability to produce appropriately. All the linguistic, sociolinguistic and other rules we know still provide only a description of a system. They do not describe the steps by which native speakers express and comprehend meaning. If mean...