The danger of shedding the content in grammar teaching: an example in Czech

Abstract

The role of grammar in L1 teaching has been a topic of a long-lasting debate. Czech language instruction is no exception. Based on an almost 200-year-old tradition, the prevailing model of teaching Czech is grammar- and knowledge-based. Innovations so far have focused mostly on general parameters of communication and interaction in class, instead of focusing on the content and its didactic transformation. The study demonstrates the necessity of the content-focused approach to modelling L1 education, and the danger of slipping to didactic formalism of shedding the content if the content-focused approach is disregarded.