The Dative Case for Comprehension-Based Grammar Teaching

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehension-based model for explicit grammar instruction. It is argued that the process of grammar teaching and learning can better be treated as a communicative event with content drawn from pedagogically relevant aspects of contrastive linguistic analyses of the first language (L1) and the the second language (L2). Within a task-based pedagogy, L2 learners can be engaged in concept-forming activities that allow them to develop an understanding of the target grammatical features to facilitate later interlanguage restructuring. This model is illustrated with an exercise in the English dative alternation based on a contrastive analysis of this lexico-syntactic phenomenon in English, the target language and Moroccan Arabic, the students’ L1.