The Use of Deductive and Inductive Approaches in Teaching Grammar for Afghan University Students of English and Literature Studies

Abstract

Teaching English language started with using the traditional teaching methods in the educational system of Afghanistan. Teachers preferred such kinds of classical methods for teaching grammar as well. To the knowledge of the researchers, there is a lack of research conducted to indicate whether the two common methods for grammar teaching, i.e. inductive or deductive, are more effective within the Afghan teaching and learning context. The current study has been conducted to find out the effectiveness of using inductive and deductive teaching approaches to teaching English grammar in the Afghan context. Using a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) approach for data collection as well as analysis, the study conducted a questionnaire survey of 218 students and 13 instructors and semi-structured interviews with 4 language instructors from both English Departments of Education & Literature Faculties at a university in Afghanistan. The findings indicate that there is no significant difference of using one approach over another and Afghan students can learn through both deductive and inductive approaches in teaching grammar. However, from the perspective of the teachers, it was found that the teachers generally prefer the deductive method and rarely use the inductive method as they are trained in the classical method of teaching English. The findings of the study will help English grammar teachers to view the importance of using both of the teaching methods in Afghan context in order to make learning grammatical rules and its structures easy for the students to overcome.