Grammatical Awareness Research Articles

Regulatory focus predicts individual differences in pragmatic versus grammatical awareness and sensitivity

The present study employs regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) to investigate the effects of L2 speakers’ chronic regulatory focus on their L2 pragmatic versus grammatical awareness. It involved the participation of 121 Chinese students, who are English language learners, at a university in the United States. Haws et al.’s (2010) questionnaire was used to examine the participants’ regulatory dispositions, and a judgment task was adapted from Bardovi-Harlig and Dörnyei (1998) to assess participants’ awareness of grammatical and pragmatic errors, as well as the severity of each type of error. Multiple regression results largely confirmed the predictions. Prevention regulatory focus, concerned with obligations, responsibilities, and negative outcomes, predicted L2 speakers’ recognition of grammatical errors and their severity. Conversely, promotion focus, which emphasizes growth, accomplishments, and positive outcomes, positively predicted L2 speakers’ perceptions of pragmatic error severity. These findings contribute to the understanding of how differences in chronic motivational orientations can lead to different L2 use patterns and characteristics.

초등 예비교사들의 영어 화용에 대한 인식

This study investigates the extent of pragmatic awareness in English of primary
 pre-service teachers. It addresses two research questions. First, do Korean learners of
 English exhibit a marked discrepancy between grammatical awareness and pragmatic
 awareness? Second, if they are less aware of pragmatic violations than grammatical
 errors, how does this manifest in their speech act strategies? To answer the first
 question, a written survey on pragmatic awareness was carried out with Korean
 pre-service teachers (N = 28). To address the second question, an acceptability
 judgment task was conducted with another group of Korean pre-service teachers (N
 = 32) and English natives (N = 65). The results showed that Korean pre-service teachers
 were less aware of pragmatic violations than grammatical errors and that their speech
 act strategies deviated from those of English natives. Regarding apology speech acts,
 they tended to use more semantic formulas compared to English natives. Concerning
 request speech acts, they relied on politeness markers rather than the negative politeness
 strategies preferred by the English natives. Finally, the study offers some suggestions
 for enhancing their pragmatic competence.

The Development of Read Riddle Games to Improve Students' Reading Interest

Reading is an important aspect of the Senior High School curriculum, especially in areas where languages were integrated. The curriculum focuses on teaching grammatical awareness, structure, and reading comprehension to help students progress from basic knowledge to higher levels of language use. This study aims to discover the students’ outcomes by developing learning media using Google Site called "Read Riddle Games" for grade X SMA Negeri 2 Pekanbaru. The subject in this study is X MIPA 4 class in 2022/2023 academic year. This study used ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) as the methodology to design and develop a learning media product. The learning media were validated by material expert, media expert and trial with the students. The researcher used questionnaires as the instruments in this study. The analysis of trial with the students using questionnaire with Gain Classification revealed a significant improvement in students' interest in reading after the enforce of the developed learning media with an average of 71% increase in students’ interest in reading. The development of the "Read Riddle Games" learning media has demonstrated high feasibility both in terms of material aspects and media aspects. This finding show that the learning media developed can be used to enhance students' interest in reading, thus contributing to a more effective educational experience.

Identifying Taxis and Logico-Semantic Relations in Chinese EFL Writing Samples

In the context of EFL writing in China, there is a prevalent tendency among students to heavily rely on the provided model essays from teachers, leading to a phenomenon known as sameness. This overreliance often results in confusion when it comes to expressing ideas effectively in sentences. To address this issue, this paper adopts an analytical framework based on the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). SFL is a linguistic theory that emphasizes language’s social context and meaning (Halliday, 1985; 1994). Notably, SFL prioritizes meaning over form and examines the organization of texts as well as individual sentences. The theory has been widely applied in discourse analysis and language teaching. This paper offers a brief literature review on key SFL terms, such as language rank, clause, clause complex, taxis, and logico-semantic relation. Additionally, the paper presents examples of identifying taxis and logico-semantic relations using two types of EFL writing samples from SFL perspective. The analysis reveals that the first text, a comparison and contrast essay, predominantly employs the relation of extension, whereas the second text, an argumentative piece, prominently exhibits the logico-semantic relation of enhancement. The paper provides insight into the use of SFL as an analytical tool for analyzing variable text types. Students learning from these analytical tools may have more grammatical awareness in identifying clause boundaries and logico-semantic relations across different writing genres.

Not all grammar errors are equally noticed: error detection of naturally occurring errors and implications for eye-tracking models of everyday texts.

Grammar errors are a natural part of everyday written communication. They are not a uniform group, but vary from morphological errors to ungrammatical word order and involve different types of word classes. In this study, we examine whether some types of naturally occurring errors attract more attention than others during reading, measured by detection rates. Data from 211 Danish high school students were included in the analysis. They each read texts containing different types of errors: syntactic errors (verb-third word order), morphological agreement errors (verb conjugations; gender mismatches in NPs) and orthographic errors. Participants were asked to underline all errors they detected while reading for comprehension. We examined whether there was a link between the type of errors that participants did not detect, the type of errors which they produce themselves (as measured in a subsequent grammar quiz), and the type of errors that are typical of high school students in general (based on error rates in a corpus). If an error is infrequent in production, it may cause a larger surprisal effect and be more attended to. For the three subtypes of grammar errors (V3 word order, verb errors, NP errors), corpus error rates predicted detection rates for most conditions. Yet, frequency was not the only possible explanation, as phonological similarity to the correct form is entangled with error frequency. Explicit grammatical awareness also played a role. The more correct answers participants had in the grammar tasks in the quiz, the more errors they detected. Finally, we found that the more annoyed with language errors participants reported to be, the more errors they detected. Our study did not measure eye movements, but the differences in error detection patterns point to shortcomings of existing eye-tracking models. Understanding the factors that govern attention and reaction to everyday grammar errors is crucial to developing robust eye-tracking processing models which can accommodate non-standard variation. Based on our results, we give our recommendations for current and future processing models.

Incorporating Deductive Approach into Grammar Consciousness Raising with Translation Practice: An Educational Design Research for Non-English Major EFL

This article presents an educational design research study that explores the effectiveness of incorporating a deductive approach into consciousness raising activities in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms for non-English major students. The research aims to enhance students' grammatical awareness and accuracy through a deductive instructional strategy, using translation practices and focusing on conscious rule-based learning. Adopting an educational design research framework, the study combines theory-driven design principles with empirical research to develop and evaluate a deductive consciousness raising intervention. The research methodology involves the implementation of instructional intervention to a group of students and the collection of qualitative and quantitative data to assess its impact on students' grammatical competence and their perceptions of the learning experience. Using t-test statistical calculation, it was found that the intervention improved the students’ grammar mastery but not the response speed. The questionnaire result showed that students reacted positively to the intervention and their motivation increased. Findings from the study support the previous research which found that conscious raising is effective to improve students’ learning mastery. This also provides insights that integrating deductive approaches into consciousness raising activities work for grammar teaching if the grammar items are selected appropriately. This also shows that the result of conscious knowledge is not converted automatically into subconscious knowledge. It may need time to practice again and again to make it automatic. As this research is an educational design research, the hypothesis about the efficacy of this designed procedure is suggested to be proved in experimental research. More research to uncover the acquirability and learnability of English grammar features are also recommended to be studies further.

Interpersonal and Thematic Analysis of Reading Materials of TEM 4 in China

EFL students in China have difficulty in identifying different genres and understanding well of texts when they are doing reading comprehension in TEM 4 which is an English proficiency test for English major college students in China. Those students have a common sense that the key of reading comprehension is to develop the quantity of vocabulary and analyse grammatical structure of each sentence. The article provides a functional analysis briefing on interpersonal and thematic analysis on the basis of theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to analyse reading materials from TEM 4 in order to help English major students in China have a good understanding and effective reading strategy when they do the reading comprehension. On the other hand, students learning from these analytical tools and process may have more grammatical awareness on identifying clauses and thematic relations across different reading genres.

Inductive Approach and Grammatical Awareness of Student Teachers

To assess the effectiveness of inductive approach for teaching grammar on grammatical awareness of student teachers was the major objective of the study. The difference between the achievement scores in grammatical awareness test of the student teachers treated with inductive grammar teaching approach and the student teachers in traditional approach group is not significant- was the major hypothesis. The study was quasi experimental in nature. Pre and post tests were conducted by using a self-developed grammar achievement test. Two class sections of BS Education were selected conveniently and randomly labelled as control and experimental group. Inductive approach for teaching grammar was applied in the experimental group whereas control group was dealt with traditional grammar teaching. Results indicated that the student teachers taught through inductive grammar teaching approach performed better in test of grammatical awareness than the student teachers taught through traditional teaching. Difference in man achievement score among high, low and average achievers in the treatment group was not significant in test of grammatical awareness. Similarly, the difference in mean achievement score was also not significant between female and male student teachers in the treatment group.

Deep Learning-Based Correlation Analysis between the Evaluation Score of English Teaching Quality and the Knowledge Points.

As one of the three main courses from primary school to senior high school, improving the quality of English teaching in and out of class has become the top priority of colleges and universities. English knowledge points are complex, and domestic scholars have studied vocabulary knowledge and grammatical awareness from various perspectives, but there is still a lack of research on the correlation between vocabulary knowledge, grammatical awareness, and cloze test scores of senior high school students. Therefore, this paper carries out empirical research from the depth of English vocabulary, English grammar, reading comprehension, cloze test, and composition, aiming at exploring the relationship between teaching quality and English knowledge points. Classroom teaching quality evaluation is the basic content of education quality evaluation, which not only needs to evaluate the effect of class hours but also needs a student's long-term learning effect. In order to improve the quality of classroom English teaching, enrich the content of classroom English, and ultimately make the quality of students' learning to a higher level, the combination model of the teaching quality evaluation index is established by combining the decision tree with the knowledge point rule association method and the evaluation results are verified by association rule analysis. This paper selects the effective indicators that affect the evaluation of English teaching quality, determines the weight of the indicators by using the analytic hierarchy process, effectively constructs the combination model of the decision tree and rule association method, and establishes the evaluation model of students' English learning ability in the classroom. Taking students as the main object and combining them with the requirements of digital teaching, the evaluation index system is formed, the index weight is determined by using the analytic hierarchy process, and the classroom teaching quality evaluation model based on the decision tree and English knowledge point correlation analysis is constructed to truly reflect the teaching level of teachers, and the correlation analysis is carried out between English teachers' own quality and students' learning effects and knowledge points. By testing the model performance of English vocabulary depth, reading comprehension, grammar, writing, and other knowledge points, we can well evaluate and analyze students' mastery of English learning and the correlation of English knowledge points.

Investigations into EFL Students’ Pragmatic and Grammatical Awareness through Peer Collaboration

Grounded in sociocultural theory, collaboration has been recognized as a useful teaching method. In English teaching, while a number of studies have examined the effectiveness of collaboration on grammar, research on pragmatic awareness is scarce. As such, this study explored how collaboration influenced, firstly, grammatical and pragmatic awareness and, secondly, error correction: the two major components in language competence. In this study, 32 Taiwanese English major juniors and seniors with CEFR B2 were recruited. These participants were required to work individually and collaboratively to identify pragmatic/grammatical errors, to rate the severity of the errors, and to correct these errors in a discourse completion task (DCT). The results revealed that peer collaboration achieved higher scores on error identification, severity ratings, and error correction than did individual work. The facilitative effects of collaboration may have been attributable to collaborative and expert–novice interaction patterns that showed a high degree of mutuality and equality during discussions. In conclusion, the findings showed that collaboration echoed the spirit of sociocultural theory, and could serve as a useful approach in English instruction, to create a sustainable learning environment in an EFL context such as Taiwan, where the national bilingual 2030 policy has been launched to require learners to develop life-long learning of English.

Interactional Feedback on English Proficiency: Grammatical Awareness

This study examines whether or not interactional feedback has a considerable positive impact on first-year MA Nurul As'adiyah Callacu students' grammatical awareness. The pre-experimental research method was used in the study. 38 grade X A students made up the sample. The research's pre- and post-test grammatical data were collected, and the t-test in SPSS was used to assess it. The study's findings showed a substantial difference between the students' levels of grammatical awareness on the pretest and posttest. The fact that the mean posttest score was greater than the mean pretest score (91.32 > 59.08) served as evidence. These mean scores were different in a statistically significant way. The probability value is lower than the significant level (0.00 < 0.05), which was based on the t-test value at the significant level of 0.05. Based on the result analysis, it can be said that interactional feedback significantly improved grammatical awareness in the first year of MA Nurul As'adiyah Callacu because it promoted learners' intellectual operations and thought processes, which led them to reflect on ideas, particularly in grammar learning.

The impact of an explicit grammar knowledge course on the development of grammatical awareness in UK native speakers’ pre-service TESOL education

This paper contributes to conversations which examine the effectiveness of grammar knowledge courses in native speaker (NS) UK pre-service TESOL education. A three-year longitudinal study was undertaken at a UK university. It explored 10 UK NS participants’ ability to demonstrate grammatical awareness during their TESOL practicum after studying a 48-contact hour explicit grammar knowledge course before procedural TESOL education began. Quantitative and qualitative, deductive, and inductive thematic coding were undertaken using the participants’ reflective teaching summaries and interview transcripts to identify examples of established grammar awareness themes. Findings indicated that the participants considered the process of gaining grammar knowledge challenging but essential for TESOL. Grammatical awareness was demonstrated through metalinguistic knowledge, metalanguage, noticing and language teaching beliefs during the practicum.

Grammatical awareness and language performance: examining gendered differences among Saudi EFL (English as a foreign language) learners

Background: Despite the many studies that have been conducted on the learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) regarding grammar ability in various contexts, some gaps are still unbridged and need researching. Therefore, this study addresses the research gap in the Saudi context concerning the grammatical competence of Saudi EFL (English as foreign language) learners. Methods: This study described the Saudi EFL learners’ level of awareness in developing grammatical forms. It also assessed Saudi EFL students' level of performance in grammar learning. Finally, it quantitatively explored what, if any, gendered differences exist in the grammar acquisition of Saudi EFL learners. The study employed descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data. The study sample comprised 50 Saudi EFL students out of the population of 120 students enrolled in EFL programs at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia with sample size being determined using online sampling calculator Raosoft. Results: The results of the present study show that the Saudi EFL learners manifest a favorable level of awareness in developing grammatical forms while they still not having attained mastery of English grammar. Results also indicate that grammatical competence and level of awareness are more advanced among the Saudi EFL female learners compared to their male counterparts. Conclusions: The outcomes of this research imply that Saudi EFL learners have sufficient performance in grammar learning but need further nurturance. Implications of this study will serve as a basis for English language learning development interventions in the benefit of the students.

Multilingual Learners’ Grammatical and Pragmatic Awareness in Chinese EFL Context: From Three Layers of Language Awareness Perspective

The research was aimed to explore multilingual learners ‘grammatical and pragmatic awareness from perspective of three layers of language awareness: perception, noticing and understanding in Chinese EFL context.
 The findings reveal that firstly, there exists negative correlation between three layers of grammatical and pragmatic awareness of multilingual learners with low English proficiency; however, there exists positive correlation between three layers of grammatical and pragmatic awareness of multilingual learners with higher proficiency levels. Secondly, on grammatical awareness, there is not a significant difference between Mongolian multilingual learners; on pragmatic awareness, in perception and understanding layer, there exists a significant difference, but in noticing layer, there is not. There were not significant differences between Han Chinese bilinguals and Mongolian multilinguals on grammatical awareness in perception, noticing and understanding as well as perceptional aspect of pragmatic awareness; however, there are significant differences in noticing and understanding. Thirdly, there is a low positive correlation between pragmatic awareness and pragmatic competence of Mongolian learners with different proficiency level.
 The present research findings indicate the necessity of developing ethnic minority students’ multilingual awareness by training of multilingual teachers and of implementing multilingual pedagogical approaches, and highlight significance of increasing teachers’ language awareness by further development of language teacher education and cultivating learners’ multilingual competence in EFL contexts.

EXPRESSÕES DE CONDICIONALIDADE EM JAPONÊS: A ANÁLISE CONTRASTIVA DE GRAMÁTICA NO ENSINO FORMAL DE LE

This article discusses a proposal for reflection on the validity of the contrastive analysis of grammar teaching for brazilian learners of japanese as a foreign language. Considering the distance between languages, many learners have significant difficulty in assimilating certain grammatical structures, especially formulations that are conditional. Therefore, we hypothesize that contrastive grammar teaching could not only increase students’ grammatical awareness in japanese, but also benefit their knowledge of their mother tongue. We undertake a journey that starts from the conceptions of conditionals in portuguese and japanese, to then discusses the possibility of contrast between languages. We inform you that this study is in the preliminary phase, and this manuscript is an exercise in theoretical reflection.

METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE FORMATION OF GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE OF FUTURE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AT CLASSES IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

The article is devoted to current problems of foreign language grammatical competence, reveals the concept of grammatical competence and defines its main components. Scientists include grammatical skills, knowledge and grammatical awareness as main components of grammatical competence, and various types of exercises as the mechanism for forming grammatical competence. The main methodical principles for forming the grammatical competence of future primary school teachers are defined. The article envisages the effectiveness of the use of communicative and sociocultural approaches, indicates the main principles of teaching grammar to future primary school teachers at classes in foreign language for specific purposes. The process of learning grammar for students of pedagogical faculty should be aimed at the formation of foreign language grammatical competence, taking into account the national and cultural features of the language being studied, as part of the professional foreign language communicative competence necessary for the implementation of future professional activities. The content of grammatical competence, in addition to knowledge of language elements and the ability to use them in speech, should also include knowledge, skills and abilities that contribute to the assimilation of socio-cultural norms and national-cultural features of speech behavior of representatives in foreign culture. Successful formation of grammatical competence, taking into account the national and cultural features of the language being studied, is possible under the condition of implementing a communicative approach in combination with a socio-cultural approach to teaching a foreign language. Grammatical tasks should be as close as possible to real communication, should be addressed to the students themselves and should involve the use of their own life experiences. Communicatively oriented learning of grammar increases motivation, expands the expressive possibilities of speech, which adds naturalness to students’ utterances.

Students' Metalinguistic Awareness in L2 Writing: Grammarly-Mediated Feedback

This case study aims to explore students’ perceptions of their metalinguistic awareness in L2 writing mediated by Grammarly as online feedback tool. Data garnered from twenty participants’ questionnaire and reflection were analyzed. The findings reveal that the participants perceive the online feedback tool facilitates their drafting process in terms of grammatical awareness. In other words, the online grammar checker could be help to raise their metalinguistic awareness in L2 writing. This study implies that language teacher and teacher educator could utilize this online tool in learning and teaching process in order to raise learners’ metalinguistic awareness as well as learner autonomy.Keywords:Grammarly; L2 writing; metalinguistic awareness; online feedback tool

Investigating the academic writing potentials of freshmen at the University of Buea: Making a case for grammatical and lexical awareness

This study hypothesized “that one who has nothing to say has nothing to write” to investigate the effects of grammatical awareness on performance in language proficiency test among first-year university students at the University of Buea (UB). The sample comprised 100 first-year students purposively sampled from Use of English classes at UB. Using Piaget’s (1936) Theory of Cognitive Development, data for the study was collected and analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that pre-university students upon enrolment harbour stereotyped and somewhat erroneous forms and structures of grammar that eventually become difficult to get out of their minds, and these are often introduced by their teachers or sometimes the environment they come from. Based on the findings, the study recommends that teachers of English at every stage should endeavour to engage students with real-life language use as this has the potentials to improve the communicative abilities.

FORMATION OF GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE OF FUTURE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS BY MEANS OF INTERESTING LINGUISTICS

The questions of formation of grammatical competence as a component of an individual’s linguistic competence have been considered, the essence of the definition of “grammatical competence” has been analyzed and author’s comprehension of this notion has been suggested. The structural components of grammatical competence (grammatical knowledge, grammatical skills and abilities and grammatical awareness) have been singled out. It has been emphasized that the study of grammatical system of a language requires logical operations, such as scientific information analysis, ability to compare, relate and summarize the linguistic facts and deduce certain regularities. The possibilities of the subject “Formation of primary school students’ language personality by means of interesting Linguistics” in the process of formation of students’ grammatical competence in the context of linguistic subjects cycle have been outlined. Special attention has been paid to the application of interesting Linguistics elements while teaching students notional and categorical apparatus. It has been suggested to take into account the interpretation of linguistic terms by linguists, consider and correspond the modern ones with their equivalents in the old Grammar books. It has been proved that the definition of the term “Grammar” has been narrowed down diachronically. There have been outlined the other methods and techniques applied to form student’s grammatical competence (revealing linguistic notions etymology, using linguistic aphorisms, Comparative Historical Linguistics elements, didactic poetry, linguistic fairytales, entertaining tasks, exercises, jokes, learning projects) that contribute to enlargement of future teachers’ scientific perspective and their professional level growth.

Legal Uncertainty of a Service as an Object of Civil Rights

Based on a systematic analysis of civil law norms, the problem of regulatory consolidation of a service as an object of civil rights is revealed. In particular, grammatical awareness of the content of certain norms contained in the Civil Code of Ukraine allowed us to make a rather contradictory conclusion that the service is a material good, a thing that consists in the action or activity of the service contractor. This legal paradox exists due to several shortcomings of legislative technique. The first one concerns the conjunction "including", which, according to grammar rules, refers a service (as a specific concept) as things (as a generic concept). It follows from the above that the Union "Including" should be removed in Part 1 of the Art. 177 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. The second disadvantage is due to the lack of a separate norm that would determine a clear place of the service in the system of objects of civil rights. In this regard, and taking into account the essence of the service as an object of the intangible world, it is offered to supplement Chapter 15 "intangible benefits" with a separate Article entitled "Services", which should contain a definition of the concept of this object of civil rights along with other important provisions. Moreover, the concept of a service is applied contrary to its legislative definition according to the analysis of judicial practice, namely as its result, and not as a benefit, we offer that the word "services" and the phrase "results of work" in Part 1 of the Art. 177 of the Civil Code of Ukraine should be swapped. These amendments will contribute to legal certainty and reduce the manifestations of arbitrary interference by state agencies, including the court, in the rights protected in the Constitution of Ukraine and in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.