Grammar Teaching Research Articles

Communicative language teaching: Structure-Based or Dynamic Usage-Based?

Although communicative language teaching (CLT) was thought to have revolutionized classroom practice, there are “weak” and “strong” versions (Howatt, 1984). Most foreign language classrooms in the world still favor weak versions with structure-based (SB) views on language (Lightbown & Spada, 2013), and practice in the Netherlands is not much different (West & Verspoor, 2016). However, a small group of teachers in the Netherlands started teaching French as a second language with a strong CLT program in line with Dynamic Usage-Based (DUB) principles. Rather than focusing on rule learning and explicit grammar teaching to avoid errors, the DUB program takes the dynamics of second-language development into consideration and focuses on the three key elements of usage-based theory: frequency, salience and contingency. These translate into a great deal of exposure, repetition, learning the meaning of every single word through gestures, and presenting whole chunks of language, all without explicit grammar teaching. This study aims to compare the effects of the SB and DUB instructional programs after three years. We traced the second-language development of 229 junior high school students (aged 12 to 15) learning French in the Netherlands over three years. The participants took three oral tests over the course of three years (568 interviews) and wrote seven narratives on the same topic (1511 narratives). As expected, the DUB approach, which is in line with a strong CLT version, was more effective in achieving proficiency in both speaking and writing and equally effective in achieving accuracy.

Difficulties of Teaching New English Communicative Syllabuses by Iraqi Teachers

During the last nine years of this century, radical changes in TEFL have taken place all over Iraqi schools. There has been a shift of emphasis from linguistic competence to communicative competence, from frontal teaching to group work, from form to meaning, and from accuracy to fluency, i.e. there has been a move back from teaching grammar for its own sake. If grammar is to be taught, it has to be used in everyday communication.Therefore, this research has been talked to shed the light on the areas of difficulty. Iraqi teachers may face in teaching these new communicative syllabuses. It also aims at identifying and classifying these difficulties.To fulfill this aim, a sample of 100 teachers of English at an Intermediate schools in Tikrit Governorate are considered to be the subjects of this research.A scaled questionnaire as an instrument of measurement is used in this research to be an investigatory tool.The results of this research proves that the hypothesis of this study is verified and accepted which reads that Iraqi teachers of English face difficulties in teaching communicative English syllabuses.

Включение интернет-сервисов в систему обучения иностранных студентов грамматике русского языка

The aim of the study is to determine the role and place of Internet services in the system of teaching the Russian language grammar to foreign students. The article analyses the process of forming students’ grammatical skills, studies the potential of Internet services as a possible modern means of teaching the grammatical aspect of the Russian speech. The methods for organizing the educational process and approaches to developing exercises using Internet services are proposed for the successful formation of grammatical skills in foreign students. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the integrated approach to the appropriate combination of traditional and electronic grammar exercises based on the grammar teaching system that has developed in the methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language. As a result of the study, the possibilities of successful inclusion of Internet services in the process of teaching the Russian language grammar to foreign students have been determined.

Applying Authentic Materials in Teaching English Grammar to Improve EFL Student’s Skills (Teachers’ Attitude)

The objective of this paper is basically to analyze the use of authentic materials in improving the understanding of students by teachers in teaching grammar in English as a foreign language (EFL) to the first-year students of Abyan University in South of Yemen. The teachers of EFL from faculties of education in Zingibar and Lowder participated in the current study. The paper is divided in two parts that is; the theoretical aspects and the practical aspects. Under the theoretical part the researcher describes the term grammar and authentic materials and gives reasons as to why teaching grammar using authentic materials can be beneficial in the learning process. The practical part on the other hand focuses on conducting interviews to the teachers. The results of the study revealed that most EFL teachers hold a positive attitude towards using authentic materials in teaching grammar. Therefore, positive reflections are observed from teachers who approve on Teaching and learning grammar proficiency with the use of authentic materials.

한국어 문법 교육 연구 동향 분석

The purpose of this study is to examine the grammar education research of Korean pedagogy to explore the direction of Korean grammar education research. In order to this end, we have selected 678 of the domestic journal paper by the study of the papers retrieved by the keyword “Korean Grammar Education”. Referring to the preceding study, the subject was classified as grammar education general, grammar system, grammar elements, grammar use aspects, grammar teaching methods, grammar teaching materials and grammar evaluation areas. The research type was classified as a primary study including three median and a secondary study including four median. The subject side trends of the Korean grammar education study are as follows; studies on the expression in the form of lumps, studies on the function of the speech act and pragmatics, studies on the teaching method based on the actual class, studies on the development of localized grammar textbooks were increased. In terms of research types, Korean grammatical education research tends to be devoted to the secondary study, but only the primary research ratio was significantly higher in the grammar use aspects area. The Korean Education academics must find what research methods suitable for each subject of Korean grammar education research.

FORMING GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE WHILE TEACHING PROFESSIONALLY-ORIENTED FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN NON-LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITIES

The article deals with teaching grammar in Ukrainian education community. Students start learning grammar at secondary, sometimes even at primary schools, and continue acquiring it while studying at institutions of higher education. However, qualitative progress in grammar usage while writing and speaking English is rarely seen. One possible explanation is that there is a widely adopted approach in Ukrainian education system according to which the formation of grammatical competence goes through a number of fixed steps from grammar knowledge to speech practice. It is assumed that detailed and thorough knowledge of rules of English grammar and their difference from grammar rules of the Ukrainian language contributes to better understanding of peculiar features of the English language and further it positively influences the acquisition of all language skills and abilities. Unfortunately, considering the real situation of teaching English at Ukrainian universities under conditions of insufficient class-room academic hours, such an approach does not bring desired results. Communicative approach of teaching foreign languages and competencies that are to be developed demands a different approach to teaching grammar that is a holistic approach.

Methods of Improving and Optimizing English Education in Colleges and Universities Assisted by Microvideo Technology

English teaching in general higher education is faced with great challenges. English teachers have to face a group of students from different regions, who have received different English teaching methods during middle school, and their English proficiency is uneven. At present, the teaching methods of most colleges and universities are backward, unable to make full use of modern information technology, and students have low interest in learning, poor independent learning ability, and low learning effect, especially in English. In order to comprehensively improve students’ English level, English teaching methods in colleges and universities should be completely different from the traditional teaching methods in middle schools. This paper sorts out trial research, questionnaire survey, and data analysis method and combines some problems existing in college English teaching and the characteristics of microvideo, such as short, concise, sound, and text, to apply microvideo as a teaching resource in college English grammar teaching. A trial group was set up to study the effectiveness of microvideo teaching. No students in the trial group disliked the microvideo teaching and the average score of students in the trial group was 8.992 points higher than the average score of students in the traditional group. The results show that microvideo teaching can not only increase students’ interest in learning English but also improve their English language skills.

CALL FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR: A COMPARISON OF WBI AND TRADITIONAL METHOD

The advent of computer in general and internet in particular has opened new avenues for learning language. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is considered highly effective for language learning as technology creates a student centered environment, increases learner autonomy, and results in higher learning outcomes. This study investigated if CALL using Web Based Instruction (WBI) as a tool is more beneficial than the traditional method for teaching English grammar to undergraduate students in Pakistan. An experimental design was followed to compare the effect of technology based and traditional method of teaching and a focus group interview was conducted to obtain the participants’ views about CALL. MANCOVA test was applied for the analysis of the pretest and posttest scores. Results showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group. Additionally, the students exhibited a positive attitude towards technology based teaching. Based on these findings, integration of computers is recommended in English language teaching for improved learning.

Online English Grammar Instruction Using Polysynchronous Approach During Pandemic Times

The purpose of this study is to report the best practices in online grammar learning through the polysynchronous learning model, as well as to explore students' perceptions of such learning model. This study is a descriptive case study covering the design of an online course carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic as the research object. The data processed were in the form of teacher reflections, documents of teaching materials and activities in the Learning Management System (LMS), and an open survey to explore students’ perceptions. The findings from this study indicate that the online grammar learning carried out had sufficient relevance to the concept of polysynchronous learning, which is considered appropriate to be implemented during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. For students' perceptions, in general, they expressed appreciation for the learning process, especially in terms of the personal touch and the teaching style carried out by the teacher, the learning activities, and the teaching materials. Furthermore, some constructive suggestions were also given by students, for example, in the area of overcoming technical problems and learning management. The practices presented in this paper are expected to be useful for other foreign language teachers and lecturers as a form of collective sharing to face the challenges of the online grammar learning process during and after the pandemic.

Lost but not found, or: when grammarians fail us: The case of (past) participial premodifiers in English

As a teacher of English to speakers of German I am routinely confronted with mistakes involving the misuse of participial premodifiers. Like many other languages possessing participial forms, German places only minimal constraints on the prenominal use of participles. The constraints in English, however, are both intrusive and perplexing. English happily allows 'lost property' or 'broken promises' or 'hired car' but normally disallows '*found property' or'*kept promises' or '*bought car'. Unaware of these constraints, my students commonly overuse participial premodifiers in English, producing errors that are easy to recognize and correct, but hard to elucidate. Focussing on the prenominal use of past participles, the present article tries to show that this is one area where language teachers are being seriously let down by grammarians. The standard pedagogical grammars provide scant guidance and even reputable scientific grammars disappoint. Only one leading grammar attempts to address the problem, but the account it provides is fragmentary and largely unconvincing. Latching on to the one aspect of this account that is correct, I try to develop a unified account of the phenomenon that may serve as a basis for a more satisfactory treatment of the issue both on the scientific and the didactic level.

An Analysis of Errors in Business-Oriented Written Paragraphs of the Thai EFL Undergraduates

Effective written communication is not only a crucial skill for academic achievement but also for business context as it could lead to individual professional career success and profitable accomplishment. To achieve these goals requires concise and correct communication. This study, therefore, aims to explore the most frequently-made errors by 30 Business English major students. From the total number of 14,118 words, the study found that the students most frequently made three types of errors: morphological (17.91%), syntactical (45.37%), and mechanical (36.72%) levels. Of all the errors that occurred, article errors appeared to be the most problematic use (17.31%), followed by punctuation (13.34%), plurality (13.43%), capitalization (9.55%), and preposition (8.96%) errors. The findings suggested that mostly-made errors by the Business English major students were influenced by the interference of their first language. Additionally, apart from explicit grammar teaching, greater exposure to the target language is also required in the classroom.

TEACHING GRAMMAR FOR EFL STUDENTS AND ITS APPROACHES

TEACHING GRAMMAR FOR EFL STUDENTS AND ITS APPROACHES

Teachers’ Beliefs about Grammar Teaching within a Context of Omani Secondary Schools

The present qualitative case study investigated the beliefs and practices of six English language teachers in secondary schools in Oman about grammar instruction. To improve EFL education in Omani schools, the study sought to determine whether teachers’ beliefs and their grammar teaching practices were congruent. The study collected the data through classroom observations and interviews, and analysed the data using content analysis and Grounded theory to analyze the data. The findings showed that even though most teachers acknowledged the benefits of inductive grammar instruction, they favored deductive grammar instruction. Teachers attributed their classroom decisions to various factors such as students’ language proficiency, time constraints, and curriculum overload. In addition, the findings showed that teachers’ learning experiences shaped their decision-making and instructional practices. The lack of professional development training was another crucial factor that influenced their beliefs and grammar teaching practices. The study concluded that teachers in Oman required more individualized training sessions that could foster alternative beliefs and practices in favor of inductive grammar instruction.

Developing and Validating the English Teachers’ Cognitions About Grammar Teaching Questionnaire (TCAGTQ) to Uncover Teacher Thinking

It is well-acknowledged that teachers play a significant role in enhancing student learning and that investigating teachers’ cognitions about teaching is a first and important step to understanding the phenomenon. Although much research into teachers’ cognitions about grammar teaching has been conducted in various socio-cultural contexts, little has been reported on cognitions of Chinese teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) so far. Such understanding is of primary importance to student success in language learning given the sociocultural context where grammar takes a lion’s share in high-stakes examinations. In order to address this research gap, we developed and validated the Chinese EFL Teachers’ Cognitions about Grammar Teaching Questionnaire (TCAGTQ). Two subsamples (n1 = 314, n2 = 215) were randomly invited to respond to the TCAGTQ and the data were then subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. The EFA excluded eight items from the TCAGTQ and generated six factors with 27 items. The CFA result from the other subsample supported a six-factor model with a good model fit. Moderate correlations between the six factors also supported the predictive validity of the questionnaire, showing that the TCAGTQ is a valid and reliable inventory for measuring Chinese university EFL teachers’ cognitions about grammar teaching. Our findings suggest that the TCAGTQ can be used as a useful tool for teachers to self-assess their professional practice for improving teaching.

Situational Setting in English Grammar Teaching in Senior High School

As the law of language use, grammar guides the application and practice of language.A strong foundation in grammar improves reading and writing skills. Therefore, mastering grammar skillfully plays a positive and effective role in improving students’ language ability. However, the current English grammar teaching in senior high schools in China faces many problems. First of all, the necessity of grammar teaching has been ignored to some extent. In practical teaching, most teachers prefer to let students constantly expand their vocabulary, and pay more attention to grammar; Secondly, although some teachers have a certain understanding of the importance of grammar, it is difficult to organize teaching activities scientifically, resulting in the situation that students’ enthusiasm for learning grammar is not high and grammar is difficult to learn.

A Qualitative Exploration into Beliefs of Pre-service EFL Teachers about School Experience

This qualitative study aims to explore the beliefs of Turkish pre-service EFL teachers about their school experiences, and any change in their beliefs during this experience with a view to identifying their professional development as prospective teachers. For this purpose, 10 Turkish pre-service EFL teachers at a state university in central Turkey reflected their experiences for one semester in the process of their teaching practice period for 14 weeks. The results reveal that pre-service teachers hold different beliefs about overall approaches to teaching and learning a foreign language, language use in the classroom, classroom management and teaching grammar. The results also indicate change in their beliefs related to questioning selves as teachers, teaching profession in general, use of technology in the classroom, using teaching techniques, and classroom management. Findings of this study offer suggestions for teacher education programs, particularly for the school experience component.

Grammar Writing in the Philippines (1610-1904)

At the end of the three centuries of Spanish presence in the archipelago, Spanish missionaries had written at least 120 grammars of the native languages spoken in the Philippines. With the wide linguistic diversity they found and the need to transmit the faith in all its purity, the missionary grammarians began analyzing the languages and wrote pedagogical grammars for their confreres to learn them. Initially, only the major languages were studied and learned, using Spanish and Latin models, but eventually minor languages were also added. This study examines eleven representative grammars to determine their general characteristics and, in the process, bring to light some of their authors’ contributions to the history of grammar writing and linguistics in the Philippines. A significant finding is that the linguistic pursuits undertaken in describing the languages and preparing their grammars throughout the entire Spanish colonial period, while being in synch and continuous with the development of modern linguistics in the 17th to the 19th centuries, advanced the scientific study of languages in the country as well as grammar writing involving the native languages.

Методика объяснения и отработки грамматических особенностей английского языка

Research relevance: article reveals the essence of grammar teaching approaches in English language. Modern interactive methods should help students understand why they are doing this or that task or learning certain rules. Research purpose: to consider the approaches, as well as to describe the actions of the teacher in teaching the subject of the English language on various approaches to teaching grammar, the sequence of actions. Research methods and materials: the methods in teaching the English language grammar and formal properties of grammatical phenomena based on the theory are described. Examples of explaining grammatical material using an implicit approach are given, examples of exercises to strengthen grammatical skills using modern interactive methods are given. Research results: in teaching the English language grammar, students inductively find a new grammatical expression in the proposed text, using certain grammatical phenomena and grammatical rules, students create their own exercises, perform translation exercises from their native language into a foreign language. Conclusions: the teaching method is chosen depending on students’ age, students and teachers training level, learning objectives and grammatical phenomena.

A case study of the impact of a teacher education course on two Iranian EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices about grammar teaching

Despite the substantial growth of research on teachers’ beliefs and practices in the past decades, little research has examined the impact of teacher education on in-service teachers’ grammar beliefs and practices. The present study aimed to fill part of this gap in relation to two Iranian novice EFL teachers. Data were collected before and after a grammar-oriented teacher education course from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The findings showed that the course influenced the teachers’ beliefs to move from a more teacher-fronted approach toward an approach that marked attention to the importance of learners’ socioemotional states. Moreover, the teachers’ practices after the course featured more attention to the collaborative and pragmatic aspects of grammar instruction. Based on the findings, we provide several implications for teacher education, which highlight the role of sociocultural and personal dimensions in programs that are structured around grammar instruction.

Communicative language teaching

Communicаtive lаnguage teаching is an approach to learning that is a reaction to previous mеthоds that were considered nоn-cоmmunicative in terms of teaching materials фnd teaching methods, especially GTM and ALM, which were popular in the period bеfоre thе 1970s. The twо components that are being reviewed by the CLT are teaching materials that аre trаnslаted into language that is actually used in everyday life, in аddition tо learning аctivitiеs into language activities performed by students in the classrооm, as а substitute fоr teaching grammar in the classroom.