ARTICLE 2:

CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN
RESEARCH ON
THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR
GRAMMAR should be a primary focus/
should be eliminated entirely/ should be
subordinated to meaning-focuses use of
the TL.
ARGUMENTS AGAINTS GRAMMAR TEACHING
Grammar conscious learning / unconscious learning
Language should be acquired through natural
exposure not through formal instruction (Krashen,
1981)
Formal: develop declarative knowledge not the
ability to use forms correctly
Similar processes underlie L1 and L2 learning L1
learners do not require formal instruction neither
should L2 learners.
SUPPORTS ON GRAMMAR TEACHING
FOUR reasons for the reevaluation of grammar as a
NECESSARY COMPONENT of language instruction:
1. Conscious attention noticing is necessary for
language learning.
2. L2 learners pass through developmental sequences.
3. Inadequacies of teaching primarily on meaning-
focused communication.
4. Positive effects of grammar instruction.
TYPES OF GRAMMAR TEACHING
Short-lived and superficial
Not promote genuine knowledge of language
Learners ability to use TL in spontaneous communication is
not guaranteed
Explicit Instruction
Slow acquisition of form-function mappings
Takes a lot of practices
Implicit Instruction
Grammatical structures are explicitly presented in a
decontextualized manner
Conscious presentation of forms through drills and practices
Traditional teaching
Learners receive communicative exposure to grammar
points that have been introduced through formal instruction
Learners awareness of forms longer-lasting
Learners accuracy of use can be improved
Combination of form-focused and meaningful
communication
TYPES OF GRAMMAR TEACHING
CURRENT APROACHES TO GRAMMAR
TEACHING
Processing
Instruction
Interactional
Feedback
Textual
Enhancement
Tasked-based
Instruction
Discourse-based
Approaches
Approach 1: Processing Instruction
Initial exposure to explicit instruction is combined
with a series of input processing activities.
The activities
encourage the comprehension of the target structure
Help learners to create form-meaning connections in
input and process grammar for meaning
Approach 2: Interactional Feedback
Refers to various negotiation and modification strategies
repetitions, clarification requests, confirmation checks
It is made by learners or directed to them to facilitate
understanding.
It draws the learners attention to the aspects of TL.
It highlights linguistic or pragmatic problems.
It forces learners to modify their output to produce accurate
and comprehensible utterances.
Approach 3: Textual Enhancement
It involves highlighting certain features of input that might
go unnoticed by typographically manipulating them through:
Boldfacing
Italicizing
Underlining
Capitalizing
It shows positive results in terms of awareness of target
structures and proficiency.
It may not be sufficient for learners acquisition.
Learners should be exposed to continued noticing activities
and ample opportunities for producing the target form.
Approach 4: Task-based Instruction
1. Focused tasks
o Have a primary focus on meaning rather than on form.
o Involves learners in comprehending, manipulating,
producing, or interacting in the TL.
o Learners attention is drawn to the nature of the target
structure, yet they are also communicative learners
are engaged in meaning-focused interaction.
2. Collaborative output tasks
o Output of L2 plays an important role in SLA as to allow the
learners to notice what are the things they unable to say.
o It provides opportunities to produce TL which allows deeper
syntactic processing.
o Communicative tasks promote pushed output learners are
pushed to reproduce language forms accurately.
o COT requires learners to cooperatively produce language.
o The tasks lead to improvement in accuracy in the use of target
forms.
o Learners will be able to notice gaps in their linguistic knowledge
which then triggered cooperative search for the solution.
Approach 5: Discourse-based Approaches
Instruction of target forms is supported by extensive use of
authentic discourse, including corpus analysis.
It aims to supply learners with examples of contextualized
usages of the target structure and spoken L2 forms.
Instruction in L2 writing includes the explicit instruction on
grammar.
Conclusion
Grammar feedback is necessary.
Traditional structure-based grammar teaching have been replaced
which may or may not include an explicit discussion of forms and
rules.
3 essential conditions for grammatical forms acquisition are:
Learner noticing and continued awareness
Repeated meaning-focused exposure to input
Opportunities for output and practice
In grammar acquisition, spontaneous and accurate production
requires time as learners move towards mastery.