Volume 2014, Issue 1

Abstract

Teaching grammar has been a major area of debate and controversy in language teaching and second language acquisition for some time. Harsh criticism of traditional grammar teaching has continued over the last few decades, which has resulted in great confusion and lack of confidence among language teachers. This paper aims to encourage second language (L2) teachers and second language acquisition (SLA) researchers to reconsider the role of grammar instruction, through examining an alternative approach to grammar teaching, known as “form-focused instruction” (FFI), that reconciles with communicative language teaching (CLT). To this end, the paper reviews a number of studies in favor and against the direct teaching of grammar, and presents a brief discussion of four FFI options; namely, structured input, explicit instruction, production practice and negative feedback. Finally, the paper shows that grammar teaching is necessary to help students possess greater command of the target language. However, more input from L2 teachers and SLA researchers is needed to define the most effective FFI instructional options and strategies.

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2014-03-01
2024-03-29
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Keyword(s): form-focused instructiongrammar teaching and second language acquisition

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