Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Explicit Grammar Instruction'

The importance of explicit grammar instruction has been debated during decades within the second language acquisition discourse community. Researchers’ views on the topic are controversial, and there is still no clear answer to be found. In terms of English teacher attitudes, previous research shows no indication of a gradually decreasing interest in explicit grammar instruction in L2 or FL classrooms. Despite this, the Swedish National Agency of Education does not mention explicit grammar instruction in their official documents regarding the subject of English. Hence, this paper aims to examine if the Swedish context has an impact on in-service English teachers’ attitudes towards explicit grammar instruction. To investigate their attitudes, along with their preferred approaches to explicit grammar instruction, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five English teachers at upper secondary school. The interviews were recorded, carefully analysed and partly transcribed. The results show that all of the interviewed English teachers were positive towards explicit grammar instruction and use it in their teaching. In terms of approaches to explicit grammar instruction, all of the five teachers explained that they highlight a certain grammatical rule when they notice that many of their students have a hard time with it. It is often after a writing assignment that the grammatical difficulties are revealed and will be brought up in class. The teachers tend to explain the rule by using the whiteboard, a relevant YouTube clip or a PowerPoint. An interesting finding was that all of the teachers referred to their own experience when explaining why they use a specific approach to explicit grammar instruction, whereas none of the teachers referred to research within the field. In addition, all of the interviewed teachers expressed that the official steering documents by the Swedish National Agency of Education should mention grammar instruction more explicitly. However, they were still positive towards the official documents, because of the fact that these focus on communication. The current paper provides an indication of how English teachers in Sweden prefer to work with explicit grammar instruction, along with suggestions for further research on the topic.

Grammar is an essential part of language learning. Thus, it is important that teachers know how to efficiently teach grammar to students, and with what approach - explicitly orimplicitly as well as through Focus on Forms (FoFs), Focus on Form (FoF) or Focus onMeaning (FoM). Furthermore, the common use of textbooks in English education in Sweden makes it essential to explore how these present grammar. Therefore, to make teachers aware of what grammar teaching approach a textbook has, this degree project intends to examine how and to what degree English textbooks used in Swedish upper secondary schools can be seen to exhibit an overall explicit or implicit approach to grammar teaching. The aim is to analyze three English 5 textbooks that are currently used in classrooms in Sweden, through the use of relevant research regarding grammar teaching as well as the steering documents for English 5 in Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis was carried out with the help of a framework developed by means of research on explicit and implicit grammar teaching as well as the three grammar teaching approaches FoFs, FoF and FoM. Thus, through the textbook analysis, we set out to investigate whether the textbooks present grammar instruction explicitly or implicitly and through FoFs, FoF or FoM. After having collected research on the topic of how to teach grammar, it became apparent that researchers on grammar teaching agree that FoF is the most beneficial out of the three above mentioned approaches, and thus, we decided to take a stand for this approach throughout the project. The results of this study showed that two out of three textbooks used overall implicit grammar teaching through FoM. Moreover, one out of the three textbooks used overall explicit grammar teaching through an FoF approach.

This study emerges from an interest in the shortcomings in the production of grammatically accurate sentences by university students of English as a Foreign Language in Taiwan. Informed by second language acquisition theory, it is a quasi-experimental investigation of the effects of explicit grammatical instruction on university students ’ EFL learning. Following the application of a pre-test the experimental group experienced explicit form-focused instruction in a communicative language teaching classroom for two semesters, receiving enhanced written input and undertaking linguistic consciousness-raising task, while the control group received no explicit grammatical instruction. Data were collected from recognition and written production tasks and students were interviewed on their linguistic performance to provide methodological triangulation. The statistical tools of Paired and Independent T-test, Chi-square, and Pearson’s Correlation were used to determine whether there were significant inter- and intra-group differences based on the different classroom experience. The major findings of this study were that explicit grammatical instruction raised students’ level of awareness of targeted forms significantly as they processed linguistic input and that subsequently their accurate production of these forms was enhanced. Differences in significance levels were discussed in the light of current debate on Second Language Acquisition with particular reference to the accessibility of Universal Grammar and the iv Minimalist framework. The results of this research indicate that a combination of focus on form and meaning is to be recommended within the content-based curriculum in Taiwanese university classrooms and the thesis ends with pedagogical implications for the application of explicit form-focused instruction in EFL learning.

Within the input-poor foreign language classroom, opportunities to draw on implicit learning mechanisms are limited. Yet little research has explored the effectiveness of explicit instruction for young learners. The current study investigated the extent to which English learners of L2 German (aged 9-11) benefitted from instruction on accusative case-marking (den) for masculine definite articles in German, a problematic feature for L1 English learners due to a reliance on word order when assigning grammatical roles (as predicted by MacWhinney’s Competition Model and VanPatten’s First Noun Principle). Two input-based interventions provided explicit information plus EITHER: Task Essential Form-Meaning Connection (TE-FMC) activities forcing attention on the article and its role-assigning function; OR Task Essential-Form (TE-F) activities forcing attention on the article only ('spot the form'). Learners were randomly assigned to the TE-FMC (n = 45) and TE-F (n = 41) treatments. A control group (n = 52) received instruction on lexical items, but no exposure to den. Two untimed written tasks (sentence matching, gap fill), three one-to-one oral tasks (act-out comprehension, act-out production, elicited imitation), and a metalinguistic task were administered as pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests to assess knowledge of der and den. Both interventions yielded large, durable gains across the written and oral tasks. The Control group made no improvement. The TE-FMC and TE-F learners’ verbalisable knowledge also improved at post-test, but deteriorated by delayed post-test. Under both conditions, learners had developed explicit knowledge of the target feature, available on untimed written tasks, as well as more automatized knowledge, accessible under time and communicative pressure. Fine-grained analysis revealed that group-level gains could be accounted for by a sub-group of learners within each condition, reflecting the influence of individual differences on instructional effectiveness. The findings contribute to previous research by demonstrating the beneficial role of explicit instruction and knowledge for child L2 learning.

Thesis (MA )--Stellenbosch University, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Given the promise of upward socio-economic mobility that English is currently deemed to hold in South Africa, it is a matter of egalitarian principle that the schooling system provides all learners in this country with a fair chance at acquiring English to a high level of proficiency. There exists a common misconception, however, that such a chance is necessarily provided in the form of English medium education for all learners, regardless of what their mother tongue may be. As a result, the majority of learners are caught in a system that cites English as medium of instruction, despite their and often also their teachers’ low overall proficiency in this language; the little opportunity many have for the naturalistic acquisition of English; and the national Language-in-Education Policy of 1997’s advice to the contrary, in promoting additive bilingualism with the home language serving as foundation through the use thereof as medium of instruction. As an interim solution, it is suggested that English-as-an-additional-language be developed to serve as a strong support subject in explicitly teaching learners the grammar of English. In order to identify grammatical features for explicit instruction, an initial step was taken in analysing the free speech of eight first language speakers of isiXhosa, the African language most commonly spoken in the Western Cape. The grammatical intuitions of these speakers, who had all reached a near-native level of proficiency in English, were tested in an English grammaticality judgement task. Collectively, results revealed syntactic, semantic and morphological features of English, in that order, to prove most problematic to these speakers. More specifically, in terms of syntax, the omission of especially prepositions and articles was identified as a candidate topic for explicit instruction, along with the syntactic positioning of adverbs and particles. In terms of semantics, incorrect lexical selection, especially of prepositions / prepositional phrases and pronouns, proved the most common non-native feature to be suggested for explicit teaching. Lastly, in terms of morphology, inflection proved most problematic, with the accurate formulation (especially in terms of tense and / or aspect forms) of past tense, progressive and irrealis structures being the features suggested for explicit instruction, along with the third person singular feature.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Aangesien Engels tans vir baie Suid-Afrikaners die belofte van opwaartse sosio-ekonomiese mobiliteit inhou, is dit ’n egalitêre beginselsaak dat die skoolsisteem alle leerders in hierdie land voorsien van ’n regverdige kans op die verwerwing van Engels tot op ’n hoë vaardigheidsvlak. Daar bestaan egter ’n algemene wanopvatting dat só ’n kans homself noodwendig voordoen in die vorm van Engels-medium onderrig vir alle leerders, ongeag wat hul moedertaal ook al mag wees. Gevolglik is die meerderheid leerders vandag vasgevang in ’n sisteem wat Engels as onderrigmedium voorhou, ten spyte van hul en dikwels ook hul onderwysers se algehele lae vaardigheidsvlak in Engels én vele se beperkte geleenthede om Engels op ’n naturalistiese wyse te verwerf. Hierdie sisteem is verder ook teenstrydig met die nasionale Taal-in-Onderrigbeleid van 1997 se bevordering van toevoegende tweetaligheid met die huistaal as fondasie in die gebruik daarvan as onderrigmedium. As ’n interim-oplossing word daar voorgestel dat English-as-an-additional-language ontwikkel word tot ’n sterk ondersteunende vak deurdat dit leerders die grammatika van Engels eksplisiet leer. Ten einde grammatikale eienskappe vir eksplisiete instruksie te identifiseer, is ’n eerste stap geneem in die analise van die vrye spraak van agt eerstetaalsprekers van isiXhosa, die Afrikataal wat die algemeenste gebesig word in die Wes- Kaap. Hierdie sprekers, wat almal ’n naby-eerstetaalsprekervlak van vaardigheid bereik het in Engels, se grammatikale intuïsies is deur middel van ’n grammatikaliteitsoordeel-taak getoets. Resultate het gesamentlik daarop gedui dat sintaktiese, semantiese en morfologiese eienskappe van Engels, in hierdie volgorde, die grootste probleme ingehou het vir hierdie sprekers. Meer spesifiek, ten opsigte van sintaksis, is die weglating van veral voorsetsels en lidwoorde as kandidaatonderwerpe vir eksplisiete instruksie geïdentifiseer, tesame met die sintaktiese posisionering van bywoorde en partikels. Ten opsigte van semantiek, was onakkurate leksikale seleksie, veral in die geval van voorsetsels / voorsetselfrases en voornaamwoorde, die algemeenste problematiese eienskap wat gevolglik vir eksplisiete instruksie voorgestel is. Laastens, ten opsigte van morfologie, het infleksie die grootste uitdaging blyk te wees, en is die akkurate formulering (veral ingevolge tempus- en / of aspekvorme) van verledetyds-, progressiewe en irrealisstrukture voorgestel as kandidaatonderwerpe vir eksplisiete instruksie, tesame met die derdepersoon-enkelvoudeienskap.

The Chinese ba-construction is a frequently used, language-specific construction that is difficult for most learners who study Chinese as a second language. The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of a Chinese second language pedagogical model on the ba-construction among college-level English-speaking learners of Chinese. For the ba-construction, namely “Subject + ba + ba-NP + ba-VP (Verb + Complement),” the investigator proposed an L2 instructional model that emphasizes both syntactic and semantic relationships between the ba-NP and the ba-VP. Based on this model and on cognitive theories of second language acquisition, the investigator designed a series of grammar instruction sessions that combined meaningful input, communicative tasks and form-focused instruction on four frequently used types of the ba-construction and one less frequently used type. The instruction sessions were administered weekly to the participants for a total of four weeks. Fourteen participants at two proficiency levels, namely novice and intermediate, were recruited for the study. Quantitative data were obtained from a pre-test, a post-test and a delayed post-test in the form of four measurement tasks: Grammaticality Judgement, Cloze, Translation and Contextualized Sentence Production with Keywords. Using a split-plot statistical model (with the time factor crossed and the proficiency level factor non-assignable), non-parametric alternative tests and a semi-structured interview, the investigator addressed the following three research questions: 1) Is the pedagogical model effectively strong in explaining the ba-construction and facilitating L2 learners’ comprehension and production? 2) Are the instruction sessions beneficial to L2 learners’ understanding of different form–meaning mappings of the ba-construction? 3) Do the effects of the pedagogical model and the instruction vary for L2 learners at different proficiency levels? Data analyses revealed a significant main time effect on participants’ overall performance and performance on each measurement task; the main group effect was not significant except for the Cloze task; no interaction effects were found in either the comprehension or production tasks. While participants acquired the ba-constructions in comprehension significantly better than in production, different trends in acquisition patterns were also found between their performances in these two language skills. After receiving instruction, participants performed significantly better in comprehension tasks and could maintain that level of performance in the delayed post-test; their performance on production tasks became better right after the instruction sessions, but deteriorated significantly afterwards. The participants’ improvement on ba-constructions with directional complements (Type 3) and resultative complements (Type 4), as well as the less commonly used type, was significant in general; in comprehension tasks, participants’ improvement on Type 5 was significantly higher than that for the Type 1 ba-constructions expressing relocation/displacement. Data collected from the semi-structured interviews indicated participants’ favorable evaluation and need for integrated L2 instruction that included elements of pedagogical grammar, especially on language-specific constructions. These results point to the importance of L2 grammar instruction in drawing L2 learners’ attention to form and to the association between form and meaning; instruction plays an indispensable role in communicative L2 classes and serves as a necessary reinforcement to the frequent exposure to meaningful L2 input. For Chinese ba-constructions, instruction that focuses on declarative knowledge is beneficial across proficiency levels.

No decorrer dos últimos anos, um dos questionamentos da pesquisa em aquisição de segunda língua (doravante L2) diz respeito ao papel das instruções explícita e implícita de formas gramaticais. A maneira através da qual os conhecimentos implícito e explícito são construídos de modo mais eficiente é, ainda, fonte de discordância na literatura. Alguns pesquisadores afirmam que o conhecimento implícito não deriva do aprendizado explícito e, tampouco, pode ser adquirido através da instrução explícita; outros, por sua vez, argumentam que o conhecimento implícito da L2 pode ser adquirido ou facilitado pelo conhecimento explícito. O presente trabalho teve sua origem no interesse pela investigação do efeito das instruções explícita e implícita na aquisição de uma L2, e na observação das diferenças entre os aprendizados implícito e explícito. Acima de tudo, este estudo deriva da percepção de que a maioria de gramáticas e livros didáticos normalmente introduz estruturas gramaticais - em particular, o uso de locuções verbais, que são aqui analisadas - de maneira isolada, sem recorrerem a uma descrição de seu uso por falantes proficientes da L2, e dando prioridade à memorização de listas de verbos. Assim, seis grupos de alunos (três de nível de proficiência básico e três de nível de proficiência intermediário-avançado) do curso de Letras de uma universidade pública foram avaliados em seu conhecimento e capacidade de uso de locuções verbais em inglês, por meio de pré- e pós-testes, compostos de questões de múltipla escolha (tarefas de compreensão) e de exercícios de produção (tarefa de produção). Entre a aplicação do pré- e do pós-teste, foi feita instrução explícita a dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) e implícita a outros dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado). Os grupos de controle (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) não receberam instrução. Os resultados dos testes serviram como fonte de análise dos papéis dos dois tipos de instrução mencionados, e mostraram que tanto a instrução explícita quanto a instrução implícita influenciaram positivamente no desempenho dos participantes nos Pós-testes, principalmente quanto aos verbos que podem ser combinados tanto com gerúndios e com infinitivos. Tal resultado pode ser atribuído ao fato de tais verbos representarem uma dificuldade maior para os aprendizes.
During the last years, one of the questions in second language (for this study, L2) acquisition research concerns the role of explicit and implicit grammar instruction in L2 acquisition. However, the way in which implicit and explicit knowledge is most effectively built up is still a source of disagreement in the specialized literature. Some claim that implicit knowledge does not derive from explicit learning nor can it be acquired through explicit instruction; others, in turn, argue that implicit L2 knowledge can be acquired through or facilitated by explicit knowledge. The present work originated in these studies and discussions about the effect of explicit and implicit instruction in the acquisition of a second language, and in the observation of the differences between implicit and explicit learning. Most importantly, this study derives from the perception that the majority of text and grammar books normally introduce grammar structures - in particular, the use of infinitive and gerund complements, which is analyzed here - in an isolated form, without recurring to an explanation of its descriptive use by proficient speakers of the language, giving priority to the memorization of lists of verbs. Therefore, six groups of students from the Languages course (three of basic level, and three of advanced level of proficiency) of a Federal University were assessed in terms of knowledge and skills - concerning the use of infinitives and gerunds through pre- and post-tests, composed of multiple-choice questions (a comprehension task) and production exercises (a production task). Between the applications of the pre- and post-tests, two groups (one basic and one upper-intermediate) were provided with implicit instruction; another two (also of basic and upper-intermediate level) were given explicit instruction. The two remaining groups constituted control groups (also basic and upper-intermediate), and were not given any kind of instruction. The results of the tests provided sources for analysis of the roles of implicit and explicit instruction, and showed that both kinds of instruction resulted in an improvement of most of students' performances, mainly concerning the group of verbs followed by infinitives and gerunds. The greater difficulty faced by the subjects in dealing with these verbs could possibly explain this fact.

This essay aims to investigate theoretically how two currently used coursebooks, What’s Up 9 and Solid Gold 1, in a local area of Southern Sweden, present (introduces and covers) grammar. The overall aim is to investigate how grammar is presented, using the present simple and the present continuous as examples. The findings are also mapped to teaching approaches, as well as SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research, to see what approaches are favoured for teaching grammar in the first decades of the 21st century. In order to investigate the course- books, a qualitative content analysis and conceptual analysis was chosen with the presentation of grammar mapped into different categories, by using concepts for teaching and approaches used in SLA. The results show that the two proposed coursebooks favoured a FoFs (Focus on Forms) approach for presenting grammar. Furthermore, the results show that grammar is pre- sented explicitly and, if the teachers use the structures proposed in the coursebook rigidly, they automatically follow a deductive teaching procedure. When using a FoFs, explicit instructions and taking a deductive teaching approach, it may be regarded as the coursebooks suggest a grammar-translation approach as well. However, when observing other exercises connected to the reading texts in the coursebooks, it was detected that both coursebooks favoured a text- based approach for teaching, where the learners are supposed to learn the structure of different texts. In doing so, the grammatical structures are learned subconsciously and implicitly, which indicates that grammar is, in general, taught implicitly in the coursebooks, but presented (intro- duced and covered) explicitly.

In the past century, grammar instruction has aroused debate among scholars and instructors in the field of second language teaching and acquisition without absolute consensus. However, for the acquisition of Chinese grammar by adult L2 learners, there is wider acceptance that grammar should be taught due to the unique Chinese grammatical features. The issue in question is merely on how to teach Chinese grammar effectively. Hence, inspired by many other comparative studies on explicit and implicit instruction methods for teaching Western languages such as English, French, Spanish and so forth, the researcher conducted an empirical study to investigate the effectiveness of the two instruction methods on Chinese grammar acquisition. The current study consisted of two experiments, involving two target forms: Affirmative-Negative Questions (A-Not-A Questions) and the perfective aspect particle LE (了). The participants were beginning level Chinese language learners who studied Chinese as a second language in two class sections of the Elementary Non-intensive Chinese Class at a large public university. They formed two comparative groups naturally. During the two experiments, the explicit group was provided with explicit knowledge of grammar patterns, examples carrying the patterns and opportunities to practice with the teacher’s explicit corrective feedback, while implicit group received input without any grammatical knowledge or explanation. The teacher would give recast feedback (implicit) if students made mistakes in their practice. Importantly, the explicit and implicit teaching groups were reversed in the second experiment, in order to enable each group to be exposed to both the explicit and the implicit teaching conditions. Analysis of the results obtained from immediate-tests and delayed post-tests yielded three main findings: first, learners who had received explicit grammar instruction treatment overall gained greater improvement in their knowledge of, and their ability to use the target forms in the short term; second, when it comes to longer-term effects, both groups in the two experiments showed loss, in varying degrees, in the knowledge of and the ability to use the target forms; third, explicit instruction was of more advantage for L2 Chinese learners when they are learning more complex rules.

碩士
國立中正大學
英語教學研究所
101
The purpose of the current study was to investigate the immediate effects, delayed effects, and subjects’ perceptions of explicit and implicit instruction on the learning of English comparative adjectives. The current study was conducted from March to May of 2012, and the subjects were 61 seventh-grade junior high school students from two English classes in Changhua County, Taiwan. One of the classes formed the implicit group, while the other served as the explicit group. The implicit group (n=31) received implicit grammar instruction with no explanation of the rules, but using stories embedded with examples of comparative adjectives, while the explicit group (n=30) was given explicit grammar instruction explaining the rules of comparative adjectives. Data was collected using a background information questionnaire, a pretest, an immediate posttest, two delayed posttests, and a post-learning questionnaire. The findings indicated that both explicit and implicit instruction had immediate effects on the learning of English comparative adjectives, with t-test results revealing that the two instruction types were equally effective. In terms of delayed effects on the learning of the target grammar, the affects of the explicit instruction were found not to be retained after one month or after two months from the end of instruction; however, the implicit instruction did show delayed effects lasting for at least two months. That is to say, the explicit instruction only showed learning effects in the short-term, while subjects receiving the implicit instruction were able to retain their memory of the target grammar in both the short-term and the long-term. As for the subjects’ perceptions of the grammar instruction that they received, both groups rated the instruction highly and expressed positive views of the course. However, the subjects receiving the implicit instruction rated their experience significantly more positively than did the subjects who received the explicit instruction, indicating that the subjects in the implicit group were especially satisfied with the implicit instruction that they received. Finally, the subjects in both groups provided some responses regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the instruction that they had received. Based on the results, some pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research were provided at the end of the study.

This Report presents a variety of grammar teaching options for secondary school foreign language teachers in the U.S. Grammar teaching forms a large, and, in my opinion, important part of the foreign language curriculum in U.S. secondary schools. This Report presents grammar teaching methods in the form of a “grammar teaching toolbox” to encourage a variety-based teaching approach and allow teachers to enrich their pedagogical repertoires. All methods discussed in this Report involve explicit discussion of form and take place at the presentation or input/intake stage of grammar teaching. Sample lesson plans and helpful references for each methodology are presented. The first chapters of the Report present a discussion of the intended context, a brief history of grammar teaching, an analysis of the central issues in the debate over form-focused instruction and an outline for incorporating grammar into the contemporary communicative classroom.
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This thesis is placed in the context of the ongoing debate on the issue whether second language acquisition occurs on the basis of innate language-specific learning mechanisms or general learning mechanisms. The author shares the view of scholars who propose that an innate knowledge base underlying first language acquisition does not extend to second language acquisition due to the lack of uniform success in the acquisition of native speaker competence, the possibility of fossilisation and the facilitative potential of form-focused instruction. It is, thus, assumed that the sequential second language acquisition process can be accounted for by general learning mechanisms. The key to these learning mechanisms is, firstly, the investigation of the nature of the knowledge underlying the grammatical encoding procedures for speech production in the context of M. Pienemann’s (1998a) Processability Theory and, secondly, the investigation of the nature of its acquisition process. Pienemann’s Processability Theory explains and predicts the sequential acquisition process of a second language as the result of the hierarchically ordered development of the processing procedures of the grammatical processor to grammatically encode conceptual information. It shares with Levelt’s (1989) theory of speech production the assumptions concerning the nature of the knowledge underlying the grammatical encoding procedures, which require further investigations for verification. Since the Processability Theory does not specify how the assumed knowledge underlying grammatical encoding is acquired, an investigation of the nature of its acquisition process is necessary. This investigation highlights the interdependence between the nature of the knowledge to be acquired and the nature of its acquisition process by demonstrating that the knowledge underlying grammatical encoding is predominantly implicit and, consequently, determines the implicit nature of its acquisition process. Such implicit knowledge is dissociated from explicit knowledge, which determines the explicit nature of its acquisition process. This investigation also demonstrates that explicit grammar teaching and practice in the context of the manipulation of the learners’ attentional orientation mediated by alertness may contribute to the implicit learning process under certain conditions. In conjunction with the provision of guidance by the Processability Theory in regard to the achievement of instructional focus and the independent finding that comprehensible input is needed in order for second language acquisition to occur, these results constitute the basis for the formulation of detailed instructional measures for the effective organisation of the sequential second language acquisition process. These measures are exemplified by their implementation for the initial stages of the acquisition of German as a second language.
PhD Doctorate