The syllabus for English 5 in Swedish upper secondary school has a strong communicative focus, and grammar is only explicitly mentioned once throughout the syllabus. This raised my interest about the role and importance of explicit grammar teaching in Swedish upper secondary schools. The aim of this thesis is to review the effectiveness of explicit and implicit grammar instruction in second language learning contexts. To guide the research, the following research questions were formulated: 1) What are the effects of explicit grammar instruction on L2 learners' grammar knowledge? 2) What are the effects of implicit grammar instruction on L2 learners' grammar knowledge? 3) How are these effects sustained in the long term? Subsequently, empirical articles on the topic were read and analysed to answer the research questions. The results showed that explicit grammar instruction was more effective than implicit grammar instruction, although in some cases relating to the complexity of structures, explicit grammar instruction was found to be more effective for complex structure. Explicit grammar instruction facilitated the learning of both explicit and implicit knowledge whereas implicit grammar instruction primarily facilitated learning of implicit knowledge. Also, explicit grammar instruction showed positive effects for receptive and productive skills, while implicit instruction primarily benefitted receptive skills. Lastly, results showed that explicit instruction needed to be accompanied by follow-up instruction or communicative tasks in order to facilitate long-term effects. In the only longitudinal study reviewed, it was concluded that exposure to naturalistic language was more important than the type of explicit grammar instruction (FonF vs. FonFs) in predicting language proficiency. Thus, it can be argued that explicit grammar instruction should have a significant role in second language classrooms, although either incidentally or intentionally accompanied by communicative or consciousness-raising tasks.

The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of the use of games as a teaching strategy for raising the grammatical accuracy level of secondary students of German as a second language. This thesis seeks also to examine the effect of game-based grammar instruction on students’ motivation and classroom atmosphere. The participants in this study were divided into two groups, the Control and Experimental groups, and received 90 periods, over 18 weeks, of grammatical instruction by the same teacher. The teaching program was the same for both groups. The difference consisted in the use of game-based practice for the experimental group, while the control group performed traditional grammar-based practice only. Data were collected using the following instruments: grammar tests and examinations,a questionnaire on motivation, a questionnaire on classroom atmosphere, a questionnaire on the type of grammar practice, a questionnaire on the role of grammar and grammar instruction, focus group interviews with students, and the researcher’s field notes. While the main result does not support the hypothesis for significant improvement in grammatical accuracy by the experimental students as a result of game-based practice, their overall improved performance is a worthwhile achievement, particularly if it is linked to significant improvements in students’ motivation and classroom atmosphere.These positive results offer a notable incentive to language teachers to include games in their teaching of grammatical features, because the positive results of this experiment with regard to learners’ motivation, peer interaction, teacher-student interaction augur well for an eventual improvement also in the rate of grammatical accuracy.

In the last 50 years, the trend in the field of composition pedagogy has turned away from traditional grammar instruction, condemning pedagogical practices that focus on preventing and remediating error. In the early 1960s, Richard Braddock, Richard Lloyd-Jones, and Lowell Schoer invoked the death sentence on traditional grammar instruction: "The teaching of formal grammar has a negligible or, because it usually displaces some instruction and practice in actual composition, even a harmful effect on the improvement of writing" (37-38). Having been enlightened by this scholarship, the field refocused instruction to emphasize elements like writing process, collaboration, modeling, and prewriting, pushing grammar instruction to the side. As a result of this shift in pedagogies, we are helping our students to see writing differently. We're teaching them that "good writing" is more than correct spelling and well-placed commas,which is correct. But grammar is still an important part of language, and an integral part of rhetoric. Recent scholars like Cheryl Glenn, Virginia Tufte, T.R. Johnson, Constance Weaver, Martha Kolln, and Nora Bacon have recognized this oversight in the sharp move away from grammar instruction, and have developed different strategies to rewrite the tradition so that grammar instruction can be an effective part of writing instruction. I will add to their efforts by identifying the shift in theoretical principles that makes what we refer to as traditional grammar instruction so ineffective, by using the Greco-Roman curriculum (specifically Quintilian's imitatio) as a framework for understanding where these new grammar instructions come from, and by synthesizing this new understanding into a new curriculum for the writing classroom that more effectively integrates grammar instruction.

Dans cette thèse, l’étude des verbes copules ser et estar est abordée de deux points de vue complémentaires. D'une part, une analyse grammaticale d'un large corpus d’occurrences orales authentiques est réalisée afin d'évaluer la pertinence de certains outils théoriques appartenant à une approche cognitive de la question. D’une autre part, à partir d’un contexte d’enseignement des langues secondes, une recherche expérimentale est menée pour examiner l’influence que le type d’approche grammaticale utilisée lors de l’enseignement peut avoir sur les résultats des apprenants. Dans les deux cas, la priorité est donnée à la validation empirique des hypothèses de travail suivant des méthodologies appartenant, dans un cas, à la linguistique et, dans un autre cas, à la didactique des langues. De cette manière, il a été possible d’identifier le champ de spécialisation de chacune des disciplines quant à la description des copules susmentionnées, ainsi que les points de convergence entre les champs d’étude concernés. / In this thesis, the study of the Copulus verbs Ser and Estar is approached from two complementary points of view. On the one hand, a grammatical analysis of a large corpus of authentic oral occurrences is carried out in order to evaluate the relevance of certain theoretical tools belonging to a cognitive approach to the question. On the other hand, from a second language teaching context, experimental research is conducted to examine the influence that the type of grammatical approach used in teaching can have on learners' outcomes. In both cases, priority is given to the empirical validation of working hypotheses according to methodologies belonging, in one case, to linguistics and, in another case, to language didactics. In this way, it was possible to identify the field of specialization of each of the disciplines in terms of the description of the above-mentioned copulas, as well as the points of convergence between the fields of study concerned.

In a southeastern state school district, 23.2% of the students did not meet the 80% passing requirement on the 2014 state’s writing assessment. Research for writing and grammar instruction is extensive, yet many teachers struggle with finding effective instructional strategies. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to explore the instructional strategies used at 7 schools to teach writing and grammar skills to Grade 5 students and to identify instructional gaps. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and Lev Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development together provided a theoretical foundation that emphasizes constructive social learning strategies as well as attention to multiple intelligences. A simple review of background data was conducted on the district’s writing curriculum guide to outline instructional strategies and test data to document scores of the fifth grade students at the 9 elementary schools. The primary source of data came from semi-structured interviews of 6 teaching and learning specialist assistant principals and a fifth grade teacher, who altogether represented 7 of the 9 elementary schools. The interview questions elicited participant perceptions about current writing instructional strategies and resources used with Grade 5 students. Typological data analysis revealed 5 themes of collaboration of teachers, vertical teaming, test format, vocabulary, and writing across the curriculum. These instructional strategies were included in the resulting professional development project. This project has implications for positive social change by increasing the number of teachers at the lower performing schools improving implementation of instructional strategies, and improving students’ writing test scores.

<p>Denna undersökning är gjord med syfte att granska hur fyra svensklärare för grundskolans senare år bedriver sin grammatikundervisning. Detta för att se hur upptäckterna stämmer överens med tidigare rön inom den didaktiska forskning som behandlar ämnet grammatik. Studien lyfter fram definitioner av grammatikbegreppet, tillvägagångssätt och metoder i det didaktiska arbetet samt argument för- och emot grammatikundervisningens existens i svenskämnet. Vidare redogörs för metodval vilka innebär kvalitativa intervjuer utefter modellen ”föreställningskartor” där didaktikens tre huvudfrågor – vad, hur och varför – styr samtalen. Undervisningens resultatdel visar hur svensklärarna förhåller sig till begreppet grammatikundervisning och hur detta kopplas till den didaktiska verksamheten. Slutligen diskuteras det insamlade materialet och jämförs med den teoretiska bakgrunden utifrån de tre didaktiska huvudfrågorna.</p><p> </p> / <p>The aim of this study is to examine how four Swedish teachers, in the late years of compulsory school, teach grammar. The findings of this study are compared and contrasted with previous research in the field.</p><p>The study focuses definitions of the grammar terminology, procedures, teaching methodology and the argument for or against the teaching of grammar in Swedish schools. Furthermore, an account will be given of the research method chosen, namely qualitative interviews based on concept maps, focusing on the three main didactic questions: <em>what</em>, <em>how</em> and <em>why</em>. These interviews show the teachers’ approach to grammar instruction and its connection with didactic activities. Finally the collected material is discussed with reference to the theoretical background and the three main didactic questions.</p>

Denna undersökning är gjord med syfte att granska hur fyra svensklärare för grundskolans senare år bedriver sin grammatikundervisning. Detta för att se hur upptäckterna stämmer överens med tidigare rön inom den didaktiska forskning som behandlar ämnet grammatik. Studien lyfter fram definitioner av grammatikbegreppet, tillvägagångssätt och metoder i det didaktiska arbetet samt argument för- och emot grammatikundervisningens existens i svenskämnet. Vidare redogörs för metodval vilka innebär kvalitativa intervjuer utefter modellen ”föreställningskartor” där didaktikens tre huvudfrågor – vad, hur och varför – styr samtalen. Undervisningens resultatdel visar hur svensklärarna förhåller sig till begreppet grammatikundervisning och hur detta kopplas till den didaktiska verksamheten. Slutligen diskuteras det insamlade materialet och jämförs med den teoretiska bakgrunden utifrån de tre didaktiska huvudfrågorna. / The aim of this study is to examine how four Swedish teachers, in the late years of compulsory school, teach grammar. The findings of this study are compared and contrasted with previous research in the field. The study focuses definitions of the grammar terminology, procedures, teaching methodology and the argument for or against the teaching of grammar in Swedish schools. Furthermore, an account will be given of the research method chosen, namely qualitative interviews based on concept maps, focusing on the three main didactic questions: what, how and why. These interviews show the teachers’ approach to grammar instruction and its connection with didactic activities. Finally the collected material is discussed with reference to the theoretical background and the three main didactic questions.

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The effect of grammar instruction on second language acquisition continues to be a source of debate in SLA research. Previous studies have shown that input-based instruction such as Processing Instruction (PI) is more effective than traditional grammar instruction (TI) for the acquisition of grammatical structures such as object pronouns in Spanish, the Spanish preterite, the simple present vs. the present progressive in English, and the ser/estar contrast in Spanish (VanPatten and Cadierno, 1993; Cadierno, 1995; Buck, 2000; Cheng, 2004). This quasi-experimental, classroom-based study examines the effects of output-based instruction (OB) and PI on the acquisition of the perfective/imperfective aspectual distinction in French, shown to be difficult to master by English-speaking learners due to its linguistic and pragmatic complexity. Specifically, the research design investigates whether OB instruction and PI have significant effects on the learners' performance involving the interpretation and production of the passé composé and the imparfait in narration. Two second semester university level French classes at the University of Texas at Austin were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: an output-based instruction group (n=18) and a processing instruction group (n=17). A distinct instructional treatment was developed for both groups, and a pretest/posttest procedure was used to assess the effect of instruction. The two posttests were administered one day and one month after instruction. All tests except the pretest included a written interpretation task, a controlled written production task, and a written composition. The findings show that both the OB and the PI groups improved their performance significantly on the assessment tasks and that there was no statistical difference between the groups on any of the tasks. These results differ from those of previous PI research and suggest that either type of instruction, output-based or processing, may have had a significant impact on the learners' developing system. The type of output-based instruction used in this study differs from TI in that it does not include a mechanical component. The results of the present study are consistent with Farley (2004b) in showing that approaches to grammar instruction that are meaning-oriented may bring about significant effects on SLA. / text