This dissertation study examined a broad question of whether computer-based grammar tutorials are effective and welcome tools to review grammar for language learners by investigating effects of three different modes of such tutorials on learners' knowledge and satisfaction. For this study, I developed experimental tutorials in three different modes (a static text with a voice-over narration, an animated text with a voice-over narration, and a recording of a real teacher) for two target structures of German grammar (regular verb conjugation and separable-prefix verbs). In total, there were more than 100 Elementary German students at two Midwestern universities, who participated in different stages of the study. The participants represented a mostly homogeneous group with characteristics that are common for college-level learners. There were two parallel experiments in this study that employed identical methods but focused on two different target structures. Thus, both experiments examined the effect of the three study tutorials on learners' knowledge and satisfaction, but Experiment 1 focused on the regular verb conjugation, whereas Experiment 2 focused on the separable-prefix verbs. For each experiment, the participants completed a pretest, worked with the assigned tutorial mode, completed a posttest, and filled out a number of questionnaires. The results of the analysis demonstrated that the study tutorials helped learners to significantly improve their knowledge of grammar; however, the mode of the tutorial did not make a difference. Likewise, all modes of tutorial received similar satisfaction ratings; however, additional qualitative analysis suggested that a considerable number of the participants preferred the animated mode. The findings of the study demonstrate that computer-based grammar tutorials can be effective and welcome tools to review grammar for language learners. Moreover, tutorials of this type can be a viable method of achieving the desired balance between the form- and meaning-focused activities in language classrooms. Also, such tutorials appeal to learners because they support more individualized learning.

The role that grammar should occupy in the teaching of the Spanish language, and of languages in general, has varied throughout history. From taking a central role in the grammar-translation method to positioning grammar on the periphery and implicitly teaching it in the communicative approach. The teaching of grammar is part of the training of students once they pass the introductory and most basic level of the language, so we will study how this process occurs in the classrooms of a couple of schools in the region of Skåne. For this we will make a distinction between the teaching of grammar explicitly and the implicit teaching of it. Our research is based on the testimonies of two professors with extensive academic competence on the subject and with a large number of years of experience. Through semi-structured interviews, we had access to detailed information about the choice of the way in which they work, and we corroborated that they favor explicit grammar teaching because, according to our informants, this provides solid knowledge, saves time and effort to students to form grammatical structures, students request it and have a positive attitude towards it and it motivates them. It is also the form that gives the best results for learning the language, in combination with the advantages of the communicative approach, affirm the teachers interviewed. Another aspect in our research that our informants confirm is the lack of materials for the formal teaching of grammar, since said material is almost non-existent in manuals for language teaching, so the responsibility to find, and in many cases create these materials rests with the teachers. This aspect together with the fact that the choice to teach explicit grammar in class may lead to more research that has an echo in the Skolverket curricula so that materials that cover these needs are developed. On the other hand, based on the information collected by our informants, we can say that it does not seem necessary to us that there is a sharp dichotomy between the grammar-translation method and the communicative approach, but rather that both methods be reconciled in a harmonious way. That is to say, that the best of both methods is taken advantage of without having to choose between one or the other in a clear way. Our research can serve to guide such future research.

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.

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 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.

The aim of this study is to investigate the similarities/differences in the views on and practices of grammar teaching of a Swedish teacher of English (FL – Foreign Language) and a UK teacher of English (L1 – First Language). Furthermore, the study tries to explain how the differences found in the comparison can be connected to each country’s different steering documents and to the different teaching conditions involved in teaching English to L1 learners compared to FL learners. The two participating teachers were both interviewed and observed. The results of this study show that the teachers’ grammar practices are very similar since they include explicit formal instruction both inductively and deductively, but with a focus on the latter. These are typical ‘Focus on FormS’ related practices even though both teachers want to achieve a ‘Focus on Form’ directed practice. Furthermore, both teachers use metalanguage in their teaching. The main difference between the teachers’ grammar approaches are the aims that they have with their teaching. The UK teacher aims at plain accuracy in her pupils’ written production whereas the Swedish teacher aims at developing all-round communicative abilities among her pupils. This is explained with the different accuracy-focus which each country’s steering documents hold.

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Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been adopted in various countries in the world. This is especially true in an EFL context in Ethiopia where it has received considerable attention both at policy and classroom levels. This study aimed to investigate English as Foreign Language (EFL) instructors' conceptions and applications of CLT in teaching grammar lessons in private universities in Ethiopia. Due to the nature of the issues addressed in the study, the mixed-methods approach was employed. The data for the study were collected from 25 EFL instructors teaching in four private universities through semi-structured interviews, quantitative questionnaire, and classroom observation. The qualitative data collected from the semi-structured interviews and classroom observation were analysed thematically, using deductive thematic analysis. The quantitative data garnered through the questionnaire were analysed using the latest version of SPPS (Version 20) available at the time of data analysis. While the study highlighted four major EFL instructors' misconceptions stemming from the discrepancies in understanding the term communicative, it revealed that the majority of the EFL instructors' conceptions of CLT were consistent with the CLT literature. To that effect, the study illuminated the EFL instructors' conceptions of grammar and CLT concerning the teacher’s role, the learners’ role, the types of teaching materials, the place for grammar in CLT as well as the methods of teaching grammar lessons and assessing the learners’ performance in grammar lessons. Nevertheless, the classroom practices of the majority of the EFL instructors were inconsistent with their conceptions of CLT because they predominantly employed the lecture method to teach grammar lessons. The study also found various socio-cultural and economic variables practically affecting the application of CLT in teaching grammar lessons in private universities in Ethiopia. Consequently, the study identified teacher-related factors, student-related factors, institutional factors, curriculum-related factors, and system-related factors as the main difficulties of implementing CLT in teaching grammar lessons. The study recommends that measures that align policy with practice should be taken to ensure that the instructors' conceptions are realised in classroom situations, thereby minimising the discrepancies between their conceptions and their classroom practices. / English Studies / Ph. D. (Languages, Linguistics and Literature)