Academic literature on the topic 'Explicit grammar teaching'

Two universally accepted approaches to grammar instruction are explicit and implicit teaching of the grammar. Both approaches have their own strengths and limitations. Educators may face a dilemma whether to teach grammar explicitly or implicitly. This paper aims to provide insights into the educators’ beliefs towards grammar teaching in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions, and the sources of the held beliefs. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with five educators from several private colleges located in peninsular Malaysia. Data analysis reveals that a majority of the respondents preferred grammar to be taught explicitly in their ESL classrooms; nevertheless they viewed implicit instruction as necessary when conforming to students’ needs. The sources of the held beliefs are educators’ experience as well as the institutional requirement. This paper draws our attention to the role of educators as an eclectic teaching practitioner who are able to apply a suitable grammar instruction according to learners’ needs. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the growth of literature on grammar teaching and learning especially in Malaysian ESL classrooms.

The relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their instructional practices has attracted educational researchers’ attention. The literature on teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices suggests that a sound understanding of those beliefs is extremely helpful in developing and implementing useful programs and effective in-service training. This study explores the complex relationship between the beliefs and practices of teachers from primary schools in Singapore, specifically looking at how instructional strategies are reflections of teacher beliefs on grammar instruction.Overall, the teachers who participated in this survey unanimously agree that grammar is important and has to be taught in primary school. They believe that grammar consists of rules of sentence formation, and the use of accurate tenses, and that grammar should focus on both form and meaning. Explicit discussion of grammatical rules in the classroom is thought to be extremely important in helping students acquire the English language and develop their writing skills.In terms of their classroom practices, the data suggests a more traditional approach of explicit teaching of grammar where rules and sentence structures are first taught to students and brought to their attention.

The study investigates questions central to the field of second language (L2) acquisition and instruction: Does the first language (L1) influence the L2 grammar? Can wrong patterns be restructured? Is Universal Grammar accessible during L2 acquisition? And can L2 acquisition, rather than learning (in Krashen’s sense), be triggered by explicit positive evidence (EPE), combining input flood with explicit emphasis upon target forms? Three properties associated with the Null Subject Parameter were inspected in two sixth-grade groups (L1-Hebrew, L2-English): thematic subject omission, expletive subject omission, and post-verbal subjects. During teaching, both groups were exposed to input flood of expletive subjects, but only in one group were expletives explicitly emphasized (EPE). A Hebrew-toEnglish translation-choice task tested the abovementioned properties pre-teaching, immediately post-teaching, and four months post-teaching. Shortly after teaching, the group which was explicitly taught improved significantly in rejecting ungrammatical null expletives and post-verbal subjects, but not null thematic subjects, thus indicating (partial) clustering. However, the improvement attained was not fully preserved four months later. The results show that shortterm exposure to EPE concerning a single property can apparently trigger change in another property, suggesting that learned knowledge can affect L2 competence, and that Universal Grammar plays a role in L2 acquisition.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of teaching grammar through implicit and explicit approach by applying scaffolding technique on learners’ speaking abilities including: accuracy, fluency and complexity. Design/methodology/approach To this end, 90 BA students of architecture in Yazd Azad University were selected and homogenized through Oxford Placement Test. They were assigned to three groups each including 30 participants, and took an IELTS speaking as pre-test to ensure that they had the same speaking ability prior to the begging of the experiment. In the course of the study, the first experimental group (EG1) received implicit instruction through scaffolding, and the second experimental group (EG2) was taught through explicit instruction. In contrast, control group did not receive any kind of grammar teaching. After the completion of the treatment, all groups took speaking post-test. Findings The results of the study showed that while both explicit and implicit teaching of grammar through scaffolding had a significant impact on learners’ speaking fluency, implicit teaching in comparison with explicit teaching was more significantly effective on learners’ speaking fluency. Similarly, both implicit and explicit teaching of grammar through scaffolding had significant impact on learners’ speaking accuracy and complexity, but explicit teaching compared to implicit teaching was more significantly effective. Practical implications The results of the study are mainly beneficial to teachers in the way that they can teach grammar in a more efficient way, and consequently improve learners’ speaking. In addition, curriculum developers and second language learners will benefit from the results of this research. Originality/value There has always been a controversy over an effective way to teach speaking skill in EFL classes over the last decades. In this regard, one of the most controversial approaches to teaching speaking arose from the dichotomy of teaching grammar through implicit or explicit teaching of rules. This paper has originality in that it delves into this controversial issue at length and in details.

Although it is not a central aspect, grammar teaching - that is, the use of specific tasks and/or other types of strategies to draw students’ attention to certain linguistic aspects while maintaining a predominant focus on meaning – plays an important role in Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), so it is incorrect to claim otherwise. However, it is also true that TBLT avoids explicit teaching of predetermined linguistic items, as in more traditional methods, since it is not considered compatible with the process of second language acquisition, in light of current evidence. Based on the concept of focus on form, the present article aims to exemplify how TBLT can integrate grammar and promote the attention of students of Portuguese as a Foreign Language to structures and linguistic aspects, by using focused tasks and methodological strategies.

The focal point of this paper is on the view of the fifth semester students of FKIP UKI on the teaching of English grammar which was gauged through a study conducted in November 2010. The findings of the study, obtained via quantitative and qualitative approaches, revealed that a majority of the respondents basically viewed grammar is important in their study of English. They also viewed knowledge of grammar plays an important role in writing, but has no significant role in speaking. In addition, the respondents seemed to prefer explicit than implicit teaching in their trial to master English grammar. The paper concludes by suggesting the need to explore new approaches to the teaching of grammar to enhance students’ autonomy in learning grammar.

Grammar teaching in foreign language education has been maintained by most theories as one thing playing a significant role in facilitating the process of learning to read, write, speak, and understand a foreign language. However, scholars label that role as controversial both in the research of second language acquisition (SLA) and language pedagogy. Thus, such condition results in a potential cause of confusion to teachers and students, then leads the researchers to a thoughtful theoretical debate on the topic of the way grammar should be taught: explicitly or implicitly. The aim of the present case study was to gain an insight into the prevailing stance of Indonesian English students on grammar teaching enrolled in a senior high school. To this end, a questionnaire as well as interview sessions were developed and validated based on one construct pair from SLA literature: explicit versus implicit instruction. The findings, in general, showed that the students were found to prefer implicit over explicit instruction. Nonetheless, the stance somewhat changed depending on the proficiency level of students. As an implication, this study supported Indonesian English students to maintain their stance on implicit teaching strategies on grammar instruction, regarding the help they can get in the process of natural acquisition of language.

A consideration of the place of, and options for, explicitly teaching grammar to learners of English as an international language. A development of the opening address given at a conference on the teaching of grammar at the Regional Language Centre (RELC) in Singapore in November 2003. The key issue of the conference was whether the English-language skills of Singaporean school leavers would be improved through a revival of explicit and formal grammar teaching in the Lion City's 21st-century classrooms. The paper addresses this issue in both current and historical terms, going back indeed, at the end, to the beginnings of Western-style grammar teaching among the Greeks. While doing this, however, it also considers the nature and role of what the Singaporean government takes to be the proper target for its future citizens: speaking and writing an internationally acceptable English.

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.

The communicative approach to language learning is widely taught in Western education, and yet its predecessor, the grammar-translation method, is still commonly employed in other parts of the world. In Sweden, the increasing popularity of the communicative approach is often justified by the high level of students’ communicative skills (Öhman, 2013). At the same time, students’ written texts and speech contain many grammatical errors (Öhman, 2013). Consequently, being aware of their tendency to produce grammatical errors, some students express beliefs regarding both the explicit and implicit learning of grammar (Sawir, 2005; Boroujeni, 2012). The objective of this thesis is to gain more knowledge regarding students’ beliefs concerning the learning of English grammar at the upper secondary level, in Sweden. With this purpose a survey was conducted in two schools in Sweden, where 49 upper-secondary English students participated. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to process the collected data. Despite some difference in the participants’ ages, there were many similarities in their attitudes towards the teaching and learning of grammar. The results show that the participants in both schools believe that only by applying both, explicit and implicit methods, can they obtain a high level of language proficiency. The results of this study can help teachers in planning different activities that enhance the students’ knowledge of grammar.

One of the most controversial topics in Applied Linguistics is the role of learners' metalinguistic knowledge (MK) in second language (L2) learning and teaching. There seems to be no agreement between those who propose that MK is essential for L2 learning and those who believe that it can even be detrimental for L2 acquisition.Additionally, the subjunctive has been reported to be one of the most difficult structures to master for L2 learners of Spanish. It has been suggested that the subjunctive is acquired fairly late in an acquisition hierarchy of Spanish grammar and that, as a consequence, learners must reach a stage where they can produce syntactically sophisticated utterances in order to be "ready" for acquisition.Taking an Information Processing (IP) approach to language learning as a framework, this dissertation investigates the relationship between MK and grammatical accuracy by learners of Spanish at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of proficiency. Their MK is assessed through a set of terminology and grammaticality judgment tasks. Their mastery of the Spanish subjunctive is evaluated through a set of receptive and productive tests involving different subordinate clauses.The three groups of participants are compared with respect to their MK and their mastery of the subjunctive, and it is examined whether MK correlates with mastery of the subjunctive. Findings include: 1) an improvement on both subjunctive accuracy and terminology knowledge across levels; 2) a positive correlation between English MK and Spanish MK; 3) a positive correlation between MK and accuracy in the use of the subjunctive; and 4) agreement between the learners' acquisition hierarchy within the subjunctive and teaching order of subjunctive substructures.The findings show that MK has a positive impact on the mastery of this "difficult" structure. They are also consistent with other experimental studies that suggest that explicit instruction has a positive impact on L2 learning. The late and uneven acquisition of the subjunctive demonstrated by the subjects in this study also suports the hypothesis that there are "many subjunctives" to learn and that learners will not acquire this structure until they are developmentally ready (third year of instruction).

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.

This study explores the possibility that techniques based on ‘syntactic priming’, a tendency to produce utterances with structures individuals have recently been exposed to, and ‘syntactic satiation’, which leads individuals to judge previously unacceptable utterances as acceptable, can be used to evaluate second language teaching methods. This is based on the assumption that the more robust an individual’s linguistic intuitions, the less susceptible they are to priming or satiation effects. An experimental methodology was developed and used to compare the effectiveness of the explicit (‘Grammar Translation’) method currently used to teach English in Libyan universities with an implicit (‘Direct’) method. Both methods present only positive evidence, i.e. what are assumed to be grammatical forms, and do not present what are assumed to be ungrammatical forms. The study assumed a ‘Principles and Parameters’ approach on which second language learning involves setting or resetting parameters to those relevant to the language being acquired. It focused on the ‘verb raising parameter’, which has different settings in Arabic and English, and on yes-no questions and adverb placement, whose structures are partly determined by the setting of this parameter. One group of participants was taught using the explicit method and one using the implicit method. After teaching, each group was exposed to activities designed to induce priming and satiation. For yes-no questions, the results showed robust intuitions for both groups. For adverb placement, they showed susceptibility to priming and satiation effects for the group taught using the implicit method. The findings are limited in what they suggest about the two teaching methods but they showed that both methods were effective in teaching these forms. They confirm that priming and satiation effects can arise in a second language and suggest that activities designed to induce these effects could provide a way of evaluating particular teaching methods.

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.

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.

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 benefits of explicit knowledge for language learning is a much debated issue. In this study this question is approached from a new perspective since it focuses on the correlation between students’ concept images and their language ability. The focused concept is the subordinate clause in German. By means of a short written test the performance of 12 Swedish university-level students in three types of tasks was elicited: translating, correcting an erroneous text and commenting on grammatical differences in parallel German and Swedish texts. The students were asked to think aloud, but complementary questions were also asked if verbalizations were not lucid. A semi-structured interview that focused on school experiences, attitudes towards language learning and grammatical concepts followed. One year later the same procedure was repeated with three of the students who had successfully finished their first year of German.As for the concept images many students had only blurred conceptions of subordinate clauses, especially when they did not have access to texts to refer to. When they had the help from artefacts they often focused on visual clues such as subjunctions and verb position. Many verbalized statements were simply wrong. A common concept image described the subordinate clause as positioned after the main clause with the function of adding extra information. This led to the conclusion that the relative clause is the prototypical subordinate clause.Despite the often vague concept images, most students had no difficulty in producing subordinate clauses or in correcting a text with word order errors. Interestingly, the relative clause proved to cause the most problems.The fact that the students were able to produce subordinate clauses, but not able to explain their chosen solution indicates implicit knowledge. This in turn gives reason to believe that students have formed their own natural concepts from experience and not learned a well defined scientific concept. The students in this study could also be seen to represent stages in the concept building process that begins with a category ‘sentence’. Step by step different types of subordinate clauses break loose and form a new category ‘subordinate clause’. With time the attributes become more refined.The analysis of four Swedish grammars of German showed that three of them had content shortcomings, whereas the fourth placed too much emphasis on linguistic correctness which would leave the learners behind.In the last chapter implications for grammar writing and grammar teaching are discussed. One key point is the necessity of opportunities to verbalize your thoughts since this promotes learning
ZusammenfassungHintergrund, Ziel und ForschungsfragenDie übergreifende Frage dieser Arbeit stammt aus meinem Grammatikunterricht an einer schwedischen Universität. In dem Kontakt mit Studenten lässt sich leicht feststellen, dass sie alle individuelle Charakteristika aufweisen – auch was den Erfolg mit den theoretischen Aspekten der Grammatik als auch mit der Anwendung des Wissens. Einige Studenten haben damit große Schwierigkeiten, während andere einigermaßen korrektes Deutsch produzieren können und anscheinend auch verstanden haben, wie die deutsche Sprache aufgebaut ist, wie die grammatischen Begriffe gebildet sind, usw.Ich habe mich dann gefragt, ob vielleicht Grammatiklernen wie Mathematik¬lernen funktioniert und dass die beobachteten Schwierigkeiten auf ein mangelndes Verständnis grundlegender grammatischer Begriffe wie ,Satz‘ und ,Kasus‘ zurückzuführen sind. Nach einer Beschränkung auf ,Satz‘, aber vor allem ,Nebensatz‘ ließen sich folgende Forschungsfragen formulieren:•    Welche Vorstellungen haben schwedischsprachige Deutschstudenten vom Begriff ,Nebensatz‘?•    Wie verhalten sich die Begriffsvorstellungen eines Studenten zu seiner Fähigkeit, korrekte deutsche Nebensätze zu produzieren?Ein wichtiges Hilfsmittel beim Sprachenlernen und -lehren sind Grammatik¬handbücher. Wenn es um Grammatiken für die Schule, didaktische Gram¬matiken, geht, wird immer eine Auswahl vorgenommen und die Darstellung wird auch in anderer Weise den Schülern und ihren vermuteten Vorkenntnissen angepasst. Eine zweite Spur dieser Arbeit gilt solchen Beschreibungen der Struktur des Deutschen, und eine dritte Hauptfrage lautet:•    Wir wird der Begriff ,Nebensatz‘ in schwedischen Grammatiken für den Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache beschrieben?Das Hauptziel der Arbeit ist es, einen Teil der ”Realität” zu erkunden (die Vorstellungen der Studenten von ,Nebensatz‘ und ihre Fähigkeit, solche zu produzieren, sowie Sprachbeschreibungen) und daraus folgernd mögliche Verbesserungen der Sprachbeschreibungen und des Sprachunterrichts  über¬sichtlich zu diskutieren.Theoretischer RahmenGrundlegende Fragen nach Begriffsvorstellungen betreffen kognitive Prozesse und Produkte. Der theoretische Hintergrund dieser Untersuchung setzt sich deshalb zusammen aus einerseits allgemeinen Lerntheorien sowie Theorien zu Begriffsbildung bzw. Begriffsaneignung, andererseits aus Theorien zum Fremdsprachenerwerb: wie lernen wir? Welche Wissensform ist das Ergebnis? Wie verhalten sich Wissen und Performanz zueinander? In den Gesprächen mit Studenten (s. u.) stellte sich aber heraus, dass die Gespräche an sich und die Möglichkeit, Gedanken und Hypothesen zu verbalisieren, oft zum Lernen führten.Material und MethodeMit zwölf Universitätsanfängern des Fachs Deutsch wurde ein kurzer schriftlicher Test und ein anschließendes gesprächsähnliches Interview durch¬geführt. Die Studenten lösten die Aufgaben individuell und waren aufgefordert, dabei laut zu denken. Wenn die verbalisierten Gedanken nicht aufschlussreich genug waren, wurden spezifische Fragen gestellt. Themen des Interviews waren teils Schulerfahrungen und Einstellung zum Sprachenlernen, teils explizite Fragen zu grammatischen Begriffen. Mit drei dieser Informanten wurde dasselbe Verfahren ein Jahr später wiederholt, nach erfolgreichem Abschluss des ersten Studienjahres. Bei dieser Gelegenheit wurden auch retrospektivisch ausgerichtete Fragen zum Lern- und Begriffsbildungsprozess gestellt.ErgebnisseWas die Begriffsvorstellungen betrifft, zeigte sich ein Unterschied je nach dem, ob konkrete Nebensätze zum Anschauen zugänglich waren oder nicht. Waren solche vorhanden, wurde eher auf visuell beobachtbare Charakteristika wie Einleiter und Verbletztstellung hingewiesen. Ohne die Unterstützung durch ein Artefakt standen ein Vergleich oder eine Verbindung mit einem Hauptsatz im Fokus.Eine zweite Beobachtung war, dass die Studenten häufig Merkmale anführten, die als fehlerhaft zu betrachten sind. So glauben viele, das Vorhandensein eines Kommas würde einen Nebensatz verursachen.Eine häufig vorkommende Vorstellung war, dass der Nebensatz immer dem übergeordneten Satz nachgestellt ist und inhaltlich eine Spezifizierung dazu ausmacht. Daraus lässt sich der Schluss ziehen, dass der Relativsatz der proto¬typische Nebensatz ist.Obwohl viele Studenten vage oder sogar fehlerhafte Vorstellungen vom Begriff ,Nebensatz‘ verbalisierten, hatten sie selten Probleme, deutsche Sätze mit korrekter Wortstellung zu produzieren oder Sätze mit inkorrekter Wort¬stellung zu korrigieren. Interessanterweise verursachte dabei gerade der Relativsatz Schwierigkeiten. Die Tatsache, dass die meisten Informanten also Nebensätze produzieren konnten, gleichzeitig aber Schwierigkeiten hatten, ihre Vorstellungen zu verba¬lisieren und die gewählten Lösungen im Test metasprachlich zu begründen, lässt sich als Indiz für implizites Wissen interpretieren. Das wiederum legt den Schluss nahe, dass sie eher von ihren konkreten Erfahrungen ausgehend, d. h. im Kontakt mit gesprochenem und geschriebenem Deutsch einen natürlichen Begriff gebildet haben, als dass sie sich einen fertigen, genau definierten Begriff angeeignet hätten. In diesem Fall ist es demnach nicht notwendig, im Besitz eines wissenschaftlichen Begriffs zu sein.Weiter stellte sich heraus, dass die Informanten dieser Untersuchung als Vertreter für unterschiedliche Phasen des Begriffsbildungsprozesses gesehen werden können. Dabei scheint eine Kategorie ”mening” (,Vollsatz‘) der Aus¬gangspunkt zu sein, aus dem sich schrittweise die verschiedenen Neben¬satztypen losmachen, um die Kategorie ,Nebensatz‘ zu bilden. Die Kenn¬zeichen, Attribute, die diese Mitglieder aufweisen, werden im Prozess zunehmend verfeinert.In den analysierten Grammatiken, die alle in einer ersten oder späteren Auflage in den 1990er Jahren erschienen, ließ sich eine gewisse Entwicklung von einer relativ starken Fokussierung auf Morphologie zu einer ausführlicheren Behandlung der Syntax sowie einer umfangreicheren Diskussion der Begriffe. Bei drei der Grammatiken waren inhaltliche Mängel und undeutliche Formulierungen zu verzeichnen, während die vierte in so hohem Grad eine sprachwissenschaftlich korrekte Beschreibung angestrebt hatte, dass die Anpassung an die Schüler in Frage gestellt werden musste.Didaktische ImplikationenDas abschließende Kapitel der Arbeit umfasst mögliche didaktische Implikationen der Untersuchung für Sprachbeschreibung und Sprachunterricht. Im ersten Fall werden u. a. der Einsatz der Nebensatzeinleiter als Signalwörter sowie der Gebrauch von Visualisierungen fokussiert. Wenn es um Unterricht geht,  werden die soziokulturellen Lerntheorien wieder aufgegriffen, wobei besonders ihre Betonung der Bedeutung des Gesprächs fürs Lernen thematisiert wird. Ferner wird auf die positive Wirkung eines induktiven Verfahrens hingewiesen
SammanfattningBakgrund, syfte och frågeställningarDen övergripande frågan för denna undersökning har uppstått i min under¬visning i tysk grammatik på universitetsnivå. Som vid all annan undervisning, eller kontakt med människor över huvud taget, konstaterar man ganska snart att individerna är olika. I mitt konkreta fall har vissa studenter stora svårigheter med både den teoretiska grammatiken och tillämpningen av den, medan andra både kan producera god tyska och tycks ha förstått hur tyskan är uppbyggd, hur de grammatiska begreppen är bildade och liknande. Inspirerad av forskning inom matematikdidaktik som visat att svårigheter som dyker upp kan bero på att eleverna inte förstått grundläggande begrepp som ’tal’ och ’mängd’ frågade jag mig om förhållandet kunde vara likartat här, dvs. att de som hade svårigheter inte förstått grundläggande begrepp som ’sats’ och ’kasus’. I denna undersökning inskränktes arbetet till att i någon mån behandla begreppet ’sats’ men i huvudsak omfatta begreppet ’bisats’.De konkreta forskningsfrågorna för undersökningen är:•    Vilka föreställningar har svenskspråkiga tyskstudenter av begreppet ’bisats’?•    Hur förhåller sig en students begreppsföreställning(ar) till förmågan att producera korrekta tyska bisatser?Ett viktigt hjälpmedel vid språkinlärning och -undervisning är handböcker i grammatik. När det gäller grammatikor för skolbruk, didaktiska grammatikor, har alltid ett urval gjorts och framställningen har även på annat sätt anpassats till elever och deras förmodade förkunskaper. Ett annat spår i avhandlingen gäller dessa beskrivningar av tyskans struktur och en tredje huvudfråga lyder därför:•    Hur beskrivs begreppet ’bisats’ i svenska skolgrammatikor för tysk¬undervisningen?Huvudsyftet med undersökningen är att ta reda på hur en del av verkligheten ser  ut (studenternas föreställningar om och förmåga att producera bisatser samt språkbeskrivningar) och utifrån detta diskutera hur man eventuellt kan förbättra språkbeskrivning och språkundervisning så att eleverna lär sig både mer och bättre.Teoretisk förankringDe grundläggande frågorna omkring begreppsföreställningar handlar om kognitiva processer och produkter. Den teoretiska bakgrunden till denna under¬sökning utgörs därför dels av teorier kring lärande generellt och kring begreppsbildning respektive begreppstillägnande, dels av teorier kring frågor om hur förvärvandet av ett främmande språk går till, vilken form av kunskap detta leder till samt hur kunskaper och performans hör samman. I samtalen med studenterna (se nedan) visade det sig dock att dessa samtal i sig och möjligheten att verbalisera sina tankar och hypoteser ofta ledde till lärande. Detta för¬hållande är centralt inom sociokulturella lärandeteorier varför även sådana beaktas – inte minst i diskussionerna kring didaktiska implikationer av resultaten.Material och metodFör att få svar på forskningsfrågorna sammanställdes ett kort skriftligt test. Sammanlagt tolv studenter på första terminens universitetsstudier i tyska löste testuppgifterna enskilt och ombads därvid tänka högt och motivera sina lösningar. Vissa specifika frågor kring deras svar ställdes också för att få dem att verbalisera sina föreställningar. I anslutning till testet genomfördes en lite längre semistrukturerad intervju dels kring deras erfarenheter från skolan och inställning till språkundervisning, dels kring grammatiska begrepp. Med tre av dessa studenter upprepades test och intervju ett år senare då de med framgång avslutat ett års studier i tyska. Då ställdes också frågor som syftade till att retrospektivt försöka klargöra hur begreppsbildning och -utveckling går till.Både testdelen och intervjun spelades in på video. Undersökningen bygger således på det skriftliga testet (performans) och transkriptioner av den samtals¬liknande intervjun.ResultatNär det gäller föreställningarna av begreppet ’bisats’ visade det sig att de skiljer sig åt något när studenterna hade konkreta bisatser att hänvisa till eller iaktta och när de bara besvarade frågan om vad en bisats är. I det första fallet var de visuella signalerna bisatsinledare och ordföljd viktiga, medan en jämförelse eller annan koppling till en huvudsats gjordes när inga hjälpande artefakter fanns.Ytterligare en iakttagelse var att studenterna i många fall anförde känne¬tecken hos bisatser som måste anses vara direkt felaktiga. Så tycks flera av dem utgå från att förekomsten av ett komma förorsakar en bisats. En vanlig föreställning var också att en bisats alltid står efter den över¬ordnade satsen och att den innehållsligt innebär en specificering av denna. Av detta kan man dra slutsatsen att relativsatsen är den prototypiska bisatsen. Trots att många studenter hade luddiga eller till och med felaktiga före¬ställningar av begreppet ’bisats’, hade de sällan problem att själva producera tyska bisatser eller korrigera satser med felaktig ordföljd. Intressant nog visade sig relativsatsen förorsaka mest problem i studenternas egna produktion. Det faktum att de flesta informanterna således kunde producera bisatser samtidigt som de hade svårigheter att verbalisera sina föreställningar och att motivera sina lösningar i testet i någon metaspråklig form kan ses som ett tecken på att de besitter implicit kunskap. Det i sin tur kan tolkas som att de utifrån sina konkreta erfarenheter med bisatser, det vill säga genom sin kontakt med tyskan i tal och skrift snarare bildat ett naturligt begrepp än tillägnat sig ett färdigt, väldefinierat begrepp. Att besitta en begreppsföreställning som motsvarar det vetenskapliga är alltså i detta fall inte nödvändigt.Det visade sig också att de studenter som ingår i denna undersökning kan ses som representanter för olika faser i begreppsbildningsprocessen. I denna tycks utgångspunkten vara en kategori ’mening’ från vilken olika bisatstyper stegvis lösgör sig för att bilda kategorin ’bisats’. De kännetecken, attribut, som dessa uppvisar blir med tiden allt mer förfinade.I de analyserade skolgrammatikorna, som alla utgavs i en första eller senare upplaga under olika skeden av 1990-talet, kunde en viss utveckling från en förhållandevis stark fokusering på morfologi i de äldre mot en utförligare behandling av syntax liksom ökad diskussion av begreppen. Tre av gramma¬tikorna kunde sägas uppvisa innehållsliga brister och otydliga formuleringar, medan den fjärde i så hög grad eftersträvat en språkvetenskapligt korrekt beskrivning att anpassningen till eleverna kunde ifrågasättas. Didaktiska implikationerI det avslutande kapitlet diskuteras de didaktiska implikationer som under¬sökningen har eller kan ha för språkbeskrivning och språkundervisning. I det första fallet fokuseras bland annat hur bisatsinledare kan framhävas som signalord och hur visualiseringar kan bidra till framställningen. När det gäller undervisningen återkopplas bland annat till de sociokulturella teorierna och deras betoning av samtalets betydelse för lärandet samt visas på möjligheterna med ett induktivt arbetssätt.

French grammatical texts from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century are heterogeneous and it would be misleading to analyse them along facile oppositions such as practical vs speculative or theoretical grammars; first- vs second-language grammars. A proper understanding of the functions and unity of these texts – and, more specifically, of grammars explicitly aimed at a foreign audience – needs to take into account the long-term evolution of the grammatisation of the French language. While the general framework of French grammars remains remarkably stable along this period, their pedagogical scope, from the second half of the seventeenth century onward, becomes redefined by the split between ‘general’ grammar and ‘particular’ grammar (i.e. single-language oriented grammar).

This paper examines the context of Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s Poetria nova and of its manuscripts and commentaries in medieval and Renaissance Italy. It is well known that, in Italy, grammar (Latin language and literature) was the concern of elementary and mainly secondary schools, whereas rhetoric was primarily a university subject (although basic introductory rhetoric also figured at the end of the secondary-school curriculum). There is little direct (and scant indirect) indication that Poetria nova was taught in Italian universities, but abundant evidence that it was used in schools. Such a school (as opposed to university) context suggests that Poetria nova was primarily used in teaching grammar, not rhetoric, in medieval and Renaissance Italy. The most important use of the text was teaching prose composition: how to vary sentences beyond the simplest wording and structure of subject-verb-predicate (suppositum-appositum) initially learned by grammar pupils, i.e. moving from ordo naturalis to ordo artificialis. Marjorie Curry Woods has written, «although there is growing evidence that the Poetria nova was used to teach the composition of prose, and especially, letters, throughout Europe, it is almost always copied with verse texts, often classical works, in Italian manuscripts, which suggests that it was also used there to teach the interpretation of literary texts». But there is little sign that Geoffrey of Vinsauf was cited in Italian literary manuscripts during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: in my study of manuscript schoolbooks preserved in Florentine libraries, there are 98 in which authorities are explicitly cited. Vergil tops the list, cited in 35 manuscripts, followed by Cicero (and ps. Cicero) in 32, Ovid in 29, Seneca (and ps. Seneca) in 27, Lucan in 16, Valerius Maximus in 15, Aristotle (and ps. Aristotle) in 14, Horace in 13, and so on. In contrast Geoffrey of Vinsauf was cited by name in only one manuscript.

What is it? Translation, explicitly or implicitly, has been a constant presence in the teaching and learning of languages throughout the ages. It may therefore seem surprising that it should find a place in a report on innovative pedagogies. While translation has indeed been used for centuries for the purpose of language learning, there is no doubt that recent approaches in the area of language and translation pedagogy have helped re-conceptualise – and re-operationalise – translation in radically new ways. For decades, translation had been identified with the grammar translation method, and decried as incompatible with a communicative approach. In the last two decades, however, we have seen a thorough re-examination of the role of translation in language teaching and learning. A range of factors have contributed to this trend, among them, the questioning of the monolingual principle in language pedagogy, extensive developments in the area of audiovisual translation, exciting innovations in the field of professional translation didactics, the huge success of translation-based digital platforms such as Duolingo, and, crucially, the introduction of the notion of mediation in the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR, 2001), later expanded in the Companion volume (CEFR, 2018).