Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Explicit grammar teaching'

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.

Att språket spelar en nyckelroll för att nå skolframgång och för att – i ett större perspektiv – kunna verka aktivt i samhället är man inom utbildningsväsendet enig om. Vikten av att eleven utvecklar ett adekvat språkligt register med vilket kunskapen uttrycks – och i synnerhet ett diskursivt sådant – kan alltså inte förnekas, och genrepedagogiken har ur detta perspektiv haft ett särskilt inflytande i svensk skola, med dess explicita modellering i skrivande och metaspråkliga dekonstruktion av texter. Mot denna bakgrund är det därför relevant att undersöka hur läromedel i svenska instruerar i diskursivt skrivande, eller med andra ord vilka förutsättningar för metaspråklig förståelse om diskursivt skrivande som eleven erbjuds i mötet med läromedlen.      Syftet med föreliggande examensarbete har därför varit att utveckla en förståelse för hur vi som lärare kan förhålla oss till läroböcker i svenska, utifrån avsikten att utveckla elevernas skriftspråkliga repertoar i diskursiv riktning. Teoretiska utgångspunkter är SFL:s funktionella språkmodell, där språk betraktas som bestående av olika lager, samt betydelsen av metaspråklig förståelse i skrivprocessen och explicit skrivundervisning. Materialet utgörs av skrivkapitlet i en lärobok riktad mot gymnasiekursen Svenska 1 och analyseras genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys i två steg. Först analyseras bokens görande, det vill säga dess metaspråkliga beskrivningar av diskursiva texter, för att i nästa skede tolkas mot teorier där metaspråklig förståelse, explicit undervisning och sambandet mellan språkets form och funktion är centralt.    Resultatet visar att lärobokens metaspråkliga instruktioner ger tämligen mycket stöd för vad de olika texterna ska innehålla och hur innehållet ska disponeras, men att textens komponenter ofta inte dekonstrueras till lokal nivå, vilket alltså medför en otydlighet i hur man språkligt realiserar innehållet och hur en viss stil kan uppnås. Slutsatsen är att läraren behöver vara beredd på att komplettera lärobokens huvudsakliga fokus på innehåll och struktur, med en inzoomning på textens lokala nivå för att synliggöra och konkretisera skrivandets hantverk. Inte minst kan det krävas ett särskilt fokus på hur olika textaktiviteter framställs och hur en formell stil kan åstadkommas, samt på relationen mellan form och funktion.

Orientador: Jose Carlos Paes de Almeida Filho
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: Este trabalho traz uma discussão sobre o sistema de crenças construído por aprendizes de língua estrangeira a respeito do papel do enfoque explícito da gramática no processo de aprendizagem. Em termos gerais, investiguei aqui as concepções sobre essa questão construídas na vida escolar pregressa e o confronto dessas concepções com visões opostas: aquelas do ambiente dos cursos freequentados pelos participantes desta pesquisa e a maneira (explicita ou implicitamente) como as regras gramaticais são evocadas no momento da produção de texto escrito na língua-alvo. Inicio com uma explicação sobre a investigação das crenças na área de ensino e aprendizagem de línguas e mostro a relevancia dessa perspectiva de pesquisa. Em seguida, situo o leitor no contexto geral no qual esta pesquisa está inserida: cursos de inglês-língua estrangeira oferecidos na escola de extensão de uma grande universidade pública no estado de São Paulo. Apresento os cursos que serviram como fonte de dados para este trabalho de investigação, seus temas, participantes e a metodologia de pesquisa utilizada. Nos capítulos três e quatro apresento o arcabouço teórico sobre os dois principais tópicos deste trabalho. No capítulo três, discuto as dimensões sociais e psicológicas do processo de aprendizagem de língua estrangeira. Mostro como a discussão sobre a opção pela implicitação ou explicitação dos aspectos formais da língua-alvo vem sendo freqüentemente retomada por autores e pesquisadores da Lingüística Aplicada na área de ensino de línguas e segue em paralelo às discussões feitas em outros campos do saber: Ciências Sociais (Antropologia) e, principalmente, Psicologia Cognitiva. No capítulo quatro faço uma abrangente resenha sobre o tópico crenças. Aponto os principais fatores atuantes na formação das crenças e mostro como elas podem inflenciar o processo de ensino/aprendizagem de língua estrangeira. Os resultados mostram que as crenças sobre o papel do enfoque explícito na gramática variam de acordo com o nível de proficiência do alunos: iniciantes, intermediários e avançados. Dos três grupos, os aprendizes iniciantes são aqueles que mais valorizam o tratamento explícito dos aspectos gramaticais da língua-alvo. Essa valorização cai de forma acentuada entre os aprendizes de nível intermediário e volta a subir ligeiramente entre os aprendizes de nível mais avançado. Discuto esse movimento de (des)valorização do enfoque explícito na gramática da língua e atribuo essa visão diferenciada dos participantes a diferentes fatores, entre os quais o contexto da aprendizagem, o grau de conscientização do aluno sobre o processo de aprendizagem de línguas e a natureza das diferentes fases do complexo processo de aprendizagem de um novo idioma
Abstract: This study focuses mainly on the system of beliefs that learners of a foreign language build up about the role of the explicit focus on form in the learning process. In general terms, it investigates the beliefs formed during previous learning experiences and the confrontations of these beliefs with opposed visions: those in the evironment of the course in which they participated for this research, and if they verbalize the grammar rules explicitly or implicitly at the moment they write a text in the target language. I start with an explanation of the investigation of beliefs in the area of foreign language learning/teaching and show the significance of this research perspective for the area. Next I give the reader general information about this research context: foreign language courses offered by the Extension Program of a major public university in the State of São Paulo. I present the courses that served as data collection for this research, their themes and participants, and the research methodology used. In chapters three and four I present the theoretical framework of the two main topics in this study. In Chapter three I discuss the social and psychological dimensions in the learning process of a new language. I show how the discussion of the choice between implicit or explicit focus on the formal aspects of the target language is often called for discussion among authors and researchers in the area of foreign language teaching and follow the discussions in other areas such as Social Sciences (Anthropology) and, above all, in Cognitive Psychology. In chapter four I present a comprehensive review of the field of beliefs. I show the main factors underlying the formation of beliefs and how they can influence the learning process of a new language. The results of this research show that the beliefs about the role of the explicit focus on grammar vary according to the learners¿ proficiency level: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Of the three groups, it is beginners who most value the explicit focus on the grammatical aspect of the target language. This valorization diminishes considerably among the learners of intermediate level and increases slightly among the advanced learners. I discuss this (de)valuation movement and attribute this differentiated vision to several factors, including the context in which the learning occurs, the learners¿ degree of awareness of the learning process, and to the nature of the different phases of the complex process of learning of a new language
Doutorado
Lingua Estrangeira
Doutor em Linguística Aplicada

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.

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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Learning a second language (L2) is essential in today’s globalized world. However, learners generally have low sensitivity to grammar, as L2 acquisition proceeds largely through functions. Thus, pedagogical assistance appears to be necessary to trigger learners’ attention to L2 grammar, but research shows no consensus on which type of instruction best promotes it. Moreover, few empirical studies have examined 'acquisition' of target constructions, which entails mappings between form, meaning, and function. To address this gap, the present study investigated the effects of implicit and explicit instruction on L2 acquisition of the English passive. The passive was chosen as the target construction due to the intricate mappings between form, meaning, and function encompassed in it. The study employed an experimental design including a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest, with five treatment sessions between the pretest and posttests. Participants were 99 Korean English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, randomly assigned to two experimental groups that received implicit or explicit instruction, respectively, or a control group. Implicit instruction comprised typographically enhanced passive constructions to increase perceptual saliency; explicit instruction comprised a grammar activity to raise the participants’ consciousness about the passive construction. Five measurement tasks were employed to examine any changes in the participants’ knowledge of, and ability to use, the passive: a grammaticality judgment task (GJT), a sentence pair task, a closed discourse completion task (DCT), and spoken and written production tasks. Results from quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data yielded three main findings. First, implicit instruction had a more significant, beneficial effect than explicit instruction on the overall mappings between the form, meaning, and function of the passive. Second, the difference appeared to be more salient for meaning and function, whereas both types of instruction had almost equal benefits for form; yet, the production tasks seemed to exhibit a greater score decrease as for meaning and function over time in both treatment conditions. Finally, each type of instruction had similar effects on the performance of high- and low-level learners. Overall, these findings suggest that both types of instruction are beneficial for L2 acquisition but implicit instruction is more effective than explicit instruction.

Abstract The purpose of the project was to investigate the attitudes of English teachers towards grammar with regard to the explicit teaching of grammar among the differing predominant forms of English language teaching, namely English first language teaching (L1), English second language teaching (ESL) and English foreign language teaching (EFL). This research investigates what is being practiced in regard to teaching grammar, if and why it is taught by experienced teachers in these fields. The methodology used included semi-structured interviews with teachers, qquestionnaires, and collection of materials, worksheets as well as tests pertaining to the curriculum. This case study, being a form of qualitative research has sought to be a complete, detailed description of the findings as well as the surrounding circumstances that have contributed to those findings. Findings indicated that grammar is fundamental to EFL teaching in that it gives learners a structure or a logical system on which the syllabus can be built and by which EFL learners can progress through the language, whereas the data shows that the L1 teachers thought of grammar as being complementary to their teaching and therefore an enhancive tool enabling the L1 learner to better appreciate the finer details of the language and how they affect the tone, register and subtle meanings of a text.

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

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