scholarly journals EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Grammar Instruction in Oman: Challenges and Recommendations

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Yaqoub Obaid Al-Qutaiti ◽  
Mohaida Mohin

Teachers of English and other concerned educators try hard to make their students be fluent and accurate users of English. In order to achieve that aim, they should ensure that they have students who rarely or never make language errors. During their studying period, students must see the difficulties, challenges, and rewards of using the language correctly and accurately. They have to obtain a better understanding of how language is structured and interconnected logically. More importantly, EFL teachers and other educators should enhance the idea of how students can use correct English in their lives inside and outside classrooms. The main purpose of this study is to investigate EFL teachers’ perceptions pertaining to grammar teaching, correction of students’ grammatical mistakes and the challenges that are prevalent when teaching grammar in the Omani context. In addition, the study advocates some practical recommendations to EFL teachers, supervisors, teacher trainers, curriculum developers and assessment officers ascribed to grammar teaching.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Anas Almuhammadi

Grammar teaching has been a long tradition in EFL instruction in various parts of the world and Saudi Arabia is no exception to this. However, various approaches to teaching grammar have emerged over a period of time. For this, professional development (PD) programs are designed to meet the EFL teachers’ needs by enabling them to use a range of approaches and techniques. To do this successfully, professional needs analysis of teachers is essential. The present study investigates the beliefs of teachers regarding the use of various teaching approaches for grammar teaching and their need for professional development (PD). Questionnaire survey was conducted among 50 randomly chosen EFL teachers at a public sector university. The results showed that EFL teachers deem grammar as a foundational framework for teaching English as a foreign language. Furthermore, grammar is thought to be a major factor in developing accuracy and correct use of EFL. Moreover, the teachers have the theoretical knowledge of various grammar teaching methods using TBL, PBL and CLT. However, they need to develop practical skills for grammar instruction. Thus, the study recommends that the universities in Saudi Arabia need to arrange regular PD programs so that the EFL teachers with modern methods to teach English grammar successfully.


Author(s):  
Sulistyani Sulistyani ◽  
Khoiriyah Khoiriyah

<p>Current views of language teaching suggest that grammar is included in communicative activities. The reason is that discrete grammar teaching fails to produce fluent speakers while pure communicative classroom fails to produce accurate speakers. This article aims to share a way of teaching grammar in meaning-focused instruction namely structured input activities consisting of referential activities and affective activities. The activities not only affect learners’ input processing strategies but also affect their underlying system in such a way to be able to incorporate the target forms in their output. Besides containing input that facilitates form meaning connections they also force learners to focus on the target structure and to process it for meaning. This practice is expected to provide EFL teachers with useful practical insight to enhance their teaching practices.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Mohammad H. Al-khresheh ◽  
Suheyla Demirkol Orak

This study explores the perspectives held by English teachers around the world regarding the role of teaching grammar in EFL/ESL classrooms and whether the divergence in these perspectives is influenced by variables such as gender, country, seniority, or educational background of the participants. To accomplish these objectives, a comprehensive questionnaire survey from literature comprising 46 items was carried out on a group of 304 participants from 22 countries who were voluntarily involved in this study using the snowball sampling method. Descriptive statistical methods were deployed for accurate data analysis. The findings revealed that the participants had a positive and constructive attitude regarding the importance of grammar instruction and were in unanimous agreement that good grammatical skills enabled the faster acquisition of proficiency in the target language. The participants agreed that grammatical mistakes’ immediate correction was detrimental students’ self-confidence levels and considered unnecessary interruption. These views highly influenced teaching methods and classroom practices. An overwhelming majority preferred an inductive and explicit approach to grammar teaching. It was concluded that while statistical differences in age, gender, and educational background did not influence the participants’ perspectives, seniority and country of origin played a vital role in these beliefs. After due consideration of these findings, a comprehensive discussion of the pedagogical implications and recommendations has been presented in this study.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
Ali Hashemi ◽  
Samran Daneshfar

Grammar is considered critical to the ability to use language. Grammar teaching is an issue that provokes strong feelings and attitudes. Grammar teaching is particularly prominent in English as a foreign language (EFL) settings as it is perceived that without a good grammar knowledge, language development will be seriously inhibited. In the current study, we used three grammar instruction techniques including “the Deductive Technique”, “the Inductive Technique”, and “the Implicit Technique”. 80 college students, studying different fields in Abbar, Zanjan, participated in the study. They were assigned to three experimental groups for each of the three teaching techniques. The Deductive group consisted of 31 law students, both boys and girls, the Inductive group comprised 27 boy and girl accounting students, and there were 28 IT students in the Implicit group. The results of data analysis indicated that these groups performed differentially in certain respect. Meanwhile, the Inductive group exceeded the other groups in their performance.


Author(s):  
Enriketa Söğütlü

The role of grammar knowledge and the contribution it makes to foreign/second language learning has been one of the most hotly debated issues in language research. Studies and findings in the field have revealed that after a relatively long period of exaggerated underestimate, grammar stands now where it should. Various theories of learning have caused theories of language learning to emerge, which on their part have had a strong influence on language teachers regarding the strategies they adopt, develop and implement in their classroom practices. This paper attempts to explore some Albanian EFL teachers’ perceptions and beliefs on the role grammar knowledge and grammar instruction play in their students’ EFL learning. It also aims to investigate how these teachers’ attitudes influence their classroom practices of grammar instruction and grammar related activities. Since hardly any research on the issue has been conducted in Albania, this study may also serve as an incentive for further large-scale research, which might offer suggestions for improvement in EFL teaching strategies and expectations in Albania.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Sediqe Ebrahimi ◽  
Hossein Saadabadi Motlagh ◽  
Fatemeh Karampour

<p>Approaches to teaching grammar have changed dramatically since the 1970s when communicative language teaching was proposed. An increasing number of studies have investigated the adequacy of this kind of grammar instruction. Yet, few studies have been done to look at the preferences that learners have for these methods of focus-on-form instruction and its relationship with their performance on grammar tests. The purpose of the present study is to explore Iranian EFL learners` attitudes and preferences for isolated and integrated focus-on-form and their performance on a grammar recognition test. Participants were learners studying English in a private language teaching institute. They were requested to complete the questionnaire of the isolated and integrated focus on form and answer a TOEFL grammar recognition test. The analysis of findings using descriptive statistics and T-test showed that learners did not have clear preferences for different types of focus on form and that learners` attitude towards isolated and integrated focus on form was not related to their performance. students' The findings can provide useful information for teachers and instructors learners` preferences for different approaches.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Yousef Abduh ◽  
Sami Algouzi

In language, meaning is conveyed and received through words and grammar. A phrase or a sentence is not a random collection of words. In the absence of grammar, words hang together without any real meaning. Thus, grammar plays an essential role in language teaching. With adequate grammar explanations in meaningful contexts and practice, some serious errors in learners' language can be avoided. This study aimed at examining the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching and their actual practices in a Saudi EFL context. Questionnaires and classroom observation checklists were used to gather information about teachers' perceptions of grammar teaching and to compare that with their practices. The paper sought to find answers to these questions: 1) What are teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching? 2) Do teachers’ perceptions of grammar correlate with their actual teaching in EFL classes? 3) What are teachers’ perceptions of problems, if any, hindering their practice of grammar teaching? The sample consisted of 23 teachers who completed a questionnaire discussing their perceptions of grammar teaching and practice. Six of these teachers were observed teaching grammar in classes. The findings revealed that there was a negative correlation between teachers' perceptions of grammar teaching and their perceptions of their grammar classes. Also, there was a negative correlation between teachers' perceptions of grammar teaching and the observed classes. However, teachers' perceptions of their classes were mostly reflected in observation cards, and they were positively correlated. Further, the study revealed teachers' tendency towards traditional methods of teaching where the meaningful practice was overlooked.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Abeer Sultan Althaqafi

&lsquo;Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it works&rsquo; (Crystal, 1996, p. 6). The study of grammar has fascinated people for many years, especially in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). However, in recent years people became uncertain about its value. Consequently, some educational institutions ceased to teach it, others teach it very selectively (Crystal, 1996; Ellis, 2002). To know grammar means to know more about how to manipulate the parts of a sentence in order to provide a meaningful expression. Teaching grammar has been subjected to a tremendous change, particularly throughout the twentieth century. There has always been a development in thinking about the nature of language which has enabled people to see the point of the study and teaching of grammar. Also, there have been quite a number of adaptations of various methodologies of teaching grammar. This language component (grammar) has been always the centre of pedagogical attention. The aim of this project is to discuss the changing role of teaching grammar from a Saudi teacher&rsquo;s perspective, and to explore why some Saudi EFL teachers might wish to change their approach to teaching grammar and how they might do so. In addition, the following section will try to shed light on some of the salient grammar methods throughout the field of English language teaching (ELT) and provide some implications for EFL teachers and learners.


Neofilolog ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 79-100
Author(s):  
Mirosław Pawlak

While there is a consensus that teaching grammar is now indispensable in most educational contexts, there still exist numerous controversies as to how this should most beneficially be done. They concern, among others, such issues as the choice of instructional options to be used in order to introduce and practice grammar structures or to provide corrective feedback on errors made in the use of such structures (cf. Loewen, 2020; Nassaji, 2017; Pawlak, 2014, 2020a). On a more general level, a question arises as to the optimal way of organizing the material to be taught, with consequences for the overall approach to grammar instruction. One influential alternative to a structural syllabus, in which case grammar structures are carefully preselected and sequenced, is task-based language teaching, which can be conceptualized and implemented in various ways (cf. Ellis, 2017, 2018). The paper discusses the role of grammar in the task-based approach, also taking into account techniques and procedures that can be employed for this purpose. An overview of existing empirical evidence will be presented and an attempt will be made to highlight the way in which communicative tasks can be used to assist grammar teaching in the Polish educational context.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-306
Author(s):  
Mariam Yousef Abduh ◽  
Sami Algouzi

In language, meaning is conveyed and received through words and grammar. A phrase or a sentence is not a random collection of words. In the absence of grammar, words hang together without any real meaning. Thus, grammar plays an essential role in language teaching. With adequate grammar explanations in meaningful contexts and practice, some serious errors in learners' language can be avoided. This study aimed at examining the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching and their actual practices in a Saudi EFL context. Questionnaires and classroom observation checklists were used to gather information about teachers' perceptions of grammar teaching and to compare that with their practices. The paper sought to find answers to these questions: 1) What are teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching? 2) Do teachers’ perceptions of grammar correlate with their actual teaching in EFL classes? 3) What are teachers’ perceptions of problems, if any, hindering their practice of grammar teaching? The sample consisted of 23 teachers who completed a questionnaire discussing their perceptions of grammar teaching and practice. Six of these teachers were observed teaching grammar in classes. The findings revealed that there was a negative correlation between teachers' perceptions of grammar teaching and their perceptions of their grammar classes. Also, there was a negative correlation between teachers' perceptions of grammar teaching and the observed classes. However, teachers' perceptions of their classes were mostly reflected in observation cards, and they were positively correlated. Further, the study revealed teachers' tendency towards traditional methods of teaching where the meaningful practice was overlooked.


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