ERIC Number: EJ1110764
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Sep
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1362-1688
EISSN: N/A
Student Teacher Beliefs on Grammar Instruction
Graus, Johan; Coppen, Peter-Arno
Language Teaching Research, v20 n5 p571-599 Sep 2016
The role of grammar teaching in foreign language education is a controversial one both in second language acquisition (SLA) research and language pedagogy and, as a result, a potential source of confusion to student teachers. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the beliefs on grammar teaching of student teachers of English as a foreign language enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes at Dutch universities of applied sciences. To this end a questionnaire was developed and validated based on four construct pairs from SLA literature: meaning- versus form-focused instruction, focus on form (FonF) versus focus on forms (FonFs), implicit versus explicit instruction, and inductive versus deductive instruction. Overall, respondents (n = 832) were found to prefer form-focused, explicit, inductive instruction, and FonFs. However, higher-year undergraduates' and postgraduates' results showed a trend towards a preference for more meaning-focused and implicit instruction, and FonF. When learner level was factored in, however, these forms of language instruction were considered subordinate to more traditional form-focused approaches for teaching higher-level language learners.
Descriptors: Student Teachers, Grammar, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Teaching Methods, Student Teacher Attitudes, English (Second Language), Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students, Foreign Countries, Role, Teacher Education, Language Teachers, Preferences, Statistical Analysis, Questionnaires, Likert Scales, Factor Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Netherlands
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A