Grammar instruction in language development: Rationale and technique

Abstract

The most widely documented purpose of grammar teaching is that it serves as feedback whereby the learners confirm or modify the rules which they discover by themselves from the language data made available to them. The confirmed or modified rules and the ready made ones which grammar instruction might add, can be used to monitor output, create new forms and process the language input for comprehension and possible acquisition. The teaching of grammar, then, supplements the learners’ natural tendency to formulate and test hypotheses about the language. However, this goal may not be achieved when grammar rules and explanations are couched in metalinguistic terms and contain complicated linguistic analyses carried over from reference grammars. Based on the learners’ conscious hypothesis‐formation process, pedagogical grammar can be made less formal by keeping the analysis and metalanguage to the minimum.