A Sociocultural Rationale for an Explicit-Inductive Approach to Grammar Teaching in L2 Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

Explicit knowledge of language is posited as a core component of language teachers’ professional knowledge, as it impacts on their classroom practice, cognition and professional reflection. In response to a sociocultural turn in teacher education, this paper presents a sociocultural rationale for the implementation of an explicit-inductive approach to grammar teaching in L2 teacher education. In an explicit-inductive approach, students are guided to induce and articulate grammatical rules for themselves. A tripartite analysis of: teacher educator as pedagogue, student language teacher as teacher-learner and pedagogy as process within an explicit-inductive approach is presented, to form a sociocultural model for the teaching of explicit knowledge in L2 teacher education. It is argued that an explicit-inductive approach which is grounded in praxis has the potential to develop student language teachers’ (SLTs’) content knowledge, i.e., their declarative knowledge of grammar, as well as their pedagogical knowledge of how to teach grammar. The paper calls for further discussion and critical reflection on the teaching of explicit knowledge in L2 teacher education.

KEYWORDS:

• sociocultural theory
• grammar teaching
• teacher education
• L2 teacher education
• focus on form

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aisling Ní Dhiorbháin

Aisling Ní Dhiorbháin is an Assistant Professor in the School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education in the Institute of Education in Dublin City University, Ireland. She is interested in all aspects of second language teaching and learning including second language teacher education. Aisling specialises in form-focused instruction, immersion education and the teaching of minority languages.