The Effects of Explicit vs Implicit Grammar Instruction on Grammar Learning and Grammar Accuracy in Writing with a Focus on Verb Form

Abstract

The recent curricula of the LMD system mark a shift towards a communicative focus-on-form teaching of grammar. Within such a context, this study investigates whether this new communicative grammar teaching is implemented in class, if teaching grammar translates into learning, if what is learned transfers to communicative tasks and if one method or another is more efficient than the other for learning specific grammatical structures. Our findings show that most teachers use the explicit focus-on-forms instruction; the group which followed the focus-on-form treatment outperformed the group which received the focus-on-forms instruction in applying grammar in writing, but both groups improved equally in learning the rules of grammar. Finally, most verb forms were better learned under the implicit focus-on-form condition both as knowledge and application of such knowledge in writing tasks.