Contextualizing Grammatical Structures In Efl Classrooms

Abstract

Teaching a language at the sentence-level may allow learners to acquire grammatical accuracy, but may not enhance their appropriate and communicative uses of forms. Therefore, it is essential to contextualize grammar elements so as to help students develop their pragmatic and communicative competencies. In Algerian university EFL classrooms, teachers do implement a discourse-based grammar instruction approach. This research seeks to evaluate the extent to which they contextualize grammar and to investigate what techniques they use to do so. It seeks also to inquire about EFL teachers’ attitudes towards the context-based grammar teaching approach. Data were collected through classroom observations employing an observation scheme constructed by the researcher for this specific purpose. The data obtained served to establish the profiles of the observed EFL teachers. Interviews were also conducted and questionnaires were administered. The data gathered from these two tools were subjected to content analysis. The outcomes of the classroom observations indicated that most EFL grammar teachers followed a traditional approach to instruct grammar. However, the interviews with the same teachers generated somehow convergent findings. As for the questionnaire data, they revealed that EFL instructors perceive the discourse-based grammar teaching approach as time-consuming in comparison with the traditional one and demanding great involvement on the part of teachers and from their students too. Grammar teachers also reported facing other obstacles such as the lack of materials and of adequate conditions to implement the discourse-based approach. Although there are undeniable disadvantages and hindrances for this method, most EFL teachers in the department of Anglophone studies at the University of Algiers 2, claimed to contextualize grammar structures because of its considerable merits and its efficiency.