The Impact of grammar instruction on learners grammatical knowledge and accuracy in writing
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Date
2009
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Oum-El-Bouaghi university
Abstract
The present study is conducted to investigate the impact of the presence or absence of explicit grammar instruction on grammatical knowledge and accuracy in writing of first-year students of commerce at Larbi Ben M'Hidi university at Oum-El-Bouaghi. Previous research suggests that explicit grammar instruction results in gains in explicit knowledge and its application in discrete-point grammar tasks, but there is little evidence that it results in gains in grammatical accuracy in integrative tasks including written compositions. To fulfill the purpose of this study, a quasi-experimental research design was conducted. Two pre-existing groups of learners were randomly assigned as experimental and control groups. The experimental group received explicit grammar instruction which involved explanation and practice of some rules governing english articles. Subjects in the control group did not receive any explicit presentation of grammatical rules. Instead, they were instructed in the comprehension of texts of commerce containing definite, indefinite, and zero articles. Participants were pre-tested through a fill-in-the- blank test and a composition test to check their current grammatical knowledge and accuracy level in the use of articles. An attitudinal survey was administered at the same time. After the instruction, a post-test was administered; it was identical to the pre-test. The results of both a paired-samples t-test and an independent-samples t-test indicated that explicit grammar instruction was the most significant factor influencing students' explicit grammar knowledge and grammatical accuracy in writing. In addition, survey results revealed that learners preferred receiving explicit grammar instruction. Finally, it was concluded that it is entirely possible that explicit grammar instruction may have a more powerful effect on explicit grammatical knowledge as well as accuracy in writing in the target language.
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Langue (anglais) : grammaire