Language Teaching Research | 2019
Pedagogical approaches and the role of the teacher
Abstract
There are certain topics in the learning/teaching of second/foreign languages that are always of interest for researchers. One of those is the teaching of grammar, and another is the important role of the teacher. The present issue of Language Teaching Research features six full-length research articles which consider both issues. The article by Lin and Lee deals with the long-debated topic of which method would be more suitable for the teaching of grammar. Their study involves the assessment of two methods in the Taiwanese English as a foreign language (EFL) setting: the traditional deductive approach (TDA) and data-driven learning (DDL), a concept coined by Johns (1986). The latter is one approach within the context of corpus-aided language learning in which the learners are embarked on a process of discovery of target linguistic items. Its benefits have been shown in areas such as vocabulary learning and writing skills but, as the authors argue, it is necessary to assess its efficacy in the learning of certain grammatical items and in different cultural contexts in which teacher-centered lecturing is still dominant, such as Taiwan. The data were collected from 52 undergraduate EFL learners divided into three groups, one following a TDA and two others blends of DDL. Their performance was measured by means of preand posttests on three target features, namely, passive, relative clauses and phrases indicating purpose, result and contrast. The participants’ opinions were obtained by means of a surveyed administered after each treatment lesson. The results showed that the three treatments helped to improve the learners’ grammar proficiency but there was no difference between the approaches. However, the learners’ perceptions indicated a growing preference for DDL-integrated treatments. The authors reflect on issues related to the implementation of DDL treatments in EFL contexts in which the focus is normally on what to teach rather than on how to teach it. As another example of the importance of grammar teaching in foreign language contexts, the research by Tammenga-Helmantel and Maijala examines the extent to which desirable and effective grammar teaching forms suggested by communicative language teaching (CLT) and language teaching research are integrated into teaching materials.