Pedagogical grammar as the framework of tefl research. part 10. the impact of formal teaching on the foreign language acquisition

Abstract

The relevance of the paper is accounted for by the need of establishing a common framework to integrate the research in teaching foreign languages, specifically in the development of grammar competence, into a single area with uniform approaches, terminology and criteria. Its aim is to look for the ways of promoting the efficiency of grammar subskills development by taking into consideration its key features, specifically, the role of formal teaching in this process. Basing on the analysis of experimental data related to the effect of the monitor on the sequence of the foreign-language grammar structures acquisition, on the one hand, and the rate and quality of the foreign-language acquisition, on the other, it is concluded that their results are conflicting or, at least, incongruent. The author explains it by the fact that most of the experiments were carried out in the countries where it was possible to communicate in the target language outside the classroom. Hence, it is unfeasible to distinguish the improvement of the subjects’ performance that resulted from the formal teaching (i.e. “learning”, in Krashen’s terminology) and the one brought about by communicating in the target language environment outside the classroom (i.e. “acquisition”). The author assumes that in the experiments that showed low efficiency of formal teaching as opposed to “acquisition” in the target language environment outside the classroom, the subjects might have practised outside the classroom much more than they did in the classroom. And the picture might have been the opposite one in the experiments that proved the advantage of the formal teaching. The author believes that the main shortcoming of the said research is the absence of information concerning the subjects’ activities outside the classroom. It is important, as some subjects might have intensively communicated with the native speakers outside the classroom improving their command of English, while others, due to the circumstances or personal characteristics (anxiety, etc.) might have been isolated from that kind of communication altogether. This constituted a major random variable that might have affected the experimental results. Furthermore, some subjects might have additionally learned grammar rules in their extracurricular time and thus complemented their “acquisition” mechanisms with those of “learning”. The author offers a list of other potential random variables (motivation, anxiety, attitude, aptitude, analytical capabilities, know ledge of the language structure) and outlines the prospects of the further research.