Implicit Grammar Teaching: An Explorative Study into Teacher Attitudes and Classroom Implementations

Abstract

Although much literature has been presented on implicit grammar teaching in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, little is known on teachers’ implementations of longitudinal implicit grammar teaching programmes in Dutch classrooms, or on how these implementations may relate to attitudes towards grammar teaching. This study used data from a questionnaire, interviews and observations to investigate teachers’ attitudes, implementations and the relation between these two factors. No clear preference for either implicit or explicit teaching was found, and both were valued positively. In addition, most teachers viewed grammar as secondary to language skills (e.g. speaking, reading or writing). The teachers used different but recurrent strategies to implement implicit grammar, such as inductive teaching, focus on meaning and prosodically emphasizing input. They experienced teaching as more labour-intensive and demanding creativeness. Some teachers missed a small amount of basic grammar to fall back on, which would be especially helpful for less-proficient students. Feedback moments and null-responses were the only grammar-sensitive moments present in the classrooms. Implicit feedback (recasts) and null-responses were most used, but there were also types of explicit feedback present. Some attitudes were related to implementations, but there was no clear trend to be seen. There was individual variation between teachers in the results of all three methods.