Consciousness-raising tasks for second language grammar instruction: effects on average ability secondarystudents

Abstract

Within the framework of task-based language teaching, various types of tasks have been proposed, yet in English as foreign language classroom contexts where learners’ exposure to target language input is often limited, the adoption of form-focused tasks seems to receive much credit. Although the potential academic gains brought forth by such tasks have been studied in some previous quantitative research, the call for investigations into those tasks from a learner perspective remains warranted.

In this study I investigated the use of grammatical consciousness-raising (C-R) tasks as an inductive approach to grammar pedagogy in an EFL classroom from a learner perspective. While performing such tasks the informants, who were a class of secondary level English as foreign language learners, made discoveries about the targeted grammar items based on contextualized examples provided. In the study I first examined the extent to which adopting C-R tasks impacted on the informants’ learning of English grammar through pretests and posttests. Second, I elicited their perceptions of C-R tasks through a questionnaire and two semi-structured interviews. Third, with the think-aloud protocols method I studied the informants’ engagement with the grammar items presented through either C-R tasks or deductive explanation. The findings revealed that the majority of the informants were able to develop grammatical understanding through performing C-R tasks. They tended to respond positively to and show deep engagement with the grammar items presented though such tasks as well. To enhance the perceived effectiveness of such tasks and thus to maximize the effect of grammar teaching, I concluded by suggesting the need for teachers to make the learners fully aware of the nature of and rationale behind C-R tasks and to investigate whether and how such tasks can be integrated with other methodological options in realizing effective grammar instruction in their own contexts.