Grammatical Knowledge

This study has aimed to compare the effects of two types of form-focused instruction, i.e. de-contextualized focus-on-forms instruction versus meaning-centered contextualized focus-on-form instruction, on the development of grammatical knowledge of Iranian high-school students. Two groups of male high-school first graders participated in this study.  One group was taught through de-contextualized deductive grammatical explanation, while the other group received enhanced input and contextualized grammar instruction embedded in meaning-centered activity based on dialogs. The results indicated that de-contextualized instruction as it is normally practiced in high-school contexts failed to promote successful use of the auxiliaries <em>do, does, </em>and<em> did</em> in a written production test. In contrast, adding the design features of meaning-based contextualization and enhanced input to instruction did result in better performance on a written production grammar test involving the use of the auxiliaries under study. In the delayed posttest, contextualized meaning-based instruction appeared to have a durable effect, but the effect was not significant enough to warrant any claim for the durable superiority of this form of instruction. 

This study seeks to explore the effectiveness of flipped instruction on the Iranian intermediate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners reading comprehension and grammar learning. As the participants of the study, 60 Iranian intermediate EFL learners from a language institute in Kerman, Iran, were recruited based on convenience sampling in the form of two intact classes. Then, to conduct randomization, the two classes were randomly assigned to two groups namely, flipping group and control group. Next, the two groups were exposed to 14 treatment sessions in which reading comprehension and grammar were taught to the flipping group through explicit flipped instruction and to the control group through non-flipped mainstream instruction used in the institute. Data collection tools employed in the study included the Quick Placement Test (QPT), Michigan test of grammar, Michigan test of reading, and SPSS 21 software. The results revealed the significant effectiveness of flipped instruction on the Iranian intermediate EFL learners' reading comprehension and grammar learning. Accordingly, it is suggested that EFL teachers use flipped instruction if they seek to enhance EFL learners' reading comprehension and grammatical knowledge.

Teaching grammar has always created some challenges for EFL teachers. Therefore, this study explored the effect of four scaffolding strategies as contextualizing, modeling, metacognitive scaffolding, and bridging on Iranian EFL students’ grammatical knowledge. Moreover, this study examined Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes towards scaffolding strategies. To fulfil the purpose of this study, 40 language learners were chosen based on convenience sampling as the participants of this study. They were both males and females between 20 to 30 years old divided into two groups as the control and experimental groups. After assuring the homogeneity of the students in terms of their English proficiency in general and grammatical knowledge in particular, a parallel achievement test was administered to both groups as the pre-test. Following that, as the treatment, scaffolding strategies were applied for the experimental group to teach grammar and a traditional way of teaching grammar for the control group. After running the classes, a parallel achievement test was administered to both control and experimental groups as the posttest. The data analysis revealed that the experimental group that received scaffolding strategies significantly outperformed in the grammar part compared to the control group which received a conventional way of teaching grammar. It is believed that utilizing scaffolding strategies can motivate learners and facilitate the tough task of grammar learning and thereby make teachers aware of their ability to obtain success in their teaching process.

This study examined the correlation between advanced EFL students' syntactic knowledge and their writing and speaking proficiency to determine whether students' syntactic knowledge can influence their productive skills. A total of 50 advanced students aged between 18 and 25 were chosen purposefully to take part in the study. Four tests, including a placement test, a syntax test from Oxford University Press, a writing test, and one test for speaking proficiency were employed to collect the required data. Because the data for this study were quantitative, a correlational/descriptive design was chosen for the data to be analyzed. The researcher then decided to find a correlation between the students' writing and speaking scores and their syntax scores based on the obtained data. Both the t-test and the Pearson correlation demonstrated that there is no real correlation between the syntactic, speaking, and writing proficiency of the students. Further findings showed that there is no difference between the relationship between syntactic knowledge and speaking proficiency and the relationship between syntactic knowledge and writing proficiency. The implication of this study is that grammatical competence is not a valid predictor for the proficiency of students in writing and speaking courses. If a student’s grammatical competence is low, his proficiency in writing and speaking can still be average or even above average depending on the process of assessing these skills. Additionally, learners must understand that possessing a strong grasp of grammatical knowledge does not inevitably ensure their ability to produce language effectively in spoken or written form.