Grammar teaching: implicit or explicit?
Based on my 15 years of experience teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language), the statement “grammar teaching should be implicit, not explicit” could be argued both for and against. Whether to teach grammar as an approach drawn from ELT (English Language Teaching) or more passively as an inductive and comprehensive subject has been the subject of countless debates by institutions, teachers, grammarians, and language researchers for decades. Grammar is the branch of linguistics that deals with the form and structure of words, or morphology, and their interrelationship in sentences, called syntax. The study of grammar reveals how language works, an important aspect of both acquiring and learning English.
In the early 20th century, grammarians such as the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas and the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen began to describe languages, and Boas’s work formed the basis for various types of study of American descriptive grammar. Jespersen’s work was the forerunner of current approaches to linguistic theory, such as Noam Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Grammar.
Chomsky, who studied structural linguistics, sought to analyze the syntax of English in a structural grammar. This led him to view grammar as a theory of language structure rather than a description of actual sentences. His idea of grammar is that it is a device for producing the structure, not of a particular language, but of the ability to produce and understand sentences in all languages. Since grammar is the means by which we can understand how a language “works”, a definitive study of the grammar of the language is essential to the study of the language.
However, strictly explicit grammar study, and even grammar-focused lessons, are often not based on communication. Therefore, they can be boring, cumbersome and difficult for students to assimilate. Strict grammar/structure teaching, except with students of Logical-Mathematical or Verbal-Linguistic multiple intelligences, can be frustrating and highly ineffective.
The teaching of grammar must be implicit.
In the early 20th century, Jespersen, like Boas, thought that grammar should be studied by examining living speech rather than by analyzing written documents. By providing grammar in context, implicitly, we can expose students to substantial doses of grammar study without taking them away from learning English or another foreign language. I also agree with this implicit approach to teaching grammar. The main way I accomplish this is by teaching short grammar-based sessions immediately followed by additional function-based lessons where the new grammar/structure is applied in context.
The hypothesis is that adult language learners have two distinct ways of developing skills and knowledge in a second language, acquisition and learning. Acquiring a language is “picking it up”, that is, developing proficiency in a language by using it in natural communicative situations. Learning a language differs in that it is “knowing the rules” and having a conscious knowledge of the grammar/structure. Adults acquire language, although generally not as easily or as well as children. Acquisition, however, is the most important means of acquiring language skills. A person’s first language (L1) is primarily learned in this way. This way of developing language skills often employs the teaching and learning of implicit grammar.
The teaching of grammar must be explicit.
However, this does not completely exclude the explicit teaching of grammar. Some basic features of the grammatical structure of the English language are illogical or different from those of speakers of other languages and do not lend themselves easily to being well understood, even in context. In cases where the features of English grammar are diametrically opposed or radically different from the learner’s L1 form of expression, explicit teaching may be necessary.
Aspects of English language grammar that can offer an exceptional challenge to learners of English as a foreign language include the use of word order, determiners (this, that, these, those, a, a, the), prepositions ( en, sobre, en, por, para, de, of), auxiliaries (do, be, have), conjunctions (but, like this, however, therefore, although, although), interrogatives, intensifiers (some, any, few, more, too) and distinctions between modal verbs (can, could, would, should, can, could, should). Phrasal verbs also present considerable difficulty for Spanish speakers to learn communicative English.
Some students are also logical or linguistically biased thinkers who respond well to the structured presentation of new material. Students of logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic intelligence are excellent examples of those who would respond well to explicit grammar teaching in many cases.
Based on my English language teaching and my second and third experience learning foreign languages (L2, L3), an exclusive approach using implicit or explicit methodologies is not as effective as using one or the other of these approaches as needed. . While it is essential to teach language elements and develop communication skills in our students, there is no better way to introduce them and give them practice. Young learners have a more natural ease in acquisition, while adults can benefit substantially from more “formal” language learning. Learning styles and intelligence strengths are also a significant factor.
There are many generally accepted ways to present the sounds, structure, and vocabulary of English, including colloquial forms of conversation and the four basic communication skills. The grammar envisions the “communicative economy.” Grammar teaching should be implicit or explicit, as teaching/learning conditions can dictate and help minimize the student response most feared by teachers: “Teacher, I don’t understand.”
Note: Scholarly references for this article are available upon request.
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