Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in an efl context

International Journal of Instruction 

       

July 2011 ● Vol.4, No.2 

e-ISSN: 1308-1470

 

● www.e-iji.net                                      p-ISSN: 1694-609X

 

 

 

DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING GRAMMAR IN 

AN EFL CONTEXT

1

 

 

Abdu Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi 

PhD., College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman 

[e-mail] 

Ramani Perur Nagaratnam 

PhD., Ministry of Manpower, Oman  

 

 The role of grammar instruction in an ESL/EFL context has been for decades a 

major issue for students and teachers alike. Researchers have debated whether 

grammar should be taught in the classroom and students, for their part, have 

generally looked upon grammar instruction as a necessary evil at best, and an 

avoidable burden at worst. The paper reports a study undertaken to investigate 

the difficulties teachers face in teaching grammar to EFL students as well as those 

faced by students in learning it, in the teachers' perception. The study aimed to 

find out whether there are significant differences in teachers' perceptions of 

difficulties in relation to their gender, qualification, teaching experience, and the 

level they teach in school, thus providing insights into their own and their 

students' difficulties. Mean scores and t-test were used to interpret the data. The 

main findings are reported with implications.  

Key Words: English language teaching, instruction, EFL grammar instruction, teaching, 

difficulties in grammar instruction 

INTRODUCTION 

The English teacher is often portrayed as an "unattractive grammar monger 

whose only pleasure in life is to point out the faults of others" (Baron, 1982, p. 

226).  For the most part, within the classroom, any mention of grammar causes 

the student moments of discomfort and sometimes even terror.  Many teachers 

have tried to make grammar teaching a non-threatening, imaginative and useful 

activity within the English curriculum. 

                                                 

1

  A summary of this paper was presented at the 54

th

 World Assembly of the International 

Council on Education for Teaching (ICET) on ‘Maintaining Strategic Agility: Managing change 

and assuring quality in education for teaching’, 14-17 December 2009, Muscat, Oman.  

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Previous studies on students' and teachers' attitudes and perceptions of grammar 

instruction in the context of language teaching and learning suggest a disparity 

between students and teachers.  While students favour formal and explicit 

grammar instruction and error correction, teachers favour communicative 

activities with less conscious focus on grammar (e.g., Brindley 1984; 

Kumaravadivelu 1991; Leki 1995; Schultz 1996, 2001; Spratt 1999).   

Rationale for the present study 

The foregoing review of literature shows that practicing teachers are faced with 

a range of options for grammar instruction in their classrooms.  There are, 

however, many types of difficulties faced by students and teachers with regard 

to grammar instruction in an ESL/EFL context. Identifying such difficulties and 

being consciously aware of them would help teachers find ways of overcoming 

them and provide effective grammar instruction.  

There has, however, been little investigation of the difficulties faced by EFL 

teachers and Aran learners in the Gulf region with regard to grammar 

instruction.  The teachers employ theoretically recommended methods without 

necessarily taking into account their own and their learners’ potential 

difficulties. They may not be conscious of difficulties which are serious and 

may thus hinder students’ learning of English grammar, and do not choose the 

method of instruction that would pose fewer difficulties and problems to their 

learners.  

It is in this context that the present study was undertaken to capture valuable 

insights into how EFL school teachers in Oman perceive students’ as well as 

their own difficulties with grammar instruction.  The study reported here aims 

to address this need by presenting the difficulties of a cross section of school 

EFL teachers in Oman as well as their perceptions of their students' difficulties 

in this regard. It also aims to add to the knowledge base in this area.  

REVIEW OF LITERATURE 

Attitudes towards grammar instruction 

In teaching grammar, three areas have to be considered: grammar as rules, 

grammar as form, and grammar as resource. For many L2 learners, learning 

grammar often means learning the rules of grammar and having an intellectual 

knowledge of grammar. Teachers often believe that this will provide the 

generative basis on which learners can build their knowledge and will be able to 

use the language eventually. For them, prescribed rules give a kind of security. 

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A better approach is perhaps to see grammar as one of many resources that we 

have in language which helps us to communicate. We should see how grammar 

relates to what we want to say or write, and how we expect others to interpret 

what our language use and its focus. 

According to Widdowson (1990: 86), " . . . grammar is not a constraining 

imposition but a liberating force: it frees us from a dependency on context and a 

purely lexical categorization of reality." Given that many learners – and 

teachers – tend to view grammar as a set of restrictions on what is allowed and 

disallowed in language use – ‘a linguistic straitjacket’ in Larsen-Freeman’s 

words (2002: 103) – the conception of grammar as something that liberates 

rather than represses is one that is worth investigating.  

According to Morelli (2003), students perceived themselves as having a better 

attitude towards grammar instruction in context, while performing slightly 

better after having experienced the traditional grammar instruction. Elkilic and 

Akca (2008) reported generally positive attitudes of students studying English 

grammar at a private primary EFL classroom towards studying grammar. In 

particular, however, a little over 50% of their subjects claimed to enjoy 

grammar very much and only about 10% reported finding some difficulty in 

learning and remembering grammar. 

Student expectations  

Student expectations of traditional, explicit grammar teaching have been 

confirmed by many teachers (cf. Borg, 1999a, b).  Burgess and Etherington 

(2002:440-441) also conclude that teachers believe that explicit teaching of 

grammar is favoured by their students because of expectations and feelings of 

insecurity. 

Since the 1970s, attention has shifted from ways of teaching grammar to ways 

of getting learners to communicate, but grammar has been seen to be a powerful 

undermining and demotivating force among L2 learners. In terms of motivation 

and learner success with languages, grammar has been seen to be a problem and 

to stand in the way of helping learners to communicate fluently. The hard fact 

that most teachers face is that learners often find it difficult to make flexible use 

of the rules of grammar taught in the classroom. They may know the rules 

perfectly, but are incapable of applying them in their own use of the language.

  

Teachers' recognition of this process (i.e., of transferring declarative knowledge 

about grammar into procedural knowledge) as a problem for many of their 

students has been reported by Burgess and Etherington (2002:442).  Haudeck 

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has reported that many learners have difficulty in internalising grammar rules, 

although these have been taught intensively (1996, cited in European 

Commission, 2006). 

The use of grammatical terminology 

Metalinguistic discussion (i.e., the use of grammatical terminology to talk about 

language) is seen by Stern (1992:327) as one of the characteristics of explicit 

grammar teaching.  According to Burgess and Etherington (2002: 444), teachers 

believe that their students see grammatical terminology as useful and that its use 

does not present a particular difficulty for students.  

Descriptive grammars acknowledge the fact that language is dynamic and its 

use is constantly changing, although not in major ways.  The problem for 

ESL/EFL learners, however, is that there is a time-lag between the awareness of 

such changes and their acceptance as the proper use of the language. 

As Morelli (2003:33-34) has observed, “Grammar can be taught traditionally or 

contextually, but student perception should be considered by teachers in the 

decision-making process. Students need to feel confident that educators have 

met their needs . . . and educators should be willing to consider the attitudes and 

perceptions of students when making decisions about how to teach grammar.”   

METHOD 

Purpose  

The study reported here aims to investigate the difficulties of a cross section of 

school EFL teachers in Oman as well as their perceptions of their students' 

difficulties with regard to grammar instruction.  

Research questions 

The study aimed to answer the following questions: 

1. What are EFL teachers’ perceptions of the difficulties of students and 

teachers with regard to grammar instruction in an EFL context? 

2. Are there any differences in teachers' perceptions between the difficulties 

faced by teachers and those faced by students? 

3. Do these perceptions of difficulties vary according to the teachers’: 

•  Gender, 

•  Level taught, 

•  Qualifications, and 

•  Experience? 

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4. Are there any significant differences in teachers' perceptions due to the type 

of difficulty?  

Limitation of the study 

The present study is limited to: 

•  EFL teachers teaching English in Omani Basic Education schools, and 

•  The use of questionnaire as the research instrument. 

Nevertheless, the responses are valuable in themselves, indicating the general 

difficulties that students and teachers face with regard to grammar instruction in 

an EFL context. 

Research design 

The study was mainly quantitative in design, using a questionnaire and the 

subjects responded to each statement on a five-point Likert-type attitude scale 

(from 5 for 'strongly agree' to 1 for 'strongly disagree').  The respondents also 

provided background information on gender, qualification, teaching experience 

and the level they teach, for creating their profile in terms of variables. The data 

was analyzed (t-test and ANOVA) using the SPSS.  

The research instrument 

The questionnaire used in the present study, which comprises 20 statements, 

was the one employed by Burgess and Etherington in their study (2002: 451-

452) (See ANNEXURE – I for the questionnaire used in the present study).  

Subjects 

Only one broad geographical context was chosen for the study, namely Oman, 

in order to be context-specific and be able to make a close connection between 

teachers, their assumptions and their practical experience.  It is believed that the 

subjects fairly represented the context of EFL teaching at different levels in 

Omani schools.  Besides, the sample size was 90, more than the minimum 

number required for making useful statistical analyses according to Cohen and 

Manion (1994:77).  The profile of the subjects in terms of the four variables is 

given below in Table 1: 

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Table 1.  Profile of Respondents to the Study Instrument 

Variable 

Categories within the 

variable 

No. of respondents 

in each category 

Total 

(N) 

Male 39 

Gender 

Female 51 

90 

Grades 1-4 

17 

Grades 5-10 

31 

Level they teach 

Grades 11-12 

42 

90 

Master’s Degree 

8 

Bachelor’s Degree 

76 

Qualification 

Diploma 6 

90 

≤ 5 years 

27 

> 5 ≤ 10 years 

41 

Experience 

> 10 years 

22 

90 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

With regard to the first research question whether there are difficulties faced by 

students and teachers with grammar instruction, Table 2 (ANNEXURE – II) 

shows an overall mean of 3.51 on a five-point scale, the means for individual 

statements ranging from 2.97 to 4.10, thus indicating teachers' general 

agreement with most of the statements in the survey questionnaire (See Fig. 1 

below).  This suggests that, in the perceptions of teachers, there are difficulties 

faced by teachers as well as students with regard to grammar instruction in an 

EFL context.  

 

 

Fig. 1. Teachers’ Perceptions of Difficulties with EFL Grammar 

Al-Mekhlafi & Nagaratnam 

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With regard to the second research question about the differences between 

students and teachers in the difficulties faced, Table 3 shows that there is a 

statistically significant difference at the level of  

p < 0.001  in the perceptions of teachers and students, with students 

experiencing difficulties to a greater extent than teachers, which is 

understandable. The overall mean for students' difficulties as perceived by the 

teachers was 3.58, while the overall mean for teachers' difficulties was 3.23 

(Table 3 below).   

Table 3.  Teachers’ Perceptions of Teachers’ and Students’ Difficulties with 

EFL Grammar (N = 90) 

Statement Mean 

SD 

t 

Sig.(2-tailed) 

Teachers’ Difficulties 

3.2331 

.58484 

Students’ Difficulties as perceived by 

the Teachers 

3.5779 .42214 

5.225

.000 

The third research question is about the differences in perception of difficulties 

in terms of the four teacher variables: gender, level taught, qualification, and 

teaching experience. 

With regard to gender,  a comparison of the overall mean response for male 

(3.508) and female teachers (3.510) (See Fig. 2 below) shows that they are quite 

nearly the same and that there is no statistically significant difference at the 

level of 0.05 in their perceptions about the difficulties (Sig.: .978) (Table 4 in 

ANNEXURE – II)).  This suggests that gender does not play a significant role 

in the teachers' perceptions when it comes to articulating their own difficulties 

as well as those of their students with English grammar instruction.   

 

Fig. 2. Teachers’ Perceptions of Difficulties with EFL Grammar according to 

Gender 

With regard to the level taught, Table 5 (ANNEXURE – II) shows that teachers 

teaching at different levels have similar perceptions about their own and their 

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students' difficulties with English grammar instruction, with a slightly higher 

mean for teachers of Grades 1-4 (3.58) than the means for teachers of the other 

two levels, which are nearly the same (3.49 and 3.5) (See Fig. 3 below). Table 5 

also shows that there is no statistically significant difference at the level of 0.05 

in terms of this variable (Sig.: .686). 

 

Fig. 3. Teachers’ Perceptions of Difficulties with EFL Grammar according to 

Level Taught 

With regard to teachers’ qualifications, Table 6 (ANNEXURE – II) shows a 

slightly higher overall mean for teachers with a diploma qualification (3.78) 

than the overall means for teachers with higher qualifications, viz. bachelor's 

(3.46) or master's degree (3.49) (See Fig. 4 below). The results also show that 

there is no statistically significant difference at the level of 0.05 in terms of this 

variable (Sig.: .211 – Table 6). 

 

Fig. 4. Teachers’ Perceptions of Difficulties with EFL Grammar according to 

Qualifications 

With regard to teachers' experience, it does not seem to be a significant variable 

with regard to their perceptions of their own and their students' difficulties with 

English grammar instruction, as Table 7 (ANNEXURE – II) shows (See Fig. 5 

below). The results also show that there is no statistically significant difference 

at the level of 0.05 in terms of this variable (Sig.: .869 – Table 7). 

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Fig. 5. Teachers’ Perceptions of Difficulties with EFL Grammar according to 

Experience 

The foregoing discussion is based on the overall mean score obtained for the 

difficulties in general and for each of the four teacher variables considered in 

the present study. With regard to the fourth research question, a detailed 

analysis of the results provides interesting and valuable insights into teachers’ 

perceptions of different types of difficulties for students and teachers 

themselves and their concerns about classroom application of grammar teaching 

principles. The results are discussed with respect to difficulties categorized in 

terms of the themes listed in Table 8 below: 

Table 8.  Statements in the Questionnaire Categorised according to Themes 

Theme Statement(s) 

Explicit grammar teaching 

3, 4, 5, 13 

The transfer of declarative knowledge into procedural 

knowledge 

1, 17, 18 

The use of grammatical terminology 

14, 19 

Error correction 

15, 16 

Problem-solving activities 

2, 20 

The use of authentic texts for grammar instruction 

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 

The use of spoken and written communicative activities 

17, 18 

Explicit grammar teaching 

The dichotomies of unconscious/conscious learning and inductive/deductive 

teaching methods are both sometimes equated with the dichotomy between 

implicit and explicit instruction. Attitudes to inductive and deductive methods 

were investigated through statements concerning explicit presentation of 

grammar by teachers, students finding form-function matches for themselves, 

and the constraints in using either of the two methods. 

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Statement 3 (My students expect teachers to present grammar explicitly) and 

Statement 13 (A lack of explicit grammar teaching leaves my students feeling 

insecure) produced a mean score of 3.61 and 3.38 respectively (Table 2 - 

ANNEXURE – II), supporting the view that students, in teachers’ perception, 

prefer explicit grammar teaching. This is not surprising, as students are known 

to expect traditional, explicit grammar instruction (e.g., Borg, 1999a, b). The 

responses in the present study indicate that this expectation of students still 

remains, especially at the school level. 

Responses to Statement 5 (My students prefer to find matches between meaning 

and structure for themselves), however, produced a mean score of 3.59 (Table 2 

- ANNEXURE – II), which is very close to the mean score for students’ 

expectation about explicit teaching of grammar. This perception of students’ 

preference for an inductive method of learning grammar on the part of the same 

responding teachers is surprising. With regard to the same statement, the 

difference in mean between males and females seems to be higher than for the 

other statements (Table 4 - ANNEXURE – II). A follow-up interview with 

teachers might have provided more specific information and thrown light on 

their understanding of explicit and implicit methods of teaching grammar. 

With regard to Statement 4 (My students prefer to learn grammar from one-

sentence examples), which links to explicit grammar teaching, responding 

teachers produced the lowest mean score (2.97) of all statements in the 

questionnaire (Table 2 - ANNEXURE – II). In terms of experience, however, 

there seems to be some significant difference at the level of 0.05 in favour of 

teachers with more than 10 years of experience (Table 7 - ANNEXURE – II).