Addressing the Grammar Gap in Task Work

Abstract

INTRODUCTION A current interest in methodology is task-based approaches to teaching. These involve the use of tasks that engage learners in meaningful interaction and negotiation focusing on completion of a task. Learners' grammar needs are determined on the basis of task performance rather than through a predetermined grammar syllabus. However, whether learners develop acceptable levels of grammatical proficiency through such an approach is problematic. This paper reviews current views about the status of grammar learning through task work and suggests that grammar learning can be addressed at several different stages during task performance: prior to the task, during the task, and after the task. Examples are given of how this can be achieved in materials' design and in the classroom. The status of grammar-focused teaching or, as it is currently referred to, form-focused instruction (see Doughty & Williams, 1998) has undergone a major reassessment since the 1970s. The advent of communicative language teaching ostensibly saw the demise of grammar-based instruction: Grammatical syllabuses were superseded by communicative ones based on functions or tasks; grammar-based methodologies such as the Presentation-Practice-Production (P-P-P) lesson format underlying the Situational Approach gave way to function- and skill-based teaching; and accuracy activities such as drills and grammar practice were replaced by fluency activities based on interactive small-group work. This led to the emergence of a ‘fluency-first’ pedagogy (Brumfit, 1979) in which students' grammar needs are determined on the basis of their performance on fluency tasks rather than predetermined by a grammatical syllabus.

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