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The Impacts of Explicit Teaching and Assessment of Grammar on Tertiary Level Students in an EFL Context

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Abstract

Teaching the English language to EFL learners has been a topic of interest for researchers in order to determine the convenient approach in teaching language skills. Many researchers studied a variety of grammar teaching approaches such as explicit and implicit approaches. Thus, this study intends to investigate the impact of grammar explicit teaching on EFL learners’ writing competencies and performances in grammar tests. The research was conducted in one of the UAE colleges. The participants were two teachers and 20 students in level 3 from the Foundations programme. The methodology used in conducting this research was a qualitative method. A variety of instruments were used in collecting data. The main result of the research shows that explicit teaching of grammar has different impacts on EFL learners’ competencies and performance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Higher Colleges of Technology, Ras al Khaimah, UAE

    Haya Al Nuaimi

Authors
  1. Haya Al Nuaimi
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Correspondence to Haya Al Nuaimi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. English Department, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Tunis, Tunisia

    Sahbi Hidri

Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 1: Teachers (A)’s Classroom Observation Notes

figure a

Appendix 2: Teachers (B)’s Classroom Observation Notes

figure b

Appendix 3: Teachers (A)’s Independent Practice Worksheets

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Appendix 4: Teachers (B)’s Independent Practice Worksheets

figure d

Appendix 5: Teacher (A)’s Students’ Production in the Final Writing Test

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Appendix 6: Teacher (B)’s Students’ Production in the Final Writing Test

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Appendix 7: Foundations Level 3 Curriculum

 

Foundations Level 3

B1

Grammar

G1. Modals: might, may, will, probably, have to, should, must

G2. Basic Syntax and Word Order

G3. Comparatives and Superlatives

G4. Conjunctions: in addition, however, but, also, although, because, than, rather than

G5. Participial Adjectives

G6. Passive

G7. Present Perfect

G8. Relative Clauses

G9. Exemplification and Clarification: for example, for instance, in fact, indeed, such as

G10. Conditional (1st and 2nd)

G11. Intensifiers: too, enough, very, so ___ that

G12. Past Simple & used to

G13. Future: will, going to & present continuous

Writing

W1. Can convey information and ideas on abstract as well as concrete topics, and describe problems and solutions in basic terms

W2. Can demonstrate an emerging ability to plan and write short, multi-paragraph texts on a range of topics, making effective use of B1, A2+, A2 and A1 vocabulary as defined by the Curriculum Vocabulary List, as well as Level 3 grammatical structures as defined above

W3. Can demonstrate an ability to self and peer edit using a predetermined checklist

W4. Can express in writing his/her opinion about accumulated factual information on familiar and general matters at a basic level

W5. Can write personal messages (e.g. emails, posts and blogs) giving news and expressing thoughts and opinions about a range of topics of personal interest (e.g. music, films, books, events, activities)

W6. Can write short, simple essays (e.g. opinion and discussion, for and against) of at least 200 words on a range of topics completed in a maximum of 45 minutes

W7. Can write very brief reports (at least 100 words) which convey factual information about a simple graph or chart

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Al Nuaimi, H. (2020). The Impacts of Explicit Teaching and Assessment of Grammar on Tertiary Level Students in an EFL Context. In: Hidri, S. (eds) Changing Language Assessment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42269-1_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42269-1_14

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-42268-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-42269-1

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