ABSTRACT
Grammar instruction in many English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms includes deductive teaching and learning, when the teacher presents grammar rules followed by various forms of practice. Student practice can take the form of cloze exercises, a translation of an English text into the learners’ native language, or oral training (read alouds, dialogues, or small-group activities) (Ellis, this volume). In most cases, such exercises draw the learners’ attention to verb forms in sentence-level contexts that are created by textbook authors, teachers, or students themselves. This learning practice largely addresses the skills associated with identification of time adverbials and the manipulation of verbal inflections and tense-related forms of auxiliaries. Other approaches to grammar teaching focus on contextualized uses of grammatical structures to promote applications of grammar knowledge to particular situations when students are involved in meaningful or meaning-related communications (e.g., games, problem-solving activities, and role-plays).
