Teachers’ Practices and Learners’ Preferences of Explicit and Implicit Grammar Teaching. Do they Match or Mismatch?

Abstract

Grammar is considered as an important issue in language that contains a large number of rules and forms that need to be mastered by learners. Since learners are different by nature, teachers need to use different types of instruction in order to satisfy th eir learners’ preferences. The present study aims at investigating the relationship between teachers’ practices and learners’ preferences in terms of explicit and implicit grammar teaching. To achieve the aims of the research work, a questionnaire is administered to second year students of English at Abdelhafid Boussouf University Centre of Mila so as to identify their grammar learning preferences. This is coupled with an interview with teachers of different language modules (grammar, written expression, oral expression, and listening) in the same University Centre so as to find out their ways of teaching grammar. The obtained results confirm our basic hypothesis that if there is a relationship between teachers’ practices and learners’ preferences of explicit and implicit grammar teaching and learning, learners would achieve better. The results also indicate that our sample of teachers differentiate their way of teaching grammar by alternating between explicit and implicit instruction which help learners to promote their learning.