Towards Balancing the Teaching of Grammar and Culture for the Development of Learners’ Communicative Competence

Abstract

Learners’ communicative competence remains to date an important aim in foreign language classrooms; in practice, however, there is the paucity of attention to balancing the teaching of grammar and culture for the development of such competence. The present study seeks to investigate teachers’ tendency and assumptions towards balancing the teaching of grammar and culture for the development of learners’ communicative bilities. To achieve this aim, four research questions are raised: (1) How often do EFL teachers integrate grammar in the language classroom? (2) How often do they integrate culture? (3) Do they equally integrate the grammatical and cultural aspects in their lessons for the development of learners’ communicative competence? (4) How do they make such integration in the language classroom? (5) Are EFL learners aware of the importance of balancing the teaching of grammar and culture for the improvement of their communicative abilities? To answer the research questions, the data are gathered through two questionnaires administered to eighty-two third-year EFL students and seventeen EFL teachers at the Department of Foreign Languages, Mila University Centre. Upon analysis of the data, the results reveal, on the whole, that teachers are of two positions concerning the creation of such a balance; that there is awareness on the part of third year EFL students of the importance of the said practice, at least from the students’ perspective. The study ends up with a number of pedagogical recommendations for teachers and students along with a discussion of its limitations.