School of Education Faculty of Education Social Sciences

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Teacher Cognition & Second Language Grammar Teaching Dr Simon Borg

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Teacher Cognition Research The study of what teachers, at any stage of their career, think, know or believe about any aspect of their work, and of the relationship of these cognitions to teachers’ practices and teacher learning.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Grammar Teaching Instruction which formally targets awareness and use of the syntactic features of a language.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Researching Grammar Teaching § Learner & learning perspective – 1960 s → § Teacher & teaching perspective – 1990 s → § Approximately 30 studies of L 2 grammar teaching from a teacher cognition perspective since 1998.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 1 § Grammar teaching is valued by teachers and students. ü Students often value attention to formal accuracy more than teachers. ü Teachers value ‘integrated’ grammar teaching.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Integrating Grammar § Questionnaire - 176 teachers of adults in 18 countries § “Grammar should be taught separately, not integrated with other skills such as reading and writing”. § 84. 1% of teachers disagreed or disagreed strongly with this statement.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Level of Integration § “In your teaching, to what extent is grammar teaching integrated with the teaching of other skills? ”

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 2 § Teachers do not necessarily value grammar teaching for its impact on L 2 learning. ü ü ü Acquisition Awareness-Raising Diagnostic Classroom Management Psychological

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Grammar as “Psychological Backup” “if I haven't actually presented a language point and practised it and gone through all the stages of it, I feel sometimes that I haven't actually taught them anything. … I use it as a sort of psychological backup, you know, 'what did we do today? - a bit of this, a bit of that, but we practised the present perfect'. And I think perhaps students as well tend to feel a little bit like that. . ”

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 3 § Teachers’ practices in teaching grammar are defined by personalized networks of beliefs and knowledge which interact internally and with external situational factors.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Self Culture Learners Language Learning Cognitions Assessment Teaching Curricula Colleagues

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 4 § These interactions are often typified by tensions amongst beliefs and between beliefs and situational factors.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Learning; Discovery is effective Language Learning: Not all grammar amenable to discovery Instruction: Discovery & Exposition Context: Class and planning time limited Students: Expect expository work

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 5 § Teachers’ beliefs about grammar teaching are shaped by their educational biographies as learners. ü “It worked for me” ü “I disliked it as a learner”

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law “In my experience, when one manages to work out how something operates, the 'process of discovery' or 'working it out'` helps in some way towards understanding and better memorization”

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 6 § Teachers’ stated beliefs about grammar teaching are not always reflected in their classroom practices. ü Ideal-oriented cognitions ü Reality-oriented cognitions

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 7 § Teachers vary enormously in their ability to articulate robust rationales for their pedagogical choices in teaching grammar.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Why do you do gap-filling grammar practice? “I don’t know, II don’t am not of the “In general likeaware this type of reasons…There activity, filling in should but may I don’t know”. gaps, be butsome well reason, I think they help, they may help, but I’m not so sure about it. ”

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 8 § In articulating these rationales teachers draw on practical rather than formal knowledge. ü Widespread reference to accumulated experience. ü Limited reference to formal theory.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 9 § Declarative knowledge of grammar does not suffice for effective pedagogy. ü Types of teacher knowledge. ü Procedural knowledge. ü Teacher language awareness.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Insight 10 § Teachers’ perceptions of their own grammatical knowledge influence instructional decisions in teaching grammar. ü Low confidence → avoidance of grammar ü High confidence → less avoidance ü “Confident ignorance”

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law I always have the feeling that I might be asked something that at that moment will catch me unawares and I won’t be able to answer at that time. I might not be able to explain it properly, or I might not come up with all the exceptions which they might come up with at that moment. . I’m always a little bit wary of that situation”.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Contribution of Research § More complex understandings of L 2 grammar teaching. § Insights into the belief networks which shape teachers’ practices. § Awareness of the origins of these beliefs. § Broader understanding of the types of knowledge teachers draw on in teaching grammar. § Recognition of the contextualized nature of teachers’ practices in teaching grammar. § Stimulus for teacher cognition research more generally.

School of Education Faculty of Education, Social Sciences & Law Teacher Cognition & Second Language Grammar Teaching Dr Simon Borg