This book examines the most recent advances in theory and research on communicative grammar instruction and the various instructional options for implementing it effectively in second language (L2) classrooms. A consideration of L2 teaching over the past few decades reveals a fundamental shift in the teaching of grammar from one in which grammar instruction was central, to one in which grammar instruction was absent, and to the recent reconsideration of the significance of the role of grammar instruction.
For many years, language teaching was equated with grammar teaching. It was believed that language was mainly composed of grammar rules and that knowing those rules would be sufficient for learners to acquire the language. With the rise of communicative teaching approaches in the 1970s, the teaching of grammar was considered undesirable. Teachers were encouraged to believe that grammar instruction was old-fashioned, uninteresting, and best avoided. Researchers claimed that teaching grammar had little impact on learners’ grammatical development and did not lead to the development of communicative competence; hence, it had to be eliminated from L2 classrooms (e.g., Krashen, 1981, 1985, 1993; Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Some even went so far as to argue that grammar teaching was not only unhelpful but was also detrimental. Prabhu (1987, p. 2), for example, in describing the impetus for his procedural task-based project, pointed out:
Attempts to systematize input to the learners through a linguistically organized syllabus, or to maximize the practice of particular parts of language structure through activities deliberately planned for that purpose were regarded as being unhelpful and detrimental to the desired preoccupation with meaning in the classroom.
Recent research in second language acquisition (SLA), however, has led to a reconsideration of the importance of grammar. Many researchers now believe that grammar teaching should not be ignored in second language classrooms. Language teaching professionals have also become increasingly aware that grammar instruction plays an important role in language teaching and learning. There are a number of reasons for this re-evaluation of the role of grammar.