GRAMMAR, GRAMMAR TEACHING, AND GRAMMAR AND TEACHERS’ COGNITIONS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Resumo

Grammar teaching is regarded as one of the most polemical issues in foreign language teaching2 (Thornbury, 1999). Such controversy may have risen mainly for two reasons. Firstly, because there is a large debate among researchers whether to teach grammar is or is not appropriate for language development. Whereas researchers such as Krashen (1982) claim that teaching
should not focus on grammar when acquisition, or communication and fluency, are aimed, others, such as Doughty and Williams (1998), counterargue this assumption by suggesting a focus on form. The second reason for such controversy is the fact that the concept and the scope of grammar is still an object of study leading to diverse multi-dimensional definitions (LARSENFREEMAN, 2001; TONKYN, 1994; BATSTONE, 1994a). Tonkyn (1994), for example, points out that the first distinction of diverse types of grammar is between descriptive or theoretical, and pedagogical grammars. The author also reminds us that beyond these types of grammar lie various other types of and attitudes towards grammar.