Text VII, for questions from 39 through 43.

Grammar-Based Teaching (GBT) vs.

Focus on Form (FonF)

1 Grammar teaching has received renewed attention in

academic circles since the late 1980s or early 1990s, when

the naturalist movement began to fade. This attention has

4 generally taken on the nomenclature of Focus on Form

(FonF), even though a focus on grammar includes a great

deal more than simply a focus on form. Form and meaning

7 are inseparable, especially in any worthwhile L2 grammar

instruction. Basically, FonF, in my understanding, seeks ways

of introducing grammar instruction into Communicative

10 Language Teaching (CLT), which is often content- or

task-based.

Both GBT and FonF mingle grammar and

13 communicative teaching, but approach the integration of

grammar into a curriculum differently. Generally speaking,

FonF seeks to integrate a grammar component into a CLT

16 curriculum. GBT seeks to integrate CLT into a structural

syllabus, usually in one class within a larger, varied

curriculum. Simply stated, the issue facing practitioners today

19 is whether to teach grammar separately but integrated with

CLT methods and materials as one component out of many in

a well-balanced program of second language instruction, or to

22 integrate grammar into a content- and/or task-focused

approach, either incidentally as opportunities arise (reactively)

or by a predetermined grammar syllabus (proactively).

25Though I have limited experience with FonF, I have

taught variations of it, most notably in some basal series and

in composition classes. For reactive teaching of grammar in

28 composition classes, I would excerpt common errors from the

students' writing and use them for a grammar-teaching

segment within the composition syllabus. However, it was not

31 difficult to notice that semester after semester students made

the same errors, so I decided it would be more efficient and

effective to prepare a grammar syllabus to integrate into the

34 writing syllabus in a systematic way.

I observed that students in my writing class who had

experienced grammar instruction had an advantage over

37 those students who had not. Students with a good grounding

in grammar needed only to be reminded that, for example,

they were trying to say "I was really bored" not "I was really

40 boring." Those without that grounding in grammar needed a

lot more teaching time in order to understand, just as one

example, the difference between –ing and –ed adjectives.

Betty Azar. Internet: <http://tesl-ej.org> (adapted).