English teaching with grammar? - A study on how English teachers at upper secondary school in Sweden use grammar in their teaching

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to investigate how English teachers at upper secondary school in Sweden use grammar in their teaching, and how their attitudes toward grammar affect how they use it in their teaching. To examine this, qualitative interviews were conducted with three English teachers. The results from these interviews showed that the teachers' attitudes toward grammar have a great impact on their teaching. The two teachers who had positive views used deductive grammar teaching with the students and also worked with focus on form, while the teacher who did not like grammar had no formal grammar teaching and only let her students work with grammar using games and quizzes on the Internet. The consequence of these different styles of grammar teaching means students will have different kinds of knowledge when they graduate and those without any grammar teaching might encounter difficulties if they continue studying English at a higher level. It is important for teachers to keep up with recent research that has proven that students perform and learn better from formal teaching, and not least to meet students at their individual level. Another unexpected finding was that teachers did not use technical terminology when they talked about different strategies and methods they use with grammar.