Abstract

Studies of teacher cognition and the teaching of grammar have attracted increasing research attention in recent years, yet relatively little has been published about how EFL teachers working in secondary schools teach grammar compared to what they know about their teaching. The present study considers this relationship by looking at eight teachers and investigating if their knowledge is consistent with their instructional practice. The value of this study is that it examines the current situation in grammar teaching by exploring how knowledge may influence performance in secondary school, teaching in the Libyan context.
Observation and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect the necessary data. A factual questionnaire was used to collect background information and then to choose the most appropriate participants in a sample of eight who were more and less experienced teachers and both male and female. Purposive sampling was used to select the sample. Data were transcribed and encoded for analysis according to grounded theory principles, and a framework was designed to analyse the coded data in order to triangulate the findings gathered from observation and interviews.
The findings revealed that grammar was taught using different approaches and techniques, but there was no single way of teaching that worked perfectly with all classes. What did not work for one teacher worked for another in certain cases. The teachers had different levels of knowledge which was not always reflected in their classroom practice. The more experienced teachers had better practical knowledge, although all had similar levels of theoretical knowledge about teaching and learning English grammar.
This study offers a more profound understanding of the complex relationship between teachers’ practice and their knowledge about teaching grammar. Different patterns of incongruence and congruence between practice and knowledge are acknowledged, such as ‘teachers knew but did not do’; ‘teachers did but were not aware that they did’; and ‘teachers did and they knew’. Some of the most interesting findings in this study have not been reported before, and it is clear that not all relationships of congruence between practice and knowledge have positive pedagogical value, and not all incongruent relationships have negative value. The rationales behind of all of these relationships between practice and knowledge were related to the complex relationship between teachers’ practice and knowledge and contextual factors. Thus, the implications of this research should benefit future EFL teachers of grammar and open doors to further research.