Theories of grammar and their influence on teaching practice: Examining language teachers’ beliefs

Teacher language awareness and its relationship to pedagogical practice (Andrews, 2003) have been identified as significant contributors to the teaching of grammar. Various TESOL programs teach pedagogical and theoretical grammar in different ways and some focus on specific approaches to grammar teaching, which include systemic functional grammar, transformational grammar, traditional grammar and lexical grammar. Discussions with graduate and former teachers however indicate that they feel under-prepared to teach grammar. This paper is part of a research project that examined the current needs of English language teachers and their opinions and attitudes towards grammar teaching. Questionnaires and interviews were used to elicit data on teachers’ beliefs on the importance and use of certain theories of grammar and their current English grammar practices. The results highlight the teachers’ reported use of a combination of theories in grammar explanations and their belief that a variety Address for correspondence: Eleni Petraki, TESOL program, Faculty of Arts and Design, The University of Canberra, Bruce, 2601, Australia; Email: [email protected] University of Sydney Papers in TESOL, 5, 65-99. ©2010 ISSN: 1834-3198 (Print) & 1834-4712 (Online) Eleni Petraki & Deborah Hill 66 of grammar theories should be part of teachers’ ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ to address the teacher and student needs. The results have important implications for language teacher education and the design of grammar courses in University language teacher education.