Teaching Grammar through Consciousness-Raising Tasks

One of the challenges facing teachers of foreign and second language is finding an appropriate format for teaching target language grammar within the current communicative methodology. Since the emphasis on an extensive use of authentic communication has yielded learners with good communication skills, but with limited grammatical accuracy, teachers need to find ways of developing the required grammatical accuracy and the ability to communicate at the same time, without sacrificing one or the other. The present study, therefore, has investigated the merits of promoting learners' consciousness of grammatical structures using consciousness-raising tasks. The findings of the study show that activities that promote conscious attention to the target structures of a foreign language foster learners' acquisition of these structures. Also, it has been noted how learning can be more effective if learners are given the opportunity to reflect and analyze the structures before rushing to produce them. This book can be of interest for foreign and second language teachers and researchers.