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Grammar is crucial to language and language learning. Research into grammar instruction (i.e. interventional efforts to direct learners’ attention to particular grammatical forms) has been a central topic in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) due to its importance in assisting second language (L2) learners to develop communicative competence. Over the last three decades, the role of grammar instruction in second/foreign language contexts has been reconsidered on the basis of findings in the field of L2 research with adult learners. Studies highlight the need to identify effective instructional procedures to focus on formal aspects of language, enabling learners to notice the mismatch between their interlanguage and the target language. Moreover, there is now broad consensus that pedagogical intervention is facilitative and may even be indispensable in foreign language (FL) learning contexts, where learners receive minimal L2 input- typically only a few hours per week.
Although the early learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) in school settings has grown exponentially over the past twenty years, one population that remains underexplored regarding these issues is children aged 6-12. This talk will share ways in which interactive collaborative tasks can draw children’s attention to formal aspects of English. Our research, grounded within cognitive-interactionist and sociocultural frameworks, demonstrates how grammar focused tasks, input enhancement and collaborative writing – combined with the manipulation of implementation variables (task repetition, task modality) and explicit metalinguistic explanations- help children focus on formal aspects of the language. Importantly, these instructional procedures enable children to resolve problematic issues without teacher intervention. We will conclude by identifying challenges and further research directions for effective grammar pedagogy for young learners.
Bio: María del Pilar García Mayo is Full Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country (Spain), Honorary Professor at University College London and Honorary Consultant for the Shanghai Center for Research in English Language Education. She has published widely on two strands of research, namely, formal L2/L3 acquisition (generative approach), and cognitive-interactionist theory, examining the impact of conversational interactions on language development in low-input, foreign language settings. Prof. Garcia Mayo is the director of the research group Language and Speech and the MA program Language Acquisition in Multilingual. She is also the editor of Language Teaching Research and belongs to the Steering Committee of the Spanish State Research Agency.
