Innovation in Language Learning

For many adult language learners, grammatical accuracy is a core feature of communicative competence, and the ability of teachers to teach grammar in the language classroom is widely considered a core feature of teacher competence.  Much energy and time is devoted to developing this area of teacher competence, both in TESOL education and ongoing professional development. Despite the intensity of resources devoted to this aspect of teacher competence, little is known about the impact of much of this investment on how teachers make decisions in the classroom. Recognizing that teacher decision making is influenced by a myriad of factors (e.g., Sanchez & Borg, 2015), questions remain about how teachers draw on their unique knowledge and experiences to make decision about how to teach grammar. This paper reports on an exploratory study that drew on the perspectives and experiences shared by teachers in adult ESL classrooms. Through an online survey with 84 participants and semi-structured interviews with a subset of 10, the study asked participants to describe their professional and personal experiences related to grammar teaching and learning, self-report on their classroom practice relevant to teaching grammar and discuss their perspectives and beliefs about the role of grammar pedagogy in language teaching and learning. Analysis examined how aspects of their education and experiences contributed to their approaches to teaching grammar. Findings revealed the nature of teacher competence in grammar teaching as an intimate developmental process for both novice and experienced instructors and underscored the critical role of professional communities as a safe place of continued growth for language teachers. The study highlights the need to recognize the highly individualized and idiosyncratic nature of teachers’ decision making and the potential for a more personalized and self-directed approach to teacher education and development throughout the career cycle.