Effects of Grammar Consciousness-Raising on Taiwanese Junior High School Students’ Learning of the English Relative Clause Construction

• Main Authors: Yu-ju Janice Chang, 張玉珠
• Other Authors: Dr. Hui-i Amy Kung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18256050002829338077

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 100 === This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of grammar consciousness-raising (GCR) on the learning of the English relative clause construction by EFL learners in Taiwan. Specifically, it intended to investigate whether GCR and traditional grammar instruction (TI) had different effects on the learning of this form and whether the effects of these two types of instruction on their overall, interpretative and productive performance were different. The participants were 61 second-year junior high school students from two mix-level classes in central Taiwan randomly assigned to either the TI group or the GCR group. Both of these two groups received six 45-minute periods of instruction. Before and after the instruction, a grammar test with an interpretation section and a production section was administered to the students as the pretest and posttest to measure their interpretative and productive abilities of the target structure. The results indicated that both GCR and TI had positive effects on the students’ learning of the English relative clause construction. Moreover, the two types of instruction were equally effective in promoting students’ overall performance, interpretative and productive abilities of the relative clause construction. These findings suggest that GCR can benefit junior high school students learning this target structure and thus offer EFL teachers in Taiwan an alternative approach to grammar instruction.