To Teach or not to Teach? – the Changes of the Place and Role of Grammar in the Light of Foreign Language Teaching Methods

Abstract

The paper shows the changes of the place and role of grammar teaching in foreign language didactics by presenting conventional teaching methods as well as the communicative approach and the place of grammar in modern, post-communicative orientation. The discussion focuses on the main area of disputes which have been taking place in glottodidactics for almost a century: should the grammar of a foreign language be taught, should it be made the core of curriculum, is the knowledge of grammatical rules sufficient in order to speak of competence in a foreign language? What is the aforementioned competence: is it the knowledge of language code or the ability to use the code in communication? The changes of the paradigm of grammar teaching in glottodidactics are of sinuous character: the methods which put emphasis on language code and system rules (indirect methods) intertwined in time with the methods focusing on “live” communication, which have been devoid of presenting grammar rules to students, who were supposed to learn them consciously (direct methods). The nativist theories, which put emphasis on the role of the subconscious in learning foreign languages, were employed by direct methods. They clashed with the rationalist ones, which stress the role of the conscious (cognitive factor) in the learning process. The natural and audio-lingual methods are of a direct type, whereas grammar-translation and cognitive methods are examples of indirect methods. Not only does the communicative approach have more features of direct methods, but there is also a cognitive aspect – reflective grammar, which should be perceived as a passage between indirect and direct methods. The modern, post-communicative orientation is highly eclectic and is based on combining elements of all the known teaching methods and techniques in order to make achieving teaching aims possible for a particular group of people in certain conditions and circumstances. Complete subjectivity of student in teaching process may be perceived as the basis of such approach.