Practical Approach to Teaching Grammar in Context to English Language Learners

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the contextualized or functional grammar instruction in improving the writing performance of adult English language learners (ELL). The participants in this study consisted of a total of five adult ELL students, all of whom were over the age of 18. The nationalities of these students were one Saudi female and four Saudi males. After determining the most problematic grammar skills that seemed to obstruct the participants' writing performance, five grammar skills were identified to be taught during this intervention. The five common errors identified were used to design instruction and to guide the evaluation. During the intervention, eight quickwrites were collected from each student and were evaluated through a rubric on the six traits of writing and a content analysis that included frequency counts of errors and correct usage of the five focus skills. The results of the quantitative analysis indicated considerable improvement in four out of five participants' skill usage and writing quality using the contextualized grammar method of instruction.