Teaching Grammar to Iranian High School Students : Explicit Vs Implicit Methods

EFL teachers must recognize what kind of grammar teaching strategies ( explicit or implicit )best facilitate learning in the classroom and choose the most beneficial ways for L2/FLlearners .This study compared the effectiveness of explicit and implicit instruction of Grammar and themajor problem is the kinds of treatments used. This study tended to seek answers to thefollowing questions : 1 . Should grammar be taught explicitly or implicitly? , and 2. Underwhich conditions do EFL learners learn grammar more successfully ?The present study analyzed a sample of 60 students in English Foreign Language classes at ahigh school in Yazd, Iran, who were selected randomly and were divided to two groups of 30as experimental and control groups . The control group learned grammar explicitly and theother one learn grammar implicitly . The main method used for data gathering included a pretest and a post test . Results of the study revealed that explicit grammar instruction is notenough for mastery of grammar of FL. Although some grammatical structures need to beinstructed explicitly through direct explanation of rules , others may require implicitexplanation . So, implicit instruction of grammar was proved to have a stronger effect onteaching and learning of English .

Keywords:

EFL , Implicit teaching , Explicit teaching , Grammar