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Communicative Grammar Teaching: A Problem for and a Message from International Teaching Assistants
Author(s) -
Salomone Ann Masters
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1998.tb00599.x
Subject(s) - grammar , communicative language teaching , context (archaeology) , language education , teaching method , pedagogy , computer science , linguistics , thematic analysis , qualitative research , psychology , mathematics education , sociology , philosophy , social science , paleontology , biology
Grammar teaching within the context of the communicative approach is an issue for the entire foreign language teaching profession. International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) find this topic particularly vexing because of their normally strong grammatically oriented language learning backgrounds. Qualitative data obtained from Teaching Assistant (TA) surveys, interviews, journal entries, and videotape critiques were analyzed to discover the specific concerns of ITAs about grammar and how these concerns influence the identified ITA problems of language, cross‐cultural communication, and pedagogy. A thematic summary of the data and pedagogical implications for TA and ITA training are presented and serve as a call to ITA trainers for clearer instructions about grammar teaching.