Effect of Explicit Spoken Grammar Instruction on Raising Pre-Intermediate Iranian EFL Learners’ Competence

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of explicit instruction of four main spoken grammar features of heads, tails, progressive past tense, and ellipsis on raising EFL learners’ awareness of them. The main impetus came from the fact that these features are usually ignored in ELT textbooks because nearly all grammatical points are restricted to written grammar. To this end, 23 female EFL learners in pre-intermediate level whose homogeneity was confirmed using KET test, were assigned to an experimental group. A pretest was conducted to determine their current level awareness of the spoken features aforementioned. A posttest was administered after 10 sessions of awareness-raising oriented instruction. The data analysis showed that it is both possible and potentially desirable to apply explicit instruction to raise learners’ awareness of aspects of native speaker spoken grammar to EFL learners. The study can have educational implications for language teachers and learners in EFL context.