This is a summary of an article entitled “A Comparison between Deductive and Inductive Approaches for Teaching EFL Grammar to High School Students” authored by Correa, Torres, Cueva, and Saritama; published in International Journal of Instruction on January 2019. 

 
The concern of whether to teach grammar deductively or inductively has been one of the most debatable and unrequited questions. This relates to the important role in which teaching grammar plays in EFL class, therefore, finding an appropriate teaching method is might as well be vital. Deductive teaching is an old-fashioned method in which giving information about the target language and rules comes at the beginning of a class then followed by the examples. Students then produce their own example following the presented rules as guidance. In contrast, in inductive teaching, learners would need to analyze examples in a context (e.g. text or audios) in order to determine the grammar rules by themselves. Only after noticing the rules by themselves can the students create their own examples; hence practicing the language. Regardless of which approach is used, it is might as well be essential to point out the relationship built between students and teachers. Since motivation is important in the teaching-learning process, the establishment of decent communication between teachers and students in achieving a successful and positive teaching and learning process is significant. The term of this pleasant and respectful relationship of communication is rapport. A decent rapport between students and teachers would be an advantageous aid for teachers in the teaching process. The authors try both approaches to teaching grammar with the aim of determining which one is more effective in the EFL classroom. In this regard, regardless of the fact that Ecuadorian educators and authorities are alert of the significance of learning English and have adopted several measures to improve this process, students in Ecuador do not obtain the desired EFL proficiency level. Thus, this study focuses on discovering the difference in effectiveness between the inductive and deductive approaches to teaching grammar in the EFL classroom. In addition, the effectiveness of rapport during English lessons is also evaluated. There are two guiding questions the authors use to lead the finding: 1) which of the two approaches is more effective for teaching EFL grammar? 2) How effective is rapport when teaching EFL grammar deductively and inductively? This study is conducted in a public school in Ecuador where students commonly attend 5 EFL classes per week (45 minutes each class). Two classes of the second year of senior high school consisting of seventy students in total are randomly selected out of seven existing classes as the participant. Their ages range from 15 to 17 years old, and their English proficiency level diverse between A1 and A2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). An observation sheet, a pre-test, and post-test are the instruments the authors choose to use. The result of the research indicates that there are improvements in both classes applying each of the approaches, the class which applies deductive approach results in a significant improvement in the scores between the grammar pre-test and post-test (t = 8.2395; p<0.0001). A similar thing happens with the class applying the inductive approach where there is also an improvement in the scores between the grammar pre-test and post-test (t = 10.0901; p < 0.0001). By applying the qualitative scale established for the test, the authors are able to point out that there the improvement of deductive group goes from “fair” to “good”, whereas the inductive group goes from “fair” to “very good”. Regarding the rapport, the observation sheet points out that in the deductive group, the rapport is effective; in most classes (10 out of 15 classes) students are attracted to the class and the teacher also is respectful (13 out of 15 classes). Regarding feedback, it is provided in more than half of the classes (9 classes). In all of the classes, students feel encouraged to contribute, there is an enthusiasm shown in the interaction (10 classes). Students also feel confident to ask for more clarification (12 classes). Rapport is also effective in the classes applying the inductive approach. In most of the classes, the results indicate that students are interested (12 out of 15 classes), the teacher is also respectful (14 classes) and the feedback is provided (13 classes). Furthermore, almost all classes, students are eager to contribute (14 classes), cooperate with the teacher (12 classes), show enthusiasm (12 classes), and are confident when asking for explanations (13 classes). In short, even though both approaches to teaching grammar have been effective in terms of rapport, the inductive group is a little higher in the percentages of efficiency in rapport. In conclusion, both groups have a similar level of grammar knowledge before the intervention, which improves after it; still, the inductive approach has a slight advantage in terms of improving students’ grammar knowledge according to the statistical analysis. There is an effective rapport in the EFL classes in both groups. Yet, the rapport observed in the inductive approach group is somewhat more effective, considering aspects such as the teacher being respectful, feedback being provided, students participating in class and interacting with teachers, enthusiasm, and confidence when asking for explanations in class. In spite of the fact that the present study favors the inductive approach as a more effective method to teaching EFL grammar, the fact that this is a study conducted in one high school and possibly will not be generalizable to other contexts has to be considered.

Original Article:

Benitez-Correa, C., Gonzalez-Torres, P., Ochoa-Cueva, C., & Vargas-Saritama, A. (2019). A Comparison between Deductive and Inductive Approaches for Teaching EFL Grammar to High School Students. International Journal of Instruction, 12(1), 225-236.
https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2019.12115a
 
Tags: EducationSummaryWriting

Wayan Endra

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