Teaching Grammar To Adult Efl Lerners: A New Challenge

Teaching Grammar to Adults EFL Learners: A New Challenge

In the past few decades, the need to learn English increased considerably as a result of education, recreation, employmentand leisure. People have started looking for English instructors due to the fact that speaking and understanding English as an "universal language" has become a priority. Thus audience for Englishcourses has evolved from mostly children and teenagers to including adults, causing the need to change the way teachers approached grammar instruction. First of all, adult learners' proficiency level in L1gives them tools for understanding grammar structures in L2. Second, maturity and the capability of perceiving abstract structures is to be considered when teaching grammar to adults. Third, adultlearners expect to be self directed and to have a clear set of goals. In the present essay I will highlight some of the differences between teaching grammar to young learners and to adults, and howthese differences affect teaching adult EFL learners classroom.
Young learners poor L1 proficiency level prevents them from using certain background knowledge. According to Singley, M.K., & Anderson, J.R (1989), "positive transfer occurs when a previously learned behaviour increases some aspect of performance on a similar new behavior". That is to say, students usually make use oftheir knowledge in L1 grammar to achieve a better understanding of grammar in L2. Given that young learners are on a lower stage of L1 development, it is certain that adult learners can make a betterand more profitable use of positive transfer than young learners. Nevertheless, another concept should be considered at this stage. Negative transfer occurs when an old behaviour interferes with theperformance of a new behaviour[ Singley, M. K., & Anderson, J. R. (1989). The Transfer of Cognitive Skill. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, as cited in Woltz & Gardner (2000).]. Following this...