The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA Perspective
Abstract
The study of how learners acquire a second language (SLA) has helped to shape thinking about how to teach the grammar of a second language. There remain, however, a number of controversial issues. This paper considers eight key questions relating to grammar pedagogy in the light of findings from SLA. As such, this article complements Celce-Murcia’s (1991) article on grammar teaching in the 25th anniversary issue of TESOL Quarterly, which considered the role of grammar in a communicative curriculum and drew predominantly on a linguistic theory of grammar. These eight questions address whether grammar should be taught and if so what grammar, when, and how. Although SLA does not afford definitive solutions to these questions, it serves the valuable purpose of problematising this aspect of language pedagogy. This article concludes with a statement of my own beliefs about grammar teaching, grounded in my own understanding of SLA.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning1
SCHMIDT, R. W. (1990) · Applied Linguistics · doi:10.1093/applin/11.2.129 · Cited by 5,435 · cited 2×
“The weak interface position (Ellis, 1993) claims that explicit knowledge can convert into implicit knowledge if the learner is ready to acquire the targeted feature and that this conversion occurs by priming a number of key acquisitional processes, in particular noticing and noticing the gap (Schmidt, 1990).”
BackgroundThe Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition
Long, M. H. (1996) · Handbook of Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1016/b978-012589042-7/50015-3 · Cited by 3,927
CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK AND LEARNER UPTAKE: Negotiation of Form in Communicative Classrooms
Lyster, R., & Ranta, L. (1997) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263197001034 · Cited by 2,629 · cited 1×
“Studies of corrective feedback (e.g., Lyster & Ranta, 1997; Ellis, Batsurkmen, & Loewen, 2001) demonstrate that in communicative lessons a wide variety of grammatical forms are addressed incidentally through corrective feedback.”
BackgroundEffectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis
Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (2000) · Language Learning · doi:10.1111/0023-8333.00136 · Cited by 2,569 · cited 3×
“Norris and Ortega (2000) have shown that the effectiveness of instruction varies depending on whether it is measured using metalinguistic judgements, selected response, constrained constructed response, or free constructed response.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialFocus on Form: A Design Feature in Language Teaching Methodology
Long, M. (1991) · Studies in Bilingualism · doi:10.1075/sibil.2.07lon · Cited by 1,775 · cited 1×
“Long (1988, 1991) and Doughty (2001) have argued strongly that focus on form is best equipped to promote interlanguage development because the acquisition of implicit knowledge occurs as a result of learners attending to linguistic form at the same time they are engaged with understanding and…”
BackgroundDIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF PROMPTS AND RECASTS IN FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION
Lyster, R. (2004) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263104263021 · Cited by 826
Does Second Language Instruction Make a Difference? A Review of Research
Long, M. H. (1983) · TESOL Quarterly · doi:10.2307/3586253 · Cited by 573 · cited 1×
“…order of acquisition of instructed and naturalistic learners (e.g., Pica, 1983), (b) compare the success of instructed and naturalistic learners (Long, 1983) and (c) examine whether attempts to teach specific grammatical structures resulted in their acquisition (e.g., White, Spada, Lightbown, &…”
BackgroundCognitive underpinnings of focus on form
Doughty, C. (2001) · Cognition and Second Language Instruction · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139524780.010 · Cited by 523
Fotos, S. S. (1994) · TESOL Quarterly · doi:10.2307/3587436 · Cited by 329
Functional Grammar in French Immersion: A Classroom Experiment1
HARLEY, B. (1989) · Applied Linguistics · doi:10.1093/applin/10.3.331 · Cited by 269
Cited by
Interactions between type of instruction and type of language feature: A meta-analysis
Spada, N., & Tomita, Y. (2010) · Language Learning · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00562.x · Cited by 746
Exploring tensions between teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs and practices
Phipps, S., & Borg, S. (2009) · System · doi:10.1016/j.system.2009.03.002 · Cited by 668
Student-initiated attention to form in wiki-based collaborative writing
Kessler, G. (2009) · Language Learning & Technology · doi:10.64152/10125/44169 · Cited by 355
Towards a modular language curriculum for using tasks
Ellis, R. (2019) · Language Teaching Research · doi:10.1177/1362168818765315 · Cited by 211
Self-citationChang, S.-C. (2011) · English Language Teaching · doi:10.5539/elt.v4n2p13 · Cited by 143
Metadata
- Authors
- Ellis, R.
- Venue
- TESOL Quarterly
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-03-01
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 83
- ISSN
- 0039-8322 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2136023161
- Cited by
- 967
- References
- 11
- FWCI
- 133.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA Perspective. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/40264512
- The paper
- Ellis, R. (2006). Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA Perspective. TESOL Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.2307/40264512
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.