Explicit Grammar Instruction in Communicative Language Teaching: A Study of the Use of Quantifiers

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the blend of explicit contrastive grammar instruction and the existing teaching approach in KBSM, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The invariant meaning of English quantifiers was instructed explicitly to Malay ESL learners by highlighting their counterparts in Bahasa Malaysia to develop these students’ production of noun phrases in their English writings. Reid (1991) and Tobin’s (1990) framework of invariant meaning and Entity Number were adopted to find out the invariant meaning of these grammar items in both English and Bahasa Malaysia. The paired samples t-test and independent samples t-test scores which were obtained through a quasi-experimental design indicate that the integration of semantic-based explicit contrastive grammar instruction into the CLT approach shows a significant achievement in the experimental group’s use of quantifiers compared to the control group which did not receive any treatment. The aim of successful/purposeful communication determined by the English language curriculum has overlooked the impact of explicit grammar instruction. The results of this study concludes that CLT furnished with explicit instruction on form and meaning gives exposure to the learners not only to achieve fluency, but also accuracy in language use, especially of grammar items.