Exploring Secondary School Teachers' Conceptualisation and Practices of Grammar as Context-Bound or as De-Contextualized Instruction

Abstract

The aim of this research work is to investigate whether teachers adopt contextual methods to teach grammar or they teach grammar using traditional methods in the Algerian context. The problematic at hand seeks to find out teachers’ own concepts concerning grammar teaching, to discover to what extent they employ their practical theories in the classroom and finally to get informed about the factors which influence the mismatch between their cognitive beliefs and classroom actions during their instructional process. To fulfill the requirements of our investigation the researcher employed quantitative and qualitative approach. Therefore, both online self- administered questionnaire and focus- group interview were used to collect data from different EFL teachers in Algeria. We targeted EFL teachers to fill in online questionnaire via Google forms. The questionnaire was supposed to be filled by 50 teachers of different secondary schools in Algeria. Besides, thematic analysis and tables were used to interpret and analyze the data gathered from the participants. The results showed that teachers are aware of that teaching grammar best occurs in context through authentic materials though there were factors including time restrictions, unavailability of materials and curriculum demands that prevented them from teaching communicatively.