Attitudes towards EFL Grammar Instruction: Inductive or Deductive?

The teaching of grammar plays a central role in every EFL/ESL
teacher’s classroom. This paper attempts to examine the role grammar
plays in foreign or second language learning from the point of view of
pre-service student teachers. The paper reports a study undertaken to
investigate pre-service student teachers’ attitudes towards the mode of
grammar instruction (i.e., explicit or implicit) in the context of teaching
English as a foreign language. The study aimed to find out whether
there were significant differences among the pre-service student
teachers in their attitudes in relation to their gender and the level they
teach in school. Fifty-eight pre-service student EFL teachers completed
a questionnaire on a five-point scale of agreement. About 20 of them
also responded to an open-ended questionnaire. The main findings of
the study showed a positive attitude of the pre-service student teachers
towards grammar instruction in general and a more favourable attitude
towards the implicit approach than the explicit. These findings have
implications for teacher education, pre-service student and in-service
training, and curriculum review.