The purpose of this study was to analyze the grammar practice activities used in 14 recently published pre-intermediate and intermediate English language teaching textbooks. More specifically, this study analyzed the types of grammar practice activities that occurred, the order of such types, and the prevalence and composition of interrelated series of grammar practice activities. Results indicate that mechanical activities were less common than the other controlled alternative, meaningful activities, and also the least common type overall. Also, the results show that pre-communicative grammar practice activities were the most numerous grammar practice activities and comprised approximately 40% of all grammar practice activities. Additionally, it was found that grammar practice activities generally progressed from form-focused grammar practice activities to meaning-focused grammar practice activities. Last, it was found that multiple series of interrelated grammar practice activities were present with 54 distinct series appearing across the 42 lessons examined, and comprised almost half of all 246 grammar practice activities recorded as well.

This paper reviews research articles on English grammar instruction in Korea published in the journal ofEnglish Teaching since 1965. It analyzes current trends of research studies and provides prospects for future research studies in the field of English grammar instruction. A total of 45 research papers were reviewed and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative analyses revealed that over 90 percent of the articles have been published since 1990 and most of them have explored the efficacy of grammar teaching under the approach of focus on form. The qualitative analyses present thorough reviews of the published research papers with the emphasis on themes, research methods, and their pedagogical implications. The limitations ofthe published articles and some suggestions for the development of English grammar instruction are provided.

The purpose of the present study is to help the high school English teachers develop insights into communicative grammar instruction. In order to examine what the teachers do in their grammar instruction, the study analyzed five video-taped high school English classes. From the analyses it was found that despite all the efforts made by the educational policy to implement the communicative language teaching, the high school English teachers" grammar instruction today is hardly different from the traditional one. What the teachers basically do in their grammar instruction is to explain the grammar points, translate the sentences, and include some mechanical drills. Based on the findings, the study concludes that the high school English teachers lack knowledge and techniques necessary to teach the target language grammar more communicatively. It is suggested that in order to make their grammar instruction more effective in developing the communicative language ability in the students, the teachers need to reduce the time to explain grammar points and increase the time to engage the students in the meaningful use of the target structure. An example of the grammar instruction is provided to help the teachers.

Many educators question the value of explicit grammar instruction in foreign language education and look for alternative ways to enhance the communicative ability. Focusing on Korean leaners’ acquisition of English relative clauses, we examine whether grammar knowledge can result from experiencing English texts without explicit knowledge being provided at the outset of the learning. Our study shows that many grammatical features of English relative clauses can be acquired incidentally without explicit grammar instruction. Further, we found that the knowledge acquired through the implicit incidental learning can be better retained than that through the explicit learning.

The twentieth-century history of second language (L2) education has been characterized by a search for more effective ways of L2 education. The search has led to various approaches, and perceptions of and attitudes toward the role and effectiveness of instruction in L2 education has been affected by these approaches. The role and effectiveness of instruction has important pedagogical implications. This study attempts to review, analyze, and synthesize previous studies on the role and effectiveness of L2 grammar instruction. The study starts by presenting a brief overview of major issues in L2 instruction research. It then looks into studies that investigate the effects of various instructional types and finds that their findings and conclusions are conflicting, leaving an impression that the effectiveness of grammar instruction is inconclusive at best. The study ends with a discussion of “problems” that the reviewed studies reveal.