| While teaching to develop communication skills is generally accepted as the main goal in foreign language education, the role of grammar in the development of proficiency remains controversial. Outcomes of studies dealing with the manipulation of input variables and corrective treatment of output seem to suggest a benefit of focus-on-form for both information processing and speech production. The present study investigates an instructional approach which integrates grammar into the teaching of the speaking skill to see if focusing on certain grammatical features within a communicative context leads to improvements in recognition and production of those target features.; A comparison of three different instructional contexts was undertaken to evaluate subjects on narration skill, or specifically on performance related to the grammatical structures preterit and imperfect. The main experimental or "Cognitive" group was instructed using a systematic approach to the introduction and practice of the two past tenses designed according to notions from skill acquisition theory. Another group ("Content") received instruction following the ideas of the Monitor Model, and a third or "Control" group followed a traditional grammar approach.; The subjects were 48 native speakers of English enrolled in three sections of an intermediate level third-semester Spanish course. Three tests were designed to measure performance related to the tenses under investigation: a preterit and imperfect conjugation test, a preterite/imperfect choice test, and an oral narration test. These were administered at three different times during the semester to establish pre-treatment knowledge and measure the effect of treatment.; Results indicate a trend in performance with the cognitive group performing best, followed by the control group and finally the content group. Statistically significant differences were found on the preterit morphology test and the oral narration test for correct preterit choice and increased use of the imperfect. These findings suggest that a carefully sequenced and structured approach to teaching the conceptual distinction of preterit vs. imperfect can be beneficial to the development of grammatical proficiency. Further research is needed to validate these findings in regards to the preterit/imperfect and also to investigate their applicability to other grammatical structures involving conceptual distinctions. |
