Inductive or Deductive Methods of Grammar Teaching: Teachers’ Beliefs and Learners’ attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of the present case study was to find out the teachers’ beliefs towards the impact of inductive and deductive methods of teaching grammar structures and learners’ attitudes towards the inductive and deductive methods of teaching grammar structures. The study was carried out in the EEC (Experimental English Classes) at the AUA (American University of Armenia). Five groups were selected with their teachers and accordingly were numbered from 1 to 5. Thus, this paper followed multiple-case study design with 5 Cases.A semi-structures interview was conducted all 5 Case teachers, in order to investigate teachers’ beliefs towards the impact of inductive and deductive methods of grammar teaching. The study comprises the quantitative data as well. The quantitative data were collected through questionnaire, which was conducted with all 5 Case learners. The aim of the questionnaire was to find out the learners’ attitudes towards inductive and deductive methods of grammar teaching. Besides the questionnaire was distributed to the Case learners, they were asked to answer orally which method they prefer their teachers to use: inductive or deductive one. The classes were also observed during 8 weeks and appropriate notes were made.Analyzing the responses of the interview and making inferences from the observations, it can be concluded that some of the Cases preferred a mixture of inductive and deductive methods, whereas some of them used only inductive method. It can be concluded from the responses that all the Cases think that learners are more motivated and are highly engaged in the learning process when grammar is taught inductively than deductively. The learners succeed more when grammar is taught inductively. The results of the learners’ questionnaire was not the same as the results gained from the oral answers, where nearly all the Cases answered that they liked the deductive method of grammar teaching. Nearly all the Cases answers were the same in percentages regarding inductive and deductive methods of teaching grammar structures. The results of the observations showed that nearly all Cases learners succeed more, i.e., they understand better, when grammar was taught deductively. Thus it can be concluded that the teachers’ interview answers and learners’ questionnaire responses did not correspond to observation impression and each other.