A study of bilingual EFL teachers cognition in grammar and its pedagogy
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Date
2011
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Publisher
University of Management and Technology
Abstract
This study is an investigation into the bilingual EFL teachers' cognition in grammar and
its pedagogy. The literature review reveals that there is much research into the teacher cognition
in monolingual L2 context but very little has been written about the bilingual EFL setting. The
present study seeks to understand what EFL grammar knowledge base and pedagogical beliefs
bilingual teachers bring to the classroom. In doing so, the thesis draws on key bodies of
literature in the role of bilingualism in foreign language teaching, and teacher cognition about
grammar pedagogy; the purpose is an attempt to provide a framework for considering the
research questions. The study employed a quantitative research design involving test and
questionnaire. The data chapter analyzed the teachers' performance on the grammar awareness
test and their responses to the grammar pedagogy questionnaire. The findings of the study in
general revealed that overall our bilingual EFL teachers' cognition in grammar and its teaching
does not measure up to any reasonably adequate academic standard required for professional
remit. As to the knowledge base component of teacher cognition, two areas- identification of
word function and style differentiation of grammar usage- remained the most problematic. The
pedagogical component is not in line with the latest developments in the field. Majority
believes that their bilinguality is an assistance, not an obstacle, to their EFL teaching, but they
need to hone up their skills to make judicious use of L1 (Urdu). The study questions the value
of current ELT programmes by demonstrating that there is no significant difference between
the teachers with and without ELT training. Though overall grammar test performance of
teachers remained below average, the private college teachers outperformed the teachers from
public colleges, public universities and private universities. It is suggested that teacher
cognition research insights be incorporated into the language teacher education for better teaching performance.
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Keywords
Grammar Pedagogy, Teacher Cognition