The grammar-lover argument

Another reason for the determination to find a major role for grammar is the fact that so many researchers find the study of grammar fascinating. I think this is true: I know this from personal experience-I love grammar too. I enjoy learning about grammatical systems, and I get a feeling of deep satisfaction from successfully applying a grammar rule to my output. Unlike some others, however, I have realized that I am a member of a tiny minority and that most people get their pleasures elsewhere.

Barriers to Using CI-based Methods

Even if practitioners are interested in using CI-based methodology, there are barriers to using it in the classroom.

The students made me do it.

Skill-building is the "common-sense" folk theory of language development, and it is reinforced by the fact that it is used in nearly all foreign and second language classes and is the basis for nearly all materials. Although skill-based teaching is not effective, students simply blame themselves for their lack of progress. When asked, adult students insist that they want all their errors corrected (Cathcart & Olsen, 1976), many feel that the study of grammar is very important (research reviewed in Krashen, 1994) and that we learn to speak another language by speaking it. It is of course difficult for teachers to resist this pressure, especially when doing communicative activities is sometimes perceived to be non-professional and a sign of ignorance of grammar. We must, however, realize that it is our professional responsibility to teach according to our convictions about how people acquire language. As Smith (1986) put it, engineers do not consider public opinion on how to build bridges, nor do surgeons allow the public to tell them how to perform operations.

Both a short- and long-term solution to this problem is to provide information to students on how language is acquired. This will justify methodology, provide an interesting topic for sheltered subject matter teaching, and give students the tools to continue to improve after the course is over. At a minimum, students should be informed that the skill-building hypothesis is in fact a hypothesis, not an axiom, and that other hypotheses exist.

The curriculum/text made me do it.

It is likely that many language teachers work in situations where the established curriculum is not in agreement with their personal view of how language is acquired. These teachers have several options: The first is simply to go along with the curriculum, suffering silently, or complaining only to one's peers. From my observations, this appears to be the most frequent reaction. Second, one can "close the door" and secretly do what one thinks is best. This may profit one's current students, but the current curriculum and the skill-building hypothesis receives undeserved credit. "Closing the door" thus perpetuates and strengthens the dominance of the skill-building approach. In addition, the publishers make the profit from unused texts while teachers spend their own money on supplementary materials.

The only constructive option is to be honest with our students and attempt to inform the public.

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