Summary of Rod Ellis's article on TESOL Quarterly 2006

Ellis, R. (2006). Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 83-107.

Rod Ellis addressed 8 questions about grammar teaching and learning:
(1) Should we teach grammar, or should we simple create the conditions by which learners learn naturally?
(2) What grammar should we teach?
(3) When should we teach grammar? Is it best to teach grammar when learners first start to learn an L2 or to wait until later when learners have already acquired some linguistic competence?
(4) Should grammar instruction be massed (i.e., the available teaching time be concentrated into a short period) or distributed (i.e., the available teaching time spread over a longer period)?
(5) Should grammar instruction be intensive (e.g., cover a single grammatical structure in a single lesson) or extensive (e.g., cover many grammatical structures in a single lesson)?
(6) Is there any value in teaching explicit grammatical knowledge?
(7) Is there a best way to teach grammar for implicit knowledge?
(8) Should grammar be taught in separate lessons or integrated into communicative activities?

My teacher at TKU Dr Wible also brought up 7 questions in the first class of our class (pedagogical grammar).
(1) Can grammar be taught?
(2) Is grammar a coherent notion? That is, can grammar be carefully isolated as a body of knowledge or is language somehow distorted when this is attempted?
(3) Is there a different kind of grammar knowledge needed for reading than for writing, for speaking than for listening, etc.?
(4) Is there some order in which the rules or generalizations of grammar should be learned/acquired/taught?
(5) What are the ideal conditions under which learners can master the grammar of a target language?
(6) Of what value is explicit grammar knowledge to a language learner?
(7) Of what value is explicit grammar knowledge to a language teacher?

I will summarize Rod Ellis's opinions about grammar teaching one by one in the following postings.