The effect of EFL teachers’ language awareness on students’ grammar knowledge :|an exploratory analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Iranian EFL teachers’ language awareness on Iranian EFL learners’ grammar knowledge. To this end, it drew upon theoretical foundations of teacher language awareness. Three hundred and twenty-two EFL learners and fourteen EFL teachers participated in the study. To fulfill the purpose of the study, all the required instruments were carefully selected, designed, piloted and validated. At the beginning of the study, a placement test was administered to the EFL students to determine their homogeneity regarding their general language proficiency and their grammar knowledge specifically. This test served as a pre-test. Then utilizing a reliable and valid test of language awareness, EFL teachers were categorized as high, middle, and low-language-aware based on their scores. Moreover, two questionnaires to explore learners’ and teachers’ grammar perception were also administered. In the second phase of the study, EFL learners were randomly assigned to experimental groups according to their EFL teachers’ language awareness scores. After the completion of the instructional treatment (sixteen sessions), two other reliable and valid achievement tests were administered as the post-test and delayed post-test. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and three-way ANOVA were the data analysis techniques performed. The findings of the study indicated that learners’ performance depended on their grammar perception and their EFL teachers’ language awareness levels. Overall, the major outcome of the study was the confirmation of the learner-centered philosophy in foreign language grammar learning.