One popular view agrees that language has to be acquired with no conscious analysis of its structure. Halliday (1976) found that many learners in the wave of communicative language teaching in the 70s and 80s failed to attain the suitable level of accuracy. Then, some practitioners think that there is a need to return to grammar teaching in some form, without giving up the positive aspects of a communicative approach. The question is how this
should be done. Widdowson (1990) states that ‘a concern for grammar’ is rejected by many
as being contrary to the principles of communicative language teaching, but he then goes on to say “This supposition is, I believe, based on an improvise concept of the nature of grammar, one which does not account for the complementary functioning of lexis and syntax as an essential resource for the negotiation of meaning in context.” (p.78) |