Past Event

Actual start time is: 3:15 p.m.

How to teach grammar to L2 learners: Reflections on the research-practice relationship

Dr. Leila Ranta
(University of Alberta)

Few would disagree with the statement that grammar is an important aspect of L2 learning and teaching. It has been an active area of research among SLA researchers since the early 1990s. But the question remains whether and how this scholarship can actually help teachers to teach grammar more effectively. In this presentation, I will address this question by 1) providing my synthesis of relevant findings from both the pedagogical discourse on grammar instruction and the research literature on form-focused instruction and 2) reflecting on what I have learned from my long engagement with this topic as a researcher and as a language teacher educator.

About the Speaker

Dr. Leila Ranta is an Associate Professor in the TESL program in the department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta. She received her own graduate training in applied linguistics at Concordia University where she was involved in research projects dealing with the effect of form-focused instruction. One of these, a study of corrective feedback in French immersion co-authored with Roy Lyster and published in Studies in Second Language Acquisition was awarded the Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in Foreign Language Education in 1998. Her other research activities have dealt with the topics of L2 aptitude, fluency and naturalistic language exposure. Leila Ranta has served on the executive of the Canadian Association for Applied Linguistics and the Association for Language Awareness. Currently, she is the co-editor (with Joanna White) of the journal, Language Awareness. She has also been a member of the board of directors of the Quebec ESL teachers association (SPEAQ) and president of the Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL).