Theory and Practice : A comparison between English schoolbook grammar and English grammar teaching practiced in a Swedish secondary school

Abstract: This research compares the grammar in English schoolbooks with the grammar teaching practisedin a Swedish secondary school classroom. It explores the grammar content of two Englishschoolbooks from two different levels, and whether the teacher uses other materials when teachinggrammar: language websites with grammar and vocabulary exercises, and listening, reading andwriting activities, that are different or similar to the ones in the schoolbooks. The study also looks atdifferent grammar teaching methods, Grammar-translation method, Direct method andAudiolingual method, used in the schoolbooks. Throughout the years, different methods have beenused for teaching grammar, which is why it is interesting to see which ones are used here. Thegrammar content of two English schoolbooks and the classroom observations of year eight and yearnine English lessons were analysed and compared in order to find out whether the grammarteaching affects the pupils proficiency level and accuracy in their essays. This investigation isrelevant since language teaching has become more and more focused on communication, whichmeans that accuracy has a tendency of being forgotten, even though fluency and accuracy are bothequally important in order to achieve a communicative competence.