Self-study grammar practice:

learners’ views and preferences

Alan Fortune

This is a report of a piece of action research which sought students’ views

on different types of self-study grammar practice exercises. Firstly, a set of
defining characteristics of grammar exercises were identified and a battery
containing a range of such exercises compiled. The exercises exhibited
different clusters of characteristics, and were of both a deductive and
inductive nature. Learners attempted the battery and then evaluated the
different exercises. Their views were elicited by questionnaire and group
interview. The experience of doing the exercises caused a significant
number of learners to change their opinions about inductive and deductive
practice. The investigation also tried to discover which exercise
characteristics the learners found motivating and demotivating, thus
providing potentially useful information for teachers and materials writers.
Possibly fruitful areas for further investigation were identified.

Self-study A large number of grammar workbooks have been published in recent

grammar practice years. Although many of them are claimed to be suitable for both
classroom use and self-study, it is for self-study purposes that they appear
to be most frequently used. Books which combine concise pedagogic
grammar with systematic practice of that grammar have fulfilled a need
perceived by many learners.
When reviewing several of these publications in ELT Journal 42/3, it
struck me that two features are common to nearly all of them. Firstly, a
deductive approach to learning is employed. Secondly, the range of
exercise types is very narrow. Most include isolated, uncontextualized
sentences and involve the learners in either gap-filling, or putting a verb in
brackets in the correct tense, or sometimes both. I suspected that this lack
of variety must make self-study grammar practice rather dull for learners
and set out to investigate how learners themselves evaluated the types of
practice they undertook. Before describing the investigation, however, I
will first distinguish between two types of grammar practice, and
subsequently isolate some of the defining characteristics of self-study
exercises.

Two types of The approach to the study of grammar favoured in the vast majority of
practice published workbooks is deductive. Learners study grammar rules before
applying these rules in doing exercises. In other words, they work from
the general to the particular. I shall refer to exercises of this type as TYPE1
exercises. Very few grammar workbooks present specific language data to
be used as a basis for the discovery of rules by the learners themselves. An

160 ELT Journal Volume 46/2 April 1992 © Oxford University Press 1992

articles welcome
 exception is Shepherd et al. (1984), in which students are invited to
discover rules and patterns themselves before applying their conclusions
in ‘subsequent mechanical exercises’. Examples of this rarer inductive
approach will be called TYPE2exercises.
It is a little surprising that TYPE 2 practice is not more widespread in
published self-study materials. Recent classroom materials have placed a
greater emphasis on inductive learning. There is no apparent reason why it
should not be used more often for self-study purposes. I have long
suspected that TYPE 2 activities engage the brain rather more than many
familiar, mechanical, TYPE 1 exercises, and that the extra challenge
motivates many learners. This contention is supported by others. Harmer
(1987: 39) asserts that ‘encouraging students to discover grammar for
themselves is one valuable way of helping them to get to grips with the
language’ and that ‘the use of discovery techniques can be highly
motivating and extremely beneficial for the students’ understanding of
English grammar.’ Furthermore, Lewis (1986: 165) claims that
All learning theory suggests that those things we discover for ourselves
are more firmly fixed in our minds than those which we are ‘told’ . . . In
place of blind ‘learning’, the emphasis is moved to the process of
exploration which leads to genuine understanding.

Defining Some of the primary features which distinguish types of grammar practice
characteristics of are listed and described below, along with accompanying abbreviations.
grammar They are later applied to a specific battery of exercises.
exercises
TYPE 1/2 TYPE 1 (deductive) - the grammar rule is given first, followed
(Ded/Ind) by the practice exercise(s).
TYPE 2 (inductive) - learners look at some language data in
order to discover a rule themselves.
(Gap) Practice which involves filling in gaps or the completion of
unfinished sentences.
(Brack) The production of particular linguistic forms through the
manipulation of a stem form given in brackets. A common
instruction would be ‘put the verb in brackets into the correct
tense’.
(L Cxt) A linguistic context is provided, e.g. a short text or dialogue.
No isolated, uncontextualized sentences.
(NL Cxt) A non-linguistic context is provided as an essential prompt
for the production of the desired form(s). Such prompts may
take the form of charts, pictures, etc.
(Form +) The practice focuses on more than one grammatical form.
(Sort) Sorting language data into categories according to either
form or meaning, or both (see exercies H and I, below).
(Class) Classifying language items using a grid. This is discussed
below.
(Rank) Ranking: placing language items in order.
Self-study grammar practice: learners’ views 161

articles welcome
 The nature and The study involved 50 learners of English for General Purposes studying
aims of the part-time at Ealing College, London. Of the informants, 41 were female,
investigation 39 were aged between 20 and 30, and 33 came from Europe. Most of the
The informants non-Europeans were from Japan. Their language proficiency ranged from
intermediate to advanced (Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency) level.

Principal aims The main aims were to discover the preferences of the learners for either
TYPE 1 or TYPE 2 practice, and to collect and interpret their views of
different exercise types.

The elicitation The informants were first asked to fill in Questionnaire A (see Appendix
procedure A), designed to elicit basic information about their attitudes and
approaches to the learning of grammar. Item 4 was crucial in that it sought
to discover learners’ views of TYPE1 and TYPE 2 practice before they were
actually required to do both types of exercise.

The exercises The students were given three weeks in which to do a battery of 14
grammar exercises (A to K), some written by myself and others extracted
from published materials. To help maintain student interest, each exercise
dealt with a different area of the language system. The exercises varied in
type and were carefully selected so that each displayed a different
constellation of the nine defining characteristics listed above. Seven (A to
G) were TYPE 1 and the other seven TYPE 2, thus facilitating comparison.
Figure 1 displays the defining characteristics of the entire battery.
The final stage required students to complete Questionnaire B (see
Appendix B), and then to discuss the battery in groups of four or five.
Although most parts of the questionnaire gave rise to useful information,
numbers 1 to 3 were the key items. They yielded quantifiable data on

Figure 1

162 Alan Fortune

articles welcome
 student preferences (items 1,2), and the students’ ‘post-battery’ views on
deductive and inductive practice (item 3).
It was anticipated that utilizing both a formal questionnaire and an
informal discussion would yield more information than either technique
alone. Indeed, the relaxed conduct of the discussions created an
opportunity to probe more deeply into issues raised by the students’
questionnaire responses.

Some examples For the sake of brevity, I will not give details of the whole battery, but
from the battery provide some illustrative examples from it. Of the TYPE I exercises, B and
E differed only in the provision of a linguistic context. Exercise B was a
very hackneyed one where students had to choose between the past simple
and continuous tenses to fill in gaps in unrelated, uncontextualized
sentences.
Exercise B
Complete these sentences by putting the verbs into the past
continuous or the past simple:
1 I....
television when the phone rang. (watch)
Iwaswatching television when the phone rang.
2 Whenthe ambulance came we . . . him into it. (carry)
3 She her car when she suddenly felt ill. (drive)
4 When he saw me he. . off the wall. (fall)
5 We.... to the radio when it suddenly stopped working. (listen)
6 Why... cards when he walked into the office? (you play)
7 ... youwhen you gave them the money? (they thank)
a ... when you turned on the gas? (you smoke)
9 When I arrived, they . . . hello but continued working. (say)
10 When I got to the hospital, she. .. in the waiting room. (sit)

from Walker, E. and S. Elsworth. (1986: 37)

Exercise E also involved the manipulation of the stem form of a verb, but
used a story as linguistic context.
Exercise E
Mixed past and perfect forms
Complete this newspaper report by making correct
verb forms from the words in brackets. Sometimes
there is more than one possibility.

LOCAL COUPLE WIN LOTTERY PRIZE

Ron and Emma Wilson of Paisley (1have) a wonderful
surprise last week. They (2 discover) they (3 win)
£200.000 in the Scottish National Lottery.
Emma (4 buy) tickets for the lottery for years, but
until last week she (5 never win) anything.
She told our reporter: ‘I (6 just talk) to Ron about our
money problems when the postman (7 bring) the letter
that (a tell) us about our win. Of course, we’re very happy!’
Until recently, Ron (9 work) at Oldfield Steelworks.
But then an injury at work (10force) him to retire.
Indeed, the Wilsons (11 think) of moving to a smaller
house because their present house (12 become) too
expensive for them.
Emma said, ‘All my life I (13wonder) what it would be
like to have enough money, and not have to count

Self-study grammar practice: learners’ views 163

articles welcome
 every penny. Now that this money (14 come along),
it’s like a miracle!’
The Wilsons (15 already decide) on some of the
things they want to do with their prize. In fact, last
week they (16 try) to buy a big new house, but the
owner (17 already sell) it. ‘Now we (18 start) to look for
another one, somewhere near the place we love best,
the Scottish Highlands.’

from Adamson, D. and D. Cobb. (1987: 62)

Exercise D exemplifies the use of a non-linguistic context as a basis for
the production of one particular structure, in this case a conditional.
Exercise D
if: special tenses, present and future situations
If you hired the following models, how much would it cost?
-a Vauxhall Astra for 3 days?
If you hired a Vauxhall Astra for 3 days it would cost £66.00.
1 a Ford Sierra for a weekend? 6 a Ford Orion for 2 weeks?
2 a BL Metro for 3 days? 7 a Vauxhall Nova for a weekend?
3 a BMW 316 for 2 weeks? 8 a Ford Escort for 4 days?
4 a Ford Fiesta for 5 days? 9 a BL Maestro for 2 weeks?
5 a BL Montego for a week? 10 a Vauxhall Cavalier for 3 weeks?

from Seidl, J. and M. Swan. (1986: 49)

It was more difficult to isolate those defining characteristics which
distinguish between the inductive exercises. Exercises H, I, and J (see
Figure 1) exhibit the same cluster of characteristics. However, H and I
could be reclassified as open and closed sorting exercises respectively.
H is open because the student is expected not only to sort data into groups
but also to label the groups by discovering how they differ in meaning. In
I, the semantic difference between the groups is given: the student merely
sorts the data.
Exercise H
Sort these sentences into two groups. What is the basic structural
difference between them? In what way are the two groups different in
meaning?
164 Alan Fortune

articles welcome
 1 Oh dear, I’m going to sneeze.
2 Philip’s coming to see us on Saturday.
3 I’m going to see my grandmother at the weekend.
4 I’m taking my exam in June.
5 He’s going to be a ballet dancer.
6 I’m afraid it’s going to rain again.
7 The children are starting school again next week.
8 Don’t forget we’re having dinner early this evening.
from Lewis, M. (1986: 168)

Exercise I
Study these examples.
1 Goodbye, I’ll see you tomorrow.
2 Look at those big black clouds. It’s going to rain.
3 We bought our tickets yesterday. We’re leaving at four o’clock
tomorrow afternoon.
4 Beth may come to stay with us next weekend.
5 The weather might be better if we wait until July.
6 Our boat leaves Southampton at 10 a.m. next Monday and arrives
in New York next Friday evening.
Now write the numbers of the examples above in the appropriate
column.

The speaker is sure The speaker is not sure

from Shepherd et al. (1984: 112)

Of the other TYPE 2 exercises, L (+ Rank) involved ranking modal

auxiliary verbs for degree of likelihood (John must/should/might be alive,
etc.) and also the ranking of intensifiers (quite, extremely, etc.), both
contextualized in isolated sentences. M (+ Class) was very demanding. It
required students to fill in a grid indicating whether or not specified nouns
displayed certain grammatical features, e.g. whether or not they could
follow the indefinite article, or function as a lexical verb (e.g. ‘train’).

Exercise M
These are some of the features that nouns can possess.
1 Can come after the.
2 Can come after a/an.
3 Can have a singular and a plural form.
4 Can have the singular form only.
5 Can have the plural form only.
6 Can come between the + noun, e.g. ‘a baby boy’.
7 Can be made into a verb, e.g. ‘to book’.
Look at the nouns listed below and place either ticks (-) or crosses (X)
in the columns. For example, if a noun possesses feature 6, but not
feature 7, then you tick column 6 and put a cross in column 7.
Self-study grammar practice: learners’ views 16.5

articles welcome
 book

baby

sheep

news

cattle

Peter

scissors

music

furniture

(adapted from an unpublished exercise by Norman Whitney)

Results of the Questionnaire A was returned by 49 informants. The main findings were:
investigation l 46 (94 per cent) considered that grammar played a very important role
Questionnaire A in language learning. By far the two most favoured
grammar learning strategies were (see Ellis and
Sinclair, 1989: 4654):
- asking native speakers questions about grammar;
- referring regularly to a grammar book.
l 32 (65 per cent) preferred to do grammar practice in class;
15 (31 per cent) preferred to do grammar practice on their own.
l 34 (69 per cent) preferred to be presented with a rule first, and then to
do related grammar exercises (TYPE 1);
12 (24 per cent) preferred to study some example language in order to
discover a grammar rule themselves (TYPE 2).

Questionnaire 6 Questionnaire B was returned by 45 informants. The main findings were:

l 24 (53 per cent) preferred TYPE I (deductive) exercises;
19 (42 per cent) preferred TYPE 2 (inductive) exercises.
l 40 (89 per cent) preferred exercises which involved a choice of
linguistic forms;
5 (11 per cent) preferred exercises which provided practice of one
form only.
l Most interesting exercises Least interesting exercises
1 E (41 points) 1 D (33 points)
2 N (22 points) 2 C (26 points)
3 L (18 points) 3 G (23 points)

166 Alan Fortune

articles welcome
 l Most difficult exercises Easiest exercises
1 K (50 points) 1 G (31 points)
2 M (41 points) 2 D (28 points)
3 L (25 points) 3 C (21 points)
(Note: the points were awarded on the basis of 3 for the most interesting,
difficult, etc., down to 1 for the third most interesting, etc.)
l When invited to contrast B and E:
8 (17 per cent) of the informants preferred B;
36 (80 per cent) preferred E.
l Exercises C, D, F, and G drew negative comments from about 80 per
cent of the informants. All four exercises dealt exclusively with one
linguistic form and were also based on a non-linguistic feature such as
a picture or chart.

Discussion of the I shall first deal with the informants’ opinions of the TYPE 1 and TYPE 2
results approaches, and then with their thoughts on specific exercise types from
the battery. Comments made during the group interview stage are
included.

Deductive or The experience of doing the inductive activities persuaded some students
inductive? that they provided worthwhile and enjoyable practice. Although a
majority (58 per cent) still expressed a preference for TYPE 1practice, the
proportion preferring TYPE 2 work jumped from 24 per cent to 42 per cent.
Some student comments appear to support Harmer’s (1987) views on
motivation:
It makes me work harder and use my common sense. I find it rewarding
to find out the rules myself. (Ana, Portugal, on TYPE 2 exercises)
A good idea to look at grammar the other way round. You learn about
English without having to learn boring rules. (Petra, Germany)
Some backed Lewis’s claim (1986) that inductive work facilitates the
ready commitment of grammar to memory.
When you find the rule yourself you’ll be able to remember it more
easily. It’s a more active way of learning to use English
properly. (Marie-Odile, France)
There was some indication that the higher their language level, the more
likely the learners were to prefer TYPE 2 exercises. This was possibly
because several informants, mostly at the lower levels, felt insecure
without the rule first, and were sometimes unsure what was expected of
them. For example, the sorting exercises (H to J) drew responses ranging
from great enthusiasm to total bewilderment, the latter usually with the
linguistically weaker students. The closed sorting exercises (I, J) cause
fewer problems than the open one (H).
Some exercises, although interesting, were difficult to understand, it
wasn’t clear what we had to do, or why.
(Rifat, Pakistan, on TYPE 2 practice)
Self-study grammar practice: learners’ views 167

articles welcome
 The group discussions revealed that the difficulties some students
encountered with sorting practice (and TYPE 2 work in general) might well
have been obviated by appropriate classroom learner training beforehand.
I would suggest that this is an essential prerequisite of much TYPE 2
practice.
Very significantly, the group interviews also revealed that many students
like TYPE 2 practice to be reinforced by looking at a rule afterwards, and
then by further practice. Seeing a rule is an important prop, even for many
of those who preferred TYPE 2 practice.
I feel more secure with a rule because my intuition does not tell me a
lot. (Caroline, France)
You can’t be 100 per cent sure that you’ve found the rule. You must
have the possibility to get the right rule from the teacher.
(Sara, Sweden)
These students would appear to concur with Eisenstein (1987: 288) who,
in a discussion of classroom grammar teaching, argues that ‘both
deductive and inductive presentation can be useful depending on the
cognitive style of the learner and the structure to be presented’. She puts
the case for a compromise methodological position where learners
attempt to discover a rule from selected language data, then compare it
with pedagogic grammar, and finally do more practice of the structure(s)
concerned.

Student views of Exercises incorporating a linguistic context, such as a continuous text,

specific exercises generally proved more popular than those involving uncontextualized
from the battery sentences. The overwhelming preference for E rather than B is a testament
to this. However, the provision of a non-linguistic context did not give rise
to a positive response. As shown in the results section, three such
exercises (C, D, and G) were ranked the three least interesting. The
interviews revealed a consensus that the diagrams and pictures upon
which these activities were based were considered uninteresting. A table
of car hire charges (D) and a flight itinerary (F) were far from stimulating.
The value of non-linguistic information as a basis for language work has
long been recognized, but if we wish it to motivate, the subject matter
must be less mundane.
D was boring because you had to repeat the same structure ten times. I
was thinking more about maths than about conditional sentences.
Anyway, I’m not interested in car hire charges. (Veronica, Austria)
Veronica’s statement displayed another general preference, also reflected
in the unpopularity of C, D, F, and G, for practice involving a choice from
more than one linguistic form.
Only E of the three exercises considered most interesting was of TYPE I.
The other two (N and L) both made use of ranking, and drew these
comments:
168 Alan Fortune

articles welcome
 I profited from it [N]. I had to think about slight differences in meaning.
Difficult, but a lot of fun. (Marie-Odile, France)

Some concluding The investigation produced information that is potentially useful to

remarks language teachers and materials writers about the types of exercise that
our students, whose views should not be overlooked, find motivating. I
will now select the self-study practice I recommend for students with
greater care. Clearly, however, conclusions based on such a small sample
of both exercises and informants are by necessity tentative. Further, more
detailed research is planned to investigate the relationship between initial
student beliefs about language learning and preferences for inductive or
deductive practice. Skehan (1989: 111-2) discusses the difference
between field-independent (analytical) and field-dependent (holistic)
learners. The hypothesis that field-independent learners will both prefer
and be more successful at TYPE 2 practice than field-dependent learners is
also to be investigated.

As far as organizing a small-scale piece of action research is concerned,

the study highlights the value of not relying entirely on written
questionnaire responses. The two questionnaires, particularly the second,
were essential and integral parts of the investigation, and yielded valuable
qualitative and quantitative information. Nevertheless, the group
interview technique allowed the completed questionnaires to be used as a
basis for probing more deeply into the students’ responses. Moreover, the
interaction between the informants brought to light views which might
not have been elicited in one-to-one interviews.

To conclude, it is worth quoting Joan Rubin (198 1):

The good language learner is constantly looking for patterns in the

language. He attends to the form in a particular way, constantly
analyzing, categorizing and synthesizing. He is constantly trying to
find schemes for classifying information.

TYPE 2 practice is designed to facilitate just such mental processes. With

this in mind, an investigation is being planned into the relationship
between language achievement and preference for inductive or deductive
practice.

Rubin (1981) also says of the good language learner that ‘. . . the more
experience he has with doing this [analyzing, categorizing, etc.] sort of
exercise the more successful he will be.’ This implies that TYPE 2 practice
engenders better learning. Whether or not this is the case, experience of
inductive exercises caused a significant number of my informants to
prefer it to the more familiar deductive approach. Students who feel
positively about the type of language practice they are undertaking will
surely learn more effectively than they otherwise would.

Received October 1991

Self-study grammar practice: learners’ views 169

articles welcome
References 2 Please tick the appropriate response.
Adamson, D. and D. Cobb. 1987. Active Grammar I prefer to do grammar exercises
Exercises. London: Longman. in class
Eisenstein, M. 1987. ‘Grammatical explanations in on my own
ESL: teach the student, not the method’, in Long Please give a reason for your choice.
and Richards (eds.) 1987.
Ellis, G. and B. Sinclair. 1989. Learning to Learn 3 Please tick the appropriate response.
English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. a. Doing grammar exercises on my own is
Harmer, J. 1987. Teaching and Learning Grammar. rather dull
London: Longman. dull
Lewis, M. 1986. The English Verb. Hove: Language of some interest, but not a lot
Teaching Publications. interesting
Long, M. and J. Richards (eds.) 1987. Methodology very interesting
in TESOL: a book of readings. Rowley, Mass.: b. Doing grammar exercises in class is
Newbury House. rather dull
Rubin, J. 1981. ‘What the “good language learner” dull
can teach us’. TESOL Quarterly 9: 41-51. of some interest, but not a lot
Seidl, J. and M. Swan. 1986. Basic English Usage: interesting
Exercises. Oxford: Oxford University Press. very interesting
Shepherd, J., R. Rossner, and J. Taylor. 1984. Ways
Write (a) or (b) in the space alongside:______
to Grammar. London: Macmillan.
Skehan, P. 1989. Individual Differences in Second- To learn English grammar, I prefer
Language Learning. London: Edward Arnold. a. to read a grammar rule first and then to do an
Walker, E. and S. Elsworth. 1986. Grammar exercise; or
Practice for Intermediate Students. London: b. to look at some examples (e.g. pairs of
Longman. sentences, a text) in order to try to discover a
grammar rule.
To learn grammar, which of the following do you
do?
Acknowledgements Tick only those statements which apply to you.
The author and publishers would like to thank the Leave the other statements blank.
following for permission to reproduce material that a. Refer regularly to a grammar book
falls within their copyright: b. Discuss grammar with your friends
Longman for an exercise from Grammar Practice for or classmates
Intermediate Students by Walker, E. and S. Elsworth C. Ask native speakers questions about
(1987); and for an exercise from Active Grammar grammar
Exercises by Adamson, D. and D. Cobb (1987). d. Do grammar exercises in your
free time
Language Teaching Publications for an exercise from
e. Ask native speakers to correct
The English Verb by Lewis, M. (1986).
you
Macmillan for an exercise from Ways to Grammar by f. Choose a grammar topic to learn
Shepherd, J., R. Rossner, and J. Taylor (1984). every week/month
6 To learn English grammar, do you think it is
necessary to know grammatical terms (e.g. past
progressive, passive, countable noun)?
Tick appropriately. Yes - No -
Appendix A

Questionnaire A

1 How important do you think it is to do grammar

practice exercises to learn English? Appendix B
Please tick (-) the appropriate response.
Questionnaire B
very important
important 1 Choose the three exercises that you found most dif-
useful, but not very important ficult. List them in order of difficulty. For example,
unimportant if you found exercise E most difficult, place E next

170 Alan Fortune

articles welcome
to number 1. Then do the same for the three easiest
exercises.
Easiest
Most difficult
l______
2______ 2 ______
3______ 3_____
Choose the three exercises you found most
interesting and enjoyable to do. List them in order
of interest. Then do the same for the three least
interesting (dullest) exercises.
Most interesting Least interesting
In some of the exercises (e.g. A to D) a gram-
matical rule is given first, and then you do a prac-
tice exercise. We shall call these TYPE I.
In other exercises (e.g. H to M) you are presented
with examples of the language, and you try to find
out the rule(s) yourself. We shall call these TYPE 2.
Which do you prefer when studying on your
own?
Tick appropriately.
TYPE1 _________ TYPE2 _______
Please give a reason for your choice, and any
further comment you would like to make.
Which did you find most useful?
Exercise B or Exercise E? ______
Why?
Do you prefer exercises which involve only one
grammatical form (for example, D or F), or those
which involve choosing between two or more
forms (for example, E or G)? Please tick.
One form only _____
Choice of forms ______
Please comment on the following exercises.
Think of such matters as: difficulty, how much you
thought you learnt, was it fun to do? etc.
Exercise C Exercise L
Exercise F Exercise M
Exercises H, I, and J
General comments
Please add any other comments about the exercises.
The author
Alan Fortune is a Senior Lecturer in English
Language Teaching at the Polytechnic of West
London at Ealing. He holds an MSc in Applied
Linguistics from Edinburgh University, and has
worked in Sweden and Indonesia. His current work
includes both the pre- and in-service training of
English language teachers on the Polytechnic’s ‘MA
in English Language Teaching’ and other courses for
British and overseas teachers. He also works
extensively with undergraduate learners. His current
research concerns individual learner differences in
approaches to grammar learning. His other interests
include cultural studies, syllabus design, and teaching
and assessing advanced learners.

Self-study grammar practice: learners’ views 171

articles welcome