Deductive and Inductive Approaches in ESL Grammar Learning"A different language is a different vision of life." - Federico Fellini

Communication is the heart and soul of the human experience. Grammar is very important within the English language, since it is, in effect, the glue that holds the language together. Learning English as a second language certainly provides students with an array of amazing new opportunities that would have been otherwise unattainable.

When it comes to learning the challenging English language, one of the most common problem areas for students is the proper use of grammar. With so many little details to learn and things to remember, it can be a somewhat unnatural experience for those just getting started. In fact, English grammar can be so hard to grasp perfectly for foreigners that even after many years speaking English common mistakes frequently occur.

In the past grammar, teaching was seen as the fundamental goal in foreign language classrooms. It was taught to produce correct sententes both written and orally. It was presented directly in text books so that the learners obtained the rules of language first. This type of teaching approach is called deductive teaching which was applied mostly in grammar translation method.The deductive approach is when the teacher tells or shows directly what she/he wants to teach. A deductive approach to teaching language starts by:giving learners rules, then examples, then practice. It is a teacher-centred approach to presenting new content. 

Advantages and disadvantages of using this type of teaching:

However, grammar teaching approaches have been largely changed from deductive to inductive, because when pupils are taught in a deductive approach their attention is directed to grammar the rules rather than understanding the language. In an inductive teaching, learners are taught grammar rules as well. However, the aim is allow students to discover the rules themselves from the provided examples. Nowadays an inductive teaching approach is more preferred by language teachers as it is more student-centered. Even though the objective of both

approaches is teaching grammar, they differ in the ways of teaching. Instruction makes use of

student “noticing”. Instead of explaining a given concept and following this explanation with examples, the

teacher presents students with many examples showing how the concept is used. The intent is for students to “notice”, by way of the examples, how the concept works.

Advantages and disadvantages of using this type of teaching: