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IMPACT OF TEXTUAL ENHANCEMENT ON EFL GRAMMAR LEARNING IN BANGLADESH

BY

AKHTER JAHAN

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Language Studies

(Linguistics)

Department of Literature and Linguistics

Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences

International Islamic University Malaysia

SEPTEMBER 2018

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ABSTRACT

Textual Enhancement (TE) can be distinguished as the focus on form procedure that intends to increase the input saliency in any kind of texts (written or oral) so that learners can notice targeted forms in a meaning oriented context and thereby acquire those items’

form-function mappings (Schmidt, 1995, 2001; Sharwood Smith, 1991, 1993). It has been suggested by Lee (2007) and White (1998) that this implicit procedure would be able to facilitate language acquisition process of those learners who have pre-knowledge regarding targeted forms. In spite of having long term pre-exposure to English, most of the tertiary learners of Bangladesh encounter problems in using the target language accurately. Therefore, this fourteen-week long experimental study aims to investigate whether or not TE can facilitate those learners’ noticing, intake and acquisition of form to function mappings of the target forms related to certain uses of articles, tense, subject verb agreement, modal auxiliaries and voice in the noun and the verb phrase constructions. Six pre-tests, immediate post-tests and delayed post-tests were conducted in this study. One hundred undergraduate level learners from Bangladesh were involved and were divided into enhanced, non-enhanced and control groups. Data were elicited through the following tasks: a note taking, a reading comprehension, two grammar- based activity, a certainty judgement test and a meta-linguistic awareness battery;

besides the tasks, the researcher included four noticing questions. The TE procedure ensured that all six pairs of forms were emboldened in twelve corresponding texts. The results of the study revealed that multiple exposure to TE over a period of time would be effective in increasing the noticing of the targeted forms. A salient point worthy of emphasis is that such exposure would facilitate the acquisition of only those forms which are salient in terms of meaning and frequency, and simple in respect of structure.

In this study, one form that fulfilled the criteria was the targeted modal auxiliaries;

performance related to this form showing significant improvements and sustainability.

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ّﺺَﺨﻠُﻣ ﺚﺤﺒﻟا

ﻳ فﺮﻌ ﻲﺼﻨﻟا ﲔﺴﺤﺘﻟا ﺰﻴﻴﲤ (TE)

ﺔﻣءﻼﻣ ةد�ز ﱃإ فﺪﺗﻬ ﱵﻟا ﻞﻜﺸﻟا تاءاﺮﺟإ ﻰﻠﻋ ﺰﻴﻛﱰﻟا ﻪﻧأ ﻰﻠﻋ

لﺎﻜﺷﻷا ﺔﻈﺣﻼﻣ ﻦﻣ نﻮﻤﻠﻌﺘﳌا ﻦﻜﻤﺘﻳ ﱴﺣ ،(ﺔﻴﻬﻔﺸﻟا وأ ﺔﺑﻮﺘﻜﳌا) صﻮﺼﻨﻟا ﻦﻣ عﻮﻧ يأ ﰲ تﻼﺧﺪﳌا ﳌا قﺎﻴﺳ ﰲ ﺔﻓﺪﻬﺘﺴ بﺎﺴﺘﻛا ﺔﻴﻠﻋ ًءﺎﻨﺑو ،ﲎﻌﻣ يذ

ﺮﺻﺎﻨﻌﻟا ﻚﻠﺘﻟ ﺔﻴﻔﻴﻇﻮﻟا ﺔﻄﻳﺮﳋا جذﺎﳕ

،ﺖﻴﴰ) ١٩٩٥،٢٠٠١

؛م ﺚﻴﲰ دوورﺎﺷ

، ١٩٩٣،١٩٩١ .(م

) ﱄ حﱰﻗا ﺪﻗو ٢٠٠٧

ﺖﻳاو و (م

) ١٩٩٨ ﲔﻤﻠﻌﺘﳌا ﻚﺌﻟوﻷ ﺔﻐﻠﻟا بﺎﺴﺘﻛا ﺔﻴﻠﻤﻋ ﻞﻴﻬﺴﺗ ﻰﻠﻋ ًاردﺎﻗ نﻮﻜﻴﺳ ﲏﻤﻀﻟا ءاﺮﺟﻹا اﺬﻫ نأ (م

نﺄﺸﺑ ﺔﻘﺒﺴﻣ ﺔﻓﺮﻌﻣ ﻢﻬﻳﺪﻟ ﻦﻳﺬﻟا ﻰﻠﻋ ﺔﻳﺰﻴﻠﳒﻹا ﺔﻐﻠﻟ ﻖﺒﺴﳌا ضﺮﻌﺘﻟا ﻦﻣ ﻢﻏﺮﻟا ﻰﻠﻋ .ﺔﻓﺪﻬﺘﺴﳌا لﺎﻜﺷﻷا

ﺔﻓﺪﻬﺘﺴﳌا ﺔﻐﻠﻟا ماﺪﺨﺘﺳا ﰲ ﻞﻛﺎﺸﻣ نﻮﻬﺟاﻮﻳ ﺶﻳدﻼﻐﻨﺑ ﰲ ﱄﺎﻌﻟا ﻢﻴﻠﻌﺘﻟا ﻲﻤﻠﻌﺘﻣ ﻢﻈﻌﻣ نﺈﻓ ،ﻞﻳﻮﻄﻟا ىﺪﳌا ﺎﻛ اذإ ﺎﳑ ﻖﻘﺤﺘﻟا ﱃإ ﺎًﻋﻮﺒﺳأ ﺮﺸﻋ ﺔﻌﺑرأ ﺖﻗﺮﻐﺘﺳا ﱵﻟا ﺔﻴﺒﻳﺮﺠﺘﻟا ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻩﺬﻫ ﺖﻓﺪﻫ ،ﻚﻟﺬﻟو .ﺔﻗﺪﺑ ن

نﺎﻜﻣﺑﺈ TE ﻢﻬﺋﺎﻨﺘﻗاو ،ﻢﳍوﺎﻨﺗو ،ﻩﺬﻫ ﲔﻤﻠﻌﺘﳌا ﺔﻈﺣﻼﻣ ﺮﺴﻴﻳ نأ ﺔﻴﻔﻴﻇﻮﻟا ﺔﻃرﺎﺨﻠﻟ

ﺔﻓﺪﻬﺘﺴﳌا جذﺎﻤﻨﻠﻟ

،ﺔﻃوﺮﺸﳌا ةﺪﻋﺎﺴﳌا لﺎﻌﻓﻷا ،ﻞﻋﺎﻔﻟا ﻊﻣ ﻞﻌﻔﻟا ﻖﻓاﻮﺗ ،عرﺎﻀﳌا ،تﻻﺎﻘﻤﻠﻟ ﺔﻨﻴﻌﻣ تﺎﻣاﺪﺨﺘﺳﺑﺎ ﺔﻘﻠﻌﺘﳌا ﺔﻘﺒﺴﻣ تﺎﺻﻮﺤﻓ ﺔﺘﺳ ءاﺮﺟإ ﰎ .ﻞﻌﻔﻟا ﺔﻠﲨ ءﺎﻨﺑو ،ﻢﺳﻻا ﰲ تﻮﺼﻟا ةﺮﺧﺄﺘﳌا صﻮﺤﻔﻟا ﺪﻌﺑ ﺎﻣ تارﺎﺒﺘﺧاو

ﺚﻴﺣ ،ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻩﺬﻫ ﰲ ﺶﻳدﻼﻐﻨﺑ ﻦﻣ ﻲﻌﻣﺎﳉا ىﻮﺘﺴﳌا ﰲ ٍﻢﻠﻌﺘﻣ ﺔﺌﻣ ﺖﺟردأ .ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻩﺬﻫ ﰲ ﺎﻫﺪﻌﺑ ﺎﻣو ﺬﺧأ :ﺔﻴﺗﻵا مﺎﻬﳌا لﻼﺧ ﻦﻣ ت�ﺎﻴﺒﻟا جاﺮﺨﺘﺳا ﰎ .ﺔﺒﻗاﺮﻣو ةزﺰﻌﻣ ﲑﻏو ةزﺰﻌﻣ تﺎﻋﻮﻤﳎ ﱃإ ﻢﻬﻤﻴﺴﻘﺗ ﰎ ﻦﻣ ﲔﻃﺎﺸﻧو ،ةءاﺮﻘﻟا ﻢﻬﻓو ،تﺎﻈﺣﻼﻣ ﲔﻘﻴﻟا ﻢﻜﳊا رﺎﺒﺘﺧاو ،ﺔﻳﻮﺤﻨﻟا ﺪﻋاﻮﻘﻟا ﻰﻠﻋ ﺔﻤﺋﺎﻘﻟا ﺔﻄﺸﻧﻻا

ءاﺮﺟإ .ﺔﺤﺿاو ﺔﻠﺌﺳأ ﺔﻌﺑرأ ﺚﺣﺎﺒﻟا ﻢﺿ ،مﺎﻬﳌا ﱃإ ﺔﻓﺎﺿﻹﺑﺎ .ﺔﻳﻮﻐﻠﻟا ﺔﻳدﺪﻌﺘﻟا ﻲﻋﻮﻟا ﺔﻳرﺎﻄﺑو TE

ﰎ جذﺎﻤﻨﻟا ﻦﻣ ﺔﺘﺴﻟا جاوزﻷا ﻊﻴﲨ نأ ﻦﻤﻀﺗ ﺎﻬﻨﻴﻤﻀﺗ

نأ ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﺞﺋﺎﺘﻧ ﺖﻔﺸﻛ .ﺎًﺼﻧ ﺮﺸﻋ ﲏﺛا ﰲ

دﺪﻌﺘﳌا ضﺮﻌﺘﻟا طﺎﻘﻨﻟا ﻦﻣو .ﺔﻓﺪﻬﺘﺴﳌا لﺎﻜﺷﻷا ﺔﻈﺣﻼﻣ ةد�ز ﰲ ًﻻﺎﻌﻓ نﻮﻜﻴﺳ ﺔﻴﻨﻣز ةﱰﻓ لﻼﺧ TE

ﻦﻣ ةزرﺑﺎ نﻮﻜﺗ ﱵﻟا لﺎﻜﺷﻷا ﻚﻠﺗ ﻂﻘﻓ بﺎﺴﺘﻛا ﻞﻬﺴﻴﺳ ضﺮﻌﺘﻟا اﺬﻫ ﻞﺜﻣ نأ ﺰﻴﻛﱰﻟﺑﺎ ةﺮﻳﺪﳉا ةزرﺎﺒﻟا .ﻪﻠﻜﻴﺑﻬ ﻖﻠﻌﺘﻳ ﺎﻤﻴﻓ ﺔﻄﻴﺴﺑو ددﱰﻟاو ﲎﻌﳌا ﺚﻴﺣ تﺮﻬﻇا

لﺎﻜﺷﻷا ﲔﺑ ﻦﻣ نأ ،ﻚﻟﺬﻛ ﺔﺳارﺪﻟا ﻩﺬﻫ ﱵﻟا

ﻮﻫ ﲑﻳﺎﻌﳌا ﺖﻓﻮﺘﺳا ﺔﻃوﺮﺸﳌا ةﺪﻋﺎﺴﳌا لﺎﻌﻓﻷا

ةﲑﺒﻛ تﺎﻨﻴﺴﲢ ﺮﻬﻇأ يﺬﻟا جذﻮﳕﻷا اﺬﺑﻬ ﻖﻠﻌﺘﳌا ءادﻷا ؛

.ﺔﻤﺋادو

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APPROVAL PAGE

The thesis of Akhter Jahan has been approved by the following:

_____________________________

Subramaniam Govindasamy Supervisor

_____________________________

Tunku Badariah Tunku Ahmad Internal Examiner

_____________________________

Jayakaran Mukundan External Examiner

_____________________________

Hazita Azman External Examiner

_____________________________

Saim Kayadibi Chairman

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is the outcome of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. I also declare that this work has not been previously or simultaneously submitted as a whole for any other degree at IIUM or any other institutions.

Akhter Jahan

Signature……… Date……….…………

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INTERCOPYRIGHT PAGE

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH

IMPACT OF TEXTUAL ENHANCEMENT ON EFL GRAMMAR LEARNING IN BANGLADESH

I declare that the Copyright Holders of this Thesis is Akhter Jahan.

Copyright © 2018 Akhter Jahan. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as provided below

1. Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may be used by others in their writing with due acknowledgement.

2. IIUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.

3. The IIUM library will have the right to make, store in a retrieved system and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other universities and research libraries.

By signing this form, I acknowledged that I have read and understand the IIUM Intellectual Property Right and Commercialization policy.

Affirmed by Akhter Jahan

……..……….. ………..

Signature Date

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All is due to Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. His Blessings have made this three and a half year long journey of pursuing Ph.D. humanly possible for me.

I would like to thank my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Subramaniam Govindasamy, for his continuous guidance and encouragement throughout this stressful period of research. I would also like to thank him for his patience with my endless queries. His insightful comments and unwavering support made this seemingly difficult task of carrying out empirical research manageable for me.

Thanks are due to all the participants from Bangladesh who willingly agreed to provide me with data for this thesis.

Last but not the least, I am more than grateful to my family, who have always been the source of strength and patience for me to face the enormous challenge of conducting this empirical research.

Once again, we glorify Allah for His endless mercy on us. Alhamdulillah

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ... ii

Abstract in Arabic ... iii

Approval Page ... iv

Declaration ... v

Copyright Page ... vi

Acknowledgements ... vii

List of Tables ... xi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 Introduction ... 1

1.2 Background of the study ... 2

1.3 Statement of the problem ... 14

1.4 Purpose of the study... 16

1.5 Research objectives ... 17

1.6 Research questions... 17

1.7 Significance of the study ... 18

1.8 Definition of terms ... 20

1.9 Chapter summary ... 22

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ... 24

2.1 Introduction ... 24

2.2 Focus on Form (FonF) ... 24

2.3 Input enhancement ... 30

2.4 Textual Enhancement (TE) of input ... 36

2.5 Noticing ... 37

2.6 Explicit and implicit knowledge ... 45

2.7 Sign based linguistic approach ... 49

2.8 Grammatical complexities and related learning difficulties ... 52

2.9 Grammar teaching context in Bangladesh ... 57

2.10 Target forms of the study ... 65

2.10.1 Indefinite and definite articles ... 66

2.10.2 Present perfect and past simple tense forms of verbs ... 70

2.10.3 Subject verb agreement in the third person present simple tense ... 73

2.10.4 Modals ‘should’, ‘could’, ‘must’ and ‘may’ ... 76

2.10.5 Active and passive forms of verbs in the third person present simple tense ... 80

2.11 Empirical studies on textual enhancement and grammar learning ... 84

2.12 Conclusion ... 130

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ... 131

3.1 Introduction ... 131

3.2 Theoretical framework ... 131

3.3 Research hypothesis... 136

3.4 Participants ... 140

3.5 Materials ... 141

3.6 Overview of the research design ... 142

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3.7 Instruments ... 146

3.7.1 Note taking task ... 148

3.7.2 Multiple choice reading comprehension task ... 149

3.7.3 Noticing questions ... 149

3.7.4 Fill-in-the-blanks task ... 149

3.7.5 Choosing the correct form and judging the certainty of the answers task ... 150

3.7.6 Metalinguistic awareness task ... 151

3.8 Data analysis ... 151

3.8.1 Scoring of the quantitative data ... 151

3.8.2 Scoring of the qualitative data ... 152

3.8.2.1 Scoring the note taking data ... 152

3.8.2.2 Scoring the noticing question data ... 153

3.8.2.3 Scoring the metalinguistic awareness task data ... 154

CHAPTER FOUR: TEXT ENHANCEMENT AND LEARNER RESPONSE ... 159

4.1 Introduction ... 159

4.2 Procedure of data analysis ... 160

4.3 Quantitative analysis of the data ... 162

4.3.1 Note taking task results ... 163

4.3.2 Multiple choice (MC) comprehension task results ... 169

4.3.3 Noticing question results ... 171

4.3.3.1 Noticing question 1 ... 172

4.3.3.2 Noticing question 2 ... 174

4.3.3.3 Noticing question 3 ... 176

4.3.3.4 Noticing question 4 ... 178

4.3.4 Fill-in-the-blanks task results ... 181

4.3.5 Choosing the correct form task results ... 187

4.3.6 Certainty judgment task results ... 192

4.3.7 Total gain scores for all the target forms ... 197

4.3.8 Metalinguistic awareness task results ... 201

4.4 Qualitative analysis of the data ... 205

4.4.1 Noticing question 2 ... 206

4.4.2 Noticing question 4 ... 218

4.4.3 Metalinguistic awareness task ... 222

4.3.3.1 Indefinite and definite articles ... 222

4.3.3.2 Present perfect and past simple tense forms of verbs ... 226

4.3.3.3 Subject verb agreement in the third person present simple tense ... 229

4.3.3.4 Modals ‘may’ and ‘must’ ... 233

4.3.3.5 Modals ‘should’ and ‘could’ ... 236

4.3.3.6 Active and passive forms of verbs in the third person present simple tense ... 239

4.5 Conclusion ... 242

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ... 245

5.1 Introduction ... 245

5.2 Summary of findings ... 246

5.2.1 Multiple exposure to the enhanced texts and the participants’ noticing ... 246

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5.2.2 The participants’ variation in noticing the target forms ... 258

5.2.3 Textual Enhancement (TE) and the participants’ ability to convey targeted meanings ... 267

5.2.4 The participants’ variation in the use of the target forms ... 273

5.2.5 The participants’ comprehension of form to function mapping ... 285

5.2.6 The participants’ variation in the extent of form-function mappings . 295 5.3 Conclusion ... 306

5.4 Recommendations and implications ... 311

5.5 Limitations of the study and future research ... 315

REFERENCES ... 316

APPENDIXES ... 337

Appendix I: Materials, Texts And Instruments For The Indefinite And The Definite Articles ... 337

Appendix II: Texts And Instruments For The Present Perfect And The Past Simple Tense Forms Of Verbs ... 345

Appendix III: Texts And Instruments For The Subject Verb Agreement In The Third Person Present Simple Tense ... 350

Appendix IV: Texts And Instruments For The Root Modals ‘Should’ And ‘Could’ ... 355

Appendix V: Texts And Instruments For The Epistemic Modals ‘May’ And ‘Must’ ... 361

Appendix VI: Texts And Instruments For The Active And The Passive Forms Of Verbs In The Third Person Present Simple Tense ... 367

Appendix VII: Tables Related To The Results Of The Study ... 372

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LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Page No.

1 Research Design for Pre-test 147

2 Research Design for Exposure and Immediate Post-tests 145

3 Research Design for Delayed Post-tests 146

4 Results of Piloting the Instruments of the Study 147 5 Pre-test Total Scores: Treatment Groups and Target Forms 163 6 Independent Samples t Test Results for Note Taking Mean

Scores of Enhanced and Non-enhanced Groups According to

Grammatical Items- Day 1 165

7 Independent Samples t Test Results for the Note Taking Mean Scores of Enhanced and Non-enhanced Groups According to

Grammatical Items- Day 2 166

8 Paired Samples t Test results for the Note Taking Mean Scores of Enhanced Group on Day 1 and 2 Exposure According to Gramm-

atical Items 167

9 Paired Sample t Test Results for the Note Taking Mean Scores of Non-enhanced Group on Day 1 and 2 exposure According to

Targeted Grammatical Items 168

10 Descriptive Statistics for Text A and B Comprehension Scores 170 11 Descriptive Statistics for Gain Scores for the Fill-in-the-blanks

Task According to Treatment Groups, target Forms and Post-tests 183 12 Gain Scores for Choosing the Correct Form Task According to

Treatment Groups, target Forms and Post-tests 188 13 Gain Scores for the Certainty Judgement Task According to

Post-tests, Target Forms and Treatment 193

14 Total Gain Scores According to Post-tests, Target Forms and

Treatment 198

15 Pre-test Total Scores and Total Gain Scores of the Post-tests

According to Target Forms 200

16 Normality of Distribution of All the Gain Scores in the

Immediate and the Delayed Post-tests 372

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17 Cross-tabulation of Treatment and the Noticing Questions' Scores According to the Pairs of Target Forms 378 18 Descriptive Statistics for Grammar Tasks 1 and 2 Total Scores,

and Certainty Scores According to Target Forms 379 19 Correlations between the Scores for Target Forms and Certainty

about Those Forms in Grammar Task 2 380

20 Cross-tabulation of Treatment and Metalinguistic Awareness

Task Scores According to Target Forms 381

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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Textual Enhancement (TE) can be distinguished as the focus on form procedure that intends to increase input saliency in texts (either written or oral) so that Second Language (SL) learners can notice targeted form in a meaning oriented context and thereby acquiring the item’s form-function mapping easily (Nassaji & Fotos, 2011;

Schmidt, 1995, 2001; Sharwood Smith, 1991, 1993). However, after TE’s emergence in the nineteen-nineties, different researchers have treated it in such diversified ways during their empirical investigations that their individualistic designs of research and various tools for collecting data might have led to a set of divergent and conflicting results (Han, Park & Combs, 2008; Lee & Huang, 2008; Leow, 2008). Considering these results, researchers find it difficult to draw any generalization regarding what the

‘cognitive and pedagogical effects’ of input enhancement would be in any English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) contexts (Winke, 2013, p.324). Therefore, before applying TE for teaching any particular group of learners, practitioners will have to administer studies in that context to examine the impact of this teaching procedure on that specific group of learners’ cognitive and linguistic development.

The distinctive features of the previous TE studies paved the way for this research project. The tertiary level EFL learners of Bangladesh have been included in this study as the participants due to their 12-year formal exposure to EFL. This protracted exposure, it has been assumed, would be able to assist them in acquiring the Target Language (TL) grammar in meaningful contexts through the use of TE (Lee,

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2007; White, 1998). The constructions of noun and verb phrases are the two weakest areas where these learners need the most support for developing their grammatical accuracy (Azad & Shanta, 2012; Basu & Bhowmik, 2006; Khan & Akter, 2011; S.

Mahmud, 2009; Z. M. Mahmud, 2008). Therefore, these structures have been targeted in this study focusing on six pairs of forms and functions, such as, the uses of indefinite and definite articles for referring to specific and non-specific entities, the uses of present perfect and past simple tense forms of verbs for expressing non-past before and past events, the uses of subject verb agreement in the third person present simple tense for making focus number distinction, the uses of root modals ‘should’ and ‘could’, and epistemic modals ‘must’ and ‘may’ for referring to high or low hypothetically of events taking place, and the uses of the active and the passive forms of verbs in the third person present simple tense for showing more or less control of the subject over the occurrence.

Since the classes at tertiary level in Bangladesh varies in size from 40 to 120 students and are rarely multimedia facilitated, TE of written input rather than oral input has been chosen in this study as the medium of exposure to the TL (Bashir & Ferdousy, 2006; Fotos, 1998). Therefore, the findings of this research are generalizable to all the tertiary level classrooms in the country.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Bangladeshi educational system can be categorized into general, vocational and madrasa streams (Anwar, 2006). The general educational stream consists of primary, secondary and tertiary levels (Pouezevara & Khan, 2007). The primary education starts from grade one to five, the secondary education includes grade six to ten and the higher secondary education comprises of grades eleven and twelve. Students who receive their Higher Secondary Certificates (HSC) can enroll in tertiary level institutions. The

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students, who study in the madrasa stream (the religious stream) from grade one to twelve, can also join the tertiary level. Tertiary students can attend degree level colleges (3 year program) or can pursue a 4-year program at universities based on their capacity and interest (Patra, Alam & Sobhan, 2010).

There are both public and private universities in Bangladesh. According to a recent report of University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh (2016), there are a total of 127 universities in the country. Among these institutions, thirty-seven are public universities and eighty-five are private ones. In addition, Bangladesh National University and Bangladesh Open University are two special universities, where university level courses are offered in affiliation with different colleges; and non- campus distance education is also provided (Patra et al., 2010). Besides these public and private universities, three other universities conduct international standard educational programs.

The tertiary level education system of Bangladesh opts to meet the vital educational needs and demands of her nationals with this large number of universities.

Since having English language proficiency has become indispensable for surviving in this globalized world, both the public and the private universities of the country have taken up the challenges to make their graduates communicatively competent in English.

To achieve this aim, both sets of these institutions have undertaken some initiatives.

English has been made the medium of instruction of the private universities since their emergence with the activation of the Private University Act 1992. These institutions have also included several English language pre-requisite credit courses in their curriculum for both English major and non-major students. Similarly, the public universities have commenced offering compulsory English language courses to their freshmen since 1990s. Prior to that period, there were no uniformed policies in these

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public institutions emphasizing English language education (Chaudhury, 2009; Quadir, 2011; Rahman, 2015).

Though ‘there is no significant communication or use’ of English in the daily lives of the Bangladeshi people in the local context (Hamid, 2006, p.84), the universities as well as the government of the country acknowledge the fact that there is an increasing necessity of learning English for meeting the communicative demands of the growingly digitalized world. Additionally, this language has become the medium of communication in the field of research, education, tourism, information and technology.

Having communicative competence in English is now a pre-requisite for exchanging information and for making smooth economic transactions around the world. Therefore, English education has been emphasized in Bangladesh at all levels by the government.

As a result, English is taught as a compulsory subject starting from grade one to twelve in the public schools and colleges of this country where the First Language (L1) Bangla is used as the medium of instruction. English is also used for delivering instructions at all levels in many other public and private schools. Those institutions are called either English version schools (if they follow the national curriculum) or English medium schools (if they follow the Cambridge or the International Baccalaureate, that is, IB program). It is believed by the policy makers that an early start of learning the TL will be able to upgrade the standard of English education in the country (Yasmin, 2006).

In spite of the initiatives taken by the public and the private universities to emphasize English language education in Bangladesh, a large number of students who come to the tertiary level cannot communicate effectively in English. Due to their lack of proficiency in this language, students suffer immensely in their academic lives. This situation is even worse in the Bangladeshi private universities where English has been made the medium of instruction. Since most of the students at this level come from

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Bangla medium background, they find it difficult to cope up with the English dominated environment of these private institutions (S. Sultana, 2014). Their twelve year experience of studying the TL only as a single subject at both school and college levels becomes insufficient in providing them with the necessary language skills to encounter the challenges of communication at the tertiary stage. Therefore, they not only struggle to pass the compulsory English language courses but also consider it quite challenging to achieve good grades in any other courses using English (S. Sultana, ibid). Their poor performances in using the TL often place obstacles in achieving success in their academic as well as professional lives.

It has been revealed through different research projects that these students make grammatical errors at a large scale in both spoken and written communication in English. For instance, Azad & Shanta (2012), Basu & Bhowmik (2006), Khan & Akter (2011), S. Mahmud (2009), and Z. M. Mahmud (2008) analyzed the written compositions of different numbers of undergraduate students and identified that errors in writing commonly occurred in the uses of tense, agreement, articles, different verb forms, and voice. These learners actually committed more grammatical errors than spelling mistakes (Khan & Akter, 2011). Basu and Bhowmik’s (2006) case study on the errors and mistakes occurred in the written compositions of the tertiary level learners of Bangladesh exposed that when those leaners were at the secondary or at the higher secondary level, they hardly tended to analyze their own mistakes in writing, and their teachers also rarely provided them with any corrective feedback on their write-ups.

Therefore, these students mainly used their knowledge of the L1, Bangla while writing and speaking in English. As a result, these students could not develop their writing skills in the TL adequately before joining the tertiary level.

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S.S. Ahmed (2007) further demonstrated that though the Bangladeshi textbooks at the secondary and the higher secondary levels had adequate numbers of chapters on the uses of tense, most of the teachers did not encourage their students to practice these forms in the class and did not ask them to write paragraphs on unseen topics. These teachers also did not provide any feedback on their writing in general at the secondary and at the higher secondary levels. This lack of practice might have affected the students’ accuracy in using those forms. Similarly, Z. M. Mahmud (2008) also collected the writing samples of first year students of a private university. He identified that the participants’ grammatical errors occurred in the use of tense, passive construction, articles and prepositions. According to the researcher, the major reason for the occurrence of these errors was the L1 and L2 dissimilarities of the participants. He further discovered that though his participants were not well aware of the syntactic distinctions between Bangla and English, they intended to translate their ideas directly from L1 into L2 while writing compositions in the TL. Therefore, they made grammatical mistakes at a high frequency mainly due to their L1 influence. Taking all these previous findings into account, the target forms of this study have been chosen from the noun and the verb phrase constructions where the tertiary level students of Bangladesh have been encountering the major difficulties. Therefore, the target forms of this study are related to certain meanings and functions of the indefinite and the definite articles, the present perfect and the past simple tense forms of verbs, the subject verb agreement in the third person present simple tense, the root modals ‘should’ and

‘could’, the epistemic modals ‘must’ and ‘may’, and the active and the passive forms of verbs in the third person present simple tense.

Due to having great weaknesses in English grammar, the tertiary learners of Bangladesh have been suffering not only academically but also affectively. S. Sultana

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(2014) conducted a questionnaire survey among 115 participants from 3 private and 2 public universities of Bangladesh. They were from both Bangla (N= 102) and English (N= 13) medium backgrounds. She ascertained that since a large number of these students could not communicate accurately and fluently in English both inside and outside the classrooms, they could not take part actively and dynamically in any classroom discussions as well as in any extra-curricular activities. Consequently, these students had started developing lower self-esteem and poor self-confidence concerning their abilities to perform well in studies which ultimately might have resulted in their demotivation to pursue higher education (S. Sultana, 2014). This situation can occur in language classes due to the fact that the knowledge, authentic experiences and other resources of language of the EFL learners may not be recognized and appreciated in the context of formal education if they cannot communicate in the TL with the required level of competence (Auerbach, 1995). This situation can make students “…suffer from a sense of powerlessness and feel physically excluded from classroom discourse” (S.

Sultana, 2014, p.18). Therefore, if the tertiary students aim to participate in any classroom discussion or extra-curricular activities creatively and confidently, they will have to acquire both fluency and accuracy in using English.

The fact regarding the student’s lack of knowledge in using the English grammar can be supported further by drawing evidence from the results of different public and competitive examinations (e.g. Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), university admission tests). The results of these examinations exposed the fact that the Bangladeshi students, who opt for higher education, mostly have very poor performance in English, with a high failure rate. For instance, their grades in English at the university entrance examinations for several years in a row (2011-12, 2013-14, 2014-15) highlighted the fact that these students who were taught

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the TL following Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach at their schools and colleges, still had great weaknesses in applying English grammar accurately. Due to this deficiency of knowledge in the TL, these students (more than 80% of them) failed in these tests which mainly had grammar based questions in their formats (Habib &

Chakraborty, 2015).

The data from internationally recognized testing systems for measuring test taker’s English language proficiency also provided evidence regarding the poor performance of Bangladeshi learners who seek opportunities for going abroad for higher education. For instance, TOEFL Test Data and Summary released by the Education Testing Service (Educational Testing Service, 2016, p. 14) demonstrated that the average total score in the year 2015 achieved by the Bangladeshi test takers was 85 out of 120, whereas it were 89 for the Malaysians, 90 for the Indians and 91 for the Pakistanis. Therefore, all the evidence regarding these learners’ deficiency of knowledge in the TL grammar have collectively raised the necessity to examine the ways whereby English grammar is taught and learnt at both pre-tertiary and tertiary levels in Bangladesh.

If the grammar teaching context in Bangladesh at schools and colleges along with the tertiary level are considered, then it can be discerned that grammar is still taught deductively in these contexts. Though CLT have been practiced in the country since the nineteen-nineties, and the teaching materials have been redesigned accordingly by NCTB for the pre-tertiary level students, most teachers and students of the country at both tertiary and pre-tertiary levels still mostly prefer the grammar translation method instead of CLT for teaching English (see 2.9 for details) (Abedin, 2012; Chowdhury &

Farooqui, 2011; Azad & Shanta, 2012). In addition, the great amount of explicit metalinguistic instructions included in the teaching materials that are used at these

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levels mostly do not provide learners with wide scopes to think critically by forming and testing hypothesis regarding the application of particular grammatical structures in different contexts. Hence, learners usually do not get the opportunities at this level to practice the cognitive processes which are necessary for turning input into intake and thereby acquiring the TL (Gass & Selinker, 2008; Winke, 2013). This kind of cognitive processing may not occur till the learners are provided with the exposure to continuous and sustained noticing activities focusing on both meaning and form (Nassaji & Fotos, 2004). In addition, this exposure should be followed by ample opportunities for producing the target forms (Nassaji & Fotos, ibid). Unless these supports are provided to the learners, they may continue developing grammatical knowledge with numerous confusions regarding the uses of the target forms which might in turn effect their future performance in the TL.

The investigation results of the English in Action (EIA) further revealed the pre- tertiary teachers’ and students’ views regarding the teaching and learning of English grammar. The EIA is an UKaid funded program that aims to enhance the English learning opportunities in Bangladesh involving 8000 primary and secondary teachers and 1.7 million students from both rural and urban areas. Perez-Gore, McCormick, Burton and Siddique (2014) conducted a large scale qualitative study to examine the views of the teachers and the students regarding English teaching and learning practices within the schools where the EIA was working. They carried out the study by administering questionnaire surveys among 535 teachers and 457 secondary level students, and by interviewing 374 primary level students.

Perez-Gore et al. (2014) revealed that in spite of practicing the interactive activities in the EIA supported classrooms with the help of audio-visual aids, both the students and the teachers still preferred the grammar translation method to CLT

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approach for teaching English language at these levels. In fact, 70% of the teachers believed that there would be a quick improvement in the students’ performance if grammar rules were taught explicitly and grammar based activities were practiced actively in the class. In addition, 86% of the teachers and 96% of the students of the secondary level considered respectively that learning English was all about learning the rules of grammar. In spite of these grammar based teaching and learning preferences, the participating students in this study were still far away from achieving the required level of linguistic competence. In other words, their speculated quick improvement in learning TL grammar was not that sustainable mainly due to the fact that the targeted forms were taught to them without raising form-meaning-function mapping awareness at this level in schools. These findings suggest that unless this kind of awareness as well as metalinguistic understanding is nurtured among learners, they will not be able to acquire the required meaning and use of any target forms (Sharwood Smith, 1991, 1993). Consequently, they may not be able to develop transparent knowledge regarding the TL grammar.

One of the baseline surveys conducted by the EIA in 2009 (English in Action (EIA), Baseline Study 1, 2009) also exposed that many of the Bangladeshi school teacher’s communicative competence was at the basic level and they knew only some elementary level vocabulary and grammar rules. Therefore, they could neither interact fluently in English nor design meaningful tasks or activities in the classrooms. The situation has not changed much since then as has been revealed in the recent program evaluation of the EIA (Perez-Gore et al., 2014). Therefore, based on the research outcomes of EIA, it can be concluded that it would be really difficult for the secondary and higher secondary level EFL teachers of Bangladesh to follow what Kumaravadivelu (1994, 2003) suggested. Though Kumaravadivelu (1994, 2003, 2006) advised the ELT

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practitioners not to accept any teaching methods uncritically, most of the EFL teachers of Bangladesh may not be concerned about it. They still follow the grammar translation method and to some extent CLT based approach in their classrooms without considering these teaching procedures’ room for potential danger of focusing less on developing learners’ fluency and accuracy respectively (Gascoigne, 2006; Simard & Wong, 2004).

These teachers are still far removed from Kumaravadivelu’s post method era where student’s and teacher’s perceptual mismatch and intentional gap in teaching and learning would be minimized; students’ awareness about the formal aspect of the TL would be raised both implicitly and explicitly; and students would be provided with necessary opportunities to learn the formal aspects of a language inductively by getting access to abundance of textual data (Kumaravadivelu, 1994, 2003, 2006).

Consequently, when Bangladeshi learners come to the tertiary level mainly with their traditional grammar learning experiences, they probably commence their higher studies with the de-motivation and the poor level of confidence; they would never be able to achieve the required level of grammatical accuracy and fluency in English (N. Sultana, 2014). Reduced self-confidence may ultimately trigger the belief in them that they would never be able to achieve communicative competence in the TL (N. Sultana, 2014;

Quadir, 2011). Set in such a negative mindset, these students actually encounter great difficulties in understanding the English medium instruction at the private universities and in acquiring the required level of English language competence at the public universities in Bangladesh.

Due to the repetition of pre-tertiary level experiences of learning English at the tertiary level, and the limited access to the TL, the undergraduate students of Bangladesh still have grammatical inaccuracies in using English (Haque, 2014). Their persisting erroneous application of TL grammar might have become a permanent part

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of their interlanguage development. This assumption can further be supported by drawing evidence from the findings of Chaudhury’s (2013) study. She conducted an extensive English language need analysis of Bangladeshi students at Dhaka University, a renowned public university in the country. In this study, a questionnaire survey was administered among the second year undergraduate students from science, arts, commerce and social science faculties. The responses of this survey revealed that though most of the participants considered achieving grammatical competence to be an important component of learning English, half of them were not satisfied with their skills in this area. In spite of performing grammar based tasks very often in their first year EFL courses, they still could not obtain the required level of grammatical competence in English. It means that their earlier exposure to English grammar for more than eight years might have made a long lasting impact on their interlanguage development. The frequent practice of grammar rules at the school level might have remained inadequate in assisting them to develop their grammatical knowledge regarding the TL. As a result, this university’s EFL teachers and other experts from the field of education recommended applying contextualized teaching of grammar for supporting these learners to improve their linguistic competence. In other words, they advised that the practice of focusing on any target form’s right application in meaningful contexts would be more effective in teaching these learners than any other techniques.

Nassaji and Fotos (2004) determined that the necessary conditions for the acquisitions of grammatical items are: “(1) Learners noticing and continued awareness of target forms, (2) repeated meaning-focused exposure to input containing them, and (3) opportunities for output and practice” (p.137). If the grammar teaching and learning contexts and practices in Bangladesh at both pre-tertiary and tertiary levels are considered in terms of Nassaji and Fotos’ (2004) point of view, then it will be difficult

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