[eng] The issues surrounding grammar teaching have been a topic of debate for
decades. From Krashen’s Natural Approach, which states that the important
aspect for learners to acquire is the ability to convey messages (Krashen, 2002,
p. 1), to Azar (2007) affirming that students who have been taught grammar are
more likely to grasp the complexity of meanings of texts formed by various
structures which are related to each other (p. 3), there have been many diverse
opinions as far as the pros and cons of the instruction of grammar in high schools.
Moreover, the methodologies focused on teaching grammar have also been
questioned. Some authors, such as Deng and Lin (2016) and Benitez-Correa et
al. (2019), explored the possibilities of teaching grammar in two different ways,
deductively and inductively. As far as methodologies are concerned, there have
been several proposals over the years that have been used in the teaching of
grammar. One of these is the so called ‘Audiolingual Method’, which is based on
the principle that learners acquire a language through memorisation and drilling
(Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2016, p. 35). Another one, is ‘Gamification’, which
consists of incorporating elements of games into the classroom to engage
students in the learning process (Kapp, 2012, p. 10)1
. This paper explores how
grammar is acquired by applying the previous two methods into English lessons
in a high school classroom. The main objective is to test the usefulness of these
approaches in the acquisition of grammar. Lastly, since the results extracted from
the case study determine that students acquire a similar level of grammar
irrespective of the methodology followed, this paper includes a didactic proposal,
in which activities to teach certain grammar points in each methodology have
been designed to better exemplify what types of grammatical structures can be
taught through each method.