Teacher's perspectives on grammar teaching: Do they correspond with the current principles?

Grammar teaching has always been subject to considerable controversy. With the advent of the post-method era, different options, principles and conditions have been proposed to guide the process of teaching which has led to the recognition of teacher cognition. The present study aims at delving into teacher's perspectives on different aspects of grammar teaching. Furthermore, it examines whether they correspond to the current principles of grammar instruction. 109 teachers from different language institutes responded to a Likert-type questionnaire adapted from Burgess and Etherington (2002). Then, the classroom practices of 5 of them were observed for more insights into teacher's perspectives on the current principles of grammar teaching. The results indicated that teachers had a good knowledge of different aspects of grammar instruction. Further, they valued all the current principles, but only applied the awareness principle in their classes. Finally, in the light of the results, it was concluded that the realities of classrooms should determine the content of teacher education courses.