Integrated Teaching of Grammar and Reading Comprehension in Advanced EFL Classes in Benin

Abstract

Abstract: Integrated teaching is always preferable to the teaching of skills in isolation. The primary concern of this study is to investigate the integrated teaching of grammar and reading comprehension in advanced EFL classes in Benin. More specifically, this research work is intended to determine the strategies used by EFL teachers to integrate teaching of grammar and reading comprehension in advanced EFL classes and to find out the challenges related to integrated teaching of grammar and reading comprehension in advanced EFL classes. The study uses a mixed methods approach and the convenience as well as snowball sampling strategies. The findings reveal that the integration of grammar and reading comprehension teaching depend on the teacher and the grammatical structures at stake. In addition, the teaching of grammar is mainly mainstreamed into the teaching of reading comprehension at pre-reading and while-reading stages by drawing learners’ attention to the use of the structures in real life situations. The major challenges to the integrated teaching of grammar and reading comprehension include lack of texts related to the structures to be taught and lack of adequate teaching materials. Time constraint was also indicated as one of the stumbling blocks identified. Keywords: EFL; grammar; reading comprehension; integrated teaching; secondary education