An Analysis of Inductive and Deductive Grammar Instruction in Korean University English Classes

This study analyzed inductive and deductive instructional approaches for teaching grammar within a Presentation-Practice-Production grammar lesson. The participants of this study included 119 Korean university students enrolled in an English as a foreign language class, with approximately half receiving deductive instruction and the other half receiving inductive grammar instruction. The analysis involved comparing learning gains as well as student perceptions of the two approaches via Mann Whitney U tests. The results showed no statistical difference in terms of the immediate or delayed learning gains for each grammatical topic, nor when all grammatical topics were aggregated. However, the analysis of student perceptions indicated that students found inductive instruction to be moderately more effective, interesting, and easier than deductive instruction. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings related to instructional practices in foreign language classes that utilize the Presentation- Practice-Production model as well as suggestions for future research concerning deductive and inductive instructional approaches.