A Cognitive ESL/EFL Grammar Lesson

This paper aims at a cognitive approach to the specific grammar instruction about ‘Conditional Sentences 1-2-3 in English’. In this investigation, the emphasis is put on the lesson protocol analysis, a fundamental methods of cognitive research. The lesson protocol doesn’t account for the teacher’s or the students’ outward classroom behavior. Basically, so to speak, this protocol analysis becomes a task analysis including as many observations as possible, made by the teacher, about the lesson planning and classroom teaching, the lesson content, and the material used for this lesson. The task analysis focuses on several crucial issues such as: classroom teaching as an ill-structured problem; task environment created as instructional environment; the students’ learning process, etc.. The more practical implication of this study about the ‘Conditional Sentences’ has to do with the improvement of the grammar teaching method, traditionally called cognitive or translation method. It should help students to study grammar in a more active-interactive way so that grammar instruction might change in a significant way and become more and more student-centred, dialogue-oriented. Key words: Cognitive Approach; Instruction; Conditional Clauses