Influence of Teacher Cognition on how teachers understand, Teach and Test English Grammar

The purpose of this study was to analyse how teacher cognition influenced how English language teachers taught and tested English grammar in selected secondary schools of Luanshya District. The objectives were to; analyse how teacher cognition influenced how teachers understood and taught English grammar and to analyse how teacher cognition influenced how teachers tested English grammar. The study was purely qualitative and the study sample consisted of six schools and from those schools, 12 participants were purposively sampled. The 12 participants included 2 teachers of English from each school. Data was collected through class observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings from the first objective showed that the teachers understood grammar to be the rules of the language. Their understanding and beliefs about grammar were reproduced in their classrooms as they taught grammar. Teachers taught grammar systematically and explicitly using deductive techniques such as teacher exposition and question and answer. They also believed in rule explanation, the use of metalanguage and frequent correction of errors. In testing of how grammar should be tested, teachers believed that grammar should be tested explicitly using written assessments in form of transformations, fill in the blanks and complete the sentence exercises. Class exercises analysed through document analysis were consistent with teachers’ cognition about testing of English grammar. Conclusively, the study showed that there is a connection between how teachers understand grammar and how they teach and test it. In view of the findings, the study recommended that teacher trainers should teach various forms of grammar and expose student teachers to various ways of assessing English language grammar beyond manipulation of grammatical rules. Moreover, secondary schools should organize Continuous Professional Development programs for teachers to improve their cognitions for successful implementation of the curriculum.