Spoken Grammar: An Urgent Necessity in the EFL Context

Recent studies in corpus linguistics have revealed apparent inconsistencies between the prescriptive grammar presented in EFL textbooks and the type of grammar used in the speech of native speakers. Such variations and learning gapsdeprive EFL learners of the actual use of English and delay their oral/aural developmental processes. The focus of this research is therefore to highlight the necessity of integrating features of spoken grammar in L2 materials. Abasic comparative analysis is carried out to describe how reported speech, mainly direct speech, is prescriptively presented in Oxford Pocket English Grammar (OPEG) in comparison to how it is descriptively presented in the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (LGSWE). The analysis reveals clearly the lack of spoken grammatical features of reported speech in (OPEG). In the light of the analysis, the paper proposes the incorporation of a twofold spoken/written grammar approach targeting primarily EFL advanced learners. Pedagogical implications and considerations for the incorporation of the two-fold grammar approach are thoroughly discussed.