Effect of Discourse-Based Approach on Teaching Present Continuous Tense to Elementary EFL Learners

Grammar is viewed as a set of discourse-affected choices, and the assumption is that this is a fruitful way of teaching appropriate and accurate language use. In teaching tenses, it is necessary for L2 learners to work at discourse level from the start because they need it to create meaningful communicative discourse. This study investigated the (possible) effect of the discourse-based approach in teaching present continuous tense to Iranian elementary EFL learners. Thirty elementary teenagers, aged 9-13, and 30 elementary adults, aged 15-22, from an institute in Mobarakeh, Iran, were selected from the same levels. A pretest was administered and participants were treated in both sentence- and discourse-based approaches. Two course books (i.e., Family and Friends 2 American English File Starter) were used for treatment. Finally, a posttest was given to participants. An independent samples t test and ANCOVA were run to compare the mean scores between the experimental and control groups on the posttest and compare the (possible) variation in the scores between the 2 age groups. Results indicated that there was a significant difference in the teenagers’ posttest scores, but there was no significant difference in the adults’ scores. There was also no significant difference between the scores of the 2 age groups. Results imply that teens are better in learning present continuous tense applying sentence-based approach, but for adults both approaches show the same results. Findings provide implications for applying discourse-based approach for both age groups from the starting point to avoid probable errors.