I still don't get it: Easy versus difficult grammar in intermediate German

Abstract

This study investigated the relative ease or difficulty of grammar commonly taught in intermediate (second-year) German at the university level. Previous studies have investigated the ease or difficulty of specific grammar structures, factors that make it difficult to learn L2 grammar, and teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of difficult grammar. The aim of the present study was to provide an overview of a year's worth of grammar instruction to guide decisions about grammar sequencing, instructional approaches, and instructional time. Grammar was grouped into units consisting of a pre-test, an instructional sequence, and a post-test. Test data were gathered from 498 grammar pre- and post-tests over a 3-year period. The authors hypothesized that certain grammar topics (e.g., vowel-changing present-tense verbs; the perfect) would be relatively easy, while others (e.g., noun and pronoun case; pluperfect) would be relatively difficult. These hypotheses were only partially confirmed. Results showed the pluperfect, comparative and superlative, and preterite were relatively easily learned, whereas fixed prepositions, pronouns, relative clauses, dative verbs, and the passive were much more difficult to learn. The results suggest that instructors focus on easy and essential grammar, introduce difficult grammar without formal assessment, and use test data to sequence topics within and across course levels.