A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Inductive vs. Deductive Instruction of Grammar to EFL Students

The present study determines the effectiveness of inductive and deductive methods of grammar teaching on two groups of EFL students of a language institute in Shiraz, Iran. The researcher hypothesized that inductive method of teaching results in a higher learning outcome. Sixty students of the intermediate level were randomly assigned into two groups. First, a pretest was administered to both groups, after which the treatment stage, lasted 3 weeks, was performed. Getting benefit of the presence of the same teacher, 6 grammatical points adopted from targeted textbook were taught inductively to one group and deductively to the other. Soon after, a grammar test of the points taught was administered to both groups. Then the data was analyzed through t-test. Findings revealed that although there were differences in mean grade point average of both groups, no statistically significant difference was observed. There was no support for the researcher’s hypothesis.