THE EFFECT OF USING GRAMMATICALITY JUDGEMENT TASKS ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF GRAMMATICAL PATTERNS

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of GJ (Grammaticality Judgement) tasks as a classroom activity on Iranian EFL learners’ grammatical patterns. The main question this study tried to answer were whether using GJ tasks might enhance higher knowledge of grammatical patterns in Iranian learners of English at university level. To answer the questions, 60 junior undergraduate translator trainees participated in the experiment of the study. They were randomly selected from among a population of translator trainees via an OPT test score of at least one standard deviation below the mean. They were then divided into two groups of 30 and were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. A pretest of English grammatical patterns (sentence word order) was administered to both groups, then, they were taught grammatical patterns for 10 sessions but with different methodologies: the experimental group received a treatment of GJ tasks while the control group received a placebo. A posttest of English grammatical patterns (sentence word order) was then administered to both groups. The data of the study were analysed using the t-test to indicate the groups mean difference, and the degree of progress from the pretest to the posttest of the study in the experimental group was indicated by calculating the ANCOVA coefficient. The results indicated that the Iranian EFL learners in the experimental group received higher scores in grammatical patterns after being treated with 10 sessions of GJ tasks.