The paper titled "Effectiveness of Deductive Teaching and Use of L1 in English Articles Acquisition" by Dr. Abdulkhaleq A. Al-Qahtani focuses on the challenges of acquiring the English article system among Saudi EFL learners, specifically evaluating the effectiveness of deductive teaching and the use of the students' first language (L1) in this process. The research seeks to answer whether formal instruction through deductive methods and the use of L1 in teaching English articles are beneficial for Saudi students.
The purpose of the study is to explore the impact of these teaching methods on students' acquisition of English articles. The study addresses two main research questions: the effectiveness of deductive instruction and the role of L1 in teaching English articles. The study further examines whether high-achieving students benefit more from such instruction compared to their peers.
The methodology involves an experimental design with 202 male university students from a BA English and Translation Program at King Khalid University, divided into treatment and control groups across three levels of grammar courses. The treatment group received instruction in both English and Arabic, while the control group was taught exclusively in English. Pretests and posttests were administered to assess students' progress in mastering English articles.
Key findings indicate that formal deductive instruction did not significantly improve students' acquisition of the English article system across the three levels of study. The use of L1 in instruction also did not yield significant benefits, with results suggesting that high-achieving students in the control group, who received instruction solely in the target language, performed slightly better than their peers in the treatment group.
The study concludes that traditional deductive instruction and the use of L1 in teaching English articles may not be as effective as previously assumed, particularly at higher proficiency levels. The findings imply that instruction in the target language (TL) may be more beneficial for advanced learners, while the effectiveness of using L1 in teaching diminishes as students' proficiency increases. The research highlights the need for further investigation into alternative teaching methods and the impact of L1 on language acquisition in the Saudi EFL context.