INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION INTO TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING: A CLASSROOM STUDY ON TEACHING COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS TO ADOLESCENT LEARNERS

INTERNATIONALSCIENCES, EDUCATION AND NEW LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 7 | 2025 https://internationalsciences.org/ | Social Sciences and Humanities | October, 2025 102 DOI: https://10.5281/zenodo.17503342 INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION INTO TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING: A CLASSROOM STUDY ON TEACHING COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS TO ADOLESCENT LEARNERS Munisa Shovkieva English Teacher, Future land learning center, Tashkent, Uzbekistan ABSTRACT This classroom-based study investigates how Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) can effectively integrate grammar instruction to enhance learners’ communicative accuracy and syntactic fluency. Conducted with six adolescent EFL learners at a private language center in Tashkent, the research focused on teaching coordinating conjunctions—'and', 'but', 'so', 'or', and 'because'—through task-based lessons rather than traditional rule-focused exercises. Over four weeks, learners engaged in communicative activities designed to elicit conjunctions in authentic speech and writing. Findings revealed notable improvement in sentence cohesion, grammatical accuracy, and learner motivation. The results confirm that grammar, when embedded in communicative tasks, strengthens both fluency and accuracy, offering an effective model for adolescent language instruction. Keywords: Task-Based Language Teaching, grammar instruction, conjunctions, adolescent learners, communicative competence, syntactic accuracy INTRODUCTION The integration of grammar instruction into communicative language teaching remains a persistent challenge in the field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Traditional methods such as the Grammar-Translation and Audiolingual approaches emphasized form and memorization, often resulting in learners who could analyze language but struggled to use it meaningfully. In contrast, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) emphasizes communication and meaning negotiation; however, critics argue that it may neglect explicit attention to grammatical form (Ellis, 2003). Scholars now agree that grammar should not be taught in isolation but within communicative contexts where learners can see its functional value (Guvendir & Hardacre, 2020). Grammar supports fluency when it helps learners express relationships between ideas, especially through cohesive devices such as conjunctions. INTERNATIONALSCIENCES, EDUCATION AND NEW LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 7 | 2025 https://internationalsciences.org/ | Social Sciences and Humanities | October, 2025 103 As Kennedy (2014) notes, 'grammar teaching is most successful when it allows learners to discover how form supports meaning.' For adolescent learners—who are developing both cognitively and linguistically—grammar lessons that rely solely on memorization can feel abstract and disengaging. By contrast, task-based activities encourage exploration and creativity, enabling learners to use grammar to communicate real ideas. This study therefore seeks to explore how grammar can be integrated within the TBLT framework, focusing on the teaching of coordinating conjunctions to teenage EFL learners in Uzbekistan. METHODS The participants were six adolescent EFL learners aged 13–15, all attending a private Language Learning Center in Tashkent. They represented mixed proficiency levels from A2 to B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) scale. Classes were held three times per week for four consecutive weeks, with each session lasting 90 minutes. The teacher-researcher designed lessons to improve the learners’ ability to connect ideas using coordinating conjunctions. The topic was selected after a needs analysis revealed that students tended to produce short, unconnected sentences, such as 'I like books. I read every day.' The lessons followed the Task-Based Learning Cycle proposed by Willis (1996) and Ellis (2003), adapted to emphasize grammar discovery and reflection. Learners were introduced to conjunctions through visual examples and context-based questioning, engaged in communicative tasks like story sequencing and dialogue completion, and concluded each lesson with post-task reflection and collaborative error correction. Data were collected through preand post-assessment writing samples, classroom observations, and student reflections. Quantitative data measured changes in conjunction accuracy, sentence length, and conjunction frequency, while qualitative data highlighted changes in motivation and learner awareness. RESULTS Before the intervention, learners demonstrated limited understanding of how conjunctions link ideas, often misusing 'and' as a universal connector. After four weeks of TBLT-based instruction, accuracy rates in conjunction use increased by approximately 60%. Learners could clearly differentiate between 'but' (contrast), 'so' (result), and 'because' (reason). Learners’ average sentence length increased from 6.2 words to 10.8 words, and the average number of conjunctions per written text rose from 2.1 to 5.7. During speaking activities, students began using conjunctions spontaneously, signaling greater fluency and confidence. Observations also revealed heightened motivation and INTERNATIONALSCIENCES, EDUCATION AND NEW LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 7 | 2025 https://internationalsciences.org/ | Social Sciences and Humanities | October, 2025 104 enthusiasm for learning grammar in meaningful contexts. The quantitative data clearly illustrate learners’ progress across three key areas: grammatical accuracy in using conjunctions, average sentence length, and the frequency of conjunction usage in written tasks. To visualize this improvement, a comparative bar chart was created. Figure 1 As shown in Figure 1, learners demonstrated significant gains in all three measured areas. Conjunction accuracy rose by approximately 60%, while the average sentence length increased from 6.2 words to 10.8 words. In addition, the frequency of conjunction use in writing almost tripled, indicating that learners not only understood the target structure but also integrated it naturally into their output. DISCUSSION The outcomes of this study strongly support integrating explicit grammar instruction within communicative, task-based contexts. Students improved not only in accuracy but also in their ability to express complex ideas coherently. These findings echo Ellis (2003), who emphasizes that grammar should be seen as a resource for communication rather than a rigid system of rules. The motivational impact of TBLT was equally significant. Adolescents often lose focus during repetitive grammar drills, yet they remained actively engaged when lessons involved authentic tasks and collaborative discovery. Learners’ reflective comments revealed a shift from viewing grammar as memorization to perceiving it as a communicative tool. INTERNATIONALSCIENCES, EDUCATION AND NEW LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 7 | 2025 https://internationalsciences.org/ | Social Sciences and Humanities | October, 2025 105 Nonetheless, the study highlighted a few challenges. Early in the intervention, some learners overused conjunctions or used them redundantly, indicating that posttask reflection remains necessary to refine accuracy. Additionally, the small participant sample limits generalizability, but the findings provide strong pedagogical implications for EFL teachers seeking to integrate grammar with communication. CONCLUSION This research demonstrates that Task-Based Language Teaching provides an effective framework for integrating grammar instruction in adolescent EFL classrooms. Teaching coordinating conjunctions through communicative tasks enabled learners to internalize grammar rules, increase sentence complexity, and use conjunctions appropriately in both spoken and written contexts. The results reaffirm that grammar and communication can be taught together to reinforce each other. Teachers are encouraged to design lessons that merge grammatical focus with task completion, ensuring that learners practice both accuracy and fluency simultaneously. Future studies could apply this model to larger groups and additional grammar structures to further test its effectiveness. REFERENCES: 1. Bache, C., & Davidsen-Nielsen, N. (1997). Mastering English Grammar. Walter de Gruyter. 2. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford University Press. 3. Guvendir, M., & Hardacre, A. (2020). The relationship between task-based learning and student motivation. Language Teaching Research, 24(3), 289–305. 4. Kennedy, S. (2014). Grammar in Context: Integrating Form and Meaning in the Classroom. Routledge. 5. Willis, J. (1996). A Framework for Task-Based Learning. Longman.