Consolidating

foreign language
grammar through
memes: An
innovative
practice in the
university
classroom

Ferran Gesa, Maria del Mar Suárez and Neus Frigolé

Universitat de Barcelona

AESLA 2022, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 27-29 April

Introduction

Mixed results regarding perception of grammar learning / teaching:

• One of the most difficult areas to acquire (DeKeyser, 2005)

• Seen as tedious by FL learners (Al-Mekhlafi & Nagaratman, 2011; Andrews, 2003;

Jean & Simard, 2011)

• Can even be the cause of withdrawal from FL classes (Vakili & Mohammed,
2020)

• General reluctance to be taught by practitioners (Gartland & Smolkin, 2015)

BUT…
• Positive attitudes towards grammar learning (Loewen et al., 2009; Schulz,
1996, 2001)

• Essential to succeed (Thu, 2009) and helpful in FL learning (Schulz, 1996,

2001)

• Perceived more positively at advanced rather than beginner levels

(Etherington, 2006)
 Grammar teaching

• Traditional grammar teaching has mainly followed an explicit approach.

(Pawlak, 2021)

• Presentation – Practice – Production (PPP): understanding the grammar

point, practicing it using drills and exercises, for later communicative use has
been the norm for years. (Larsen-Freeman, 2009)
- Leading to failure of applying grammar knowledge when communicating
- Little connection between class practice and authentic communicative
situations
• Other forms of instruction (e.g., focus on form, non-interventionist) less
popular in EFL contexts and more difficult to incidentally learn grammar from
them.
• However, better grammar learning if contextualised (Morelli, 2003) and more
innovative ways of teaching grammar should be considered. (Pawlak, 2021)
Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT)

• Flipped learning approach consisting in four phases:

1. At-home guided learning (study guide, study materials, quizzes); need to

get familiar with concepts
2. At-home diagnostic questionnaire to reflect upon learning, pointing out
difficulties and mastered features
3. Teacher revision of answers and preparation of future tailored lesson
based on students’ responses
4. In-class lesson to address students’ difficulties, offer feedback and solve
doubts
(Novak et al., 1999; Novak, 2011)

• Flexible, promotes engagement, learner-centred, boosts participation

and motivation.

• Proved useful in a wide array of disciplines and contexts, especially in

tertiary education. (Simkins & Maier, 2010)

• Virtually not implemented in the FL classroom: very few exceptions

with promising results. (Edwards et al., 2006; Abreu & Knouse, 2014)
Memes

• Informal multimodal genre with visual and written input and a humorous
intent which spreads rapidly. (Dawkins, 1976)

• Seen as a tool to develop multiliteracies (Procházka, 2014) and promote

digital communicative competence. (Ruan & Medwell, 2020)

• Positive effects on increasing students’ engagement and participation

in the classroom (Vasudevan et al., 2010; Baysac, 2017; Purnama, 2017) and
intrinsic, integrative and instrumental motivation. (Purnama et al., 2017)

• Very limited research available

with memes in the FL classroom:
promising results on vocabulary
recall. (Kayali & Altuntas, 2021)
Aim and participants

Objective

The aim of the present study is to determine students’ perception of memes as a

tool to consolidate grammar knowledge in the FL university classroom

Participants

• 41 Early Years students (EYS) attending a compulsory EFL course

First-year students, proficiency ranging from A2 to C1, mean level: A2-B1

Groups of four / five students  9 groups in total

• 16 Audiovisual Communication students as “expert raters”

Third-year students, proficiency ranging from B1 to C1, mean level: B2

Working in pairs  8 pairs in total
Methodology

The gamified project was divided into three rounds, in each of which:

1. Grammar point taught through JiTT

2. EYS chose a meme (Rounds 1 and 2) or created one (Round 3)

3. EYS provided a caption, hashtags and grammatical explanation

4. Memes displayed on Instagram

5. EYS voted for the best meme based on four criteria

6. Top three memes analysed and rated on the same criteria by Audiovisual
Communication students
Memes & Instagram
Memes & Instagram
 Voting and analysis

Voting on Moodle

Analysis and
feedback by
Audiovisual
Communication
students
Voting and analysis

Analysis and feedback by

Audiovisual Communication
students
 Questionnaire

After Round 3, EYS answered a questionnaire enquiring about grammar

learning and memes, among others.

Please select the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following
statements:

Strongly Slightly Slightly Strongly

Disagree Agree
disagree disagree agree agree
The meme project helped me to learn /
consolidate English grammar.
The meme project has increased my
motivation to learn English grammar.
The meme project was a fun way to
practice English grammar.
The meme project was an innovative way
to practice English grammar.
Memes were a good complement to
grammar learning through Just-in-Time
Teaching (JiTT).
 Questionnaire

Did the following aspects help you to learn / consolidate English grammar?
Not at
Barely Little Moderately Quite A lot
all
Choosing grammar-related memes in
Rounds 1 and 2
Creating a grammar-related meme in
Round 3
Coming up with accurate captions and
hashtags for the memes
Giving accurate grammatical explanations
of the memes
Analysing the memes chosen by other
groups to vote for the best one
Listening to the feedback provided by
Audiovisual Communication students

Would you like to participate in this grammar learning project again? Why
(not)?
Results (N=41)

Memes and grammar

6

5,17 5,22
5,05
5
4,32
4,12
4

1
Helped to learn Motivating Fun project Innovative project Good
grammar complement to
JiTT

1 = Strongly disagree / 6 = Strongly agree

Results (N=41)

Did the following aspects help you to learn /

consolidate English grammar?
6

5 4,88
4,71
4,39 4,49 4,46
4,29

1
Rounds 1 and Round 3 Captions and Grammatical Analysing CAV students'
2 hashtags explanations others' memes feedback

1 = Not at all / 6 = A lot

 Results (N=41)

90.2% of students would like to participate in the project again.

When asked why…

Why (not) participating again?

9,8 0

Yes, I want to be taught more grammar like this.

Yes, but I would prefer to be taught other skills.
51,2 No, participating once was enough for me.
36,6
No, I didn't like the meme project.
Discussion

• The project proved to be rather successful in terms of engagement

and participation:
- Familiarity with the genre in both L1 and FL
- Informal genre, associated to leisure and social networking; not
to academic lectures
- Bringing out-of-class activities into the university classroom
• Innovation in the FL classroom: new forms of teaching grammar.
(Pawlak, 2021)

• Contextualised form of presenting grammar: thought to lead to

better learning. (Morelli, 2003)
• However, no measure of learning. Did it actually help? Further
research needed with more empirical approaches; reliance on
students’ perceptions?
Discussion

• Students feel creating the memes (Round 3) helped the most to learn
grammar knowledge: production leading to a deeper consolidation of the
knowledge previously learned? (Soruc et al., 2017)
• Explicit focus on the task (i.e., providing grammatical explanations)
more beneficial according to participants, in line with previous research.
(DeKeyser, 1994; Ellis, 1998; Klapper & Rees, 2003; Ling, 2015)

• Quite a motivating experience for the participants (low-stake situation):

increasing intrinsic motivation. Eye-opener for more out-of-class practice?
• Students aware of the potential of such practice for language learning:
beneficial for other skills? Many respondents point at its usefulness for
vocabulary learning. (Kayali & Altuntas, 2021)
• Listening to Audiovisual Communication students’ feedback one of the
least beneficial activities: what about peer evaluation and giving
feedback themselves?
Limitations and further research

• Results based on students’ perceptions and questionnaire; no factual

data collected:
- Good teaching innovation approach, but more research on the
actual learning potential of memes is needed
• Students’ perception and results may be biased: gamified project and
prizes, compulsory in-class activity

• More research is needed:

- Applied to grammar in this project: what about other skills?

- Any improvement in digital communicative competence and
literacy?
- Results on participants’ perceptions of gamification and MALL
- Audiovisual Communication students’ views on meme analysis
and giving feedback
 Thank you!
Acknowledgements

Programa en Recerca, Innovació i Millora de la

Docència i l’Aprenentatge (RIMDA) - 2020PID-
UB/004
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