Adopting the inductive approach in teaching english tenses to first-year students of EFL at Bejaia University

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the inductive approach on students' mastery of English tenses and to explore the students' attitudes towards learning English tenses under this approach. In order to achieve this study, we opted for a quasi-experimental design. Two groups of first-year LMD students of English language participated in this study; the control group was taught under the deductive approach while the experimental group was taught under the inductive approach. Pre- and post-tests were employed before and after the experimentation. Both tests were analyzed using paired t-test and independent t-test. In addition, we have submitted three questionnaires: two for the students and one for the teachers. The results of the tests revealed that the mean of the experimental group in the post-test(M=13.84) is higher than the mean of the control group (M=11.68). Consequently, there is a significant difference in students' mastery of English tenses (p=.003).In addition, the questionnaires showed that students and teachers have positive attitudes towards the inductive approach to teach English tenses. Based on the findings, the inductive approach seems to be an alternative approach the teacher could adopt to help their students in learning English tenses