Investigating Iranian Undergraduate Efl Learners' Knowledge of English Grammar

1. IntroductionKnowing a language means at least mastery of vocabulary, grammar and syntax of that language. The term syntax is mostly about the study of sentence structure, and how they go together to make correct sentences, and the term grammar is concerned with the rules that are used to produce grammatical sentences. Radford (2009, p. 1) views syntax as "the study of the way in which phrases and sentences are structured out of the words". Hawkins's view (2001) is somehow close to that of Radford:"An important part of learning a second language is learning how words fit together to form phrases, and how phrases fit together to form sentences. The combinatorial properties of words and phrases are known as syntax of a language" (p. 1).For Hawkins (2001) syntax of a language is a set of properties which makes it possible to form and construct sentences in that language. So, it is these properties that determine if a sentence is grammatical or not. Hawkins, furthermore, distinguishes syntax from grammar by arguing that syntax deals with properties of language like agreement, adjacency, movement, and the same, and grammar as "a set of instructions for generating all the grammatical sentences of a particular language (p 4). These instructions, as Hawkins (2001) argues, specify the pronunciation of sentences, their syntax, and the meanings that are given to these sentences.Due to the importance of grammar in language learning, and the necessity of grammar to be the focus of attention by both teachers and learners, Foppoli (2015, p. 1) argues thatGrammar is the backbone of a language and without it any single thing you know may be flux, in a sort of jelly without much consistency. In a nutshell, grammar provides you with the structure you need in order to organize and put your messages and ideas across. It is the railway through which your messages will be transported. Without it, in the same way as a train cannot move without railways, you won't be able to convey your ideas to their full extension without a good command of the underlying grammar patterns and structures of the language.The needs of language learners to learn grammar are known to all, but the matter of how to teach it that most benefits L2 learners is controversial (Abbasian Boroujeni, 2012). Rama and Agullo (2012) demonstrate on how grammar has evolved during the past fifty years, they also focus on how to teach grammar and whether grammar is worth teaching in the classroom. They indicate that a great amount of the class time is devoted to explanation of grammatical rules by the instructors. Seemingly, learning English as a foreign language is equal to knowledge of structure and grammar for many instructors in EFL contexts.Although great attention is paid to grammar by instructors in EFL settings, L 2 learners are, yet, unable to use grammar correctly in their performances, or even in grammar tests. According to Borova and Murphy (1997), passive grammar is a part of the problem and may not change to active grammar: "Passive grammar may be a necessary step toward active use, but it (is) by no means a sufficient one". They define passive grammar as "the grammatical awareness that the learner has but cannot - yet - put into productive use correctly and consistently" (p. 1).Feike (2011) believes in presenting grammar features from easy to difficult-something which may be violated in some textbooks. The difficulty of an item in language learning, in SLA settings, can be an inter-lingual problem. That is when two items are identical in the first and target languages, it is easier for the learners to master it; otherwise, it will become difficult. Lado (1957) cited in Sadighi (2014) argues that difference equals difficulty. For instance, in a language like Chinese EFL learners have more problems with learning a feature like articles. "Mismanagement of the article system is the most frequent cause of grammatical error in the Chinese foundation corpus" (Chuang 2005, P. …