Introduction
If you’ve been following the EPI way of sequencing instruction, you’ll know that grammar traditionally appears after a rich diet of structured input and structured and semistructured output work. Learners first experience language through chunks, notice recurring patterns, and only later consolidate those intuitions through explicit rule work. But what if, in some cases, flipping that order actually helps rather than hinders learning?
In this post, I’ll explore why it can sometimes make perfect sense to teach grammar before structured production—that is, to insert explicit form-focused work between the Awareness and Structured Production phases of the MARSEARS cycle. Drawing on cognitive load theory, skill acquisition research, and decades of classroom observation, I’ll show how this alternative version—MARESARS—can be a powerful choice in contexts where accuracy, noticing, and cognitive efficiency matter most.
We’ll look at the eight research-backed reasons for front-loading grammar, the classroom scenarios that call for it, and how this adjustment preserves the EPI spirit while fine-tuning its rhythm. Think of it not as breaking the cycle, but as learning when and how to bend it intelligently.
1. Enhances “noticing” once meaning is secure
When explicit grammar instruction follows a rich modelling and awareness phase, learners already possess enough semantic scaffolding to make form salient. They can link abstract grammatical explanations to concrete, familiar examples, leading to what Schmidt (1990) called noticing: the conscious registration of form–meaning connections. This effect is strongest when explicit focus follows intense exposure to input that has been understood but not yet fully analysed. Placing grammar before structured production ensures that students’ attention shifts naturally from “what does this mean?” to “how is this meaning encoded?” (Ellis, 2002). In other words, explicit grammar becomes an interpretive tool, not a barrier to communication.
2. Improves form–meaning mapping accuracy
When rules are clarified before learners start speaking, they can process input with more precision, aligning forms with communicative functions. VanPatten (2004) and Doughty & Williams (1998) emphasise that learners often misinterpret forms if they must infer both meaning and structure at once. For instance, without prior explanation, French learners might see je mangeais simply as a variant of je mange, not recognising its aspectual nuance. Early explicit input ensures a richer encoding of meaning, fostering more accurate form–function mapping and preventing early semantic flattening. Grammar here acts as a “lens” through which input gains grammatical depth.
3. Reduces cognitive load during first output
Cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1998) predicts that learners can process only a few new items simultaneously. If they must generate output and decode new grammar in real time, they overload working memory and performance collapses. Explicit grammar instruction before structured production acts as a load-reducing scaffold: it externalises some of the decision-making by giving learners a mental framework in advance. When production begins, their attention can focus on meaning and fluency rather than rule retrieval. This sequencing is particularly vital for low-intermediate learners, who are juggling both lexical retrieval and morphosyntactic accuracy.
4. Pre-empts entrenched mislearning
In EPI’s cyclic model, delaying grammar too long risks fossilising faulty automatisms. Once erroneous patterns are proceduralised, they resist correction (Lightbown & Spada, 2013). A short, well-timed explicit grammar focus before structured output helps learners verify or adjust their internal hypotheses before they “hardwire” them. This is crucial in morphologically rich or low-salience domains such as French adjective agreement, German case endings, or Spanish clitics. Here, a little explicit metalinguistic clarity at the right time can prevent months of corrective effort later.
5. Boosts short- and long-term gains
Meta-analyses consistently show that explicit grammar teaching leads to stronger gains in both accuracy and durability than implicit exposure alone (Norris & Ortega, 2000; Spada & Tomita, 2010; Goo et al., 2015). However, these effects depend on timing. When placed after the modelling and awareness phases but before structured production, grammar input consolidates the learner’s representations at the “sweet spot” where receptive familiarity meets analytical readiness. The rule thus consolidates patterns the learner has already subconsciously absorbed, creating durable connections across declarative and procedural memory systems.
6. Increases feedback uptake quality
Lyster’s (2004) and Lyster & Saito’s (2010) work on corrective feedback shows that learners benefit more from recasts and prompts when they already possess explicit rule awareness. Grammar instruction before structured production primes learners to interpret feedback diagnostically. When they receive a reformulation, they can identify which grammatical subsystem was activated, rather than just hearing “error/no error”. As a result, feedback becomes learning rather than policing. In the EPI cycle, this makes the “Review” phase exponentially more efficient, since learners have a shared grammatical metalanguage for processing corrections.
7. Supports proceduralisation
Anderson’s (1983) ACT* model and DeKeyser’s (1998, 2015) research show that skill acquisition follows a three-stage sequence: declarative → procedural → automatic. Providing grammar rules before output gives learners a declarative foundation on which structured practice can operate. The structured production tasks that follow then serve as the proceduralisation phase — converting knowledge about the rule into automatic control. Without prior explicit awareness, proceduralisation risks being noisy and inconsistent, as learners trial-and-error their way to partial automatisation.
8. Facilitates selective attention in tasks
Finally, early grammar explanation enhances learners’ ability to focus on target features during both receptive and productive work. Hulstijn (2001, 2002) and Ellis (2006) argue that attention is a limited resource, and effective instruction must direct it. Knowing what grammatical features to look or listen for makes subsequent input more productive — what you might call “guided input noticing.” When learners enter structured production after an awareness-raising grammar phase, their attention is already “calibrated” to track and retrieve those forms in context, leading to richer noticing loops throughout the cycle.
When to switch from MARSEARS to MARESARS
(Moving Expansion before Structured Production)
You would adopt MARESARS (Modelling–Awareness–Receptive processing–Expansion–Structured production–Assessment–Review–Spontaneity) when the goal is to extend input and awareness before learners are ready to produce. This shift is especially beneficial when:
- The target structure is low-salience or morphologically subtle — e.g., French agreement, Italian clitics, German articles. Learners need longer input flooding before meaningful output is possible.
- L1–L2 mapping is opaque or misleading, leading to high transfer risk — e.g., English learners of French gender or aspectual systems.
- High-stakes accuracy is required, such as exam-oriented or writing-led units where premature fluency leads to ingrained inaccuracies.
- Diagnostic listening or reading shows weak pattern recognition or persistent misparsing, suggesting insufficient input depth.
- The rule bundle is complex, combining multiple dependencies (e.g., case + word order, tense + pronoun placement). Expansion tasks can then provide layered, multi-modal exemplars before output.
- Time-on-input outweighs time-on-output, as in beginner contexts or intensive reading/listening units.
- Analytically minded or adult learners benefit from extended contrastive noticing and explicit reformulation tasks before they speak.
- The unit is text-driven or interpretive, e.g., based on narratives, songs, or multimodal resources where comprehension naturally precedes production.
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