Grammar has traditionally been taught via production practice. That is, students have been required to try to use a grammatical structure in controlled and free exercises. However, current theories of second language acquisition see production as the result of acquisition rather than the cause. It follows that grammar can be taught more effectively through input that through manipulating output.
What does input practice involve? It involves "structured input tasks." These are tasks that require students to (1) read or listen to input that has been specially designed to include plentiful examples of the target structure and (2) consciously attend to the target structure and understand its meaning.
— Impact Grammar: Becoming Grammatical on #grammar-learning
- see also: ~ first, focus on meaning of foreign lang text, then extract form (same author, same text)