Some attempts to apply transformational grammar to second language teaching
were also misguided. Chomsky's intention was to describe native-speaker
competence rather than the process by which a learner may achieve competence
in a second language. The rules to which he referred were not pedagogical
explanations of language functioning but rules of great abstractness and
intricacy, inherent in the structure of language, which there is no reason to
suppose can be brought to conscious awarem:ss. Chomsky's view did not provide
justification for reintroducing into the classroom the explanation of traditional
grammar rules.