Annabel Mary Watson

Re-thinking grammar: the impact of embedded grammar teaching on students’ writing and students’ metalinguistic understanding

This paper reports on a national study, involving a mixed-method research design comprising a randomised controlled trial (RCT), text analysis, student and teacher interviews and lesson observations. It set out to investigate whether contextualised teaching of grammar, linked to the teaching of writing, would improve student outcomes in writing and in metalinguistic understanding. The RCT involved 744 students in 31 schools in the south-west and the Midlands of England, and was a blind randomisation study. Classes were randomly allocated to either a comparison or intervention group, after the sample had been matched for teacher linguistic subject knowledge (LSK). The statistical data were complemented by three interviews per teacher and three interviews with a focus student in each class, plus three lesson observations in each class, giving a data-set of 93 teacher interviews, 93 student interviews and 93 lesson observations. In addition, the final pieces of writing produced for each scheme of work were collected. The statistical results indicate a significant positive effect for the intervention, but they also indicate that this benefit was experienced more strongly by the more able writers in the sample. The regression modelling also indicates that teacher LSK was a significant mediating factor in the success of the intervention. The qualitative data provide further evidence of the impact of teacher knowledge on how the intervention was implemented and on students’ metalinguistic learning. It also reveals that teachers found the explicitness, the use of discussion and the emphasis on playful experimentation to be the most salient features of the intervention. The study is significant in providing robust evidence for the first time of a positive benefit derived from the teaching of grammar, and signals the potential of a pedagogy for a writing which includes a theorised role for grammar.

The role of grammar in the writing curriculum: A review of the literature:

For most Anglophone countries, the history of grammar teaching over the past 50 years is one of contestation, debate and dissent: and 50 years on we are no closer to reaching a consensus about the role of grammar in the English/Language Arts curriculum. The debate has been described through the metaphor of battle and grammar wars (Kamler, 1995; Locke, 2005), frequently pitting educational professionals against politicians, but also pitting one professional against another. At the heart of the debate are differing perspectives on the value of grammar for the language learner and opposing views of what educational benefits learning grammar may or may not accrue. At the present time, several jurisdictions, including England and Australia, are creating new mandates for grammar in the curriculum. This article reviews the literature on the teaching of grammar and its role in the curriculum and indicates an emerging consensus on a fully-theorized conceptualization of grammar in the curriculum.

Conceptualisations of ‘grammar teaching’: L1 English teachers’ beliefs about teaching grammar for writing

This paper reports on an investigation of L1 English teachers’ conceptual and evaluative beliefs about teaching grammar, one strand of a larger Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded investigation into the impact of contextualised grammar teaching [RES-062-23-0775]. Thirty-one teachers in English secondary schools were interviewed three times each over the course of a year-long project, discussing their beliefs about writing in general and grammar in particular. The results indicate that while teachers’ initial conceptualisations of ‘grammar teaching’ tend to reflect a prescriptive and traditional model of grammar, their beliefs about how it may be of value tend to evoke a rhetorical model. Their initial prescriptive conceptualisation is also related to negative affective responses to ‘grammar’. This paper suggests that attempts to encourage support or enthusiasm for teaching grammar will therefore need to deal with teachers’ explicit awareness (or lack thereof) of the variety of meanings that ‘grammar teaching’ can have.

Navigating ‘the pit of doom’: Affective responses to teaching ‘grammar’

Abstract This article presents the outcomes of a study investigating current secondary English teachers’ beliefs about grammar teaching, and illustrates the salience of teachers’ emotional response to the issue. Interviews with 31 teachers reveal two discourses which frame the ways in which teachers express their feelings: a dominant discourse of grammar as threatening, reactionary and dull, and an oppositional discourse which positions grammar as inspiring, fascinating, and empowering. The influence of these discourses on practice is explored, along with examples of how attitudes can change as a result of participation in a research project. This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number RES‐062‐23‐0775].

The Problem of Grammar Teaching: A Case Study of the Relationship between a Teacher's Beliefs and Pedagogical Practice.

Through a case study of a first-language English teachers approach to teaching writing, the significance of conceptual and affective beliefs about grammar for pedagogical practice is explored. The study explores a perceived dichotomy between grammar and creativity, examining a belief that attention to grammar is separate and secondary to the generation of ideas, the creation of meaning and to personal expression. It indicates that, in this case, these perceptions are related to formulaic approaches to the teaching of grammar for writing which separate content and form and reduce attention to grammar to a superficial level. Theoretically, the study provides evidence that beliefs play an important role in influencing pedagogy in contested areas of the curriculum. It demonstrates how affective and conceptual elements of belief can shape practice, particularly when external constraints on teaching are low. It argues that attempts to advance a rhetorical and contextualised approach to grammar, as evident in parts of the English National Curriculum, must therefore take into account the impact of teachers’ beliefs about grammar.

Talking grammatically: L1 adolescent metalinguistic reflection on writing

ABSTRACT This study investigated the metalinguistic reflections of 12 students, aged 14–15 years, undertaking a unit of work focused on reading and writing non-fiction. The unit embedded contextualised grammar teaching into preparation for English Language examinations. Students were interviewed twice, with prompts to discuss a sample of argument text in interview one, and a sample of their own writing in interview two. The interviews and subsequent analysis drew on Gomberts taxonomy of metalinguistic understanding, focusing on metasemantic, metasyntactic and metatextual reflections, and probing students’ ability to link these to metapragmatic concerns. Similarly to previous studies, the findings suggest that students struggle to articulate the impact of metasyntactic choices; however, here it is suggested that this may be a particular artefact of the need for a specialised metalanguage for discussing syntax. Results also indicate a tendency to reify form-function relationships, and signal the potential benefit of using students’ own writing as a platform for exploring authorial choices. Finally, the study contributes to the theorisation of metalinguistic understanding by suggesting how declarative knowledge may emerge from procedural activity, with interviews scaffolding students’ ability to articulate what had initially been tacit language choices.