{"id":59384,"date":"2021-09-17T05:49:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T09:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=59384"},"modified":"2021-09-17T05:49:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T09:49:13","slug":"grammar-still-matters-but-teachers-are-struggling-to-teach-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/grammar-still-matters-but-teachers-are-struggling-to-teach-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammar still matters \u2013 but teachers are struggling to teach it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nDo you know what a suffix is, or how to distinguish\u00a0adjectives from adverbs<\/a>? If you have a six or seven-year-old, the chances are they do. Or at least, the UK government now says they should \u2013 by the end of year 2, to be specific.<\/p>\n

In year 3, primary schoolers turn their attention to prefixes and conjunctions. By the time pupils head to secondary school, they are expected to know what determiners and adverbials are. They should be able to recognise a relative clause as a special type of subordinate clause. And their creative writing should showcase modal verbs and the active and passive voice.<\/p>\n

Obviously, for all this to happen, teachers need to be comfortable with these terms and the concepts they cover. And if you went to school before 1960, you probably are. However, between 1960 and 1988, English \u2013 in England and Wales \u2013 was taught in a virtually grammar-free manner.<\/p>\n

While grammar made a comeback in 1988, with the introduction of the national curriculum, many teachers today feel ill-prepared to teach it. And that\u2019s because, as I and other language experts have\u00a0pointed out<\/a>, they themselves were never taught much, if any, grammar. And appropriate teaching support and materials are lacking.<\/p>\n

Of course, grammar at school often becomes a\u00a0political issue<\/a>, with liberals rejecting a more\u00a0conservative insistence<\/a>\u00a0on so-called correct grammar. But as a Dutch linguist, my perspective is that learning grammar isn\u2019t about speaking properly. It is about gaining a broader understanding of one\u2019s own language and how to use it creatively. It\u2019s also a useful tool for learning other languages.<\/p>\n

Grammar-free teaching<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Before 1960, the way in which British schools taught English grammar was based on Latin. Categories that had been developed for Latin grammar were imposed on English. That frequently made little sense because English is a very different language.<\/p>\n

From the 1920s, this Latinate approach was\u00a0highly criticised<\/a>, and the argument against English grammar in schools gathered force in the 1940s and 1950s. Studies in\u00a0Scotland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0England<\/a>\u00a0in the middle of the 20th century claimed that the subject was essentially too difficult for children.<\/p>\n

Research suggests the disappearance of grammar from the English school curriculum in 1960 is also due to an\u00a0increased emphasis<\/a>\u00a0on English literature. The idea was that children would pick up the needed grammar more or less as they went along.<\/p>\n

The 1970s marked a turning point. The government published\u00a0several critical reports<\/a>, citing in particular high levels of illiteracy in England and Wales. This led to a U-turn in policy, with grammar gradually returning to the classroom from 1988.<\/p>\n

Research in the years that followed\u00a0showed that<\/a>\u00a0student teachers didn\u2019t have the knowledge they needed to teach it, though. The authors of\u00a0a 1995 study<\/a>\u00a0of 99 student teachers in Newcastle noted \u2013- and subsequent researchers\u00a0concurred<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 that without significant input during training, teachers would struggle.<\/p>\n

Why grammar matters<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Teachers\u2019 knowledge about grammar remains problematic. A\u00a02016 case study<\/a>\u00a0of a primary school in the north-west of England (which was rated \u201cgood\u201d by Ofsted) analysed data collected over ten months from June 2014 to March 2015 on what teachers knew.<\/p>\n

When questioned about the\u00a0terms specified<\/a>\u00a0in the national curriculum, including adjective, conjunction and determiner, the teachers only got about half of the questions right. Teaching-support staff fared even worse.<\/p>\n

Why should we care about whether our teachers are well equipped to teach grammar? In the first instance, we should because they have to. It is crucial that teachers have the knowledge and confidence to support pupils through\u00a0statutory subjects<\/a>, on which, in non-pandemic times at least, they will be\u00a0formally tested<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A growing body of evidence also shows that teaching grammar may enhance students\u2019\u00a0writing development<\/a>. This is because knowledge about concepts such as active and passive voice may allow for more precise and productive conversations between teachers and students about textual effects and possibilities. And it may enable students to shape their prose more consciously.<\/p>\n

It can also help them\u00a0learn new languages<\/a>. If learners already have a conscious awareness of linguistic features such as tenses, that helps them to recognise and discuss what is the same or different in\u00a0another tongue<\/a>. And though\u00a0more research is needed<\/a>, some scholars have even suggested that grammar teaching may\u00a0improve general thinking skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many publishers have stepped into the gap left by the government and have produced support materials to help (student) teachers master the\u00a0grammatical terms<\/a>\u00a0the curriculum specifies. But publishers operate in a free market without oversight from the Department for Education. Also, the materials have generally not had any input from academic grammarians. As a result, they often contain mistakes.<\/p>\n

These are not just typos. For instance, one book aimed at teachers analyses \u201chave\u201d as a modal verb, which it is not, and suggests that modal verbs form tenses, which they do not. Another grammar book categorises \u201cdon\u2019t touch!\u201d as an exclamation, while it is actually a straightforward example of a command. Such errors are not dissimilar to the suggestion that seven times seven is 48, when\u00a0all year 4s<\/a>\u00a0are of course taught that it is in fact 49.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it is well known that teachers\u00a0experience more job stress<\/a>\u00a0than other professionals. In this context it may not be reasonable to expect them to have to independently procure and work through professional development materials in a subject area of such importance.<\/p>\n

Our baseline argument is that when it comes to recognising the importance of grammar, the curriculum is on point. However, the government should equip its teachers to teach it. It needs to commission research into the exact nature of the gaps in their knowledge. And it should get academic grammarians on board in developing appropriate support materials and training.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Willem Hollmann is Professor of Linguistics at Lancaster University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you know what a suffix is, or how to distinguish\u00a0adjectives from adverbs? If you have a six or seven-year-old, the chances are they do. Or at least, the UK government now says they should \u2013 by the end of year 2, to be specific. In year 3, primary schoolers turn their attention to prefixes […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[421995],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-59384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-teaching-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGrammar still matters \u2013 but teachers are struggling to teach it - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/grammar-still-matters-but-teachers-are-struggling-to-teach-it\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grammar still matters \u2013 but teachers are struggling to teach it - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you know what a suffix is, or how to distinguish\u00a0adjectives from adverbs? 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