Grammar and variation in the classroom

Abstract

Grammar is the structural foundation of successful communication, language use, and literacy development. Grammar is therefore sometimes viewed as the heart of language with an important place in language teaching. In a classroom setting, regulation of grammar knowledge through teachers is strongly influenced by teachers’ linguistic competence and beliefs. In this paper, we will first show the diversity in this knowledge by means of teacher interviews and speeded grammatical-acceptability data from pupils and students. We will then sketch a socio- and psycholinguistic perspective on several selected morphosyntactic variables in German. These will be discussed with reference to social forces that determine what is standard in a language (language norm authorities, language experts, model texts, and codifiers). Finally, we will draw a roadmap for teachers, language practitioners and editors looking for a qualified solution to grammatical cases of doubt in contemporary German and provide practical examples by drawing upon the German reference corpus.

Learning how to think like a linguist: Linguistic reasoning as a focal point in L1 grammar education

“…At the same time, it is hard to develop students' epistemic cognition on grammar. Basically, the underlying question here is how to get them from a prereflective stage to a reflective stage, without losing them in the relatively confusing in‐between stage of quasi‐reflective thinking, in which they need to manage dealing with the idiosyncrasies of different subjective viewpoints (Wijnands et al., 2021) and doubt (Dovalil & Hanulíková, 2023). This is challenging, as an undeveloped quasi‐reflective attitude can be characterised as an ‘anything goes‐attitude’, reflecting a general level of indecision in (linguistic) problem solving.…”