Grammar instruction in the Hispanic area: The case of Spain with attention to empirical studies on metalinguistic activity

Abstract

Grammar instruction is an unresolved issue in the Hispanic area, having long been approached from within the disjunction between rhetoric (teaching how to use language, especially writing) and grammar (teaching the grammar content). Over time grammar instruction has generated an intense debate around two positions: direct instruction on grammar content, versus instruction devoted to prompting reflection on grammar and language use. There has been an insistent and recurring tendency towards the former, a situation that still prevails. More recently, however, certain research trends in Spain, albeit a minority, have crystallized in a research trajectory on metalinguistic activity, opening up new possibilities for rethinking instruction based on grammar reflection to support writing. Within such a trajectory, innovative ways to promote grammar reflection within language use are explored, and metalinguistic activity becomes the focus of research and pedagogy. Crucially, some of the empirical studies developed within this trajectory suggest that grammar knowledge may not be a condition for reflection about language but its consequence, leading to a consideration of metalinguistic activity as a promising avenue for rethinking the debate on the role of grammar instruction.

For what benefit? Grammar teaching materials in upper primary Danish L1

“…One reason may be the presence of a skills view surrounding the L1 school subject, which involves prioritising an explicit teaching of punctuation and spelling rules and contributes to the repeated misconception that a grammar teaching with a focus on the sentence and below is a prerequisite for students' writing development (Fontich & García-Folgado, 2018;Lynch & Evans, 1963). This is the case in other national L1 educational contexts; for example, in England, where a skills view has dominated educational policy since the 1980s and where correctness has been prioritised in compulsory English L1 since the turn of the millennium (Locke, 2010).…”

“…According to a recent review of empirical studies on grammar teaching in the L1 classroom in francophone regions, the content in grammar teaching is often unclear and its purpose appears to be to support the students' correct spelling when writing texts (Boivin, 2018). Such a prescriptive purpose, that is, when grammar teaching serves as a means to support correctness in students' written texts, particularly applies when school grammar teaching is based on a structural understanding of grammar (Fontich & García-Folgado, 2018;The English Review Group, 2004). In an overview of research on grammar and written compositions, Hillocks (2008) calls this type of grammar teaching traditional school grammar (TDS), and Funke (2018) uses the German term Schulgrammatik.…”

“…At the same time, however, an explicit grammar teaching appears to exhibit what Humphrey, Love, & Droga (2011) describe as a resistance to change, particularly when compared with other content areas within L1 education, a resistance identified by a number of regional L1 researchers (e.g. Fontich & García-Folgado, 2018). Such a resistance manifests itself in, among other things, learning materials that appear to be the same in the 21st century as they were in previous centuries (The English Review Group, 2004).…”

Teachers’ concepts on the teaching of grammar in relation to the teaching of writing in Spain: A case study

“…Nonetheless, the grammar-writing issue remains controversial. In Spain, various attempts to reform grammar, far from helping to bridge the gap, have simply distanced the study of grammar still further from writing (see García-Folgado, 2018, andGonzález-Nieto, 2001 for a revision). The contribution of linguistic structuralism and generative grammar consisted, above all, in offering schools a greater conceptual precision in the definition of grammatical categories and systems of analysis, but this reified the isolation of grammar content with regard to language use, culture, and writers' intentions.…”

Projeto PerGRam – Processos para o ensino da gramática no primeiro ano de escolaridade

“…Así, tres aspectos son interesantes y merecen destaque: la formación de profesores, a través de la presentación de métodos y estudios actuales; la intervención en los años iniciales de la escuela, en el 1er Ciclo, asumiendo que desarrollar la consciencia lingüística en el inicio de la formación es beneficioso para desarrollos futuros (Laranjeira, Leite & Pereira, 2015); y el estimulo de la actividad metalingüística como herramienta para el estabelecimiento de la consciencia lingüística de los estudiantes, aspecto bastante explorado actualmente, pues, como apuntan las investigaciones (Myhill, 2011;Fontich, 2016;Fontich & García-Folgado, 2018), tareas que generan discusión, reflexión y participación proporcionan mejores desempeños de los alumnos. Finalmente, es interesante apuntar que por tener en cuenta investigaciones de la comunidad científica internacional, la propuesta incentiva la reflexión sobre los nuevos planteamientos para la didáctica de la lengua más allá del contexto portugués, en escenarios cuyo interés sea la enseñanza de la lengua materna.…”