Grammar matters: How teachers' grammatical knowledge impacts on the teaching of writing

Myhill, Debra; Jones, Susan; Watson, Annabel

doi:10.1016/j.tate.2013.07.005

Cited by 104 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Reading like a teacher demands both extensive subject knowledge and compound competencies in language, text and writing. Relevant concepts and meta-language are prerequisites not only for communication but also for seeing what the students do and do not master, and what they are trying to do Myhill, Jones & Watson, 2013). In Shulman's terms (1987), we can talk about pedagogical content knowledge, enabling the teachers to use and integrate knowledge on subjects and on language and text in their teaching of writing.…”

Section: Writing Assessment As Writing Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intervention's focus on functional aspects of writing seemed to help the teachers to see the need for a meta-language to put their extended understanding of writing into words -for example by asking questions as "How does the student use language to satisfy the desired purpose?" Thus, teachers developed what Myhill et al (2013) call grammatical content knowledge, and gradually applied it pedagogically through feedback and writing instruction. A flexible understanding and use of the assessment resources, as described in the analyses, implies a deeper understanding of the linguistic and textual domains they are derived from.…”

Section: Teachers' Competence and Teachers' Dialoguesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Writing education and assessment in Norway: Towards shared understanding, shared language and shared responsibility

Matre¹,

Solheim²

2015

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article reports on a study of writing and assessment in upper primary school, focusing on how teachers develop assessment competence through professional discussions in interdisciplinary groups. The empirical data consist of dialogues between teachers assessing and giving feedback on students' texts from different subjects. To support their evaluations, the teachers used and referred to a defined construct of writing and norms for expected writing proficiency. The analyses reveal a complex picture of the teachers' use of the assessment resources and their processes of appropriating a broader understanding of writing, including acquiring an extended meta-language. Three thematic categories are crystallised: an instrumental approach and a flexible and functional approach, appearing as two ideal typical points on a continuum, linked together by an overarching category labelled learning in progress. The article argues for an analytical reading as a basis for formative assessment in general writing education, and points to the need for knowledge on writing, text and linguistics -traditionally seen as domains for L1 teachers. The findings are discussed in light of the L1 teachers' responsibility for both the specific subject discourses of literacy and Bildung, and for providing students with general knowledge on language and text to support their overall writing competence. Critical implications of this double responsibility for the L1 subject are presented and reflected upon.

show abstract

Section: Writing Assessment As Writing Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Teachers' Competence and Teachers' Dialoguesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing education and assessment in Norway: Towards shared understanding, shared language and shared responsibility

Matre¹,

Solheim²

2015

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This then gets marks as 'good writing. (Rosen, 2016) In contrast, working with teachers in our studies who have developed greater grammatical knowledge, we have been able to discriminate three aspects of pedagogical subject knowledge which support effective grammar teaching within the teaching of writing (Myhill et al, 2013). This is not simply a matter of their own grammatical knowledge being secure, but equally importantly, that they can make links between grammar points and their function or purpose in written texts; that they can read students' writing and respond to the linguistics decisions they have made; and that they have the ability to notice salient grammatical features in the reading texts they are using.…”

Section: The Place Of Teachers' Grammatical Subject Knowledge In Suppmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…We have looked closely at teachers' subject and pedagogical knowledge (Myhill, Jones and Watson, 2013;Wilson and Myhill, 2012) and how this influences what happens in the classroom. A further strand of our research has looked closely at the nature of the talk occurring around the grammar-writing relationship, particularly how the teacher facilitates metalinguistic thinking and discussion around grammatical choices Authors & Newman, 2016).…”

Section: Build In High-quality Discussion About Grammar and Its Effecmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grammar as a meaning-making resource for language development

Myhill¹

2018

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article will begin by briefly outlining the long-standing, and contested, debate in Anglophone countries regarding the place of grammar in the L1 curriculum, and will underline how Anglophone countries in general have not valued grammar in the teaching of L1 (or in L2). It will illustrate how current national policies have re-positioned grammar, with particular reference to England and Australia, and it will review recent research which demonstrates that explicit grammar teaching can support learner outcomes in reading and writing. Drawing on a Hallidayan theoretical framework for grammar, which emphasises grammar as a semiotic resource for meaning-making, the article will offer a theorized rationale for the inclusion of grammar in the L1 curriculum. This argument will be evidenced with data from a series of related studies and will address a) linking grammar and the learning focus for reading or writing in a meaningful way; b) the role of talk in supporting the development of students' metalinguistic knowledge; c) students' conceptual understanding of grammatical terms; and d) the place of teachers' grammatical subject knowledge in supporting a meaning-rich approach to the teaching of grammar. The article will conclude by signaling key lines of enquiry for future research.

show abstract

“…Scholars such as Myhill et al (2013) have demonstrated that teachers' 'applied' knowledge is more significant than their knowledge of language as object. The study by Myhill et al focused on middle school teachers and the teaching of writing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-service teachers linking their metalinguistic knowledge to their practice: a functional approach

Thwaite

2015

Functional Linguist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Existing work in Anglophone countries has raised concerns regarding teachers' knowledge about language (KAL); this may well be an issue in other countries also, with notable exceptions such as Finland. In Australia, with the introduction of the new Australian Curriculum, the question of teacher KAL has become crucial. Teachers, both practising and pre-service, generally have some knowledge about language as an object, usually including the text structures of particular school genres and information about sentence structure and word classes. This knowledge may be based on traditional grammar and may not be well applied above the sentence level. Teachers may also have an intuitive knowledge of discourse structures and are beginning to reflect on their own discourse using understandings of dialogic teaching. This paper provides an example of how first-year pre-service teachers (PSTs) were introduced to KAL at both the grammatical and the discourse levels, as part of an introductory unit on spoken language. A range of approaches was used, including a functional view of discourse. The PSTs then applied their KAL by putting it into a context that was meaningful for them: discussing their own practice. The paper gives an illustration of some of the work they produced that demonstrates their emerging understandings.

show abstract

Grammar matters: How teachers' grammatical knowledge impacts on the teaching of writing

Cited by 104 publications

References 39 publications

Writing education and assessment in Norway: Towards shared understanding, shared language and shared responsibility

Writing education and assessment in Norway: Towards shared understanding, shared language and shared responsibility

Grammar as a meaning-making resource for language development

Pre-service teachers linking their metalinguistic knowledge to their practice: a functional approach

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About