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

Abstract

Abstract:This paper reports on a national study, involving a mixed methods research design comprising a randomised controlled trial, 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. The statistical data was 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 linguistic subject knowledge was a significant mediating factor in the success of the intervention. The qualitative data provides 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 dimensions of written expression: Language group and gender differences

“…Likewise, sentence-combining activities (Graham & Perin, 2007;Saddler, Behforooz, & Asaro, 2008) and contextualised grammar teaching (Myhill, Jones, Lines, & Watson, 2012) have been found to be an effective means of supporting writing development. Thus far, however, the efficacy of these intervention programmes has been investigated predominantly with L1 learners; it is vital that future research examines the most effective ways of supporting the writing development of L2 learners (Graham & Perin, 2006).…”

Towards a rationale for research into grammar teaching in schools

“…They point out that the studies from which these conclusions have been drawn vary greatly in terms of how the research has been conceived and This research takes into consideration the following variables: the content, the period of time devoted to studying grammar and in what class/at what age the study begins. The proposals made by Carter (1990) and Bain, Fitzgerald, and Taylor (1992) coincide with this line of thinking, as do the experiences analysed by Freeman and Freeman (1998), Janks (2010) or Myhill et al (2012). All of them, from different positions, consider it essential to focus explicitly on grammar in order to help schoolchildren to organise coherent grammar knowledge, i.e.…”

“…These authors defend the benefits for students of a participative methodology based on shared reflection throughout the writing process as well as on what is produced, and on the fact that the students' attention is explicitly directed to specific grammar notions and to the effect they could have on different types of texts. In the English-speaking world, examples of this are the proposals by Janks (2010), Freeman and Freeman (1998) or Myhill et al (2012), and in the French-speaking world those of Clauzard (2008) or Paolacci and Debanc (2009).…”

What we know about teaching writing

“…Recently in England, a study by Myhill, Jones, Lines, & Watson (2012) involving a large-scale randomised trial in secondary schools found positive effects for teaching that included explicit attention to relevant grammatical constructions within the context of writing particular kinds of texts. But the authors note that not all pupils benefited equally, finding "a more marked positive effect on able writers" (Myhill et al 2012 p. 151).…”