Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

grammar for writing which have not found an impact. The study finding does not offer support for grammar teaching to improve writing. ” (see tinyurl.com/ ts146-EG1) This implies that investing time, resources and training into grammar teaching can be a fruitless task, and that bringing it back into the curriculum is yet another political decisionmade without considering the merits of something that has already been researched. The study did, however, find that, “ There was a larger effect on pupils’ generation of sentences ” – which, being a key intended outcome of effective grammar teaching, shouldn’t be dismissed. It’s not necessarily the teaching of grammar that’s meaningless, though, so much as the way it’s implemented . The study in question observed 10 lessons that involved explicit teaching of grammar terms, but expecting application after such a short time is unlikely to work. Everything we know about modern education suggests that repetition and recall are the most effective ways of meaningfully embedding teaching and learning. The issue may well be that the teaching of grammar itself isn’t ineffective, but that it’s not sufficiently ingrained within in our curricula. The current approach therefore falls short because it’s not consistently and repeatedly interspersed within schemes of learning. Many (often expensive) programs and resources offer schemes of standalone grammar lessons – or even explicit grammar units – which are taught and then left by the wayside. Yet as any teacher will attest, no matter how grounded in research and proven effective the latest hot educational fad may be, it’ll always fall short if merely implemented as a box-ticking exercise. The importance of ‘how’ and‘why’ For grammar teaching to be genuinely effective, students need constant reminders, models and chances to analyse and apply the grammar knowledge they have, across a variety of contexts. The trouble is, this isn’t easy to do. It’s an approach that takes a huge amount of work to properly resource and implement across all secondary year groups, in a way that builds, recaps and reminds students to use the grammar they’ve learned, in ways linked to the contexts of the various topics they’re studying. So again, the question remains – is there any merit to doing this ? In English, students are expected to analyse writers’ choices of language in meaningful ways. If, so the argument goes, they can’t understand how that language is formed, then how can they be expected to understand what choices have beenmade, or when the language is being played with or subverted? However, the process of doing that involves much more than simply being able to recognise and identify the different components of language; it also requires the ability to understand what those components actually do, and how to apply them in their own writing. In the same way that it’s pointless for students to try and define a complex term like epizeuxis when they can’t yet accurately analyse the effects of the far simpler simile , knowing what ‘adverbial clauses’ are is meaningless – unless they’re initially taught how and why to use them creatively in their writing. Awriter might deploy a fronted adverbial clause, for instance, to generate variety or a sense of suspense. Yet understanding different word forms and what a clause is can only be so helpful, because if this foundation hasn’t been understood, students will find it much more difficult to develop their writing to a higher standard, when they’ll be expected to nominalise their writing across different GCSE subjects in a far more sophisticated and streamlined way. These are some of the many ways in which good grammar teaching can reveal complexity and impact upon students’ writing in a beneficial way. Promising foundations In education, the choice of what we should teach ought to come down to what we hope it will achieve – not just because we’re told to adopt certain approaches by external organisations. An understanding of the different components from which language is put together will always serve as a good foundation for meaningful analysis and writing. Ignoring explicit grammar teaching entirely would mean that only a small minority gets to grasp the full potential of this via osmosis. Yes, there is much to be gained for students at all levels by teaching them grammar, which is why private and grammar schools have done so for all those years. Comprehensive students should stand to gain from all the benefits of grammar teaching, too – but that will only happen if it’s implemented in a structured and meaningful way. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bhamika Bhudia is Head of English at a mixed comprehensive school in London 63 teachwire.net/secondary E N G L I S H