Post on 28-Mar-2015
Grammar for writing
Dick Hudsonwww.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm
What is grammar?
• A tool for expressing meaning.– knowledge– “competence”– E.g. “She knows a lot of grammar.”
• Patterning in written or spoken texts.– (product of) behaviour– “performance”– E.g. “The grammar here is complex.”
The main question
• Grammatical performance obviously develops with age.
• Presumably grammatical knowledge does too.
• How are these two developments related?
• Or: What grammar must a child know in order to write well?
The main conclusion
• Grammatical knowledge must grow.
• We can’t leave this growth to Mother Nature.
• So schools must help children’s grammatical knowledge to grow:– By providing models– By teaching new grammatical patterns.
Performance: quantitative developments
• Data from QCA studies at– Exeter (published)– UCLES (unpublished)
• 4 ages: KS1-4
• 2 sexes
• 2 genres (narrative, non-narrative)
• Pre-graded for NC level/GCSE grade
• 1998 (KS4), 1999-2002 (KS1-3)
Grammatical analysis
Per 100 words:
• Sentences and finite verbs
• Coordinated and subordinated clauses
• Adjectives and adverbs
• Abstract and concrete nouns
Results
More mature writing has:
• Longer sentences
• More adjectives and adverbs.
• Fewer coordinated clauses– But related to grade, not to age!
• More nouns
Nouns
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 2b 34/
F 5 67/
C 8 A
level
% n
ou
n (
+ 8
)
KS1
KS2
KS3
KS4
Why?
• Does mature writing have more abstract nouns?
• No.
Abstract nouns grow very little
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 3 57/
C A
level
% n
ou
n (
+ 8
) KS1
KS2
KS3
KS4
KS1 abs
KS2 abs
KS3 abs
KS4 abs
The broader picture
• Changes at school are part of a much bigger picture (Hudson 1994, Language).
• This involves other word classes as well:– Verbs– Pronouns
• The poles are:– Spontaneous speech by children– Informative writing by adults
From child’s play to adult informative writing
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
6-12 play ad inf wr
Noun
Pronoun
Verb
+ child interviews and imaginative writing
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
6-12 play 6-12 int ad imag ad inf wr
Noun
Pronoun
Verb
Is it mainly due to age?
• No.
• In casual conversation, children are very similar to adults.
Child’s play to adult conversation
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
6-12 play ad conv
Noun
Pronoun
Verb
The triumph of the noun
• What is going on?
• Basically we don’t know.
• But these changes involve literacy, not age.
So what?
• Schools can’t, and shouldn’t, teach quantitative change as such.
• Changes in performance may reflect:– A growing brain and working memory capacity.– Increasingly complex content.– A growing competence (linguistic knowledge).
• We need more research:– Empirical research on performance changes.– Theoretical research on mental growth.
Growing competence?
• What is grammatical knowledge like?
• Is it small and general?– A few very general rules?
• Or big and detailed as well as general?– Including a lot of very specific rules/patterns?
• If the latter, maybe children go on learning specific patterns.
Front-shifting and subject-delay.
• E.g. Here comes our bus.• Place + verb + subject• In speech, this is common, but very restricted:
– Place = here/there– Verb = BE/COME/GO
• In writing it’s much less restricted– By the side of it we put a bus-stop, where stood two
children. (Perera: girl aged12)
• Presumably children have to learn these patterns.
Other new constructions at KS3
• Non-finite reported clauses– … what I guessed to be a hatch– … hoping the water to be pure– … he had assumed Bob dead
• Non-finite adverbial clauses– Thus refreshed, I decided …– Bob would pause for many minutes whilst
describing his exploits …
All examples from one script.
So …
• By school age, children do not already know the entire grammar of their language.– Contrary to received wisdom in linguistics.
• A graded list of patterns would be very helpful for – syllabus designers.– examiners.
• The grammar that children need is– specific – teachable.
Does grammar teaching work?
• Yes.– It works if it’s done well.
Successful grammar teaching:• has a specific target writing outcome
– some specific grammatical pattern.
• leads directly into a writing activity– e.g. sentence combining.
• is pro-active and planned– not reactive.
Conclusion
• Performance follows regular statistical patterns as it matures.
• But knowledge of specific grammatical patterns also grows.
• Schools can support this growth by teaching specific patterns.