Teaching Grammar for Writing: Espoused Beliefs and Pedagogical Practices

Annabel WatsonUniversity of Exeter, UK

aw260@ex.ac.uk

The ‘Grammar Wars’

Research: Grammar reviews: “insufficient quality of research” (Andrews et al. 2006)

Politics: perceived link between standard English and social cohesion (Clark 2005)

Policy: UK Secondary schools saw grammar re-introduced & re-framed with Literacy Strategy (1998) sentence and word-level objectives (revised 2008)

Beliefs and Practice

“in the absence of uncontested conclusions about what constitutes good practice, teachers base instructional decisions on their own practical theories” (Borg & Burns 2008)

Context (Pajares 1992)

ESRC ‘Grammar, for Writing’?

Randomised Control Trial looking at impact of contextualised grammar teaching

32 Schools

Qualitative study: teacher interviews, student interviews, writing samples

Teacher (espoused) Beliefs

“the practical application of rules”

“In terms of grammar teaching my heart sinks, in terms of teaching children about language it doesn’t”

“It’s all about effects on the reader and have you done that on purpose …is it successful, if it is you

need to know how and why, and to be able to articulate it, we need a common vocabulary”

“I still panic a little bit about getting it right”

“generally with grammar I’m quite confident… to teach it… my confidence is less so”

What is ‘Grammar’?

Value crafting and effect

Concerns about LSK and PCK

Case Study Methods 2 Teachers who ‘opted-in’ from the original project

3 Interviews from the original project, coded into ‘belief profiles’; participants commented on these

Observed teaching a ‘Writing’ scheme of work that they had created to a class of year 8 (7th grade) students for 9 hours (recorded and transcribed)

1 Stimulated-recall interview asking them to explain their pedagogical decisions (using lesson transcripts)

1 ‘Think-aloud’ protocol where they marked 2 pieces of writing and offered comments on how to improve

ParticipantsClare

•Advanced Skills English Teacher

•3 city high schools (term-by-term) = non-selective, co-educational, medium ethnic-diversity, medium SEN & free school meals

•Observed teaching one 7th grade class: mixed ability

•Teaches this class once a week for 3 hours each time

Jane

•English teacher in charge of A-Level English

•School = large, rural, non-selective, co-educational, low ethnic-diversity, medium SEN & free school meals

•Observed teaching two 7th grade classes: Set 2 & Set 5

•Teaches these classes 3 times a week for 1 hour each time

Participant HistoryClare

•Undergraduate: Theatre Degree

•Teacher Training: GTP (on the job training, school-based)

•10 years teaching at secondary school level

•Previously: Worked at University / 2x colleges / 2x schools in Performing Arts / Art / Drama / English / Psychology.

Jane

•Undergraduate: English & American Studies Degree

•Teacher Training: PGCE (University-based)

•6 years teaching at secondary school level

•Previously: Only worked in this school. Was a Learning Support Assistant for 2 years before training to be a teacher.

PedagogiesJane: ‘Healthy Body, Healthy Mind:

Writing to Analyse / Review / Comment’WHAT•Genre focus•Teaches grammatical objectives as main aims e.g. “understand key terms that help to describe and analyse language, such as word classes”

HOWRepeated pattern, consisting of:•Explicit explanation of grammatical term / pupils write definitions •Pupil exercise identifying term (e.g. abstract nouns)•Analysis / annotation of text models for grammatical feature •Discussion of effects of the grammatical feature, linked to genre / purpose•Pupils write in the style of the text model

VARIATION•Speaking and listening activities debating issues from the texts analysed

PedagogiesClare: ‘Inspirational Writing’

WHAT•Creative / Personal Expression focus•Grammar (sentence variety) is a ‘secondary’ or ‘hidden’ objective in places

HOWRepeated pattern, consisting of:•Introduction and discussion of stimulus material; idea-generation•Students write•[sometimes] Teacher reference to sentence variety & statement of effects•Revision of writing [sometimes with attention to sentence variety]•Peer / self-assessment of writing (initially focusing on gut reaction)

VARIATION•Stimulus material occasionally takes the form of a text model•One activity explicit language focus: using inventive adjectives (e.g. “the silver wind” “the flinty wind”) – included discussion of effects

PedagogiesClare

•Terminology ‘dropped in’ and glossed by the teacher

•Grammar only raised in relation to students’ own writing

•Limited use of models – students write then revise

•Teacher tends to state effects / recipe approach e.g. ‘adverbs at the start of a sentence grab attention’

Jane

•Explicit teaching of terminology

•Some decontextualised exercises (the grammar is put into context later)

•Close analysis of text models always comes before writing

•Extended open discussion of the nuances and effects of different words / sentence patterns in context

Contexts: School and Curriculum

I was asked to write a scheme that would span about 12 lessons. I was asked to write a non-fiction writing scheme, developing students’ ability to

analyse, review and comment, so I was given those 3, that triplet

Clare: Loosely Controlled

I was given the old-style objectives

Jane: Tightly Controlled

I didn’t want to think about objectives … it’s about them finding their own way there

Nobody’s actually asked me what I’m doing. I don’t know if (a) they can’t be bothered or (b) they’re jealous but they don’t even ask me what’s going on in

here. I could be teaching them French

IdentityJane: Collaborative / Team

I wouldn’t have chosen to do this, I would never have done this, but that’s what I was told,

or asked to do

(referring to earlier project) to be honest a lot of the stuff

that I’ve done here is very similar to the kind of stuff

that we tend to teach anyway

we do teach students word classes

Clare: Rebellious / Individual

I’m an art stroke music teacher parading around as

an English teacher

I’m just really bored with the kind of stuff that people do these days in

secondary schools

You’re not just some knobhead who comes in and just gets a lesson off the

system and just stands there and delivers it. A monkey in a suit can do that

I was a bit of a rebel really

Effects

part of understanding is being able to talk about the effect that

it produces

Use of Models

I couldn’t expect a student to write in a particular style if they hadn’t had any

experience of it

Terminology

I still do genuinely wonder how useful it is for them to be given lots of grammatical terminology which they don’t really seem to understand

that was the objective. It wouldn’t have been my natural choice

Reflections on Pedagogy

Jane

Pedagogical Knowledge

(Reflecting on the central use of close analysis of text models before students write)

I’m just trying to think of an alternative approach there. What else could you do? I don’t know, I think maybe that’s the way I was taught, I don’t know, was that the way I was taught to teach? I don’t know. I don’t know why I chose to do that.

Jane

Reflections on Pedagogy

Crafting after Ideas

I would only approach that kind of thing after they’ve already thought about it, they’ve already used their imaginations, and now it’s, it is a sort of recipe,

it’s a tool to help them get those ideas down in a more sophisticated way

Conceptions of ‘Grammar’anything to do with creative writing is all

based on grammar… they’re taught rigorously how to correctly paragraph and

use sentences …

Need to Contextualise

I haven’t got a problem with grammar if it is taught within the

context of something.

Clare

Reflections on Pedagogy

Affective factors / values

I wanna produce writers

The writing isn’t about letters and newspapers, it’s about seeing something or experiencing something and you

just wanna get it down on paper

I’m teaching these kids the way I wish that I’d been taught

Reflections on Pedagogy

Clare

ClareJane

Constraints

Linguistic Subject Knowledge: I’m not sure that I’d get the answers that I’d want, and maybe I wouldn’t be confident enough to say ‘you’re wrong’ or ‘I’m wrong’

School / Department:You’ve got to toe the line… you all have to teach the same thing… people become institutionalized

Linguistic Subject Knowledge:I wouldn’t say that my own knowledge of grammar is particularly good, so I’d just teach them what I feel comfortable with and it seems, that that is enough

Time

Resources(Interactive Whiteboard; Availability of ICT)

Belief Change and Developing Pedagogy

it’s not essential [to know the terminology] because, as you could see from looking at the students’ work, some of them that hadn’t understood the word classes could still do the task at the end

I wouldn’t teach it in the same way

It’s been really useful you being here because you’ve forced me to be much more reflective than I would normally be… school life doesn’t allow you time to reflect as much as you’d like to really.

Jane

Implications: teaching grammarHow grammar is taught is influenced by a range of factors linked to teachers’

beliefs, identity, and linguistic and pedagogical knowledge including:

How teachers position themselves in relation to the curriculum and their departments / schools: “how teachers learn from policy is closely connected to who they are” (Stritikus 2003:49)

Wider educational aims and values Different conceptions of ‘grammar teaching’ Uncertainty about the value of some aspects (particularly relating to

terminology) Teacher linguistic subject knowledge Knowledge of the full range of pedagogical approaches to teaching

grammar

Implications: Beliefs & Practice

Reciprocal development (about what and how to teach)

Are affective aspects (Clare) more resistant to change? (Rokeach 1968)

Influence of ‘high-control’ curricula and ‘tightly-framed’ pedagogies (Lam & Kember 2006)

References Andrews, R., Torgerson, C., Beverton, S., Freeman, A., Locke, T.,

Low,G., Robinson, A., & Zhu, D. (2006) ‘The effect of grammar teaching on writing development.’ British Educational Research Journal 32, (1) 39–55.

Borg, S. & Burns, A. (2008) ‘Integrating Grammar in Adult TESOL Classrooms.’ Applied Linguistics 29 (3) 456–482

Clark, U (2005) ‘Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse: Linguistics, educational policy and practice in the UK English/literacy classroom’ English Teaching: Practice and Critique 4 (3) 32-47

Lam, B-H & Kember, D. (2006) ‘The relationship between conceptions of teaching and approaches to teaching.’ Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 12 (6) December 693–713

Pajares, F. (1992) ‘Teachers' Beliefs and Educational Research: cleaning up a messy construct.’ Review of Educational Research 62 (3) 307-332

Rokeach, M. (1968) Beliefs, attitudes, and values: a theory of organization and change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Stritikus, T. (2003) ‘The Interrelationship of Beliefs, Context, and Learning: the case of a teacher reacting to language policy.’ Journal of Language, Identity and Education 2 (1) 29–52

Thank You

Annabel Watson

University of Exeter, UK

aw260@ex.ac.uk