1st Edition
Beyond the Grammar Wars A Resource for Teachers and Students on Developing Language Knowledge in the English/Literacy Classroom
Are there evidence-based answers to the broad question "What explicit knowledge about language in teachers and/or students appears to enhance literacy development in some way"? Distinguished by its global perspective, its currency, and its comprehensiveness, Beyond the Grammar Wars:
- provides an historical overview of the debates around grammar and English/literacy teaching in four settings: the US, England, Scotland and Australia
- offers an up-to-date account of what the research is telling (and not telling) us about the effectiveness of certain kinds of grammar-based pedagogies in English/literacy classrooms
- takes readers into English/literacy classrooms through a range of examples of language/grammar-based pedagogies which have proven to be successful
- addresses metalinguistic issues related to changes in textual practices in a digital and multimodal age, and explores the challenges for educators who are committed to finding a "usable grammar" to contribute to teaching and learning in relation to these practices.
All of the contributors are acknowledged experts in their field. Activities designed for use in language and literacy education courses actively engage students in reflecting on and applying the content in their own teaching contexts.
Contents
Preface
- Introduction: "Grammar Wars" and beyond
- Blowin’ in the wind: English grammar in United States schools.
- The problematics of prescribing grammatical knowledge: The case in England
- The Grammar Wars in Australia
- Knowledge about language in the English classroom: A Scottish perspective
- Teaching sentence-level grammar for writing: The evidence so far
- Explicit teaching of grammar: Does it help students to become better writers?
- Ways of knowing: Writing with grammar in mind
- "Language as a system of meaning potential": The reading and design of verbal texts
- Discovering a metalanguage for all seasons: Bringing literary language in from the cold
- Scaffolding grammar instruction for writers and writing
- Primary school children learning grammar: Rethinking the possibilities
- A grammar for meaning-making
- Schemas for meaning-making and multimodal texts
- Resourcing multimodal literacy pedagogy: Towards a description of the meaning-making resources of language-image interaction
- Rules of grammar, rules of play: Computer games, literacy, and literature
Terry Locke
Part I: The "Grammar Wars" in context
Martha Kolln and Craig Hancock
Urszula Clark
Frances Christie
Graeme Trousdale
Part II: The effectiveness of grammar teaching: The research record
Richard Andrews
Amos van Gelderen
Debra Myhill
Part III: Into the classroom: Integrating knowledge about language with learning
Hilary Janks
Terry Locke
Constance Weaver
Ruth French
Section IV: Beyond print: A metalanguage for multimodal texts
Gunther Kress
Anne Cloonan, Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope
Len Unsworth
Andrew Burn
List of Contributors
Biography
Terry Locke is Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Arts and Language Education in the School of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand.