Research on the effects of learning about grammar

  1. Writing (syntax)
  2. Spelling
  3. Grammar growth during school years
  4. Listening and comprehension
  5. Scientific method and thinking skills

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1. Writing (syntax) is improved by:

  • focussed integrated teaching

  • sentence combining

    • Hillocks, G. and Mavrognes, N. (1986). Sentence combining. In Hillocks, G.(ed.), Research on Wrtten Composition: New Directions for Teaching. Urbana, IL: NCTE. 142-146.
    • Andrews, Richard, Carole Torgerson, Sue Beverton, A Freeman, Terry Locke, Graham Low, Alison Robinson & Die Zhu. 2004. The effect of grammar teaching (sentence combining) in English on 5 to 16 year olds’ accuracy and quality in written composition. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education – Research Evidence in Education Library.
  • unintegrated grammar teaching (but only for some children)

    • Bateman, D. R. and Zidonis, F. J. (1966). The effect of a study of transformational grammar on the writing of ninth and tenth graders. Champaign, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English.
  • – but not, for most children, by unintegrated grammar teaching

2. Teaching about morphology improves spelling

  • 2006. Nunes, T. and Bryant, P.  Improving Literacy by Teaching Morphemes. (London: Routledge)
  • 2005. Hurry, J. (2005) Why morphology matters and comprehension counts. Discussion paper for QCA’s “English 21” inquiry.
  • 2005. Hurry, J; Nunes, T; Bryant, P; Pretzlik, U; Parker, M; Curno, T; and Midgely, L.  Transforming research on morphology into teaching practice. Research Papers in Education 20. 187-206.
  • 2004. Bryant, P., Nunes, T., and Bindman, M.  The Relations Between Children’s Linguistic Awareness and Spelling: The Case of the Apostrophe. Reading and Writing 12. 253-276.
  • 2002. Bryant, P., Devine, M., Ledward, A., and Nunes, T.  Spelling with Apostrophes and Understanding Possession. British Journal of Educational Psychology 67. 91-110.
  • 1997. Nunes, T., Bryant, P., and Bindman, M.  Learning to Spell Regular and Irregular Verbs. Reading and Writing 9. 427-449.

3. Grammars continue to grow through school age.

  • Chomsky, C. (1969). The  acquisition  of  syntax  in  children  from  5  to  10. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Perera, K. (1984). Children’s Writing and Reading. Analysing Classroom Language. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Perera, K. (1990). Grammatical differentiation between speech and writing in children aged 8 to 12. In Carter, R.(ed.), Knowledge About Language and the Curriculum. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 216-233.

4. Teaching pupils grammar improves their listening and comprehension skills

  • Dabrowska, E. (1997) The LAD goes to school: A cautionary tale for nativists. Linguistics 35, 735-766.
  • Chipere, N. (2001). Variations in native speaker competence: Implications for native language teaching. Language Awareness 10. 107-124.
  • Chipere, N. (2003). Understanding Complex Sentences: Native Speaker Variation in Syntactic Competence. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Street, J & Dabrowska, E. (2010) More individual differences in language attainment: How much do adult native speakers of English know about passives and quantifiers? Lingua 120, 2080-2094

5. Investigative grammar teaching helps children to understand the scientific method.

  • Fabb, N. (1985). Linguistics for ten-year-olds. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 6. 45-61.
  • Honda, M. (1994). Linguistic inquiry in the science classroom: “It Is Science, but It’s Not Like a Science Problem in a Book”. MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics 6. 1-262.
  • Honda, M. and O’Neil, W. (1993). Triggering science-forming capacity through linguistic inquiry. In Hale, K. & Keyser, J.(eds.), The View From Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 229-255.
 

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