Learning to think about language step by step: a pedagogical template for the development of cognitive and reflective thinking skills in L1 grammar education

Abstract

education, utrecht university of applied sciences, utrecht, the netherlands, b radboud Teachers' academy, radboud university, nijmegen, the netherlands, c Department of Teacher education, Fontys university of applied sciences, sittard, the netherlands, d Department of Linguistics, Center for Language studies, radboud university, nijmegen, the netherlands ABSTRACT Traditional L1 grammar teaching focuses on students' learning the correct grammar rules rather than learning how to deal with grammatical issues in real life. This is mainly due to the fact that traditional grammar education suggests that language consists of sentences which are wellformed according to a fixed prescriptive norm. However, language is messy (especially spoken language), and even the analysis of written language is often unclear and controversial. Students generally do not learn how to deal with the differences between the prescriptive norms taught at school, language in real language situations, and their own language intuitions. They are not taught how to develop a more reflective attitude to tackle ill-structured language issues. Such a reflective attitude could be stimulated by a pedagogical approach to grammar that addresses higher order cognitive thinking skills and teaches students how to consult language resources. In this paper we combine a cognitive learning model with a reflective development model into a pedagogical template aimed at stimulating both cognitive learning and reflective development.

Linguistic metaconcepts can improve grammatical understanding in L1 education evidence from a Dutch quasi-experimental study

“…In addition, the role of the teacher needs further exploration. It would, for example, be important to investigate to what extent the teachers’ own grammatical understanding impacts on the students’ grammatical learning, and how their epistemic beliefs towards grammar influence the way in which they handle metaconceptual interventions [ 60 , 94 ]. Finally, follow-up research might compare traditional parsing treatments to metaconceptual treatments for a clearer idea of the added benefit of metaconcepts compared to traditional teaching.…”

The conceptual importance of grammar

“…First of all, teachers' own (epistemic) beliefs and existing practices can inhibit them from thinking about grammar differently (see Elsner, 2020;Wijnands et al, 2021). While Dutch teachers appear to be open towards a type of grammar teaching that values grammatical understanding in itself (i.e., metaconceptual lessons, cf.…”

Al-Qur’an Literacy: A Strategy and Learning Steps in Improving Al-Qur’an Reading Skills through Action Research

“…Those who can read the Qur'an fluently learned to read it fluently outside of school, which mostly takes one to two years. This is reasonable because the cognitive development of students at every level of education affects the length of language acquisition (Hakimzadeh et al, 2021;Thompson, 2021;Wijnands et al, 2021). In addition, most students agreed that reading the Qur'an is a requirement for a Muslim and understanding the Qur'an is the first step towards applying its messages (Rahman et al, 2017;.…”