Working on grammar at school: Empirical research from German-speaking regions

Abstract

The article reviews quantitative as well as qualitative research on grammatical learning at school in the context of L1 education in German-speaking regions. One of the specifics of this research is that its focus has been not on the effects of grammar learning on reading and writing outcomes but instead on the quality of the knowledge which is gained. Research results are reported with respect to five areas: (1) interventions aimed at promoting grammar knowledge; (2) interventions aimed at fostering linguistic skills; (3) observational studies; (4) large-scale studies; and (5) classroom discourse in grammar lessons. In its conclusion, the article points to issues pertinent to future research. They include measuring the extent to which students access syntactic features directly, without having them explain these features verbally, as well as conceiving of instructional methods to make sure that students gain continued access to syntactic information.

For what benefit? Grammar teaching materials in upper primary Danish L1

“…Another interesting question to emerge from this study is how students' knowledge of grammar can be assessed and whether grammar teaching in L1 education contributes to valuable ways of knowing in a longitudinal context, notwithstanding difficulties assessing this knowledge (Funke, 2018). This perspective supports a decontextualised knowledge of language structure as a worthwhile part of the L1 curriculum in itself.…”

”Det bygger liksom på att man vet sammanhanget”: Elevers resonemang om syntaktisk (o)fullständighet i en skönlitterär text

“…(jfr Myhill, 2000). Kunskapen om obligatoriska satsdelar tillämpas således på betydelsemässiga grunder i elevgrupperna då applicerandet av minnesregeln resulterar i att enskilda ord som kan uttrycka en handling förstås som predikatsled (jfr Boivin, 2018;Funke, 2018;Myhill, 2000). Resonemangen visar att minnesregler såväl kan försvåra som stödja resonemanget om syntaktisk (o)fullständighet (jfr Berry, 2015, van Rijt et al, 2019.…”

“…I flera studier har det emellertid framkommit att förståspråkselever i huvudsak inte använder sig av grammatisk terminologi när de resonerar om språkets struktur, utan de utgår primärt från semantiska associationer när grammatiska strukturer identifieras och förklaras, vilket kan försvåra möjlighet att se språkliga strukturer (t.ex. Boivin, 2018;Funke, 2018;Myhill, 2000;Watson & Newman, 2017). I praktiken kan det exempelvis innebära att elevers sökande efter satsens verb resulterar i att verbala aspekter återfinns i andra satsdelar än predikatet (Myhill, 2000).…”

The conceptual importance of grammar

“…Alderson and Hudson (2013). KaL plays a major role in international discussions about language education, and it is considered a key part of the curriculum in many current curricula, for example in Anglophone regions (Myhill, 2018), such as the United Kingdom (Alderson & Hudson, 2013;Myhill et al, 2012) and Australia (Macken-Horarik et al, 2018), in German speaking regions (Funke, 2018), Francophone regions (Boivin, 2018) and Spanish speaking regions (Fontich & García-Folgado, 2018).…”