In this article, the author reflects on keynotes by Debra Myhill and Wayne Sawyer in a search for ways with grammar. One of the keynote speakers, Debra Myhill, shared her research into teaching grammar that she had conducted in the UK. Myhill had asked a sample of teachers to follow a specified unit plan and had conducted pre- and post-testing to…

An innovative focus on language in teacher education is essential for the success of Language Awareness. The goals of promoting educational linguistics as a new discipline and of facilitating efficient language education are discussed, as is the crucial theme of "contingency grammar," defined as ways of displaying attentiveness to other…

Argues that the grammar of a language can be viewed as the systematic way that it works and, like everything else in life, grammar is subject to change. (JL)

Responds to Kanno's article (see FL 528 536), which described studies of adult American learners of Japanese and their knowledge of two universal grammar (UG) principles and noted various lateral inconsistencies. This commentary suggests that another form of lateral inconsistency, arising from failure to replicate Kanno's findings in another adult…

Responds to a previous article suggesting that the grammatical mode of communication arose via natural selection, focusing on the following: the impoverished view of language; the use of misleading metaphors; reliance on problematic metalanguage; the absence of developmental evidence; and the absence of qualitative judgments. (JL)

Suggests that grammar teaching should go beyond syntax and morphology and concern itself with a more careful observation of meta-grammatical phenomena. Advocates that an instrumental view of grammar should be supplemented with an integral view of language. The ultimate aim is to make learners aware of the way a language works. (Author/VWL)

In Claire Kramsch's (2004) response to work by Mary Louise Pratt (2002) on multilingualism, identity and language in the U.S., she proposed that the four points made by Pratt be extended to the following: (1) Monolingualism is a handicap, but so is the assumption that one language = one culture = adherence to one cultural community; (2) Heritage…

Makes a case for including corpus linguistics in initial language teacher education to enhance teachers' research skills and language awareness. Offers examples of corpus-based tasks for increasing students' understanding of word classes, register-related grammatical choices, and socioculturally conditioned grammatical choices. (Author/VWL)

Studies of the impact of formal instruction consistently show that more instruction results in modest increases in consciously-learned competence, a conclusion that is consistent with the claims of the monitor hypothesis. Reviews research in which the impact of direct instruction in grammar is measured directly, discusses individual studies…

Argues that the teaching of grammar supplements learners' natural tendency to formulate and test hypotheses about the language. Complicated linguistic analyses can impede this process. Pedagogical grammar can be made less formal by keeping the analysis and metalanguage to the minimum. (36 references) (Author/CK)

A study carried out with Sudanese secondary school students on different approaches to grammar instruction indicates that an approach that attempts to approximate learners' strategies can be more effective than the traditional technique based on metalanguage and elaborate analysis. (Author/VWL)

Examines the importance in the instructed-learning setting of the second-language teacher's "knowledge about language" or metalinguistic awareness. Discusses three questions: (1) Do teachers need to know about language?; (2) if so, why and in what ways; and (3) what impact does the level of a teacher's metalinguistic awareness have on the input…

It is argued that teaching and learning a second language for communicative competence should not lead to neglect of students' understanding of the way the language works, but rather should include constant development of language awareness. While use of the language in a variety of communicative activities is the central goal of instruction,…

Discusses the advantages of the use of large natural language corpora in promoting grammatical awareness among language teachers and students, focusing on word classes and prescriptive approaches to language as they relate to Britain's National Curriculum at the elementary level. (13 references) (MDM)