Grammar instruction and its role in writing proficiency have been the subject of long-standing controversy in literacy instruction. While traditional grammar instruction has been proven ineffective, many teachers still implement this approach due to a familiarity with the method or an insecurity in their grammar knowledge. Research instead points…

Over 60 years of conflicting messaging about the usefulness and impact of grammar on writing has guided instructional practice in K-12 classrooms across the country. In Florida, like many other states, reading scores have continued to decline despite multiple efforts to identify the root causes of learning deficiencies. Even though research…

This study examines teaching about grammar and language use in secondary schools through a narrative lens. The author analyses narrative episodes in interviews with three secondary English language arts teachers in the USA to identify patterns in stories of teaching about language use. Findings show teachers with vastly different life experiences…

Elementary French immersion (FI) language arts teachers often organize instruction around small learning groups. Students rotate through learning stations/centres and work independently with their peers on L2 literacy skills. This study examined how principles of task-based language teaching (TBLT) can be used and/or adapted to further support…

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy (CCSS-ELA) were adopted by approximately forty states (though in some cases, with significant revisions). However, researchers are still trying to understand how teachers are implementing the CCSS-ELA at the ground level--that is, in actual ELA classrooms. The CCSS-ELA call for…

For most Anglophone countries, the history of grammar teaching over the past 50 years is one of contestation, debate and dissent: and 50 years on we are no closer to reaching a consensus about the role of grammar in the English/Language Arts curriculum. The debate has been described through the metaphor of battle and grammar wars (Kamler, 1995;…

This comparative case study investigated integrated reading-writing instruction (IRWI) as an approach for writing instruction implemented after the adoption of Common Core State Standards (NGA & CCSSO, 2010a). Specifically, I explored the nature of IRWI through video-recorded observations of writing instruction, teachers' perspectives towards…

This paper presents the results of a study aimed at investigating how and why secondary school students use spelling and grammar checkers to aid them in their English writing. The study was a result of close observation over many years of how some students use computers effectively to support their writing, while others make just as much use of…

As a new faculty member, the author was invited by colleagues to help protect a resource they believed was essential to their instructional program. The importance of teaching grammar in a didactic fashion as a precursor to student writing constituted an unchallenged belief in the department. Faculty members were committed to the notion that…

Part of the Grade Teacher special report, "Linguistics and the Language Arts.

Surveys 40 middle-school language-arts teachers in 3 local public school districts. Finds that (1) most teachers believed it was important for their students to master grammar; and (2) teachers spend considerable time teaching grammar. Argues that grammar deserves a prominent place in the middle school curriculum. (RS)

The focus of this report is the Language Arts (LA) component within the Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP II) in Jamaica that was launched in 1993 and specifically the cataloging and reviewing of LA materials being used in primary schools at the grade 4 to 6 levels. Content suitability, levels of difficulty, layout, print, and…

IN CONNECTION WITH RESEARCH INTO THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STANDARD ENGLISH AND THE NONSTANDARD DIALECTS OF THE URBAN GHETTOS, IT WAS FOUND THAT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN THE RELATIVE DEPTH OR ABSTRACTNESS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS GRAMMATICAL RULES. IN MEMORY OR "SHADOW" TESTS, GROUPS OF NEGRO BOYS FROM 10 TO 14 YEARS OLD WERE HIGHLY MOTIVATED TO…

WHEN CHILDREN ENTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, THEY POSSESS A LANGUAGE SYSTEM WHICH HAS BEEN INTUITED FROM WHAT THEY HEAR AND WHICH CAN PRODUCE FOR THEM AN INFINITE NUMBER OF SENTENCES REFLECTING EITHER STANDARD OR NONSTANDARD DIALECTS OF ENGLISH. THE ELEMENTARY TEACHER CAN EQUIP THOSE WHO SPEAK A DIVERGENT ENGLISH DIALECT WITH ANOTHER, MORE SOCIALLY…