What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz Overview Define: ‘teachers’, ‘grammar’, ‘know’, Previous research in this area Methodology Findings What do teachers need to know about grammar? Conclusions and Further Research Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), Hamilton Sue Edwards Which teachers? Defining terms Mainstream primary school teachers in New Zealand Which teachers? Why? What is grammar? There are more ELLs in NZ primary schools than in What does it mean to ‘know about’ secondary schools grammar? ELLs spend most of their time in the mainstream classroom 1
What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz What is grammar? Definitions of grammar Swan (2005, p. 7) Thornbury (1999, p. 2) Swan “…even if you feel you know pretty “…grammar is essentially “Grammar is (2005, p. 3) well what grammar is, you might not a limited set of devices conventionally seen as for expressing certain find it easy to define.” the study of the syntax kinds of necessary and morphology of meaning that cannot be conveyed by referential sentences…” vocabulary alone.” Syntax Morphology “The system of rules that cover the order of words in a “The system of rules sentence.” (Thornbury, 1999, p. 2) that cover the formation of words. ” (Thornbury, 1999, p. 2) 2
What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz Grammar in context “Teacher knowledge about language can be supplemented with information from grammar texts which promote learning and teaching at whole text level , rather than isolated sentences and words which are divorced from curriculum- related texts” (ELIP , p. 5). “ All texts promote a focus on word, sentence and whole text analysis.” (ELIP , p. 4) What does it mean to ‘know’ something? What knowledge should teachers have? To know THAT To know HOW To know WHEN and WHY Have content and pedagogical content knowledge Biggs & Moore Declarative Procedural Conditional (1993, as cited knowledge knowledge knowledge for supporting English as an Additional Language in ELLP , 2008) (EAL) learners to succeed in the curriculum. (NZ Graduating Teacher Standards, 2007). Shulman (1987) Content General Pedagogical knowledge pedagogical content knowledge knowledge 3
What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz Proposed framework for mainstream teachers’ What do teachers need to know about grammar? grammatical knowledge (Myhill, Jones & Watson, 2013, p. 80) Grammatical Content Metalinguistic Grammatical What grammatical content knowledge are knowledge pedagogical content pedagogical content (declarative) knowledge knowledge (procedural) mainstream primary teachers in New Zealand Teachers’ knowledge about Teachers’ explicit Teachers’ knowledge about expected to possess, in order to effectively how and when to teach knowledge of grammar in how to teach language in grammar in order to address utilise Ministry of Education resources terms of morphology and order to address learners’ learners’ language needs. This syntax. It is declarative needs. for supporting ELLs? includes procedural knowledge knowledge, which is of the inter-relationship conscious and can be between grammatical articulated, and uses the constructions and how texts metalanguage of work to shape meaning. grammatical terminology. Previous studies of teacher Knowledge Teacher KAG: New Zealand about Grammar (KAG) How prepared are teachers to enact the Overview of implicit and explicit Jones & (new) curriculum in terms of their Jeurisson Chen references to grammar in: (2010) (2012) knowledge of grammar and their related - The NZ Curriculum (English) (2007) teaching practices? - The Literacy Learning Progressions (2010) - The English Language Learning Myhill, How does teachers’ grammatical Progressions (2008) Jones & knowledge impact on the teaching of Watson Study of teacher KAG (42 primary teachers) (2012) (2013) ; writing? 4
What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz The current study Scope: I looked at… Scope of investigation ELLP: English Language Learning (MOE, 2008) Progressions Findings ELIP: English Language Intensive (MOE, 2008) Programme (Primary_ SELLIPS: Supporting English Language (MOE, 2009) Learning in Primary Schools Scope: I looked for….any reference to: Findings Word Classes e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives Number and density of grammatical references Word structure How often are grammatical words referred to? e.g. plurals, comparative adjectives, verb tenses Number of different grammatical items Phrases How much do I need to know? e.g. noun phrases, adverbial phrases, prepositional phrases Sentence (and clause) structure Frequency of reference to grammatical items e.g. compound sentences, question formation, relative clauses Which bits of grammar are most important? 5
What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz Number of grammatical items: ELLP (2008) Number of grammatical items: ELIP (2008) 666 250 700 Introduction Foundation 600 196 Years 1-4 Stage 1 200 Years 5-8 500 449 Stage 2 159 160 138 150 400 317 101 300 86 100 66 167 200 139 51 49 114 104 38 50 82 28 55 56 100 30 10 9 0 0 Word classes Word Structure Phrases Sentences Word Classes Word Stucture Phrases Sentences Number of grammatical items: SELLIPS (2009) Density of grammatical items Total no. of pages Total no. of grammatical items 90 84 Years 1 & 2 2500 80 Years 3 & 4 2188 DENSITY: Years 5 & 6 70 2000 ELIP – 11.4 Years 7 & 8 60 49 48 ELLP – 5.4 45 50 1500 34 1082 40 SELLIPS – 1.9 1000 30 20 16 16 15 20 14 11 9 375 7 500 10 3 200 200 201 2 2 0 0 Word Classes Word Structure Phrases Sentences SELLIPS ELLP ELIP 6
What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz No. of different grammatical items: ELLP No. of different grammatical items: ELIP Stage 2 20 19 Sentences 20 Stage 1 Sentences 20 15 20 Foundation 8 Phrases 8 8 Years 5-8 6 Phrases 5 5 Years 1-4 12 Word structure 9 Introduction 5 25 Word 20 structure 11 21 Word classes 22 20 59 Word 59 0 5 10 15 20 25 classes 45 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 No. of different grammatical items: SELLIPS Most frequently used grammatical items Rank ELLP No. ELIP No. SELLIPS No. 17 Years 7 & 8 10 1 nouns 69 nouns 109 noun phrases 32 Sentences 10 Years 5 & 6 2 2 simple sentences 61 adjectives 90 nouns 26 Years 3 & 4 7 3 phrases 54 pronouns 64 adjectives 24 6 Phrases 4 4 verbs 53 action verbs 64 verbs 21 Years 1 & 2 2 5 compound sentences 49 adverbial phrases 61 adverbial phrases 19 12 Word 9 6 noun phrases 38 wh' questions 56 modals 18 9 structure 2 7 verb phrases 38 articles 55 adverbs 16 23 8 complex sentences 36 present tense 52 conjunctions 13 Word 17 17 classes 9 articles 27 prepositions 51 simple sentences 13 3 10 pronouns 27 definite articles 51 pronouns 10 0 5 10 15 20 25 7
What do teachers need to know about grammar? Sue Edwards CLESOL 2014 sue.edwards@wintec.ac.nz Lack of information in documents Conclusions There are differing amounts and density of grammatical Source Definition Example/s Adverbial terminology in the three documents ELLP A group of words e.g. I’m going to the phrase The ELIP document contains more terminology and has the highest (n=18) functioning as an shop to buy a drink. density of terminology adverb in a sentence The SELLIPS documents has the least amount and density of terminology SELLIPS Not provided e.g. The small snail Grammatical terminology related to word classes and sentences is (n=19 crawls onto the leaf the most frequently occurring Grammatical terminology related to word structure and phrases is the least frequently occurring ELIP Not provided e.g . on the beach (n=61) Certain grammatical items appear more frequently than others Where do teachers go to increase GCK? What is an adverbial phrase? ELLP – contains a glossary – 33 items of syntax & Source Definition and examples morphology ELLP (MOE, 2008) A group of words functioning as an adverb in a SELLIPS – ‘refer to Exploring Language (1996)’ (p. 6) sentence e.g. I’m going to the shop to buy a drink. ELIP – ‘a select list of helpful grammar texts can be Exploring Language Just as an adjective can have accompanying found on ESOL Online’ (p.5) (MOE, 1996) modifiers, so an adverb can also e.g. She smiled at him very sweetly indeed. Are these adequate? Do they contain the same A Grammar Companion Adverbial phrases are expressed by a group of information? for Primary teachers words generally beginning with a preposition e.g. (Derewianka, 1998) near the house. 8
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