Grammar teaching

As you probably know, most governments are under immense pressure to raise standards of literacy and this government has responded by introducing The National Literacy Strategy. Which is not all bad, it has to be said. Although quite a lot of it is bad. The NLS, which does just has a recommended status (although recommended in the sense that if you don't follow it you've got to prove you're doing it better), instructs teachers to spend a significant amount of time on grammar teaching, some at word level and some at sentence level. There are so many opinions that everyone has on this but here's a fact for you...

The government introduced this recommended grammar on the basis of research that showed that grammar teaching improves writing. And that's what we all want, isn't it? HOWEVER, this is the state of that research:

The EPPI-Centre and English Review Team (an independent team who review vast quantities of research) searched their comprehensive database and came up with 4566 studies that had looked into the value of teaching grammar, specifically syntax, to improve children's writing. They then applied four criteria to each study to work out if they were thought out carefully enough and relevant enough. This slashed the figure of appropriate studies down to 58, only 33 of which were primary studies (as opposed to reviews). They then studied in depth the 10 best studies (according to their criteria) and only three of these were of medium-high quality. The review team concluded that all three were inconclusive.

This leaves teachers in a tricky position. Especially as the call for better functional literacy comes around year after year alongside all the debate surrounding exam results and standards.

There's more to say but I don't think you'd read it! I'll post a link to my essay one day and here's a link to the review that I was writing about. Enjoy!