Jimmy Van Rijt: UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR THE IMPACT OF LINGUISTIC METACONCEPTS ON L1 GRAMMAR EDUCATION

Abstract

This book takes as its starting point the contested issue of explicit grammar teaching, providing a contextual framing for the book’s focus on learners’ development of conceptual understanding of linguistic terms. A thorough and critical synthesis of the ‘grammar debate’ is provided, drawing on perspectives from both L1 and L2, and from across different educational jurisdictions. This synthesis discusses the historical shift in L1 teaching, especially in Anglophone countries, from a routine acceptance that explicit grammar teaching is a core component of the first language curriculum to one which rejected grammar on the grounds of its irrelevance to the process of language learning. This shift is paralleled, to an extent, in second language teaching, with the move away from grammar-translation approaches to communicative language teaching, where language learners acquire grammatical competence through using the language in communicative contexts, rather than through explicit teaching. Van Rijt observes that this rejection of explicit grammar teaching is predicated on assumptions that grammar should only be taught if it serves the purpose of becoming more literate or linguistically competent, an instrumentalist view, and compares this with a cultural perspective, where learning grammatical knowledge is valuable in its own right. This opening discussion does not shy away from the complexities of this topic, considering, for example, the distinction between form-focused and function-focused teaching, the different linguistic theorists which inform different perspectives, and the ideologically normative views of policy-makers in some countries. He teases out the ambiguity in the notion of ‘traditional grammar teaching’, noting the difference between what might represent traditional teaching or traditional grammar, and arguing that ‘traditional teaching’ concerns itself principally with how grammar is taught, whereas ‘traditional grammar’ concerns itself with what type of grammar is taught.