- Exeter, England, United Kingdom
Annabel Watson
University of Exeter, Graduate School of Education, Faculty Member
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Teaching grammar has been mandated in statutory curriculum documents in England since 1988. Yet despite this, research evidence continues to suggest that metalinguistic knowledge is an area of challenge for many teachers. Drawing on data... more
Teaching grammar has been mandated in statutory curriculum documents in England since 1988. Yet despite this, research evidence continues to suggest that metalinguistic knowledge is an area of challenge for many teachers. Drawing on data from a larger study, this paper considers the role of teachers\u27 grammatical knowledge, both content and pedagogical content knowledge, in mediating learning about writing in the classroom. It also illustrates how students\u27 learning about writing is influenced by teachers\u27 metalinguistic knowledge. The study highlights that grammatical pedagogical content knowledge is more significant than grammatical content knowledge in supporting meaningful teaching and learning about writing
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The rich body of research on dialogic, exploratory talk points to its significance in developing and securing student learning (Alexander 2018; O’Connor and Michaels 2007; Reznitskaya et al 2009; Gillies 2016). More recently, this body of... more
The rich body of research on dialogic, exploratory talk points to its significance in developing and securing student learning (Alexander 2018; O’Connor and Michaels 2007; Reznitskaya et al 2009; Gillies 2016). More recently, this body of research has begun to consider dialogic talk specifically in the context of literacy education (for example, Juzwik et al 2013; Boyd and Markarian 2015; Wilkinson et al 2015; Edwards-Groves and Davidson 2017). However, there remains a dearth of research which considers the role of dialogic talk in the teaching and learning of writing, and particularly its role in supporting developing writers’ metalinguistic understanding of how linguistic choices shape meaning in written texts. This article will report on qualitative data draw from a national study, involving a randomized controlled trial and an accompanying process evaluation. The study involved an intervention which was informed by a Hallidayan theoretical framing of metalinguistic understanding...
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Research Interests: Philosophy, Writing, Linguistics, Grammar, Écriture, and 6 moreGrammaire, Metatalk, Gramática, Escritura, Relational Grammar, and Gramàtica
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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... more
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; Locke, 2005), frequently pitting educational professionals against politicians, but also pitting one professional against another. At the heart of the debate are differing perspectives on the value of grammar for the language learner and opposing views of what educational benefits learning grammar may or may not accrue. At the present time, several jurisdictions, including England and Australia, are creating new mandates for grammar in the curriculum. This article reviews the literature on the teaching of grammar and its role in the curriculum and indicates an emerging consensus on a fully-theorized conceptualization of grammar in the curricu...
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ABSTRACT This study investigated the metalinguistic reflections of 12 students, aged 14–15 years, undertaking a unit of work focused on reading and writing non-fiction. The unit embedded contextualised grammar teaching into preparation... more
ABSTRACT This study investigated the metalinguistic reflections of 12 students, aged 14–15 years, undertaking a unit of work focused on reading and writing non-fiction. The unit embedded contextualised grammar teaching into preparation for English Language examinations. Students were interviewed twice, with prompts to discuss a sample of argument text in interview one, and a sample of their own writing in interview two. The interviews and subsequent analysis drew on Gombert's taxonomy of metalinguistic understanding, focusing on metasemantic, metasyntactic and metatextual reflections, and probing students’ ability to link these to metapragmatic concerns. Similarly to previous studies, the findings suggest that students struggle to articulate the impact of metasyntactic choices; however, here it is suggested that this may be a particular artefact of the need for a specialised metalanguage for discussing syntax. Results also indicate a tendency to reify form-function relationships, and signal the potential benefit of using students’ own writing as a platform for exploring authorial choices. Finally, the study contributes to the theorisation of metalinguistic understanding by suggesting how declarative knowledge may emerge from procedural activity, with interviews scaffolding students’ ability to articulate what had initially been tacit language choices.
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Research Interests: Media Studies and English
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ABSTRACT This paper reports on an investigation of L1 English teachers’ conceptual and evaluative beliefs about teaching grammar, one strand of a larger Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded investigation into the impact of... more
ABSTRACT This paper reports on an investigation of L1 English teachers’ conceptual and evaluative beliefs about teaching grammar, one strand of a larger Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded investigation into the impact of contextualised grammar teaching [RES-062-23-0775]. Thirty-one teachers in English secondary schools were interviewed three times each over the course of a year-long project, discussing their beliefs about writing in general and grammar in particular. The results indicate that while teachers’ initial conceptualisations of ‘grammar teaching’ tend to reflect a prescriptive and traditional model of grammar, their beliefs about how it may be of value tend to evoke a rhetorical model. Their initial prescriptive conceptualisation is also related to negative affective responses to ‘grammar’. This paper suggests that attempts to encourage support or enthusiasm for teaching grammar will therefore need to deal with teachers’ explicit awareness (or lack thereof) of the variety of meanings that ‘grammar teaching’ can have.
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ABSTRACT Teaching grammar has been mandated in statutory curriculum documents in England since 1988. Yet despite this, research evidence continues to suggest that metalinguistic knowledge is an area of challenge for many teachers. Drawing... more
ABSTRACT Teaching grammar has been mandated in statutory curriculum documents in England since 1988. Yet despite this, research evidence continues to suggest that metalinguistic knowledge is an area of challenge for many teachers. Drawing on data from a larger study, this paper considers the role of teachers' grammatical knowledge, both content and pedagogical content knowledge, in mediating learning about writing in the classroom. It also illustrates how students' learning about writing is influenced by teachers’ metalinguistic knowledge. The study highlights that grammatical pedagogical content knowledge is more significant than grammatical content knowledge in supporting meaningful teaching and learning about writing.
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... Debra A. Myhill a * , Susan M. Jones a , Helen Lines a & Annabel Watson a Available online: 16 Nov 2011. ... View all references; Elley, Barham, and Wylie 197514. Elley, WB, Barham, IH, Lamb, H. and Wylie, M. 1975. The role of... more
... Debra A. Myhill a * , Susan M. Jones a , Helen Lines a & Annabel Watson a Available online: 16 Nov 2011. ... View all references; Elley, Barham, and Wylie 197514. Elley, WB, Barham, IH, Lamb, H. and Wylie, M. 1975. The role of grammar in a secondary school curriculum. ...
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ABSTRACT The place of grammar within the teaching of writing has long been contested and successive research studies have indicated no correlation between grammar teaching and writing attainment. However, a recent study has shown a... more
ABSTRACT The place of grammar within the teaching of writing has long been contested and successive research studies have indicated no correlation between grammar teaching and writing attainment. However, a recent study has shown a significant positive impact on writing outcomes when the grammar input is intrinsically linked to the demands of the writing being taught. The study adopted a mixed methods design with a large-scale randomised controlled trial accompanied by a qualitative dataset, which provided contextual information about how the intervention was implemented. In this paper, we will outline the pedagogical principles that underpinned the intervention, and illustrate both the theoretical grounding and practical classroom examples that exemplify the approach. We will argue that any future policy or professional development that draws on this research must take account of these pedagogical principles, rather than focusing too superficially on either the grammar or the teaching materials which exemplify them.
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ABSTRACT This article presents the outcomes of a study investigating current secondary English teachers’ beliefs about grammar teaching, and illustrates the salience of teachers’ emotional response to the issue. Interviews with 31... more
ABSTRACT This article presents the outcomes of a study investigating current secondary English teachers’ beliefs about grammar teaching, and illustrates the salience of teachers’ emotional response to the issue. Interviews with 31 teachers reveal two discourses which frame the ways in which teachers express their feelings: a dominant discourse of grammar as threatening, reactionary and dull, and an oppositional discourse which positions grammar as inspiring, fascinating, and empowering. The influence of these discourses on practice is explored, along with examples of how attitudes can change as a result of participation in a research project. This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number RES-062-23-0775].