Ian Cushing• English teacher, Surbiton High School• UK Linguistics Olympiad Committee• Education Committee, Linguistics Association of Great

Britain

Grammar teaching in English lessons

Why teach grammar?

• To improve creative writing• To improve analytical writing and reading• To improve knowledge about language – both in

L1 and L2

How to teach grammar?

Teaching grammar in a contextualised way makes it more meaningful for students

Increases their ability to (1) write creatively, (2) write analytically and (3) read analytically

This approach makes students aware of a writer’s craft, thus making them more aware of their own craft

You can teach somebody the names of parts of a bicycle but that doesn’t mean they will be able to tell you how the bicycle works

You can teach somebody the names of parts of a language but that doesn’t mean they will be able to tell you how the language works

Verb types in A Christmas Carol

(Year 8; mid-high ability)

Place these verbs into different groups. Give each group a title.

PAINTSTEPREPLYSEIZE

WHISPEROBSERVE

LOOKHINT

SMILE LISTEN

APPEARWATCH

BECONSIDERWONDER

DIG

TALKGRABREAD

ALLOWBECOME

FALLKISS

HAVE

What groups did you come up with and why?

Actions (a ‘doer’ and something that is ‘done to’)

Thoughts/feelings/behaviours(someone who senses /feels/behaves)

Speech(a way of talking / listening)

And then:

Getting students to spot the semantic and grammatical relations between words

rain < > peltsun < > burnwind < > blow

What is required to teach grammar?

Are English teachers sufficiently trained?

Grammar on the National Curriculum 2014 (KS3)

Pupils should be taught to consolidate and build on their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary through:

• studying the effectiveness and impact of the grammatical features of the texts they read

• drawing on new vocabulary and grammatical constructions from their reading and listening, and using these consciously in their writing and speech to achieve particular effects

• knowing and understanding the differences between spoken and written language, including differences associated with formal and informal registers, and between Standard English and other varieties of English

• using Standard English confidently in their own writing and speech

• discussing reading, writing and spoken language with precise and confident use of linguistic and literary terminology

KS3 Glossary: intended as an aid for teachers, not as the body of knowledge that should be learnt by pupils

Active voiceAdjectiveAdverbAdverbialAntonymApostropheArticleAuxiliary verbClauseCohesionCohesive deviceComplementCompoundConjunctionConsonantCo-ordinationDeterminerDigraphEllipsisEtymologyFinite verb

FrontingFutureGraphemeGrapheme – phoneme

correspondencesHeadHomophoneInfinitiveInflectionIntransitive verbMain clauseModal verbModifierMorphologyNounNoun phraseObjectParticiplePassivePast tense

PerfectPhonemePhrasePluralPossessivePrefixPrepositionPresent tenseProgressivePronounPunctuationRPRegisterRelative clauseRootSchwaSentenceStandard EnglishStressSubjectSubjunctive

SubordinateSuffixSyllableSynonymTenseTransitiveTrigraphVerbVowelWordWord classWord family

Challenges and restrictions to a cross-curricular approach

• Getting English and MFL teachers to talk to each other

• Teacher willingness• Support from management• Time

Thanks for listening – sorry I can’t answer any questions!

ian.cushing@surbitonhigh.com