Primary ESOL

Professional Readings: Grammar

On ESOL Online

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On Other Websites

• Grammar for Writing

  2003 report by Schleppegrell that looks at text types students are expected to write and discusses how teachers can help students develop proficiency through a functional approach to grammar and explicit attention to language features (PDF).

• Grammatical Knowledge for Teachers

  A series of modules for teachers to build traditional grammatical knowledge (the UK National Literacy Strategy).

• Sentence Combining

  2004 report on the role sentence combining can play in improving writing quality (The Institute of Education, University of London).

• Thinking About How Language Works

  Useful information especially on how writers develop and connect ideas in text. Includes theme and rheme, nominalisation, reference and ellipsis. Helpful for teachers when analysing and teaching written text. From the Assessment Resource Banks.

• Formal Grammar is 'Ineffective'

  2005 Report on researchers at the University of York who say teaching formal grammar in a traditional way is not effective in teaching students to write.The teaching of 'sentence combining' may be one of the more effective approaches.

• Grammar and Its Teaching: Challenging the Myths

  1997 article by Larsen-Freeman that is still topical.

• How Much Does Correctness Matter?

  Michael Swan argues that society tends to overvalue accuracy (The Language Teacher Online, 1997).

• 'Noticing' in SLA: Is it a Valid Concept?

  This article focuses on the role of 'noticing' and 'noticing the gap' in second language acquisition (TESL -EJ).

• Reformulation and Reconstruction: Tasks that Promote 'Noticing'

  Scott Thornbury describes ways he has used reformulation and reconstruction tasks in his classroom to help students notice language forms.

• The Structure of a Sentence

  Explanations, examples and quizzes on simple, compound, and complex sentences.

• Syntax

  2004 report on whether grammar teaching affects writing accuracy and quality (The Institute of Education, University of London).

• Teaching Grammar Through Grammar Dictation

  A practical outline of dictogloss.

• Theme as Constraining Force

  Theme and rheme as resources for the organisation of the clause as message (Journal of Language and Linguistics).