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The effect of grammar teaching on writing development
Author(s) -
Andrews Richard,
Torgerson Carole,
Beverton Sue,
Freeman Allison,
Locke Terry,
Low Graham,
Robinson Alison,
Zhu Die
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411920500401997
Subject(s) - grammar , sentence , quality (philosophy) , traditional grammar , focus (optics) , linguistics , mathematics education , psychology , pedagogy , computer science , natural language processing , epistemology , philosophy , physics , optics
This article reports on the results of two international systematic research reviews which focus on different aspects of teaching grammar to improve the quality and accuracy of 5–16‐year‐olds' writing in English. The results show that there is little evidence to indicate that the teaching of formal grammar is effective; and that teaching sentence‐combining has a more positive effect. In both cases, however, despite over a hundred years of research and debate on the topic, there is insufficient quality of research to prove the case with either approach. More research is needed, as well as a review of policy and practice in England with regard to the teaching of sentence structure in writing.