Grammar teaching in English
lessons
Ian Cushing
• English teacher, Surbiton High School
• UK Linguistics Olympiad Committee
• Education Committee, Linguistics Association of Great
Britain
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.
PAINT
STEP
REPLY
SEIZE
WHISPER
OBSERVE
LOOK
HINT
SMILE
LISTEN
APPEAR
WATCH
BE
CONSIDER
WONDER
DIG
TALK
GRAB
READ
ALLOW
BECOME
FALL
KISS
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 < > pelt
sun < > burn
wind < > 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 voice
Adjective
Adverb
Adverbial
Antonym
Apostrophe
Article
Auxiliary verb
Clause
Cohesion
Cohesive device
Complement
Compound
Conjunction
Consonant
Co-ordination
Determiner
Digraph
Ellipsis
Etymology
Finite verb
Past tense
Fronting
Perfect
Future
Phoneme
Grapheme
Phrase
Grapheme – phoneme Plural
correspondences Possessive
Head
Prefix
Homophone
Preposition
Infinitive
Present tense
Inflection
Progressive
Intransitive verb
Pronoun
Main clause
Punctuation
Modal verb
RP
Modifier
Register
Morphology
Relative clause
Noun
Root
Noun phrase
Schwa
Object
Sentence
Participle
Standard English
Passive
Stress
Subject
Subjunctive
Subordinate
Suffix
Syllable
Synonym
Tense
Transitive
Trigraph
Verb
Vowel
Word
Word class
Word 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