Grammar for Writing: Shaping Policy and Practice

写作语法？构成拟议项目基础的研究位于一段有争议的、政治化的历史中。60年代，语法教学在英语国家普遍被抛弃，理由是语法教学对儿童的语言能力或写作能力没有任何影响。研究倾向于关注明确的语法学习是否有利于孩子的写作，结果似乎是决定性的负面。事实上，希洛克和史密斯(1991)认为，“近90年来的研究一直表明，学校语法教学对学生的影响很小，甚至没有影响。”当然，过去50年的一系列强有力的评论(例如Braddock等人1963年；Elley等人1975年；Hillock 1986年；Andrews等人2006年)得出结论，语法教学对支持写作发展没有好处。然而，这些评论所代表的几乎所有研究都有一个主要的困难。这些研究反复调查各种形式的孤立语法教学，如学习转换语法或分析句子是否能提高写作水平。相比之下，我们的研究回避了去语境化的语法教学。相反，干预教材在学习中的相关环节以一种嵌入的、有目的的方式吸引人们对写作语法的关注。通过这种方式，年轻的作家们被介绍给了我们所说的“无限可能性的剧目”，明确地向他们展示了如何以不同的方式塑造句子或文本，以及不同的词语选择如何产生不同的意义创造可能性。这种方法的目的是支持作者控制和拥有他们所撰写的文本，做出能够让他们在写作中表达自己的选择，并塑造符合作者修辞目标的文本。我们认为这有助于作家成为文本的设计者，了解文本的经纬、纹理和细微差别，并能够在创作过程中将创造性思维和批判性思维结合起来。这种干预的积极作用使这项研究为语法-写作关系提供了一种新的理论。首先，该项目将寻求通过研究行动伙伴关系与少数英语系合作，建立研究与实践之间的桥梁，以探索研究在这些系的课堂实践中的影响。这些合作的重点将是试验成功的干预教学法，解决教育学是否也能对较弱的作家同样成功的问题，以及提出关于干预的批判性问题。该项目的这一方面将解决这样一个问题：在专业人士讨论语法在写作教学中所扮演的角色时，主要的主题、问题和关注是什么？其次，该项目将通过举办全国利益攸关方会议寻求更广泛的国家影响，将实践者、研究人员、顾问、师范教育工作者、检查员和政策制定者聚集在一起，就我们研究的政策和实践影响进行批判性讨论。关于这一问题的一套四种国际观点将进一步说明这一点，并将通过谈判就进一步行动的建议作出决定。该项目的这一方面将解决这样一个问题：让专业人士和政策制定者参与这项研究的政策影响的机会和障碍是什么？第三，项目团队将利用干预的成功教学法和研究行动伙伴关系的结果，开发一套商业教学资源，为英语教师提供最大限度的机会。

The Grammar for Writing? study which forms the foundation for the proposed project is located within a contested, politicised history. Grammar teaching was generally abandoned in Anglophone countries in the 60s on the grounds that it made no difference to children's language capacities or writing abilities. Research has tended to focus on whether explicit learning of grammar benefits children's writing and the results appear to be conclusively negative. Indeed, Hillocks and Smith (1991) argue that 'research over a period of nearly 90 years has consistently shown that the teaching of school grammar has little or no effect on students.' Certainly, a string of robust reviews in the past 50 years (eg Braddock et al 1963; Elley et al 1975; Hillocks 1986; Andrews et al 2006) have concluded that teaching grammar is of no benefit in supporting writing development. There is, however, a major difficulty with almost all of the research that these reviews represent. The studies repeatedly investigate whether various forms of isolated grammar teaching, such as learning transformational grammar, or parsing sentences, improves writing. In contrast, our study has eschewed decontextualised teaching of grammar. Instead, the intervention teaching materials draw attention to the grammar of writing in an embedded and purposeful way at relevant points in the learning. In this way, young writers were introduced to what we have called 'a repertoire of infinite possibilities', explicitly showing them how different ways of shaping sentences or texts, and how different choices of words can generate different possibilities for meaning-making. The goal of such an approach is to support writers in taking control and ownership of the texts they compose, making choices which enable them to voice themselves in their writing, and to shape texts to meet the writer's rhetorical goals. We think of this as helping writers to become designers of text, understanding the warp and the weft of text, its textures and nuances, and able to combine both creative and critical thinking in the process of composition. The strongly positive effect of this intervention has enabled the study to offer a new theory of the grammar-writing relationship.The proposed project seeks to build on the success of this approach in three significant ways. Firstly, the project will seek to bridge the research-practice interface by working collaboratively, through Research Action Partnerships, with a small number of English departments to explore the implications of the research in the classroom practice of these departments. The focus of these collaborations will be on trialling the successful intervention pedagogy, on addressing whether the pedagogy can be equally successful for weaker writers, and on raising critical questions about the intervention. This aspect of the project will address the question: What are the main themes, issues and concerns in professionals' discussion of the role that this research suggests grammar can play in a pedagogy of writing? Secondly, the project will seek for broader national impact through the holding of a National Stakeholders Conference, bringing together practitioners, researchers, advisors, teacher educators, inspectors and policy-makers to engage in critical discussion about the policy and practice implications of our research. This will be further informed by a set of four international perspectives on the issue and will lead to negotiated decisions about recommendations for further action. This aspect of the project will address the question: What are the opportunities and barriers to engaging professionals and policymakers in the policy implications of this research?Thirdly, the project team will develop a set of commercial teaching resources, drawing on the successful pedagogy of the intervention, and informed by the outcomes of the Research Action Partnerships, to generate maximum access for English teachers.