Teaching grammar and testing grammar in the English primary school

Safford, K. (2016). Teaching grammar and testing grammar in the English primary school: the impact on teachers and their teaching of the grammar element of the statutory test in spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG). Changing English, 23(1), 3-21. doi:10.1080/1358684X.2015.1133766

Background

The author highlighted that Grade 6 pupils in England took a new statutory test in Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) as part of their end of primary school assessments. Along with SPaG, primary schools in England had a new National Curriculum for English primary schools.

Aims

The author explored teachers’ responses to teaching grammar to prepare students for the new statutory test, and how teachers implemented curriculum change in their classrooms in light of the new statutory grammar test.

Sample

Sixteen teachers were interviewed and 170 teaching staff completed an online survey in the study.

Method

The data consisted of semi-structured teacher interviews from eight schools (ranging from two to 20 years teaching experience) and a national online survey of teaching staff across the UK.

Findings

As a result of the introduction of the statutory SPaG test in primary schools:

teachers spent a significantly greater amount of time teaching decontextualised and contextualised grammar;

grammar was now taught explicitly and formally as a classroom literacy routine;

the test format impacted grammar teaching content and approaches;

teachers observed that the pupils enjoyed learning grammar and taking the test;

teachers disagreed about the extent to which explicit grammar teaching and testing had a positive impact on pupils’ language and literacy skills;

teachers felt more confident about teaching grammar.

The varying teacher responses to the grammar element of SPaG might reflect their different experiences of teaching grammar generally and teaching grammar for the test. The author hypothesized that the bite-size approaches to preparing pupils for the test might improve pupils’ skills in answering the test questions but the pupils could not apply these skills elsewhere. However, when the teachers integrated the study of grammar into wider reading and literacy, they witnessed a more positive impact on pupils’ deeper knowledge and understanding about language.

Implications

The author suggested that future research could explore pupils’ perspectives on grammar teaching and testing, and grammar resources. Different teaching methods could be further analysed to identify effective grammar pedagogy. Pupils’ home and community grammar resources, and how grammar teaching in linguistically diverse classrooms might differ are other areas worth investigating. A longitudinal study might be able to demonstrate the extent to which explicit grammar teaching and testing in primary school have a positive long-term impact on pupils’ academic achievement, employability and life skills.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost.