Grammar for writing

Dick Hudsonwww.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm

What is grammar?

• A tool for expressing meaning.– knowledge– “competence”– E.g. “She knows a lot of grammar.”

• Patterning in written or spoken texts.– (product of) behaviour– “performance”– E.g. “The grammar here is complex.”

The main question

• Grammatical performance obviously develops with age.

• Presumably grammatical knowledge does too.

• How are these two developments related?

• Or: What grammar must a child know in order to write well?

The main conclusion

• Grammatical knowledge must grow.

• We can’t leave this growth to Mother Nature.

• So schools must help children’s grammatical knowledge to grow:– By providing models– By teaching new grammatical patterns.

Performance: quantitative developments

• Data from QCA studies at– Exeter (published)– UCLES (unpublished)

• 4 ages: KS1-4

• 2 sexes

• 2 genres (narrative, non-narrative)

• Pre-graded for NC level/GCSE grade

• 1998 (KS4), 1999-2002 (KS1-3)

Grammatical analysis

Per 100 words:

• Sentences and finite verbs

• Coordinated and subordinated clauses

• Adjectives and adverbs

• Abstract and concrete nouns

Results

More mature writing has:

• Longer sentences

• More adjectives and adverbs.

• Fewer coordinated clauses– But related to grade, not to age!

• More nouns

Nouns

0

2

4

6

8

10

1 2b 34/

F 5 67/

C 8 A

level

% n

ou

n (

+ 8

)

KS1

KS2

KS3

KS4

Why?

• Does mature writing have more abstract nouns?

• No.

Abstract nouns grow very little

0

2

4

6

8

10

1 3 57/

C A

level

% n

ou

n (

+ 8

) KS1

KS2

KS3

KS4

KS1 abs

KS2 abs

KS3 abs

KS4 abs

The broader picture

• Changes at school are part of a much bigger picture (Hudson 1994, Language).

• This involves other word classes as well:– Verbs– Pronouns

• The poles are:– Spontaneous speech by children– Informative writing by adults

From child’s play to adult informative writing

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

6-12 play ad inf wr

Noun

Pronoun

Verb

+ child interviews and imaginative writing

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

6-12 play 6-12 int ad imag ad inf wr

Noun

Pronoun

Verb

Is it mainly due to age?

• No.

• In casual conversation, children are very similar to adults.

Child’s play to adult conversation

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

6-12 play ad conv

Noun

Pronoun

Verb

The triumph of the noun

• What is going on?

• Basically we don’t know.

• But these changes involve literacy, not age.

So what?

• Schools can’t, and shouldn’t, teach quantitative change as such.

• Changes in performance may reflect:– A growing brain and working memory capacity.– Increasingly complex content.– A growing competence (linguistic knowledge).

• We need more research:– Empirical research on performance changes.– Theoretical research on mental growth.

Growing competence?

• What is grammatical knowledge like?

• Is it small and general?– A few very general rules?

• Or big and detailed as well as general?– Including a lot of very specific rules/patterns?

• If the latter, maybe children go on learning specific patterns.

Front-shifting and subject-delay.

• E.g. Here comes our bus.• Place + verb + subject• In speech, this is common, but very restricted:

– Place = here/there– Verb = BE/COME/GO

• In writing it’s much less restricted– By the side of it we put a bus-stop, where stood two

children. (Perera: girl aged12)

• Presumably children have to learn these patterns.

Other new constructions at KS3

• Non-finite reported clauses– … what I guessed to be a hatch– … hoping the water to be pure– … he had assumed Bob dead

• Non-finite adverbial clauses– Thus refreshed, I decided …– Bob would pause for many minutes whilst

describing his exploits …

All examples from one script.

So …

• By school age, children do not already know the entire grammar of their language.– Contrary to received wisdom in linguistics.

• A graded list of patterns would be very helpful for – syllabus designers.– examiners.

• The grammar that children need is– specific – teachable.

Does grammar teaching work?

• Yes.– It works if it’s done well.

Successful grammar teaching:• has a specific target writing outcome

– some specific grammatical pattern.

• leads directly into a writing activity– e.g. sentence combining.

• is pro-active and planned– not reactive.

Conclusion

• Performance follows regular statistical patterns as it matures.

• But knowledge of specific grammatical patterns also grows.

• Schools can support this growth by teaching specific patterns.