Linguists and the Teaching of English

1. Linguists and the Teaching of English University of Newcastle Friday 1 September 2006 Mick Connell School Improvement Adviser – English & Arts Rotherham LA QCA Principal Scrutineer - English

2. Key Stage 1 – Status and Practice of Phonics Teaching • The initial teaching of reading: the place of phonics teaching and the child’s use of phonic strategies in successful, early reading • Government ‘direction’ on use of synthetic phonics. Research background is famously disputed • Most infant teachers are practical agnostics. They know that children differ. Weary with prescriptive, ‘one size fits all’ approaches – but notoriously compliant

3. Key Stage 2 and 3: Grammar and Writing Development • Issue: The place of grammar teaching and pupils’ knowledge of grammar in writing development. • Confusing messages. Where and when were these written? • i) ‘ All pupils have extensive grammatical knowledge…Teaching which focuses on grammar helps to make this knowledge explicit, extend children’s range and develop more confident and versatile language use.’ • ii) ‘Grammar is means of enabling pupils to devote more control and choice in their use of language.’ • iii) ‘ The teaching of the principles underlying and informing word order or syntax has virtually no impact on writing quality or accuracy.’ Answers: i) ‘Grammar for Writing’ NLS 2000 ii) Cox Report 1989 Iii) Ofsted ‘English 2000-5 A Review of Inspection Evidence’ para 73

4. Key Stage 2 and 3: The National Strategy • The National Literacy Strategy and The Framework of Teaching Objectives have impacted on schools and teaching: • Organisation of and thinking about the content of English: word, sentence, text levels • Introduction of a daily lesson of literacy in primary schools • Establishment of the orthodox 4-part lesson: starter, whole class teaching, guided/independent work, plenary • Teaching to objectives – ‘what to teach over the course of the year’ (Framework for Teaching English: Years 7,8 and 9) • Refocusing English from ‘content’ to ‘competences’

5. Teaching Objectives • The greatest challenge to teachers’ knowledge and practice has been at sentence level. • Sentence Level Objectives for writing are organised in four groups: • Sentence Construction and Punctuation • Paragraphing and Cohesion • Stylistics Conventions of Non-Fiction • Standard English and Language Variation

6. Sentence Level: Teaching Objectives – Year 7 Writing • Sentence construction and punctuation • ‘Pupils should be taught to extend their use and control of complex sentences by: a) recognising and using subordinate clauses; b) exploring the functions of subordinate clauses, e.g. relative clauses such as ‘which I bought’ or adverbial clauses such as ‘having finished his lunch’ c) deploying subordinate clauses in a variety of positions within the sentence.’ (p22)

7. Challenge of Teaching to the Framework of Objectives • Teacher knowledge and confidence • Interesting and engaging pupils • Ensuring that new learning is transferred and applied in pupils’ own writing • Converting ‘features’ of texts into teaching objectives • Some objectives describe knowledge, some strategies and others are features of written texts • Impact of ‘applied’ genre theory: text types, writing frames • Myth of a new content of English –’Grammar for Writing’ has a glossary of terms that stretches to 40 pages.

8. Key Stage 3 and 4: Two Recent Areas of Development • Key Stage 3: Assessing Pupil Progress (APP) • Key Stage 4: GCSE English: Functional English and Flexibility

9. APP – Assessing Pupil Progress • Developed by QCA. Implemented by National Strategy. • Background - Work on Assessment for Learning - Key Stage test development and marking - National Literacy Strategy/NC Programmes of Study • Aims to provide a single, consistent and diagnostic assessment framework for assessing reading and writing at Key Stage 3 (NC Levels 306) • The guidance is based on the Assessment Focuses and describe progression markers in each AF (assessment strand) in reading and writing

10. APP – Guidance – Sentence Level – Year 7 • Example • AF5 – vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect Across a range of writing: • Level 3 * and, but, so are the most common connectives • Level 4 * use some subordinating connectives, e.g. if, when, because • Level 5 * wider range of connectives used to clarify relationship between ideas, e.g. although, on the other hand, meanwhile • Level 6 * confident use of a range of sentence features to clarify or emphasise meaning, e.g. fronted adverbials (‘Reluctantly, he ...’ , Five days later, it …’, complex noun or prepositional phrases

11. GCSE Developments • 2005 QCA publish results of English 21 consultation. (Competence, Creative, Critical and Cultural strands identified) • Government concern about coursework and ‘functional literacy’ • Schools and teachers concerned that English courses are too literary and unattractive to boys and lower ability pupils

12. Edexcel Pilot English Specification • Has three core or functional literacy units – speaking/listening, reading, writing – required for award of GCSE English • Optional Units/Modules: - Two Literature modules - 3 new modules: Spoken English Studies, Language of Digital Communication, Media

13. Spoken English Studies • Task 1 – Written analysis of Spontaneous Spoken English • Stage 1 – maintain written log to include examples from: - Here and Now - Over Space - Over Time ( Candidates collect examples or use archive sources, including the Edexcel Selection/Corpus of Spoken English) • Stage 2 – Select and transcribe three, 30 seconds-2 minute examples – one for each speech context • Stage 3 – Analyse the data. • locate/comment on features of spontaneous speech • show contrasts with scripted spoken language • Show how relationships affects language choice • Comment on any of: gender, class, age, region • Identify type and purpose(s) of utterances • * Task 2 - Scripting

14. How Can Linguists Help? • Links/examples/evidence about relationship between pupils’ explicit grammatical knowledge and writing development, • Help clarify what constitutes progression in writing, • Help exemplify and evaluate active, investigative approaches to learning about language in primary school, • Help enable and support use of spoken language corpuses by teachers/students • Shed light on how linguistic knowledge/approaches can improve reading skills, • Attract more teachers to develop their own knowledge about language, • Contribute to the continuing debates: - What should teachers know about language/linguistics to enrich their teaching in the various phases? - What aspects of language/linguistic knowledge or approaches should be taught to assist progress in literacy and English?