Paddy Walsh

Croydon Council, UK

Can functional grammar really help raise literacy standards in UK schools?

The National Literacy Strategy in Primary Schools, begun in 1997, and the Key Stage 3 early Secondary Strategy in 2001, are national, government funded projects aimed at transforming teaching and learning in English schools and raising standards in literacy which were perceived to be unacceptably low.

Although Genre Theory and Pedagogy are never explicitly referred to, the strategies are concerned with how language works to achieve various purposes; takes account of the contexts in which language is used and how the purposes of users give rise to particular text types.

The explicit teaching of grammar is at the heart of the drive to raise literacy standards.

Grammar is a means of enabling pupils to develop more control and choice in their use of language. (KS3 Strategy 2001)

Professor David Crystal, acting as Government consultant, is quoted at the beginning of all grammar training materials when he asserts that:

Grammar is what gives sense to language. Sentences make words yield up meanings. Sentences actively create sense in language and the business of the study of sentences is the study of grammar. Grammar is the study of how we make sentences. (Rediscover Grammar, David Crystal)

A child’s understanding and use of grammar helps them to become better writers. A point endorsed by the Strategy with the words of Ted Hughes.

Conscious manipulation of syntax deepens engagement and releases inention. (The Sunday Times 1987)

I work for the Government - as a committed Strategy Consultant - for the largest London Borough, working with teachers of all subjects, in twenty eight secondary schools. Broadly, the Strategy works within a Hallidayan “text in context model” - without ever saying so; when it comes to grammar its provenance ranges from Greenbaum and Quirk, to David Crystal, to Richard Hudson, George Keith and Collins Cobuild. Functional Grammar is never mentioned.

Success in the important end of Key Stage National SATs in English, Maths and Science can often depend on a student’s ability to control the use of abstract and technical lexis in formally written key curriculum genres. Can explicit teaching of nominalisation and theme, for example, offer anything to teachers and students?