Beyond the Grammar Wars

Are there evidence-based answers to the broad question "What explicit knowledge about language in teachers and/or students appears to enhance literacy development in some way"? Distinguished by its global perspective, its currency, and its comprehensiveness, Beyond the Grammar Wars:
provides an historical overview of the debates around grammar and English/literacy teaching in four settings: the US, England, Scotland and Australia
offers an up-to-date account of what the research is telling (and not telling) us about the effectiveness of certain kinds of grammar-based pedagogies in English/literacy classrooms
takes readers into English/literacy classrooms through a range of examples of language/grammar-based pedagogies which have proven to be successful
addresses metalinguistic issues related to changes in textual practices in a digital and multimodal age, and explores the challenges for educators who are committed to finding a "usable grammar" to contribute to teaching and learning in relation to these practices.
All of the contributors are acknowledged experts in their field. Activities designed for use in language and literacy education courses actively engage students in reflecting on and applying the content in their own teaching contexts.

Terry Locke is Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Arts and Language Education in the School of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Contents Preface 1. Introduction: "Grammar Wars" and Beyond, Terry Locke Part I: The "Grammar Wars" in context 2. Blowin' in the wind: English grammar in United States schools, Martha Kolln and Craig Hancock 3. The problematics of prescribing grammatical knowledge: The case in England, Urszula Clark 4. The Grammar Wars in Australia, Frances Christie 5. Knowledge about language in the English classroom: A Scottish perspective, Graeme Trousdale Part II: The effectiveness of grammar teaching: The research record 6. Teaching sentence-level grammar for writing: The evidence so far, Richard Andrews 7. Explicit teaching of grammar: Does it help students to become better writers?, Amos van Gelderen 8. Ways of knowing: Writing with grammar in mind, Debra Myhill Part III: Into the classroom: Integrating knowledge about language with learning 9. "Language as a system of meaning potential": The reading and design of verbal texts, Hilary Janks 10. Discovering a metalanguage for all seasons: Bringing literary language in from the cold , Terry Locke 11. Scaffolding grammar instruction for writers and writing, Constance Weaver 12. Primary school children learning grammar: Rethinking the possibilities, Ruth French Section IV: Beyond print: A metalanguage for multimodal texts 13. A grammar for meaning-making, Gunther Kress 14. Schemas for meaning-making and multimodal texts, Anne Cloonan, Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope 15. Resourcing multimodal literacy pedagogy: Towards a description of the meaning-making resources of language-image interaction, Len Unsworth 16. Rules of grammar, rules of play: Computer games, literacy, and literature, Andrew Burn List of Contributors