Grammar re-imagined: foregrounding understanding of language choice in writing

This is the final version. Available from Routledge via the DOI in this record. The topic of grammar teaching has remained a stubbornly contentious subject of discussion for more than 50 years, tending towards binary, even polemical, positions. Yet scrutiny of the research shows how little attention has been afforded to considering what the relationship between learning about grammar and learning about being a language user might be; or to effective pedagogical practices for teaching grammar. Instead, the debate has reverted to inappropriate “what works” discourses. This article discusses these discourses and the need to re-imagine why and how we teach grammar, drawing on sustained and cumulative research evidence.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC