Teaching grammar does not improve children’s writing ability, research finds
The way that grammar is taught in schools reveals “a significant and persistent mismatch” between government policy and academic evidence showing what works, according to a research paper.
The paper says that evidence shows that teaching children technical grammatical terms such as “subjunctive” or “subordinate clause” does nothing at all to improve their writing ability. However, the national curriculum places a strong emphasis on teaching traditional grammar.
Dominic Wyse, from the UCL Institute of Education, and Carol Torgerson, of Durham University, analysed the evidence revealed by randomised controlled trials testing the effectiveness of teaching grammar in school.
The study concludes that current evidence from randomised controlled trials “does not support the widespread use of grammar teaching for improving writing among English-speaking children”.
Read the full article on Tes.