A Relevant Pedagogic Grammar for Today’s Classrooms

Abstract

This chapter addresses the call for a pedagogic grammar that goes beyond the familiar structurally focused grammars that tend to emphasize form and syntactic correctness. Following a brief discussion of the nature of pedagogic grammars, the ensuing section sketches some of the more influential models of grammar employed in educational contexts. Acknowledging that a pedagogic grammar needs to provide more than a description of grammatical items, the rest of the chapter explores a variety of grammars that have been developing over the past several decades whose departure point is the communicative needs of students as they operate in academic, civic, and vocational contexts. A common theme is the kinds of meanings that students need to be able to make if they are to function successfully in particular contexts of use. An extensive description of a unit of instruction illustrating such an approach is provided to exemplify some of the principles informing a meaning-oriented pedagogic grammar. The chapter finishes by considering some of the issues raised in implementing a more contextualized approach to teaching grammar.