Primary School Children Learning Grammar: Rethinking the Possibilities

Abstract

Primary school children are noticeably absent from much of the research up to the 1990s on the effectiveness of teaching grammar. Absent, in that a majority of the oft-cited and largest studies were conducted with older subjects: high school or tertiary students. Absent, in that even in the subset of studies in which primary children are present in the data, they are rendered almost invisible, represented often only by test scores of experimental instruments and essays. In this chapter I hope both to address some of the theory which I think is responsible for the comparatively limited representation of young children in the research, and to offer some redress by summarizing some research which focuses on primary school children and which includes their own views and voices.