Publisher's Synopsis
This report brings together the views of theorists and practitioners which emerged at the CILT conference from the debate on the role of grammar in language teaching. It takes the reader through the issues that were raised, the definitions of grammar which were offered, the approaches, solutions and problems outlined, and the relevance to the realities of the school curriculum.;In the first section, Richard Johnstone and Brian Page examine, in their different ways, the relationship between grammatical and communicative competence. The next section on "Language acquisition and teaching strategies" brings together a variety of practical approaches by contributors such as Bernardette Holmes, Barry Jones, James Burch and Geraint Hughes.;The section on "Developing grammatical understanding" raises a number of important issues: how is grammatical awareness developed?; can it be taught?; can "grammar" be understood by all learners; are there different grammars for different purposes? In the next section, Mary Ryan attempts to give some guidance on how to actually carry out some of the ideas explored earlier. In the final section, Eric Hawkins provides the historical background against which the current preoccupations have developed and, in doing so, helps to keep them in perspective.
