Grammar and the teacher

The grammatical foundation of reading

Abstract

The reading comprehension of second language learners is closely linked to the learners’ meta-linguistic awareness (Brenne, 2005; Stone et al., 2004; Kuo & Anderson, 2006; Clahsen et al., 2003; Carlisle, 2004, 2007). This link can be used didactically in reading training if the teacher has good grammatical knowledge (Lyster, 2002; Bowers et al., 2010). We report from an investigation of a Norwegian municipal course established to give teachers a better language didactic foundation for their reading instruction. We ask: What kind of activities for strengthening the students’ meta-linguistic awareness do the teachers report having carried out in the classes after the course lecture? and How do these activities appear to relate to the content of the course? By having monitored the course and the subsequent teacher presentations through non-participant observation, and by analyzing the text material used, we find that the course and the material have major content and structural shortcomings. These shortcomings are partially reflected in the teachers’ presentations of didactic activities succeeding the course. The teachers describe activities that unveil an unconfident approach to phonology and morphology, and the use of grammatical terminology is scarce. At the same time, the described di­dactic schemes testify that the teachers have grasped the underlying point of the course, namely that one may increase the students’ meta-linguistic awareness by exploring linguistic form.