Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2014
Department
English
Abstract
Does grammar instruction help to improve students’ writing? Should writing instructors focus on grammar in first-year composition or other university-level writing courses? These questions persist among writing professionals despite a long tradition of research-based conclusions that explicit grammar instruction has no effect or even a harmful effect on students’ writing development (e.g., Braddock, Lloyd-Jones, and Schoer, 1963; Harris, 1962; Hillocks, 1986; McQuade, 1980; Wyse, 2001).
These conclusions, of course, have had considerable influence on writing scholars’ views of grammar instruction. Some writing scholars, furthermore, have found theoretical backing for the case against grammar instruction in the linguist Stephen Krashen’s argument (e.g., 1987) that subconscious acquisition of language-in-practice is more effective to bring about language development than explicit instruction (e.g., Freedman, 1993; Hartwell, 1985; Rose, 1983). For critiques of the methodologies and implicit definitions of grammar that guided the early studies reported on by Braddock et al. and Hillcocks, see, e.g., Brown, 2008, 2009a; Kolln, 1981; Kolln & Hancock, 2005; Weaver, 1996.
Original Publication Information
Lancaster, Zak; Andrea R. Olinger. (April 2014). Teaching Grammar-in-Context in College Writing Instruction: An Update on the Research Literature, WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies, No. 24. WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies.
https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/comppile/wpa/Grammar_in_Context.pdf
ThinkIR Citation
Lancaster, Zak and Olinger, Andrea R., "Teaching Grammar-in-Context in College Writing Instruction: An Update on the Research Literature" (2014). Faculty and Staff Scholarship. 374.
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/faculty/374
ORCID
0000-0001-7610-8040
Included in
English Language and Literature Commons, Higher Education Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons
