This web page is designed to be a resource for students and teachers of English grammar. It provides an overview of various approaches to the subject of grammar and an overview of usage of grammar in the modern day classroom.

If there were no grammar in English, the language would simply be a chaotic collection of separate words, without the indispensible guidelines for how they can be ordered and modified.

The DET's NSW English Syllabus stated rationale with reference to the teaching of grammar and basic literacy sills, is that one of the roles of the English teacher is to develop literacy skills in learners, to enhance their understanding, response and expression in a variety of modes in Subject English as well as to understand the grammatical structures and functions of the language. The learning of grammar, whether for a native English speaker, or a speaker of English as a Second Language, is an essential prerequisite to sound literacy development.

My teaching philosophy.

Grammar - the features of a language (sounds, words, formation and arrangement of words) considered systematically as a whole, especially with reference to their mutual constrasts and relations. (The Macquarie Dictionary, 1991).

Grammar - the study and practice of the roles by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences. (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1978).

Literacy Resource Click on the graphic to link to a web page with information about literacy.

Through the study of grammar, students and teachers can come to recognise the structure and regularity which is the foundation of language, and we gain the tools to talk about language systems. There are different types of grammars developed through the ages by linguists with different linguistic perspectives: the modern Visual Grammar; Traditional Grammar; Formal Grammar; Functional Grammar.

Visual Grammar Click on the graphic to link to a web page with information about visual grammar

Visual Grammar is a new area of linguistics. It centres around the analysis of the visual image, be it any type of picture, painting or graphic. The language emerges in response to the visual image and the grammar is emphasised. As the concept of text types or genres broadens in the study of English and ESL, visual grammar finds its place in the curriculum and is especially useful in teaching grammar to students with the spatial, visual learning preference.

Traditional Grammar describes the language through sentences, clauses and phrases; it is essential to the study of foreign languages; it provides a basis for correct judgement on the different forms of usage and it provides a conceptual base and terminology for the learning of other grammars such as functional grammar.

Traditional Grammar Click on the graphic to link to a web page with information about traditional grammar

Formal Grammar Click on the graphic to link to a web page with information about formal grammar

Formal Grammar focuses on word classes within sentences and is essentially descriptive, (rather than prescriptive as in traditional grammars). It is concerned with the concept of an ideal speaker and with separating grammatical sentences from ungrammatical sentences. Formal grammarians see grammaticality as separate from meaning.

Functional Grammar, based on systemiclinguistics, emphasises the way spoken and written language operate in different social situations. In particular, it is very useful in showing how texts work beyond the level of the sentence, how different texts are structured and how language varies to suit the purpose of the users. Like formal grammar, functional grammar takes on a descriptive approach and focuses on groups of words that function to make meaning.

Functional Grammar Click on the graphic to link to a web page with information about functional grammar

In current ESL teaching methodology, it is Michael Halliday's functional grammar that has impacted on all sectors of education in Australia.

Teachers adopt a functional approach to grammar and take on an essentially non-judgemental stance towards different language choices.

My aim in this approach to language teaching, is to teach students to acknowledge and to use different varities of language and to decide on how to use these systems of language according to the contextual purpose.

Grammar Exercises Click on the graphic to link to a web page that offers exercises on grammar.

The study of grammar is important to maintain a literacy standard. Many people who promote the idea of a standard language, talk about the need for language to be precise and for people to be clear and unambiguous speech and written expression.

Created by Julie Dunstan, 30 May 2003

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