This paper will present a theoretical analysis of research on metalinguistic understanding, illustrating how current research does not yet adequately address metalinguistic development in writing. Existing research on metalinguistic understanding has focused more on language acquisition, oral development, and bilingual learners. Research on metalinguistic understanding in writing has tended to look more closely at young learners developing writing skills in spelling, transcription and orthography. Thus theoretical accounts of metalinguistic understanding are currently insufficient to explain developing metalinguistic mastery of composing text and the relationships between declarative and procedural metalinguistic knowledge in writing. If we are to understand better the nature of metalinguistic understanding in relation to writing in learners in the later phases of compulsory education, it is important to develop theoretical clarity about the key concepts involved in order to frame empirical studies which are both conceptually and methodologically rigorous and educationally relevant.

This paper draws on data from a national study, involving an experimental intervention with 54 schools across the country, in which teachers were mentored in a pedagogical approach involving explicit attention to grammatical choices and which advocated high-level metalinguistic discussion about textual choices. The research focused upon primary children aged 10-11, and in addition to statistical analysis of outcome measures, 53 lesson observations were undertaken to investigate the nature of the. metalinguistic discussion. The data were analysed inductively, following the constant comparison method, with an initial stage of open coding, followed by axial coding which clustered the data into thematic groups. The analysis demonstrates the potential of metalinguistic talk in supporting young writers’ understanding of how to shape meaning in texts and the decision-making choices available to them. It signals the importance of teachers’ management of metalinguistic conversations, but also the role that teachers’ grammatical subject knowledge plays in enabling or constraining metalinguistic talk. The study highlights the importance of dialogic classroom talk if students are to develop knowledge about language, to become metalinguistically aware, and to take ownership of metalinguistic decision-making when writing.

This paper will present a theoretical analysis of research on metalinguistic understanding, illustrating how current research does not yet adequately address metalinguistic development in writing. Existing research on metalinguistic understanding has focused more on language acquisition, oral development, and bilingual learners. Research on metalinguistic understanding in writing has tended to look more closely at young learners developing writing skills in spelling, transcription and orthography. Thus theoretical accounts of metalinguistic understanding are currently insufficient to explain developing metalinguistic mastery of composing text and the relationships between declarative and procedural metalinguistic knowledge in writing. If we are to understand better the nature of metalinguistic understanding in relation to writing in learners in the later phases of compulsory education, it is important to develop theoretical clarity about the key concepts involved in order to frame empirical studies which are both conceptually and methodologically rigorous and educationally relevant.

The role of grammar instruction in the teaching of writing is contested in most Anglophone countries, with several robust meta-analyses finding no evidence of any beneficial effect. However, existing research is limited in that it only considers isolated grammar instruction and offers no theorisation of an instructional relationship between grammar and writing. This study, drawing on a theorised understanding of grammar as a meaning-making resource for writing development, set out to investigate the impact of contextualised grammar instruction on students’ writing performance. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, with a randomised controlled trial and a complementary qualitative study. The statistical analyses indicate a positive effect on writing performance for the intervention group (e. =. 0.21; p

The place of grammar within the teaching of writing has long been contested and successive research studies have indicated no correlation between grammar teaching and writing attainment. However, a recent study (Authors 2012) has shown a significant positive impact on writing outcomes when the grammar input is intrinsically linked to the demands of the writing being taught. The study adopted a mixed methods design with a large scale randomised controlled trial accompanied by a qualitative data set, which provided contextual information about how the intervention was implemented. In this paper, we will outline the pedagogical principles which underpinned the intervention, and illustrate both the theoretical grounding and practical classroom examples which exemplify the approach. We will argue that any future policy or professional development which draws on this research must take account of these pedagogical principles, rather than focusing too superficially on either the grammar or the teaching materials which exemplify them.

This paper reports on a national study, involving a mixed methods research design comprising a randomised controlled trial. text analysis, student and teacher interviews and lesson observations. It set out to investigate whether contextualised teaching of grammar, linked to the teaching of writing, would improve student outcomes in writing and in metalinguistic understanding. The RCT involved 744 students in 31 schools in the South West and the Midlands of England, and was a blind randomisation study. Classes were randomly allocated to either a comparison or intervention group, after the sample had been matched for teacher linguistic subject knowledge. The statistical data was complemented by three interviews per teacher and three interviews with a focus student in each class, plus three lesson observations in each class, giving a data set of 93 teacher interviews, 93 student interviews and 93 lesson observations. In addition, the final pieces of writing produced for each scheme of work were collected. The statistical results indicate a significant positive effect for the intervention, but they also indicate that this benefit was experienced more strongly by the more able writers in the sample. The regression modelling also indicates that teacher linguistic subject knowledge was a significant mediating factor in the success of the intervention. The qualitative data provides further evidence of the impact of teacher knowledge on how the intervention was implemented and on students’ metalinguistic learning. It also reveals that teachers found the explicitness, the use of discussion, and the emphasis on playful experimentation to be. the most salient features of the intervention. The study is significant in providing robust evidence for the first time of a positive benefit derived from the teaching of grammar, and signals the potential of a pedagogy for a writing which includes a theorised role for grammar.

The principle that emergent writing is supported by talk, and that an appropriate pedagogy for writing should include planned opportunities for talk is well-researched and well-understood. However, the process by which talk becomes text is less clear. The term ‘oral rehearsal’ is now commonplace in English classrooms and curriculum policy documents, yet as a concept it is not well-theorised. Indeed, there is relatively little reference to the concept of oral rehearsal in the international literature, and what references do exist propose differing interpretations of the concept. At its most liberal, the term is used loosely as a synonym for talk; more precise definitions frame oral rehearsal, for example, as a strategy for reducing cognitive load during writing; for post-hoc reviewing of text; for helping writers to ‘hear’ their own writing; or for practising sentences aloud as a preliminary to writing them down. Drawing on a systematic review of the literature and video data from an empirical study, the paper will offer a theoretical conceptualisation of oral rehearsal, drawing on existing understanding of writing processes and will illustrate the ways in which young writers use oral rehearsal before and during writing.