Growth in Grammar: A multi-dimensional analysis of student writing between 5 and 16

A central aim of schooling is to help students become effective writers. Becoming an effective writer is critical both for individual and for economic well-being: through writing, we can learn about ourselves and our world, we can understand the past and imagine the future, we can share new knowledge and innovative ideas, and we can create revolutions. The emergence of new media for writing, such as email, blogs and Twitter have served to increase the prevalence of writing as a communication tool both socially and in the workplace. Young people whose education has equipped them to be confident and capable writers are socially and economically advantaged.

Central to good writing is the meaningful and appropriate use of grammar. Research has shown that becoming a good writer requires learning both how to use grammar in purposeful ways to express meanings and how to adapt grammatical choices to meet the expectations of different communicative contexts (e.g. formal vs. informal) and text types (e.g. telling a story vs. constructing an argument).

The importance of grammar as a tool for creating contextually appropriate meanings is recognized in the National Curriculum in England, which states that students should be taught how to write by "selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning" (DfE, 2013a). However, although this principle is well-established, translating it into practice through specific guidelines regarding what should be taught and when it should be assessed, as well as through teachers' day-to-day practices and choices, requires a more detailed understanding, which research has not yet provided.

This has serious implications for the teaching of writing. In particular, current curricular guidance as to when particular grammatical forms should be taught and assessed is not based on a substantial, systematic evidence-base. Moreover, the presentation of grammar in the curriculum largely through the use of an Annex runs the risk of presenting forms as individual isolated items, divorced from context, leading to a teaching focus on labelling and identification, rather than enhancing learners' understanding of shaping written text for differing purposes and audiences.

Given this picture, it is important to establish how students' control over grammatical forms develops throughout the course of their school careers. We need to know which forms are used to express which meanings at each stage of a typical student's development; we need to know how such uses differ across students at different levels of attainment in writing; we need to know how students at different stages and levels adapt their use of grammar to different communicative contexts; and we need to know how these trajectories of development compare to the uses of grammar which are typical of successful mature writers.

This project aims to provide these understandings through computer-aided analysis of a large, systematically-collected, body of authentic student writing. The objectives of the study are fourfold. Firstly, it will establish the first full multi-dimensional analysis of the grammatical patterns which mark the broad spectrum of school-aged writing produced by students in England across the age and attainment range. Secondly, it will offer a more thorough understanding of grammatical development, along with its specific relationship to student writing as found within a particular educational system. Thirdly, it will generate an updatable and publicly accessible corpus of grammatically-annotated, educationally authentic student writing designed to support further studies of literacy development. Finally, it will form the basis for a set of recommendations to inform both national and international curriculum policies.

This study sets out first and foremost to have impact on young writers and their educational outcomes, through informing and shaping education policy and practice. Concerns about literacy standards, and especially standards in writing, are a frequently reported concern in many Anglophone jurisdictions. Becoming an effective writer is critical both for individual and for economic well-being: through writing, we can learn about ourselves and our world, we can understand the past and imagine the future, we can share new knowledge and innovative ideas, and we can create revolutions. The emergence of new media for writing, such as email, blogs and Twitter have served to increase the prevalence of writing as a communication tool both socially and in the workplace. Young people whose education has equipped them to be confident and capable writers are socially and economically advantaged.

Accordingly, there are three key groups who would be beneficiaries of this research:
1. Policy-makers:
The research would contribute towards evidence-based policy-making in terms of curricular specifications. The debate in Anglophone countries about grammar in the curriculum has historically focused strongly on whether it should be included or not, rather than on what it is appropriate to learn at particular ages and stages of education. The findings from this study will offer robust evidence of which grammatical features appear in children's writing and when they appear in terms of age, attainment, and text type. This would enable curriculum specifications to more appropriately specify the content and coverage of grammar in relation to writing development at different stages of the curriculum. Depending on the findings, it may also inform decisions about when different text types should be introduced. Internationally, it is likely that policy-makers in Australia, New Zealand and Norway would have an immediate interest in this because of their own current curricular developments.

2. Examination Boards and the Department for Education Standards and Testing Agency:
The research would contribute to shaping and enhancing the effectiveness of the testing and examination public services by informing the content of assessment tools. The findings will provide not only developmental age-related information about what grammatical features appear when, but also parallel information regarding the grammatical characteristics evident in different text types. Pattern variations according to text quality will also enable better evidence-based design of mark band descriptors for GCSE English Language, and clearer performance descriptors for writing at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Additionally, the corpus itself will offer exemplars which can inform marker training and assessment development. The research would also have salience for the Common Core Standards for Writing in the US.

3. Teachers and teacher educators:
The research would contribute to informing and developing professional practice in language and literacy education, both for current practitioners and for teacher-educators working with future practitioners, by offering a clear model of development in the grammar-writing relationship. This model will show age-related development, but more critically for classroom practice, it will show how variation occurs according to text quality at particular ages, thus allowing teachers to consider progression and differentiation more effectively. The findings regarding differences according to text type will also allow for more appropriately targeted planning of what to teach and when. The presence of exemplars of writing, drawn from authentic school writing, will give teachers a rich set of models to use to inform planning, and for use in the classroom as models for student discussion. This enriched understanding of progression, and accompanying authentic exemplars, is also likely to be of interest to commercial publishers, such as Pearson.