Time for refilling the bath?: A study of primary student‐teachers’ grammatical knowledge

Abstract

The introduction of the National Curriculum for English in England and Wales has placed an increased demand on primary teachers to promote a greater knowledge about language including the teaching of grammar. Critics of the English curriculum believe, however, that too little attention has been paid to the teaching of grammar and proposals for a revised curriculum which place more emphasis on the teaching of grammatical structure and terminology have been put forward. This study investigates the current levels of some aspects of grammatical knowledge amongst 99 trainee primary school teachers. Results indicate a higher level of grammatical knowledge than some critics might have us suppose. There are, however, significant gaps which could affect the student‐teachers’ ability to teach about language and grammar, and to analyse and help develop pupils’ use of language, which suggest the need for a systematic course of study during initial teacher training and beyond.