Explicit embodiment of narrative worlds: a case study of student-teacher concept-led grammar conferencing for writing

Abstract

The abstract nature of grammar makes metalinguistic thinking a challenge for both teachers and students. However, it is suggested writing conferences in which students are encouraged to reflect on grammatical choices and their impact on meaning may be an effective means to develop metalinguistic awareness. This paper draws on cognitive linguistics and mentor texts to investigate what impact a concept-led, dialogic approach to grammar teaching has in the context of student-teacher discussions. By means of writing conferences between a teacher and three Year Five students, the paper explores how students made effective grammatical choices, as a result of metalinguistic dialogue with their teacher. Six concepts, scope, action chains, deixis, attentional windowing, fictive motion, and figure and ground, provided the explicit foci for imagining narrative scenes and appropriate grammatical choices. The findings suggest these concepts may have an enduring effect on students’ ability to make independent and creative choices in their writing.

ABSTRACT IN CHINESE

語法抽象的本質對老師和學生思考純理語言來說都是一項挑戰。然而, 在寫作會談中鼓勵學生反思語法的選擇及它的影響, 為建構文意和提升語法意識帶來重要的意義。本文旨在利用認知語言學和範文, 探討以概念主導和對話的方式的師生寫作面談的影響。作者透過與三個五年級學生的寫作面談實例, 解釋如何使學生作出合適的語法選擇。老師透過利用六個語法概念：轄域, 行為鏈, 直指詞, 注意力視框, 虛擬位移和圖形背景, 為學生寫作敘事場景和語法使用的選擇提供精確的聚焦點, 與此同時, 研究也帶出這些語法概念或會對學生獨立學習和語言選擇帶來長久的影響。

Keywords:

• Grammar
• cognitive linguistics
• narrative
• writing
• writing conferences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brett Healey

Brett Healey is a PhD student in Education at Curtin University researching the affordances of student-teacher dialogue on children’s linguistic decisions in narrative writing. He works as a teacher at a school in Hong Kong.

Paul Gardner

Paul Gardner is Senior Lecturer in Primary English at Curtin University. He is a lead academic in the Centre of Excellence for the Explicit Teaching of Literacy, funded by the State Government of Western Australia and the United Kingdom Literacy Association’s Country Ambassador to Australia.