Ed Vavra has some very interesting and useful discussion of this topic on his KISS Grammar website. He looks at the Braddock and Hillocks reports (and a few others, as I recall) and rips them apart pretty handily.
Scott Woods
--- On Sat, 2/7/09, John Dews-Alexander <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: John Dews-Alexander <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Does teaching grammar improve writing?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009, 4:26 PM
Hi David!
If I remember correctly, Tim Hadley, who is a member of this list and the editor of the ATEG Journal, has tackled this issue in the past and wrote a literal dissertation on it (Tim, I hope I'm not off the mark here). You may try searching the listserv archives (found via link on the ATEG site) for previous posts from him as well as others. I can't remember if there has been a journal issue devoted to this or not, but it would certainly make sense if there were.
Here are two of the oft-quoted, "classic" works that are anti-grammar:
Braddock, R., R. Lloyd-Jones, and L. Schoer. Research in Written Composition. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1963.
Hillocks, G. Research on written composition. Urbana, IL: ERIC Clearing House on Reading and Communication Skills, 1986.
However, I've heard both of these studies soundly debunked.
I would suggest Richard Hudson's article that appeared in an issue of Syntax in the Schools (formerly the ATEG journal) and that is now reprinted on the web. It has some good references for pro-grammar research as well as some discussion of the older anti-grammar stuff:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/writing.htm
Hope this helps!
Regards,
John Alexander
On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 4:26 PM, David Kehe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Recently, I've heard a number of college English composition instructors say, "Research shows that teaching students grammar does not improve their writing."
Do any of you know if this is commonly accepted "research" in English departments?
Do any of you know if there is research that shows the opposite, i.e., that explicit grammar instruction can help students improve their writing skills?
I would greatly appreciate any insights that you might have.
Dave Kehe
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