ABSTRACT
A. S. Hornby, who was a major figure in the English as a foreign language world in the 1940s and 1950s, dedicated himself to both dictionary and grammar work for learners. Some versions of second language acquisition theory take the concerns on board and move out of the domain of the mental black box where grammar rules are processed and stored for future use and into the external, social environment of learning. Grammaring sees the acquisition of grammar as a constant, creative process of activity and interaction among learners and their teachers, and its development can be both chaotic and complex at once and could involve the learner’s L1 as well as the L2. The chapter presents a brief reconnaissance of the field of ‘grammar out there’, that is to say beyond the world of theory and weighty grammar books, into the world of the public – a world of attitudes and practices, of tensions and conflicts.
