ABSTRACT
To understand current debates about the role of grammar and knowledge about language in the UK English school curriculum, one has to understand the ways in which language is inextricably linked with notions of social class. Standard English in England is associated with the middle class, for reasons which are historical and date back to the 18th century and the processes of standardization (see, for example, Leith, 1997; Clark, 2001). Language is also, in the modern world, a key feature of national identity, and thus a key and crucial subject when it comes to reproducing notions of national identity and the maintenance of social order. Indeed, this is why the teaching of English – and notably the teaching of literacy, grammar and literature, as a means of both perpetuating and reproducing notions of Standard English and national identity – occupies curricular centre stage. The very first government report into the teaching of English, the Newbolt Report (1921), for example, argued for the importance of English as a school subject, especially the teaching of Standard English as a written form, including its grammar and literature as a means of ensuring national unity and the continuance of national identity in a society fragmented after the First World War. In the middle decades of the 20th century, and following the Second World War, emphasis in the teaching of English shifted from the teaching of Standard English and its canonical literature to an emphasis upon creative expression. This shift was supported by research which showed that teaching grammar formally had little or no effect upon the quality of pupils’ written expression. This shift was officially endorsed in 1975 with the publication of a second government report into the teaching of English known as the Bullock Report and led to the eventual abandonment of formal grammar teaching. Consequently, from the 1950s and into the 1970s, at a time of increasing social mobility epitomized by the phrase “classless society”, it suited government policies of education to support curriculum change within English which abandoned the teaching of Standard English grammar and canonical English literature. In its place came an emphasis upon creative writing, spoken English and contemporary fiction which reflected students’ experiences. Little or no reference was made to notions of “accuracy” and “correctness”, and with lip-service paid to the demands of the workplace outside the school in the shape of formal letter writing.
