ABSTRACT
Language is so fundamental to what it means to be human, so central to the forging of relationships, to the construction of national identity, and to the communication of cultural identities that it is perhaps not surprising that language, grammar and Standard English, remains perennially as a source of heated debate. This chapter traces the debates about language, specifically grammar and Standard English, offering a critical perspective on grammar and language teaching in a literacy curriculum. It suggests ways of conceptualising language and grammar in the curriculum which may go some way towards a resolution. The chapter outlines the discourses about grammar and language appear irreconcilable: prescriptivist and descriptivist views of language are positioned as binary opposites, and linguists and politicians may never agree because their goals and purposes are different. The desire to protect the English language from degradation has always underpinned complaints about language, although issues of class, status, power and privilege are never far from the surface.
