ABSTRACT
This chapter opens with a review of international research, landscaping what is known about linguistic and metalinguistic development in writing in secondary writers. We discuss what the research suggests constitutes the grammatical constructions which characterise growth in linguistic mastery, and the trajectories of development that this represents. Drawing on a cumulative series of research studies conducted at the University of Exeter considering linguistic and metalinguistic development, the chapter argues that writing development cannot be captured simply through the presence of particular grammatical constructions in a text, because it is how effectively those constructions are used which is critical. This points to the significance of conscious and purposeful manipulation of meaning through grammatical choice as a key feature of metalinguistic development in writing. In the light of this, the chapter then introduces and explains an empirically tested pedagogical approach which fosters linguistic and metalinguistic development, based on a functionally oriented approach to the teaching of grammar. Throughout the chapter, theoretical and pedagogical arguments are exemplified with practical classroom examples.
