ABSTRACT
The context as IndIcated In the IntroductIon , one of the central questions in English is how far should we as teachers seek to decontextualise language, to make it in itself an object of study. The question, as we have already seen in Chapter 2 and will seek to explore further, has very real implications for the practice of English teaching: we may endanger the spontaneity of language through over analysis, in the sense that Wordsworth protested, ‘We murder to dissect.’ We must also keep our eye on exactly what language is being used for; and Caliban’s lament, quoted above, should serve as a timely warning – for Prospero, appropriately both his captor and his teacher, has indeed, wittingly or not, sown the seeds of Caliban’s curse. The very term ‘knowledge about language’ has become for some rather outdated, replaced in effect by the more directed emphasis on literacy through the Key Stage 3 Strategy and beyond, including that strangely misleading term ‘functional literacy’. The preceding chapter has indeed sought to place the impact of the Strategy within a broader context of English teaching – and that context must by definition include knowledge (with awareness and understanding) of language. In effect, the Strategy presents a particular model of knowledge about language, but it is far from being the only model, in theoretical or practical terms; thus the necessity of a separate chapter dealing explicitly, and unapologetically, with these issues.
