ABSTRACT
This chapter explores teachers own attitudes to language and grammar. They should see their teaching of grammar as part of their interest in and teaching of any aspect of language study, and as a continuous conversation with pupils – about use and structure. Teachers might also want to encourage the pupils to try out for themselves particular language features in writing texts of their own. This sequence of teaching combines ‘exploring use’ within a writer’s text and ‘theorising structure’ in arriving at a picture of the options available in the language. The chapter considers the knowledge teachers and their pupils have about language and grammar and ways to build on this knowledge. It describes the role of knowledge about language and the place of grammar teaching in the English classroom.
