Going meta: dialogic talk in the writing classroom

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from EBSCO via the URL in this record.The rich body of research on dialogic, exploratory talk points to its significance in developing and securing student learning (Alexander 2018; O’Connor and Michaels 2007; Reznitskaya et al 2009; Gillies 2016). More recently, this body of research has begun to consider dialogic talk specifically in the context of literacy education (for example, Juzwik et al 2013; Boyd and Markarian 2015; Wilkinson et al 2015; Edwards-Groves and Davidson 2017). However, there remains a dearth of research which considers the role of dialogic talk in the teaching and learning of writing, and particularly its role in supporting developing writers’ metalinguistic understanding of how linguistic choices shape meaning in written texts. This article will report on qualitative data draw from a national study, involving a randomized controlled trial and an accompanying process evaluation. The study involved an intervention which was informed by a Hallidayan theoretical framing of metalinguistic understanding which sees grammar as a meaning-making resource, and which promoted explicit teaching which made purposeful connections between grammatical choices and their meaning-making effects in writing, and which promoted the role of dialogic talk. Specifically, this article will consider how teachers manage this metalinguistic dialogic talk about language choices in the writing classroom

Thinking differently about grammar and metalinguistic understanding in writing

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.In the light of ongoing international debate about the purpose of explicit teaching of grammar, this paper considers the relationship between metalinguistic understanding and development as a writer. Drawing on a cumulative series of studies over a period of ten years, adopting a functionally-oriented approach to grammar, the paper argues that purposeful grammar teaching occurs within the teaching of writing, not divorced from it; and that this teaching develops students’ metalinguistic understanding of how written texts are crafted and shaped. In this way, grammar is positioned as a resource for learning about writing and one which can support students in becoming increasingly autonomous and agentic decision-makers in writing. We show through practical examples how the pedagogy works in practice, and through classroom interaction data we highlight how metalinguistic talk (metatalk), which enables and encourages the verbalisation of choice. The data also shows, however, that teachers’ skill in managing metatalk about metalinguistic choices in writing is critical in framing students’ capacity to think metalinguistically about their writing and to be autonomous writerly decision-makers

Writing conversations: fostering metalinguistic discussion about writing

“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Research Papers in Education on 08 January 2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02671522.2016.1106694.”This paper draws on data from a national study, involving an experimental intervention with 54 schools across the country, in which teachers were mentored in a pedagogical approach involving explicit attention to grammatical choices and which advocated high-level metalinguistic discussion about textual choices. The research focused upon primary children aged 10-11, and in addition to statistical analysis of outcome measures, 53 lesson observations were undertaken to investigate the nature of the metalinguistic discussion. The data were analysed inductively, following the constant comparison method, with an initial stage of open coding, followed by axial coding which clustered the data into thematic groups. The analysis demonstrates the potential of metalinguistic talk in supporting young writers’ understanding of how to shape meaning in texts and the decision-making choices available to them. It signals the importance of teachers’ management of metalinguistic conversations, but also the role that teachers’ grammatical subject knowledge plays in enabling or constraining metalinguistic talk. The study highlights the importance of dialogic classroom talk if students are to develop knowledge about language, to become metalinguistically aware, and to take ownership of metalinguistic decision-making when writing

Essential Primary Grammar

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Open University Press via the link in this record.Essential Primary Grammar is an invaluable resource to ensure that you are firmly equipped to teach grammar. It helps you get to grips with your knowledge of grammar for the national curriculum - including the spelling, punctuation and grammar test - as well as providing you with some tried and tested ways to teach grammar. Underpinned by a series of research studies which have investigated the teaching of grammar, it will support you in how to teach grammar in creative and meaningful ways whilst supporting you in developing your own fundamental knowledge of grammar. Uniquely, the book takes a systematic step-by-step approach to explain the grammatical terminology specified in the national curriculum. It also illustrates how you might develop children’s grammatical knowledge by offering a range of practical activities which are rich, meaningful and support children’s development as confident and curious language investigators. Key features include: • Easy-to-read chapters which systematically focus on grammatical subject knowledge at word, phrase and clause level • Guidance in each chapter addressing typical grammar problems or misconceptions, and some grammar jokes • Inspiring suggestions for teaching activities to help children develop grammatical knowledge in meaningful learning contexts • Reference to authentic children’s books to illuminate the grammatical explanations and suggested teaching activities • Ideas on how high quality talk about grammar and texts can be fostered in the classroo

Metalanguage in L1 English-speaking 12-year-olds: which aspects of writing do they talk about?

Traditional psycholinguistic approaches to metalinguistic awareness in L1 learners elicit responses containing metalanguage that demonstrates metalinguistic awareness of pre-determined aspects of language knowledge. This paper, which takes a more ethnographic approach, demonstrates how pupils are able to engage their own focus of metalanguage when reflecting on their everyday learning activities involving written language. What is equally significant is what their metalanguage choices reveal about their understanding and application of written language concepts

Preserving the Non-Preservable Geoheritage of the Aliakmon River : A Case Study in Geo-Education Leading to Cutting-Edge Science

The initial documentation of an ophiolite as oceanic lithosphere and the significance of an ophiolite\u2019s basal sole in its emplacement were based on the research of E. Moores (1969) and J. Zimmerman (1968) at the Vourinos Ophiolite, Greece: their work became a lynch-pin in the establishment of plate tectonic theory. Key localities of their research were located along the Aliakmon River Valley between Ilariona Monastery and the village of Panayia. This same area has since been flooded (2012) with the construction of a new hydroelectric reservoir. There was no option for \u201csaving\u201d these sites of the birth of plate tectonic theory: what could be done to preserve their geoheritage? Between 2005 and 2008, the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, with funding provided from the Public Power Corporation, sponsored geo-education to provide a \u201clast chance\u201d of geologic documentation of the Aliakmon Valley. In a three year period, over 60 international student and professorial-level researchers participated in the project. 37 Senior Theses were produced and 6 masters\u2019 dissertations. The greatest achievement of the program was the revtalization of the Aliakmon data base within current, cutting-edge scientific models

Internet Facilitated Rape: A Multivariate Model of Offense Behavior

In recent years there has been a significant increase in individuals reporting they have been raped by someone they have met through the internet (IFR). Previous literature has primarily focused on child victims, hence, the overriding aim of this study is to further our understanding of IFR in terms of overt crime scene behaviour. The sample consisted of 144 single IFR cases and two comparative samples of age-matched non-IFR offenders (confidence approach and surprise approach). Thirty-eight crime scene actions were coded as either present or absent for each offence. Findings suggest that the platforms IFR offenders use to meet their victims were not suggestive of the behaviour they were likely to display. In terms of specific offence behaviours, the IFR and confidence approach samples were considerably similar and both samples were comparatively different from the surprise approach cases. A smallest space analysis of the IFR sample revealed three distinct themes of behaviour with 71% of cases being assigned to a dominant behavioural theme. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings will be discussed

Linguistic metaconcepts can improve grammatical understanding in L1 education evidence from a Dutch quasi-experimental study

This is the final version. Available on open access from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this recordData Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Data can also be found on the OSF repository at: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/EGKJD (https://osf.io/egkjd/?view_only=None).This mixed-method quasi-experimental study examined whether metaconceptual grammar teaching impacts on (a) students’ L1 grammatical understanding, (b) their ‘blind’ use of grammatical concepts and (c) their preference of using explicit grammatical concepts over everyday concepts in explaining grammatical problems. Previous research, involving single group pre-postintervention designs, found positive effects for metaconceptual interventions on secondary school students’ grammatical reasoning ability, although a negative side effect seemed to be that some students started using grammatical concepts ‘blindly’ (i.e., in an inaccurate way). While there are thus important clues that metaconceptual grammar teaching may lead to increased grammatical understanding, there is a great need for more robust empirical research. The current study, involving 196 Dutch 14-year old pre-university students, is a methodological improvement of previous work, adopting a switching replications design. Bayesian multivariate analyses indicate medium to large effects from the metaconceptual intervention on students’ grammatical understanding. The study found a similar effect of the intervention on students’ ability to use explicit grammatical concepts over everyday concepts in tackling grammatical problems. No evidence for increased ‘blind’ concept use as a negative byproduct of the intervention was found. Additional qualitative analyses of in-intervention tasks provided further evidence for the effectiveness of metaconceptual interventions, and seemed to indicate that cases of blind concept use, rather than being a negative side effect, might actually be part of a gradual process of students’ growing understanding of grammatical (meta)concepts. We discuss these findings in relation to previous work and conclude that linguistic metaconcepts can improve L1 grammatical understanding.Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO