Despite the prevalence of Singlish use among the Singaporean public, the vernacular is often seen as "bad English" without rules and grammar, or cast as an impediment to learning the standard register (Wee, 2005). This rhetoric is reproduced by the state (Chang, 2016), often involving the fear that speakers are unable to distinguish and…

For educators committed to promoting social equity, the question of how to address dialect hegemony is increasingly important. While linguists have long accepted the concept of dialect equality, educators have struggled with the issue, sparking a history of controversy and debate underscoring larger social issues of diversity and equity. For…

The teaching of grammar has been strongly debated for decades, often with reference to an alleged decline in the 1960s. This article takes a historical perspective on grammar, or knowledge about language, within English Education. In the eighteenth century, Adam Smith's "Lectures in Rhetoric and Belles-lettres" offered a discernibly…

This essay uses storytelling as a mode of inquiry to explore how students with languages other than English and with diasporic experiences and identities negotiate a pathway for themselves in a relentlessly Anglophone environment. I share a story that provides a small window into the everyday work of an English teacher in a large, linguistically…

Language awareness has been largely overlooked by the American education system. This paper provides background knowledge needed to justify language awareness in classroom teaching. As educators we need to be more informed and think more systematically about teaching linguistic diversity in our classrooms.

In this article I reflect on the early formation of my professional identity and practice. I argue that much of my early practice was 'decorative' in that it masked dominant structures and discourses that often limited learning opportunities. I consider how a dialogic approach to school English is important for offering more authentic teaching and…

Flipgrid as an asynchronous video-mediated online discussion platform has offered a space for teachers and students to interact and show their thinking in remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Flipgrid discussions can afford educators the chance to build on students' creative language use, the choices teachers make when designing the…

This paper is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the grammatical description and advice contained in the new National Curriculum documentation from 2013, focusing on key stages 1 and 2. It builds on previous analyses of deficiencies in the systems of grammar and the materials in earlier incarnations of the National Curriculum. It…

At the start of the pandemic, a lot of talk occurred about reimagining education, especially since the inception of schooling in America is not built for Black children. Research has examined the violence against Black children in schools, not to mention the double pandemic that they are experiencing with COVID-19 and the country's history of…

Correct grammar is important for precise, accurate, academic prose, but the traditional skills-based approach to teaching grammar is not effective if the goal is good writing. The sentence-combining approach shows promise. However, sentence modeling is more likely to produce strong writing and enhance reading comprehension. Through sentence…

This article describes the ENGL 1023 Composition II course at the University of Arkansas, generally taken in the second semester of a student's first year and is taught within the context of literary studies or as a special topics section approved by the program in rhetoric and composition (PRC). The course is meant to be an introduction to…

Starting with the writer's own experience as a reader, this article discusses poetry by Eric Roach, Derek Walcott, Linton Kwesi Johnson, John Agard, Edward Baugh, Michael Smith and Velma Pollard. It explores the sense of place felt by writer and reader, going on to analyse the poets' use of Nation Language, poetic metre and intertextuality in…

This essay takes as its starting-point the recent announcement that GCSE English, the high-stakes test taken by 16-year-olds in England, will no longer include the assessment of speaking and listening. It attempts to place this decision, and other recent policy interventions that will have an impact on how talk in the classroom is conceptualised…

Secondary English teachers are charged with helping all students to read, write, and understand English in its many forms and functions. However, students' language can be as diverse as the literature teachers bring to the classroom. Not all students come to the classroom with the skills to write standardized English; even fewer students come with…

The ways in which literacy in English is taught in school generally subscribe to and perpetuate the notion of a homogenous, unvaried set of writing conventions associated with the language they represent, especially in relation to spelling and punctuation as well as grammar. Such teaching also perpetuates the myth that there is one…