Portuguese teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching
Cristina Vieira da Silva
ESEPF/Research Centre on Child Studies, University of Minho, PortugalCristina Vieira da Silva completed her PhD in Linguistics in 2003. She is currently a Coordinator Professor at the Higher School of Education of Paula Frassinetti in Porto and a member of CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies) at the University of Minho. Her areas of research cover language teaching and learning, literacy education, reading, writing and grammar teaching.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2529-4135
Íris Susana Pires Pereira
Íris Susana Pires Pereira - Research Centre in Education, Institute of Education, University of Minho, PortugalÍris Susana Pires Pereira is a member of the Research Center on Education (CIEd) at the Institute of Education, University of Minho, in Portugal, where she holds the position of Assistant Professor of language and literacy education. Her research focuses on language and literacy learning in the early years, with a particular interest in the specialised forms of the language of schooling, now including digital resources for meaning making. She also investigates the role of specialized language in teachers’ professional learning and development.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0647-2319
Isabel Sebastião
Isabel Sebastião - Centre of Linguistics of the University of Porto, PortugalIsabel Sebastião is a post-doc researcher at the Centre of Linguistics of the University of Porto (CLUP) funded by a grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology. She has developed research work in discourse analysis and teaching of Portuguese language as mother tongue and foreign language. Isabel Sebastião has been sharing her research findings in articles published in scientific journals and in conference presentations in Portugal and abroad.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0896-4384
Abstract
The teaching of grammar, as envisaged in the official curriculum, has been identified as challenging for many Portuguese teachers. In this paper, we present a study conducted with the aim of characterizing primary and middle school teachers’ perceptions about their own grammar teaching, utilizing Shulman’s model (1987) as adapted by Grossman (1990). We carried out a collective case study, using a questionnaire survey (n=200 teachers) to determine the importance teachers attach to teaching grammar, the degree of perceived adequacy of their knowledge and the difficulties they identify in this area of their teaching. The results reveal that teachers’ perceptions are shaped by multiple decisive factors including content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of the curricula and general educational knowledge. Based on these findings, we advocate the need to rethink how teachers are trained and to (re) create awareness about the complexity of knowledge in grammar teaching and its role in effective student learning.Keywords:
grammar teaching, grammatical content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, curricular knowledgeReferences
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ESEPF/Research Centre on Child Studies, University of Minho, Portugal
Cristina Vieira da Silva completed her PhD in Linguistics in 2003. She is currently a Coordinator Professor at the Higher School of Education of Paula Frassinetti in Porto and a member of CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies) at the University of Minho. Her areas of research cover language teaching and learning, literacy education, reading, writing and grammar teaching.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2529-4135Íris Susana Pires Pereira - Research Centre in Education, Institute of Education, University of Minho, Portugal
Íris Susana Pires Pereira is a member of the Research Center on Education (CIEd) at the Institute of Education, University of Minho, in Portugal, where she holds the position of Assistant Professor of language and literacy education. Her research focuses on language and literacy learning in the early years, with a particular interest in the specialised forms of the language of schooling, now including digital resources for meaning making. She also investigates the role of specialized language in teachers’ professional learning and development.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0647-2319Isabel Sebastião - Centre of Linguistics of the University of Porto, Portugal
Isabel Sebastião is a post-doc researcher at the Centre of Linguistics of the University of Porto (CLUP) funded by a grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology. She has developed research work in discourse analysis and teaching of Portuguese language as mother tongue and foreign language. Isabel Sebastião has been sharing her research findings in articles published in scientific journals and in conference presentations in Portugal and abroad.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0896-4384
