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teaching of grammar in their teacher education courses for such a long period oftime (Mueller & Grant, 2011), the concept of grammar teaching has now become achallenge in Australia. This is all the more so since the new Australian Curriculum(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2012b)requires all school teachers to be responsible for the teaching of grammar, and alsosince international students expect their English teachers to be knowledgeableabout grammar in order to effectively teach it in their English courses.This introductory chapter consists of sections on both the theoretical and thecontextual backgrounds to the stated problem of lack of grammar knowledge onthe part of teachers of English language. This is followed by a section on thesignificance of this study. The research aim and objectives are given next, followedby originality of the study. It will then move to ethical issues and structure of thethesis. A concluding section then brings this chapter to a close.1.1Theoretical backgroundThere are two aspects to the background of this research. One concerns teachers ingeneral and the other concerns specialist teachers of English. In January 2008, theAustralian Federal Government announced the introduction of a nationalcurriculum (Gillard & Rudd, 2008). By February 2010, the federal Minister forEducation at that time, Julia Gillard, was reported as saying “For the first time,grammar will be set out explicitly at every year level” (Rodgers, 2010). In the Englishstrand of the new Australian Curriculum (ACARA 2012b), the teaching of grammar isto be included at all levels in both primary and secondary schooling; furthermore,all teachers will be responsible for this task, not only teachers of English. This couldpresent a problem – the question needs to be asked as to whether current teachersin schools understand grammar concepts, be they teachers of English or teachers ofother subjects, or indeed specialist teachers of English language to internationalstudents. Further to that question, another of even greater significance is whethercurrent teachers have themselves been taught grammar. The new AustralianCurriculum makes it clear that literacy knowledge and skills are developedprogressively and are essential for student success in all learning areas. Therefore,2

the imparting of literacy knowledge for the development of literacy skills isconsidered to be the responsibility of all teachers (ACARA, 2010). Grant and Mueller(2010) argue that there is a large gap between the training that current teachershave received and what they are now being asked to teach. In view of this, teachersmay be able to instinctively model good English usage, but it might be difficult forthem to offer advice and guidance on students’ use of English and give reasons forsuch advice.Specialist English language teachers, such as those employed in university Englishlanguage teaching centres, are also largely products of the system which has notadequately prepared teachers to teach grammar. By their own admission, teachersfeel that there are gaps in their knowledge, and they would like to be moreadequately prepared to answer students’ probing grammar questions. To this end,this study sought to identify what exactly these gaps are. This would then lead to aprofessional development program to help teachers to become moreknowledgeable and confident about their ability both to teach grammar and toanswer student questions about grammar.The question of whether to teach grammar or not to teach it is a vexed one. Thetitle of a recent publication, My Grammar and I, or should that be ‘Me’? (Taggart &Wines, 2008), albeit tongue-in-cheek, serves to point out that grammar, includingits place in clear communication, is poorly understood. Careless grammar can leadto misunderstandings in both oral and written English. Moreover, if students do notmanage to internalise a certain amount of grammar, they will not understand somelanguage structures (Northumbria University, 2010), which will then lead to abreakdown in understanding and communication even though they might be nativeEnglish speakers. In some countries, for example Germany, students are taughtgrammar – German grammar. In that particular context, Germans do not just relyon grammar intuition that children develop in the first few years of life. As studentsgrow into adulthood and deal with more complex issues, their knowledge ofgrammar, which has been actively taught to them, can subconsciously facilitate thatcommunication.3

Australia is a multi-cultural country where immigrants from many language groupsare accepted. As well as adult international students, immigrants are yet anotheradult group who need to be taught English. The inclusion of effective grammarteaching would be very powerful for them, as grammar learning provides adultswith a way of grouping grammatical information together, thus obviating the needto learn each utterance separately. Adults do not learn a second language in thesame way that infants learn their mother tongue.An educational weakness in Australia is that few people study a second language. LoBianco (2009) points out that despite government policy in this area, secondlanguage learning translates to “low school completion rates, high rates of attritionfrom university language programs and a decline in the number of languagestaught, their duration, spread and level of seriousness” (p. 1). Lo Bianco recognisesthat Australia shares this situation with other English speaking nations, and gives asa possible reason “the perceived global domination of English” (p. 9). For thisreason, students appear to think that learning other languages is unimportant. Thefew Australian students who do engage in serious study of a second language,including grammar, then have the benefit of understanding grammar structures intheir first language – English. It is doubtful whether intuition alone is adequate evenfor monolingual people, and even more doubtful for those acquiring a second orfurther language.1.2Contextual backgroundGrammar cannot be considered as a static concept. Traditional grammar is grammarthat has been inherited from studies of Latin and Latin-based European languages.Grammar can change and be modified. In the context of this study, grammar isdefined as a modified version of traditional grammar. By way of clarifying this pointregarding modification, all modern English grammar books refer to conditionals aszero, first, second and third conditionals. In traditional grammar, the onlyconditional is that which is now known in English grammar as the first conditional,as this is the only one that has a true condition inherent in the meaning, e.g. If itrains tomorrow, I will stay at home. The main clause I will stay at home is contingent4

on the condition if it rains tomorrow. The zero conditional is not a true conditional(as implied by its name), e.g. If water reaches 100 degrees, it boils. The if can bereplaced by when or whenever and is a statement that is always true, so there is nota real condition within the meaning. The second and third conditionals are knownas present and past subjunctives in traditional grammar. These types of sentencesdo not display conditions as such, but rather introduce elements of doubt, desire,regret or even advice-giving. The following examples show these structures. (1) If Iwere you, I would study hard (second conditional / present subjunctive). There is nocondition here; it is a piece of advice. (2) If I had studied harder when I was a child, Iwould/could/ might have become a doctor (third conditional / past subjunctive).There is no condition here either; it is a regret about a past situation that cannotpossibly be changed because it is too late. Therefore, the second and thirdconditionals (present and past subjunctives in traditional grammar) relate to unrealsituations, not conditions as such. This is one example of a difference betweencommon modern English grammar understanding and traditional grammarunderstanding.Recent research reported in Science Daily (Northumbria University, 2010) showedthat there are questions about Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar, whichclaims that all native speakers of a particular language have the grammar hardwired into them because they speak that language (Munoz, 2011). The research wascarried out by academics at Northumbria University (2010), who pointed out that,according to Chomsky, grammar is gained through intuition from infancy. Incontrast to Chomsky, their thesis encompassed the idea that a significant number ofnative English speakers are unable to understand some basic sentences – thepublished report concentrated particularly on the passive voice in English grammar.This Northumbrian project assumed that every adult native speaker of Englishwould be able to understand the sentence “The soldier was hit by the sailor.” Therespondents were adults and it was found that a high proportion of those adultswho had left school at 16 were unable to identify whether the soldier or the sailorwas the doer of the action in that sentence. This type of lack of understandingdeserves some attention to be given to it by educators.5

Equally significant is the impending disappearance of the English adverb, especiallythe comparative adverb. This demise has been noted and commented on by writersin disciplines as disparate as medicine (Henry, 2009) and management (Fagiano,1992). It is not a question that concerns language teachers only. Henry (2009) writesregarding presentations given by medical personnel at medical conferences andcomments on the standard of grammar, including specifically the failure to useadverbs. Fagiano (1992) writes about the disappearing adverb and how this impactson marketing and management. Freeman (2006) writes on this topic from ajournalistic point of view, and cites the very public example of the Apple computercompany’s slogan “Think Different” (rather than “Think Differently”). This is anexample of marketers using language in a way that is unusual in order to attractattention. Although this particular example does not cause confusion as such, it ispossible for confusion to be created, and this point will be further explored in theLiterature Review chapter of this thesis as many more examples of the demise ofthe adverb can readily be found in the media.1.3Significance of the studyResearch literature shows that teachers do indeed lack grammar knowledgebecause for the last 50 years grammar has not been given very much attention.There is ample evidence of this fact in Andrews (1999; 2007); Harper and Rennie(2009); Hudson and Walmsley (2005); Kömür (2010); Louden et al. (2005); Loudenand Rohl (2006); and Rohl and Greaves (2005), as illustrated in the LiteratureReview chapter of this thesis. Therefore, current teachers are likely to be unsure oftheir own level of understanding in relation to grammar. However, during thecourse of the review of the extant literature for the purposes of this thesis, nostudies were found which led to the writing of a professional development programthat specifically addressed the gaps in the respondents’ grammar knowledge. It maybe time to redress this problem and to give teachers of English language whateverhelp is required in order to allow them to fulfil their mission. The advantages of thisstudy are that the teacher respondents will have the opportunity to improve andextend their knowledge of grammar through the professional development6

program that will be devised and tailored specifically to their needs. This enquirycould be useful for other tertiary English teaching centres, as any other such centrecould conduct this type of research to discover the grammar needs of theirparticular teachers and then implement a program to help them improve theirknowledge of grammar.The review of relevant literature for this research showed that studies which havealready been conducted into teachers’ grammar knowledge are based mostly onwhat teachers say they know or do not know about grammar in general. Only twostudies were found which attempted to discover actual lack of knowledge ofspecific grammar items. These were Kömür (2010) and Andrews (1999) (refer toLiterature Review chapter of this thesis). In the case of Kömür (2010), the study wasconducted with non-native English speaker student teachers in Turkey and did notreport on any list of grammar items, but rather on the respondents’ intendedstrategies to overcome their ind

traditional grammar, and, if so, which aspects of grammar cause them particular difficulty. Those grammar items identified as problematic would be included in a professional development program specifically devised for teachers at that centre. Teachers views on the importance of