3 - Grammar and Grammars

Summary

Chapter 3 surveys different conceptualisations of grammar and what these mean for questions of language education and notions of ‘correct’ or ‘proper’ grammar. Comparisons of descriptive, prescriptive, reference and pedagogical grammar lead to specific questions of what it is that is pedagogical about pedagogical grammar. In order to leverage the idea of using grammatical concepts for pedagogical purposes, we develop the idea of Virtual Grammar. This encompasses abstract linguistic properties that regulate language variation and language acquisition. We outline how this idea can be used as a way to sharpen awareness of linguistic properties in forms that are useful for language education.