About the talk
In this lecture I will address changing views and research evidence concerning the place of grammar in the teaching of writing. Rather than positioning grammar as the arbiter of correctness and accuracy in writing, grammar is viewed a crucial resource for crafting and making meaning in written text. In particular, the lecture will consider how teachers can facilitate students’ metalinguistic understanding for writing: that is, students’ capacity to reflect on their language use, and to use that reflection to reason and to make changes and choices in their own writing. Drawing on a cumulative suite of studies, conducted over the past 25 years, I will argue that creating opportunities for dialogic metalinguistic talk about writing deepens understanding of the craft of writing, and empowers students to make informed language choices in their own writing.
About the speaker
Debra Myhill is Professor Emerita of Education at the University of Exeter, UK, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her research has focused particularly on the inter-relationship between metalinguistic understanding and writing, through studies exploring the talk-writing interface; young people’s composing processes and their metacognitive awareness of them; #and writing pedagogy. Underpinning this research is the principle that literacy, especially writing, is a pathway to empowerment. She is Past-President of the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction and of the United Kingdom Literacy Association.
The Helga Eng-lectures
Each year the Faculty of Educational Sciences invites a well-known academic in our field to give an honorary lecture. The Helga Eng lecture gives the Faculty the opportunity to invite central academics that through their research and work have attributed to bring important research questions and theories within the educational sciences forward. The lecture is intended to serve as inspiration for students and researchers alike. The honorary lecture was established by the Faculty as a yearly event in 1997. It is named after Norway's first professor in Education, professor Helga Eng (1875 - 1966).
Foto of Helga Eng: Oslo Museum