Growth in grammar corpus 2015-2019

The Growth in Grammar Corpus is a collection of texts written by children at schools in England as part of their regular school work. Texts were mainly sampled from children in years 2, 6, 9 and 11, covering the disciplines of English, Science and Humanities. There is also a small collection of texts from year 4. The corpus was collected as part of a project aiming develop the first systematic understanding of the distinctive uses of grammar which mark out student writing across the full range of ages, attainment levels and text types in English primary and secondary education to age sixteen. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses of a large, systematically-sampled collection of student writing, it aimed to identify key form-function combinations both in student writing as a whole and in writing at different levels of age and attainment. It explored how these form-function combinations develop across levels, how they are differentially deployed in the range of different text types which students need to produce, and how they relate to adults' use of grammar. <p>A central aim of schooling is to help students become effective writers. Becoming an effective writer is critical both for individual and for economic well-being: through writing, we can learn about ourselves and our world, we can understand the past and imagine the future, we can share new knowledge and innovative ideas, and we can create revolutions. The emergence of new media for writing, such as email, blogs and Twitter have served to increase the prevalence of writing as a communication tool both socially and in the workplace. Young people whose education has equipped them to be confident and capable writers are socially and economically advantaged. Central to good writing is the meaningful and appropriate use of grammar. Research has shown that becoming a good writer requires learning both how to use grammar in purposeful ways to express meanings and how to adapt grammatical choices to meet the expectations of different communicative contexts (e.g. formal vs. informal) and text types (e.g. telling a story vs. constructing an argument). The importance of grammar as a tool for creating contextually appropriate meanings is recognized in the National Curriculum in England, which states that students should be taught how to write by &quot;selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning&quot; (DfE, 2013a). However, although this principle is well-established, translating it into practice through specific guidelines regarding what should be taught and when it should be assessed, as well as through teachers' day-to-day practices and choices, requires a more detailed understanding, which research has not yet provided. This has serious implications for the teaching of writing. In particular, current curricular guidance as to when particular grammatical forms should be taught and assessed is not based on a substantial, systematic evidence-base. Moreover, the presentation of grammar in the curriculum largely through the use of an Annex runs the risk of presenting forms as individual isolated items, divorced from context, leading to a teaching focus on labelling and identification, rather than enhancing learners' understanding of shaping written text for differing purposes and audiences. Given this picture, it is important to establish how students' control over grammatical forms develops throughout the course of their school careers. We need to know which forms are used to express which meanings at each stage of a typical student's development; we need to know how such uses differ across students at different levels of attainment in writing; we need to know how students at different stages and levels adapt their use of grammar to different communicative contexts; and we need to know how these trajectories of development compare to the uses of grammar which are typical of successful mature writers. This project aims to provide these understandings through computer-aided analysis of a large, systematically-collected, body of authentic student writing. The objectives of the study are fourfold. Firstly, it will establish the first full multi-dimensional analysis of the grammatical patterns which mark the broad spectrum of school-aged writing produced by students in England across the age and attainment range. Secondly, it will offer a more thorough understanding of grammatical development, along with its specific relationship to student writing as found within a particular educational system. Thirdly, it will generate an updatable and publicly accessible corpus of grammatically-annotated, educationally authentic student writing designed to support further studies of literacy development. Finally, it will form the basis for a set of recommendations to inform both national and international curriculum policies.</p>语法增长语料库（Growth in Grammar Corpus）是一部收录英格兰地区学生日常课业习作的文本集合。文本主要采样自二年级、六年级、九年级与十一年级的学生，覆盖英语、科学与人文三科范畴，同时包含少量四年级学生的习作。 该语料库的采集隶属于一项研究项目，旨在首次系统性地梳理英格兰16岁以下中小学阶段学生习作中，彰显不同年龄、学业水平与文本类型特征的语法独特用法。研究团队通过对大规模系统性采样的学生习作开展定量与定性分析，旨在识别整体学生习作，以及不同年龄、学业水平段学生习作中的核心形式-功能组合（form-function combinations），并探究此类组合随水平进阶的发展规律、在学生所需创作的各类文本类型中的差异化部署方式，以及其与成人语法使用的关联模式。 学校教育的核心目标之一是助力学生成长为高效写作者。成为高效写作者对个人福祉与经济发展均至关重要：通过写作，我们得以认知自我与周遭世界、理解过往并畅想未来、分享新知与创见，甚至推动变革。新兴写作媒介（如电子邮件、博客与推特（Twitter））的出现，进一步提升了写作作为社交与职场沟通工具的普及度。接受过良好写作教育、能够自信且熟练写作的年轻人，在社交与职场中更具竞争优势。 优质写作的核心在于语法的得体且有意义的运用。研究表明，成为优秀写作者需要掌握两点：一是如何以目标导向的方式使用语法传递意义，二是如何调整语法选择以契合不同交际语境（如正式与非正式语境）及文本类型（如叙事与议论文）的要求。 语法作为生成契合语境意义的工具的重要性，已在英格兰国家课程（National Curriculum）中得到认可，该标准明确要求学生通过“选择恰当的语法与词汇，理解此类选择如何改变并强化意义”的方式学习写作（英国教育部（Department for Education, DfE），2013a）。尽管该原则已得到广泛认可，但要将其转化为教学实践——即通过明确的教学内容与评估时机指南，以及教师的日常教学行为与决策来落实——仍需更为细致的研究支撑，而目前相关研究尚未能提供此类支撑。 这对写作教学产生了严重的负面影响。具体而言，当前课程指南中关于特定语法形式的教学与评估时机的内容，并未建立在扎实且系统的证据基础之上。此外，课程中主要通过附录（Annex）呈现语法知识的方式，存在将语法形式拆解为孤立个体、脱离语境讲解的风险，进而导致教学重心偏向语法术语的标注与识别，而非培养学习者根据不同目的与受众优化书面文本的能力。 鉴于上述现状，明确学生在整个学业生涯中对语法形式的掌握如何发展至关重要。我们需要了解：在典型学生发展的每个阶段，哪些语法形式用于表达何种意义；不同写作学业水平的学生，其语法使用存在哪些差异；不同阶段与水平的学生，如何根据不同交际语境调整语法使用；以及此类发展轨迹与成熟优秀写作者的典型语法使用模式存在何种异同。 本项目旨在通过计算机辅助分析大规模系统性采集的真实学生习作语料，为上述问题提供研究结论。本研究的目标共分为四点：其一，首次对英格兰地区全年龄与全学业水平段学生习作中彰显特征的语法模式开展全面多维度分析；其二，深化对语法发展规律的认知，及其在特定教育体系中与学生习作的特定关联；其三，构建可更新且公开可访问的语法标注教育真实学生习作语料库，以支撑读写发展领域的后续研究；其四，为制定国家与国际层面的课程政策提供建议依据。