III International Conference on Teaching Grammar

The research groups ‘Grup d’Investigació sobre Ensenyament i Aprenentatge de Llengües’ (GREAL), ‘Grup d’Investigació en Ensenyament de Llengües’ (GIEL), and the Faculty of Science of Education of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) are pleased to announce the III International Conference on Teaching Grammar (Congram19), which will take place at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) from the 23rd to the 25th of January 2019.

Research in the teaching of grammar is an area of great wealth and academic controversy. The role of grammar in the teaching of first, second and foreign languages has been repeatedly questioned in recent decades, which has greatly reduced its presence in language education, the consequences of which are worrying. At present we know that grammatical knowledge is essential in helping students convert language into a tool of conscious reflection. This is crucial in regulating the use of effective communication in a highly literate society. We also know that such knowledge should be part of the general culture of any citizen, and is necessary to contribute to the appreciation of languages as diverse manifestations of the human capacity of language.

Research shows, however, that an individual’s grammatical repertoire of concepts and procedures is not learned automatically or in a transmissive way. This opens up a large number of questions, both in local and foreign languages, which should be explored in depth: what is the most suitable content for grammatical instruction? What is the most suitable gradation of such content according to different levels of difficulty? What else should we know about the relationship between grammatical instruction and developmental stages? What is the relationship between varied linguistic uses and formal grammatical, semantic and pragmatic concepts? What teaching strategies should be adopted? Which initial and permanent teacher training forms are most effective? What are the adaptation processes of linguistic contributions to needs of the school? What should be the lines of research into the pedagogical system formed by content-teaching-learning? What are the possible ways of integrating the languages of the curriculum and enhancing students’ linguistic awareness in non-linguistic areas? What is the relationship between grammatical knowledge, written language and linguistic use in general? And, of course, how does historical research help to shed light on these issues?

We invite all researchers interested in the subject, and who are willing to contribute to the debate on the questions that grammar instruction poses, to participate in the conference.