Introduction to Part II: The range and focus of applied linguistics research

Citation

Ellis S & McCartney E (2011) Introduction to Part II: The range and focus of applied linguistics research. In: Ellis S & McCartney E (eds.) Applied Linguistics and Primary School Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 77-80. http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/applied-linguistics-and-second-language-acquisition/applied-linguistics-and-primary-school-teaching?format=HB&isbn=9780521193542#S45VqXi0dtQMMwdr.97; https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921605.010

Abstract
The chapters in Part II provide examples of the new knowledge that is being generated by applied linguistics research. This knowledge has implications for the primary school curricular content, for pedagogy and for policy development in the primary sector. It would require a work of many volumes to give a comprehensive account of all the applied linguistics research that has implications for primary school teaching. These chapters, therefore, are illustrative of the range and scope of such research. The chapters represent a range of disciplines and enquiry methods. They show the different ways that research is addressing the concerns of primary teachers and policy makers, with implications that range from curriculum content to pedagogy, teacher understanding, and language and literacy policy and policy implementation. Part II begins with two chapters describing research that challenges traditional conceptions of grammar teaching. Whereas traditional grammarians often focus on what people should say and write, Debra Myhill focuses on what people could say and write whilst Alison Sealey focuses on what they do actually say and write. Myhill’s research asks teachers and children to focus on writers as designers, so that how they tell becomes as important as what they tell in their writing. This produces a pedagogy that promotes creative and critical understandings of language choices and their effects, and challenges traditional ways of teaching both writing and grammar.