Promoting Playfulness within Grammar Exercises in the Context of Writing : A Materials Analysis for Teaching and Learning English in a Swedish Upper-Secondary School Context

Abstract: The English subject in Swedish upper-secondary school aims to develop students’ holistic communicative ability, giving students opportunities to produce meaningful texts with confidence. The syllabus further proposes that this ability includes knowledge of the language’s grammatical structures since being aware of grammatical structures and options helps students to write in varied and effective ways. This prompts teachers to consider how to teach grammar to help improve students’ writing. Research, presented in this essay, shows that traditional grammar teaching with focus on rules and errors is ineffective and could rather make students shy away from grammar and writing. Instead, this essay suggests a playful and contextualised view of grammar instruction, developed by Constance Weaver, in which grammatical features are taught in conjunction with writing, enhancing texts and making them rhetorically efficient. Weaver’s approach to grammar includes presenting opportunities in which students can experiment with and explore ways to express themselves. This inspired the research question: what exercises can promote a playful attitude toward grammar to improve students’ writing? In order to investigate this question, three grammar and writing exercises were analysed with a criteria-based materials analysis. The criteria are based on research in the fields of English language learning, grammar instruction theory, rhetorical grammar theory and theory of playfulness. Results of the analysis suggest that the three exercises have the potential to promote playfulness toward grammar as well as improve students’ writing, as they could reduce anxiety and encourage risk-taking. However, teaching grammar with playful exercises may not be enough to benefit students: the overall course design and contingent teaching should promote a playful attitude.