The impact of the SPaG tests Dick Hudson OCR English Forum, November 2016

What are the SPaG tests? The Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar tests known officially in the Standards and Testing Authority as ‘GPS’ tests For KS2 children 2013 based on the old National Curriculum, 2016 based on the new NC, and much more ambitious. For KS1 2016 – abandoned because of an accidental leak 2017 – optional Two papers: Spelling Punctuation and grammar

E.g. 2016 KS2 test

Includes meanings and dialect differences

More grammar and meaning

Grammar and lexical relations

The terminology to be tested

Some comments Just 40 terms spread across six years 6-7 per year. These terms are relevant to Foreign Languages as well as to English. Secondary FL teachers seem unaware of the SPaG terminology. Secondary FL and English could help each other a lot more. NATE and ALL (Association for Language Learning) have just collaborated in publishing an article about this.

Official status One of three SATs tests: Reported: Maths Reading SPaG (called ‘writing’??) Reported: as individual marks to pupil, via school as aggregate score for school on public league table website Primary schools have taken SPaG tests seriously

Importance The National Curriculum always required grammar teaching But there was no test of knowledge about grammar (KAG) So pupils and teachers got no credit for KAG Last time KAG was tested: early 1960s in O-level English Result: primary schools are teaching grammar. Most children seem to be reasonably happy with the tests, or even to like them. But teachers are very anxious.

Why are primary teachers anxious? Because they’ve never been taught grammar Not at school Not at university Because grammar is technical Because they need to apply it as needed without preparation. But they seem to be doing well 72% of pupils achieved the expected standard in SPaG. Not 94%, as in the presentation! But this is still higher than Maths (70%) and Reading (66%)

Secondary schools are different No SPaG So English teachers can ignore grammar. But GCSE could give credit to grammatical analysis and commentary. English teachers are subject specialists But most have never been taught grammar, either at school or at university Some English PGCE courses are strongly against grammar teaching So some English teachers are reluctant to start teaching grammar. Y7 pupils already know some grammar. So they may spot teacher mistakes Foreign-language teachers could use grammar and support English.

Some questions Is grammar worth teaching? Will the GCSE specifications motivate teachers to teach grammar? How will teachers learn enough grammar to teach effectively? How can exam boards such as OCR help them? Are publishers working on good text books and training books?