Linguistic sources in grammar education: Fostering reflective thinking about language

Educational reforms emphasise the importance of secondary school students learning to think critically about language. To this end, students must become aware that not every language problem has a single correct answer, but that an answer can be the result of a reasoning process in which the problem has been analysed from different perspectives. This doctoral research investigated whether the use of linguistic sources in grammar lessons could encourage students to explore language and develop their reflective thinking about language. To this end, King and Kitchener's (1994) Reflective Judgment Model was used to investigate what exactly reflective thinking is and how teachers feel about reflective thinking about language in secondary education. Next, the epistemic views of students on grammar were examined and how these differ from the views of experts. A model was then developed to enable students to investigate a language problem in small steps, using linguistic sources. This model was subsequently tested by teachers in the classroom using the Lesson Study method. The final study focused on the scaffolding that students need to develop their reflective thinking about language when consulting linguistic sources.