Generative Grammar

Generative grammar is the term given to a type of grammar teaching where we provide a model sentence and show children how to use it to create unlimited sentences like it. It is particularly useful for children who have not been actively engaged in communicating with someone with good grammar. It is also useful for children with English as an additional language. All children will benefit from teaching grammar in a generative way.

Generative grammar is a linguistic theory that regards grammar as a system of rules that generates exactly those combinations of words that form grammatical sentences in a given language. Noam Chomsky first used the term in relation to the theoretical linguistics of grammar that he developed in the late 1950s.

For example: The man is happy. Happy man is the.

A native speaker would judge the first sentence to be acceptable and the second to be unacceptable. For further information about Noam Chomsky’s work, click here. To read Talk for Writing’s use of Generative Grammar, click here.

Generative grammar works on the basis that if I can say one sentence correctly, I can use it as a template to generate unlimited sentences by changing the vocabulary in that sentence. This is primarily a spoken activity but will feed into their writing.

In early and first, we primarily want children to hear what good sentences sound like and to be able to use that structure to create unlimited sentences like them.

In second level, we will introduce terms and concepts such as ‘main clause’, ‘subordinate clause’, and ‘conjunction’ for joining two pieces of information.

Here is an example at First Level

Teacher: Tell me a sentence using the word floor.

Child: The floor was wet.

Teacher: That is a sentence. Let us all repeat it. The floor was wet.

Children: The floor was wet.

Teacher: Why? Why was the floor wet?

Child: The floor was wet because I left the tap running and it flooded the kitchen.

Teacher: What a great sentence which tells me so much. Let’s practice saying it.

Children: The floor was wet because I left the tap running and it flooded the kitchen.

Teacher: Can you give me a short sentence about a dog?

Child: The dog was hungry. Teacher: The dog was hungry. Why?

Child: The dog was hungry because I forgot to give it its dinner.

Teacher: That’s a great sentence! Let’s all say it.

Here is the same example at second level.

Teacher: Tell me a sentence using the word floor.

Child: The floor was wet.

Teacher: That is a sentence. Let us all repeat it. The floor was wet.

Children: The floor was wet.

Teacher: Why? Why was the floor wet?

Child: The floor was wet because I left the tap running and it flooded the kitchen.

Teacher: What a great sentence which tells me so much. Let’s practice saying it.

The floor was wet because I left the tap running and it flooded the kitchen.

Children: The floor was wet because I left the tap running and it flooded the kitchen.

Teacher: I am going to write it on the board.

The floor was wet because I left the tap running and it flooded the kitchen.

Main clause subordinate cause Conjunction joining the two sentences into one compound sentence.

Teacher: We are going to make a different simple sentence: I will swap floor for dog, and wet for hungry. The dog was hungry.

The dog was hungry. Why?

Child: The dog was hungry because I forgot to give it its dinner.

Teacher: That’s a great sentence. Let’s all say it and I’ll write it on the board:

The dog was hungry because I forgot to give it its dinner.

Can you find the main clause we started with? Where is the conjunction? Where is the subordinate clause?

If children haven’t heard different types of sentences constructed correctly, they can’t say different types of sentences constructed correctly.

If they can’t say them correctly, they can’t write them correctly.

hear → say → write