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English Grammar for Teachers (Online Course)

  • 9:30am to 1pm
  • 3.5 hours

Overview

The new national curriculum requires school teachers to teach English grammar, starting in primary school. 

On this online course you'll learn about grammatical subject knowledge that is required for the national curriculum, and explore ways of teaching it that's engaging and fun for your students.

The course is designed to help primary and secondary school teachers who:

  • feel uncertain about their knowledge of grammar and want to improve their confidence in teaching it
  • want to be able to teach English grammar in a fun and engaging way
  • want to refresh their knowledge of English grammar

The course covers the key concepts of English grammar as laid out for each key stage in the national curriculum.

This course is taught by UCL experts and is brought to you by the team that runs Englicious, a free online learning and teaching resource for English grammar.

Alternative version of this course

An asynchronous version of this course is available through FutureLearn. The FutureLearn course runs over 6 weeks and takes approximately 12 hours to complete.

Watch a video about the course

Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR9HpORpMwg

What is Englicious?

Englicious is a free online English grammar resource for primary and secondary schools. It includes lesson plans, exercises and projects that you can carry out with your pupils. 

It's based on extensive research into contemporary written and spoken English grammar and includes fun lesson plans that look at traditional English, as well as contemporary sources like Dizzee Rascal.

Englicious is structured around the 2014 UK National Curriculum.

Course aims and content

This course is completely tailored to the 2014 UK National Curriculum, so you can be confident that you'll learn about English grammar as specified in the curriculum.

You'll have access to the latest research and training from leading UCL academic experts in the field of English grammar.

The course aims to help you:

  • understand the basic concepts of English grammar, as laid out in the national curriculum
  • develop a stronger command of key English grammar terminology, as used in the national curriculum
  • develop confidence in using grammatical terminology
  • improve your ability to analyse the grammar of texts
  • help you use grammar to improve your pupils' reading and writing skills
  • learn how to use the Englicious website

Who this course is for

The course is designed for school teachers teaching at primary or secondary level, with any level of experience. 

It's ideal for those who:

  • are new to English grammar
  • feel uncertain about their knowledge of grammar
  • have taught for years, but might need guidance on new or revised terminology and concepts

Recommended reading: the materials available on www.englicious.org (free sign-up).

Read about a teacher's experience on this course.

Structure, teaching and certification

This course is an online interactive seminar, taught via Zoom. You'll receive an email with the invitation and instructions a week before the course starts.

You'll learn to identify key elements of English grammar using rigorous sets of criteria. 

You'll apply those tools to real examples of language, step by step. You'll move from identifying single, simple grammatical features towards identifying more complex structures and relationships. 

This approach, using clear criteria and a consistent toolset, provides you with the means to analyse a wide range of English sentences in the classroom. 

You'll be introduced to the Englicious website and taught how to use it effectively.

certificate of attendance will be issued on request for those who attend the whole course.

Costs and concessions

The full cost of this course is £49.

A reduced rate is available for:

  • UCL alumni: £39
  • students and trainee teachers: £25

You may be asked to provide proof of your status.

(All income generated by our CPD courses is used to support the Englicious project, providing free English grammar resources for schools.)

Run this course as an inset day

If you’re a school, college or university, and have a large numbers of students we would be happy to discuss special rates. To run this course as an inset day, please contact the Survey of English Usage team by email on ucleseu@ucl.ac.uk to discuss.

Benefits of taking this course

For teachers

  • You'll build confidence in dealing with grammar in the classroom
  • You'll meet other teachers and discuss ideas and issues
  • You'll study at IOE, UCL's faculty of education and society, a world-class leader in the field of teaching and pedagogy

For pupils

  • Pupils will learn about grammar in a fun way
  • They will learn how grammar can help them understand how authors use language in novels, plays, etc.
  • They can use the resources on Englicious to practise what they have learnt and test their knowledge
  • They can improve their confidence in grammar
  • Englicious will help pupils improve their SPaG tests results in Years 2 and 6, or improve A-level results

For schools

  • Your teaching staff will be up-to-date with a reliable, authoritative understanding of English grammar terminology as presented in the new national curriculum
  • Your staff will be confident in the classroom and able to engage and enthuse pupils in grammar as part of the curriculum
  • Your school will be in a better position to get higher pass rates at all key stages as a result of high quality and engaging teaching in an essential part of the curriculum
  • Your school will be meeting the requirements of each key stage in the national curriculum

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you should:

  • be able to identify the grammatical concepts that students need to know about as set out in the 2014 UK National Curriculum
  • be able to distinguish between grammar and meaning, along with the different approaches to language that they represent
  • be able to distinguish between grammatical form and grammatical function
  • feel confident in the methods used to analyse English grammar, and use that confidence to enthuse your students in the classroom

Course team

Professor Bas Aarts

Professor Bas Aarts

Professor Bas Aarts teaches English linguistics to undergraduate and postgraduate students at UCL. Since January 1997 he's been the Director of the Survey of English Usage (SEU) at UCL - an internationally recognised and highly regarded centre of excellence for research in the area of English Language and Linguistics. From this research he and his team have developed 'Englicious', an extensive online platform containing original English language teaching resources closely tailored to the New 2014 UK National Curriculum, which includes professional development materials for teachers.

Luke Pearce

Luke Pearce

Luke is an Associate Lecturer in English Linguistics at UCL, contributing to the Englicious project. He also works as an English teacher. He's taught English as a foreign language (EFL) overseas and English for academic purposes (EAP) courses at universities. He's also taught GCSE English Language and Functional Skills in secondary schools and further education providers. He has a CELTA, PGCE and Master's in Education and Language from the University of Sheffield. For his dissertation, he conducted a critical discourse analysis into the role of regional varieties of English in the GCSE English Language specification.

Learner reviews

Teachers who attended this course have said:

"I will definitely be having a look at the Englicious website and using some of the resources and ideas [...] I have also gained a greater knowledge of each of the different word classes so feel more confident in explaining what each of these are to the children in my class." (Susan, Nov 2022) 

"My expectations and the goals for the day were fully met. Thank you! Englicious is an amazing source of information and resources that I and my students will be able to reliably use." (Sarah, July 2022) 

"Nice to find that all the relevant KS2 terminology was explained and contextualised, [and] explanations given that went beyond the National Curriculum and that explained reasons for why the NC was written in a particular way. I liked the interactivity and the fact that the questions and examples were often quite stretching. [I’ve gained] lots more confidence at manipulating sentences and sequencing teaching about grammar. We will use the Englicious resources, and I will flag these to other teachers." (Christine, June 2022)  

"I’ve just bought the How to Teach Grammar book; I have signed up to the Englicious website and I have been having a read through your blog (which is really interesting!). This has reignited my love of grammar (and been a bit of a kick up the bum, as it’s apparent I have misunderstood a few things and not been teaching aspects in the best way for my students!)" (Mary, May 2022)  

"A great course looking at lots of usage and terminology found in the national curriculum."

"[This course] will help to make the delivery of complex ideas simple when teaching."

"Great session, engaging speaker and brilliant explanation of key terms."

"Very informative and useful. I really feel that I can explain grammar in a more structured way."

"Suddenly, everything clicked that I was trying to figure out on my own!"

Course information last modified: 6 Sep 2023, 16:30