Pre-service teachers’ experiences of learning grammar to support EAL/D learners

Nishani Singh; David Caldwell; Michael Mu

doi:10.21153/tesol2025vol33no2art2095

Authors

Dr Nishani Singh University of South Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3038-8312
Dr David Caldwell University of South Australia
Associate Professor Michael Mu University of South Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/tesol2025vol33no2art2095

Keywords:

Pre-service teachers, EAL/D learners, Learning English: Achievement and Proficiency (LEAP) Levels, grammar, Metalinguistic Awareness

Abstract

In South Australia, pre-service teachers require a sound knowledge of grammar to deploy the Learning English: Achievement and Proficiency (LEAP) Levels, an assessment, monitoring and reporting tool designed to inform programming and planning for English as an Additional Language and Dialect (EAL/D) students. However, research shows that many pre-service teachers do not have strong Metalinguistic Awareness (MA). In response, a series of five videos was produced to explicitly teach pre-service teachers the grammar needed to deploy LEAP, titled: A beginner’s guide to functional grammar. This article reports on the experiences of those pre-service teachers working with these instructional videos. Quantitative data were gleaned from pre- and post- quizzes that sought to test pre-service teachers’ (n=28) knowledge of grammar. Overall, the scores on the pre- and post-quiz results demonstrate a statistically significant difference, with a marked increase of five-point-five points on a 28-point scale following their engagement with the videos. Ultimately, this article reports on the success of teaching strategies used to increase pre-service teachers’ knowledge of certain areas of grammar, and points to future directions for working with and supporting EAL/D students through LEAP.

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Author Biographies

Dr Nishani Singh , University of South Australia

Dr Nishani Singh is Lecturer in the Education Futures at the University of South Australia. Nishani’s research focuses on enhancing preservice teachers’ metalinguistic awareness to enable them to support learners’ English language development.
Dr David Caldwell , University of South Australia

Dr David Caldwell is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Literacy at the University of South Australia. David’s research applies functional linguistics to a range of contemporary contexts, with a focus on the role language plays in learning, identity and inclusion. These contexts have included sports, classroom discourse, and hip-hop. Drawing on these various sites, ‘non-traditional’ texts, and marginalised language users, David aims to disrupt prescriptive discourses of language to facilitate social inclusion, and at the same time, demonstrate the value in understanding how language works to solve real-world problems.
Associate Professor Michael Mu, University of South Australia

Dr Guanglun Michael Mu is Enterprise Fellow and Associate Professor in the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion at the University of South Australia. Michael is a sociologist of education with methodological expertise in quantitative and mixed methods research. His work revolves around resilience to structural inequalities in migration contexts. He is also interested in language and its symbolic power. He is an author of over 90 scholarly publications.