Effective MUGs: a grammar curriculum for basic writers
Date
2019
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to design a grammar curriculum that could help college age students in basic writing classes to identify and correct grammatical errors in their own writing. After reviewing literature in best practices in grammar instruction as well as other kinds of instructional best practices, the grammar curriculum, Effective MUGs (MUGs stands for mechanics, usage, and grammar), takes advantage of these best practices including sentence combining, sentence revision, sentence creation, grammar in context, strategies instruction, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The study was designed to measure how effective the grammar curriculum was (by examining student writing in essays as well as grammar exercises), how students used tools in the curriculum (by examining results from cognition labs), and how students and instructors perceived the curriculum (through interviews). The data on student grammatical error from this study must be viewed with reservations because of the lack of statistical significance. The most significant findings were qualitative and offered insight into the strengths of the Effective MUGs curriculum as well as which aspects that need revision. Both students and instructors thought that the gradual release of strategies instruction was one of the most effective tools and they both enjoyed using BYOD in conjunction with Google Docs. Students were most challenged by subject-verb identification and feeling confident about use of unfamiliar sentence elements; instructor interviews confirmed these student challenges. The data from the study will prompt revision to the curriculum as well as enhanced professional development.