A Grammar for the national English curriculum traditional, functional, structural, or what?

This paper explores some possible approaches to grammar teaching and its role in the study of language as prescribed by the framework of the National English Curriculum (NEC). This framework provides a common base from which state education systems and schools can develop a curriculum along national guidelines, for years 1 to 12. At the time of writing, the frameworks for each area of learning, including English, were still under consideration for incorporation into state curriculums. The paper divides belt into six sections. Section 1 outlines the topic and scope of the paper; section 2 sets the background and provides some general criteria for evaluating the grammars under consideration; sections 3, 4, 5 respectively, examine three approaches to grammar, traditional, functional and structural; section 6 discusses the findings and suggests directions which may best serve students’ interests.