Principled Understanding? Teaching the Active and Passive Voice

This article describes some of the misconceptions and confusions in metalinguistic understanding which are established during whole class teaching of the active and passive voice. It draws on findings from a larger study investigating how teachers use talk in whole class settings to scaffold children’s learning. Through a detailed analysis of the teacher’s interactions with her class the article illuminates the significance of clarity in explanations and choice of examples and the importance of secure subject knowledge. It demonstrates how the teaching of metalinguistic knowledge requires more than an ability to identify and define terminology, and how an over-emphasis upon content can lead to a failure to acknowledge the cognitive and conceptual implications of pedagogical decisions.