Editing Grammar (section)

== Education ==
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2021}}
[[Prescriptive]] grammar is taught in primary and secondary school. The term "grammar school" historically referred to a school (attached to a cathedral or monastery) that teaches Latin grammar to future priests and monks. It originally referred to a school that taught students how to read, scan, interpret, and declaim Greek and Latin poets (including Homer, Virgil, Euripides, and others). These should not be mistaken for the related, albeit distinct, modern British grammar schools.
[[File:PriestleyGrammar.png|thumb|alt=The page reads: 'The Rudiments of English Grammar; Adapted to the Use of Schools, with Observations on Style. By Joseph Priestley. London: Printed for R. Griffiths, in the Strand. M.DCC.LXI.|Title page of Joseph Priestley's Rudiments of English Grammar (1761)]]

A [[standard language]] is a dialect that is promoted above other dialects in writing, education, and, broadly speaking, in the public sphere; it contrasts with [[nonstandard dialect|vernacular dialects]], which may be the objects of study in academic, [[linguistic description|descriptive linguistics]] but which are rarely taught prescriptively. The standardized "[[first language]]" taught in primary education may be subject to [[language politics|political]] controversy because it may sometimes establish a standard defining nationality or [[ethnicity]].
[[File:Kituwah Academy.png|thumb|alt=Image of a classroom at Kituwah Academy where Cherokee language is taught as a medium of instruction.|Cherokee language instruction at Kituwah Academy]]

Recently, efforts have begun to update [[Linguistics in Education|grammar instruction]] in primary and secondary education. The main focus has been to prevent the use of outdated prescriptive rules in favor of setting norms based on earlier descriptive research and to change perceptions about the relative "correctness" of prescribed standard forms in comparison to non-standard dialects. A series of metastudies have found that the explicit teaching of grammatical parts of speech and syntax has little or no effect on the improvement of student writing quality in elementary school, middle school or high school; other methods of writing instruction had far greater positive effect, including strategy instruction, collaborative writing, summary writing, process instruction, sentence combining and inquiry projects.<ref>Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools – A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York.Washington, DC:Alliance for Excellent Education.</ref><ref>{{cite journal| url=https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.3.445| doi=10.1037/0022-0663.99.3.445| title=A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students| year=2007| last1=Graham| first1=Steve| last2=Perin| first2=Dolores| journal=Journal of Educational Psychology| volume=99| issue=3| pages=445–476| citeseerx=10.1.1.462.2356}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| url=https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029185| doi=10.1037/a0029185| title=A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades| year=2012| last1=Graham| first1=Steve| last2=McKeown| first2=Debra| last3=Kiuhara| first3=Sharlene| last4=Harris| first4=Karen R.| journal=Journal of Educational Psychology| volume=104| issue=4| pages=879–896| url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The preeminence of [[Parisian French]] has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature. Standard Italian is based on the speech of Florence rather than the capital because of its influence on early literature. Likewise, standard Spanish is not based on the speech of Madrid but on that of educated speakers from more northern areas such as Castile and León (see ''[[Gramática de la lengua castellana]]''). In [[Argentina]] and [[Uruguay]] the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo ([[Rioplatense Spanish]]). [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] has, for now, [[Pluricentric language|two official standards]], [[Brazilian Portuguese]] and [[European Portuguese]].

The [[Serbian language|Serbian]] variant of [[Serbo-Croatian]] is likewise divided; [[Serbia]] and the [[Republika Srpska]] of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] use their own distinct normative subvarieties, with differences in [[yat]] reflexes. The existence and codification of a distinct Montenegrin standard is a matter of controversy, some treat [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]] as a separate standard lect, and some think that it should be considered another form of Serbian.

[[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] has two standards, ''[[Bokmål]]'' and ''[[Nynorsk]]'', the choice between which is subject to [[Norwegian language struggle|controversy]]: Each Norwegian municipality can either declare one as its official language or it can remain "language neutral". Nynorsk is backed by 27 percent of municipalities. The main language used in primary schools, chosen by referendum within the local school district, normally follows the official language of its municipality. [[Standard German]] emerged from the standardized chancellery use of [[Early New High German language|High German]] in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost exclusively a written language, but now it is so widely spoken that most of the former [[German dialect]]s are nearly extinct.

[[Standard Chinese]] has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the [[Republic of China]] (ROC), and the [[Singapore|Republic of Singapore]]. Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the local accent of [[Mandarin Chinese]] from Luanping, Chengde in Hebei Province near Beijing, while grammar and syntax are based on modern [[vernacular written Chinese]].

[[Modern Standard Arabic]] is directly based on [[Classical Arabic]], the language of the [[Qur'an]]. The [[Hindustani language]] has two standards, [[Hindi]] and [[Urdu]].

In the United States, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated 4 March as [[National Grammar Day]] in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/national-grammar-day|title=National Grammar Day|website=Quick and Dirty Tips|access-date=12 November 2021|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112075405/https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/national-grammar-day|url-status=live}}</ref>