For those who say that children don't learn grammar any more.....

That was tojoannapiano

That is a teacher who has no idea herself about grammar. She means an adverbial phrase. Half a label is worse than none! She doesn't even know that a word ending in -ial is more likely to be a "determiner" (as it seems now to be called) than a noun.

80% - but where did the imperfect tense go and wth is a determiner? Try re-writing the test with the definitions we learnt and I bet most gransnetters would get 100%

Elegran, that was what flummoxed me- it just said 'underline the adverbial'. DGS said he had forgotten how his teacher had explained it.
I could have found the adverb, but the first answer was 'in the garden' at the end of the sentence.

In that test, they had "the" down as a determiner as well as the more obvious adjectives and prepositions, so I suppose anything that distinguishes one thing from something else is a determiner.

They may have had different names when we wuz young, indinana.

i suppose the "determiner" may have been a modifier? As for the "modal verb" ? Dunno.

My great pride was that I was really good at letter formation and grammar, could compose a great letter for any situation. Other staff would come to me for help... ""how should I say this? "" My spelling was/is superb.

This was me throughout my working life, Coolgran! I was called on by all and sundry to compose and proof-read. Even our Marketing Director passed press releases and articles for publication to me for proof-reading. However, I have never come across the terms 'determiner' or 'modal verb'.
I have never doubted that children are taught grammar, but I can't help wondering if the focus is on teaching them how to pass the SATs rather than on putting the learning to use in everyday reading and composition.

Knowing how the words in a sentence affect one another means you know how to construct a sentence. Hearing speech used properly lets that sink in gradually and naturally, but learning it formally does underline how to get the most meaning out of text.

It can be very difficult to explain to someone that what you meant is not what they thought you meant, when they have had no experience of untangling "if" clauses and working out just what a dependent clause or phrase refers to. Some debates on Gransnet almost come to blows because of this.

I was let down by the termination too. It seems all to have changed since my day. The way the words and phrases are used are the same, though.

joannapiano I thought the word "adverbial" was an adjective. How can you have "an adverbial" ? Was it an adverbial something-or-other? Or have they changed the meaning of another word?

There was I thinking that English was about reading books for enjoyment and information and being able to communicate appropriately in both speech and in writing.*
Now it seems to be about dissection of sentences.

* I won't even begin to list the advantages of drama, debating and the unlimited other ways of exploring and using language.

Oh, thank God! I could have written your post, Coolgran! I didn't think anyone else would get 4/10! I feel better now. English was my best subject at school, and i was good at grammar - or i thought i was!!

90%, let down by never having heard of "determiners".

Trisher - absolutely! who dreams up the jargon and inflicts it on pupils and, for that matter, upon teachers?
Luckygirl - we seem, with millions of others to have coped so far without knowing!

I wonder how Mr Gove and his successor Ms Morgan would fare if faced with this test.

I left school at 17. English would not have been a strong subject whereas I excelled and was top of the class in shorthand, typing, maths. In my working life I was a medical Secretary for 15 years and a legal Secretary for nearly 35 years.

My great pride was that I was really good at letter formation and grammar, could compose a great letter for any situation. Other staff would come to me for help... ""how should I say this? "" My spelling was/is superb.

One of my favourite pastimes is cryptic crosswords.

But at school and to the present I never could get to grips with all the grammatical clauses etc. I just "knew" what was correct in the written word.

Embarrassed to say that in the test I got 4/10.

Oh I know they learn grammar. The problem is there are children being taught words like "adverbial, preposition and conjunction" who are still struggling to read fluently. But the NLS insists they must be and schools and teachers must comply and stick to this. Whatever happened to child centred education?

Me too - I did not even know what a modal verb was, and as for a determiner. Let us hope that this knowledge will be useful to them in their later lives!

I recently had a lecture from a 5 year old on nouns, verbs, adjectives and he knew what he was talking about.

I daren't tell you how many i got! I was shocked. I've always prided myself on the fact that i knew my pronouns from my prepositions, but i had to look up some of the terms. I'd never heard of a 'determiner' or a 'modal' something or other. In the corner with the pointy hat on, then!

Echoing what anno says, things weren't called "determiners" in my day.
And I did have some ferocious English teachers who were very strict on grammar.

The vocabulary has changed so much that when I tried it I only got 8/10. Mind you, it's a long time since I taught grammar and even longer since I learnt it. I now have great respect for my GC who took SATS in the last two years.

Mamie it's not just misinformation about grammar either, is it? And everyone is an expert in teaching because they've been to school themselves - not talking about GN but the public at large.

I was a primary teacher for 20 years, and I couldn't help our 9 year old DGS with his homework last week- underline the adverbial (??) in these sentences.
His Dad Googled what this was, and helped him, when he got home.
My DD, who teaches a Year 1 class, says they are doing nouns, verbs, adverbs at the moment.She says the English curriculum is very difficult, now.

Well, I got 9 out of 10 on the quiz, but that was because I taught English while we were living in Switzerland and learnt grammar on the job. It certainly was a help learning German, and actually, as a scientist, I found it interesting looking at it as a logical problem.

I know they do! Like you Anya I did all the NLS development and implementation. I gather that the SPAG test has changed again this year.
However, it is very common to read posts on here and elsewhere from people who think that primary schools don't teach grammar, so I thought this would be of interest....