Ripensare la ‘grammatica di riferimento’ in prospettiva didattica
Abstract
This is the third essay of a series concerning the nature and role of teaching materials for today’s ‘liquid’ students, who live and communicate in Bauman’s ‘liquid modernity’. This essay deals with the nature and use of reference grammars meant for second and foreign language students, which differ from reference grammars for scholars, in nature, aim, form and structure. The main function of reference grammars for students is providing compact and exhaustive descriptions of grammar topics which are spread in the volumes and units of a communicative foreign language course. The essay reports the results of a project aimed at designing an ‘ideal’ reference grammar that can respond to five research questions: how many of the grammar that rule mental competence and social performance grammars should be included? How to design a grammar that can be used by beginner, intermediate and advanced students, each in their own way of conceiving ‘grammar’ and of using it? What kind of grammar categories and, consequently, what terminology should be used to facilitate consultation and study? How should the main book interact with its online expansions (interactive exercises, videos, AI etc) to make consultation and study easy, effective, motivating? How can layout, colours, pictures, etc. be used to make consultation and study easy, effective and motivating?
Presentato: 02 Febbraio 2026 | Pubblicato 27 Aprile 2026 | Lingua: it
Keywords Reference Grammar • Educational linguistics • Grammar in language teaching • Language teaching • Language Learning
Copyright © 2026 Paolo E. Balboni. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/ELLE/2280-6792/2026/01/000