Homeschooling drives surge in queries around English grammar topics
Busuu, the world’s largest language learning community, released a new study revealing topics from the English school curriculum that caused the most confusion during homeschooling periods.
The study analysed Google search volume data from different UK lockdown periods to compare the total growth in searches looking for explanations on grammar topics. Fronted adverbials topped the charts as the topic seeing the largest growth, with searches surging by 455% in January 2021 (compared to November 2020) and by 290% year-on-year during the first lockdown school closure period in 2020.
Other English grammar topics that saw significant growth in Google searches include modal verbs (+170%), noun phrases (+166%) and determiners (+161%), in addition to simpler concepts such as adjectives, nouns, verbs, and conjunctions.
“Nine times out of ten, the topic name makes the English grammar theory sound a lot harder than it actually is,” says Hannah Morris, Senior English Language Expert, Busuu. “I love that fronted adverbials are right at the top. Of course, they would be. No wonder Brits homeschooling their kids were perplexed! They sound scary, even though they’re not. It’s all in the name.”
Most confusing English grammar topics for UK homeschoolers
2021 lockdown
|
# |
English topic |
Jan 2021 searches |
% change (vs Nov 2020) |
|
1 |
fronted adverbial |
109,820 |
455% |
|
2 |
adjective |
278,100 |
172% |
|
3 |
noun |
177,400 |
136% |
|
4 |
adverb |
215,700 |
132% |
|
5 |
conjunction |
86,800 |
127% |
2020 lockdown
|
# |
English topic |
Lockdown 2020 average monthly searches (March – June 2020) |
% change (vs same period 2019) |
|
1 |
fronted adverbial |
26,920 |
290% |
|
2 |
modal verb |
20,300 |
170% |
|
3 |
noun phrase |
23,600 |
166% |
|
4 |
determiner |
37,800 |
161% |
|
5 |
adverb |
124,000 |
159% |
|
6 |
noun |
98,800 |
153% |
|
7 |
parenthesis |
19,380 |
149% |
|
8 |
adjective |
116,500 |
144% |
|
9 |
antonym |
22,280 |
135% |
|
10 |
relative clause |
19,490 |
122% |
|
11 |
subordinate clause |
23,290 |
120% |
|
12 |
conjunction |
42,900 |
120% |
|
13 |
verb |
109,000 |
112% |
|
14 |
prefix |
15,200 |
112% |
|
15 |
synonym |
61,800 |
107% |
Andrea Thomas, working mother of two comments:
“I’d like to think I’m really good at English, as I have a languages degree. Plus, we’re one of the lucky households who have things like a spare laptop, colouring pencils and space to spare. But honestly, I found it really hard. There were tons of grammatical terms that I didn’t recognise and could never remember. Fronted adverbials was one of them. No parent knows what a fronted adverbial is!”
Caroline Fields, headteacher at Yavneh Primary School Headteacher sheds some light on parents’ struggles with today’s English primary school curriculum:
“Sadly, one of the most challenging parts of homeschooling is that the way children learn and the way teachers teach have changed since many parents were at school. Grammar is now embedded into everyday language and lessons. Parents struggled with a lot of grammatical terminology that we don’t necessarily use as adults.”
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