Englicious – celebrating English Grammar Day

In this blog,  Luke Pearce from the UCL Department of English Language and Literature explains their engagement project, and shares plans to celebrate English Grammar Day in 2025.

Grammar can be a difficult topic to engage with, especially for people outside of schools and academia. For many, it’s something of a ‘marmite’ topic which conjures bad memories of repetitive grammar lessons or confusing terminology.  

In fairness, there is some reason why this should be the case. In 2014, the then Education Secretary, Micheal Gove, spearheaded education reforms that introduced a new SATs exam to test primary pupil’s knowledge of grammatical terms. Over the last decade, this change has brought about fresh debate over the role of grammar in English as a subject, as well as confusion over updated terms such as ‘Fronted Adverbial’.  

To help combat this confusion, the Survey of English Usage at UCL runs an outreach project called Englicious. The project makes use of the department’s linguistic expertise to create resources that demystify grammar and make it an enjoyable and rewarding topic to teach. The main outputs are the englicious.org website, which hosts hundreds of free-to-use classroom resources tailored to the national curriculum, and a range of CPD courses to get teachers confident and up-to-speed. With this approach, teachers around the country have seen how grammar can be a fun and engaging part of English teaching. The aim of this project is not only to clarify the grammar content in the curriculum, but also to help pupils and teachers to see the value of knowing about language in greater depth.  

Another way in which Englicious pursues these aims is through running in-person engagement events. Since 2014, in conjunction with Oxford University and The British Library, Englicious has organised the annual English Grammar Day. Having now run for over a decade, the event features presentations from a range of captivating speakers, namely linguists, teachers and academics. Past events have boasted talks from guests such as David Crystal, Barbara Bleiman, Susie Dent and Michael Rosen.  

These events help to engage with the wider public by showing them the breadth and diversity of grammar and how it touches on societal issues as well as daily life. Along with topics such as the role of grammar in schools and the evolution of English over time, talks have also covered the discourses of online conspiracy theories, how sportspeople get their nicknames, the use of pronouns by gender and sexual minorities, the stigmatisation World Englishes, and how the press reports violence against women.  

One of the highlights of English Grammar Day is seeing the teachers who bring their GCSE or A-level pupils to the event. As can be seen in the video interviews we recorded last year, this can be an eye-opening occasion that helps young learners to engage with English beyond the classroom and exam halls, and to appreciate what the study English in higher education could entail. 

Celebrating English Grammar Day in 2025

This year, English Grammar Day showcases another stimulating line-up. Speaking at the 2025 event will be Billy Clark, Sarah Kirk-Browne, Simon Horobin, Beth Malory, Holly Wimbush & Zarah Shah, and Rob Drummond. Topics to be discussed range from linguistic puzzle-solving and the evolution of spelling to the grammar of reporting virus outbreaks and attitudes to non-standard usage. The event will be held 7th July at the British Library’s Pigott Theatre and end with a panel discussion chaired by Deborah Cameron 

For more information such as the timetable, speaker bios and abstracts, as well as for booking, please visit The British Library page here. The event is ticketed and anyone is welcome to attend, especially teachers and their pupils. As always, this year’s event will aim to demonstrate how grammar is fundamental not only to language learning and how we communicate, but also to how we see ourselves and make sense of the world around us.  

Find out more

Date & time: Monday 7 July, 09:30 – 17:00

Book now: https://events.bl.uk/events/english-grammar-day-2025