This text presents some of the results of the first phase of the data collection conducted within a research work focused on the role of pre-service teacher education in the development of professional knowledge and practices in grammar teaching and learning. At this stage, 54 individuals of the first year of the pre-service 1st (6 to 10 years-old students) and 2nd (10 to 12 years-old students) cycles teacher education program of a polytechnic higher education school were inquired. They responded to three questionnaires, conceived in order to collect data related to the first and second investigation goals: discern pre-service 1st and 2nd cycles teachers' beliefs on grammar teaching and learning; and characterise those teachers' knowledge of the content in this field. Data were collected in the school year 2013-2014, in the beginning of the program. Data analysis led to the identification of the motivation for learning and teaching grammar and the prevalence of an instrumental, prescriptive and regulatory conception of this competency. On the other hand, the participants evinced serious deficiencies regarding scientific knowledge and its explicitation.
