[etni] Re: etni Digest V4 #327

This article does not justify the overuse of grammar teaching in our English 
classes.

It was written by an American teacher who teaches American students. We can 
thus assume that her students can speak English rather well.

Grammar, as it is incorrectly taught in Israeli schools, emphasizes theory 
over practice. How many of our students can speak English by the age of six 
or seven, or even by seventeen or eighteen?

Try to imagine a driving teacher telling the hopeful future driver that he, 
or she, sit on the right seat and watch the teacher drive. In addition he 
must learn the inner parts of the engine and the chemical reactions that go 
on in the piston.
The students driver is than tested on these. That is what happens when 
grammar becomes the main reason for teaching English as a foreign language. 
It is not understood by most of the kids.

Kids run to private teachers that make a mint.

The article quoted above can be compared to teaching Lashon in Israel.

Hanan Howard



From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: [etni] Schooling students on grammar
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 09:16:42 +0200

Schooling students on grammar
Educators agree emphasis needed
The Courier-Journal - December 9, 2006

Each year she drills her students on nominative case and objective case,
plurals and possessives, objects of prepositions, direct and indirect
objects, and spelling rules.
"I do it all," said Pfeffer, who teaches eighth-graders and juniors at
Beechwood High School in Kenton County.

Pfeffer's focus is something of a novelty in the education world, where
grammar drills and sentence diagramming were replaced years ago in many
classrooms with a holistic approach that focused on fostering students'
creativity and taught grammar through writing and literature.

Teaching grammar "was just very unfashionable," said Pfeffer, who noted that
colleagues in other school districts are not allowed to buy grammar books or
teach grammar lessons. "… But I just knew how important it was."

Now the education pendulum is swinging back, re-emphasizing grammar to the
pleasure of Pfeffer and others.

This new emphasis is being driven largely by a growing concern that students
are not learning the grammar and composition skills they need to succeed in
college and in the workplace.

(To read the whole article, go to -
http://www.etni.org/news/grammar_emphasis.htm  )



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