[etni] Fw: article about grammar instruction in the classroom
- From: "assaf" <segalil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 08:42:08 +0200
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Here's the great debate again - an article singing the praises of more explicit
grammar instruction and a brilliant response to it.
Write Minded: Grammar Hip Again
It's hard to believe, but grammar is hot.
For the first time, Florida students in February will face a section on the
FCAT that will test their ability to recognize grammatically correct sentences,
and there's a new emphasis on the subject at schools.
Cathy Taylor, a 10th-grade applied communication teacher at Kathleen High
School, is elated.
"I've seen a lot of things come and go in my teaching career, and grammar is
one of those things we haven't paid much attention to in the last couple of
years," said the 30-year teaching veteran.
Taylor isn't the only one who would like to see more emphasis on good grammar.
Running ahead of the pack in the crusade is Patricia T. O'Conner, author of
"Woe is I" (Riverhead Trade Paperback, $13), released in paperback earlier this
summer and now in its second edition.
Like the unlikely best-seller about punctuation, "Eats Shoots and Leaves," "Woe
is I" uses a fresh, lingo-free approach to understanding proper grammar that is
far from yawn-inducing. The slim, approachable book includes chapters titled:
"Plurals Before Swine: Blunders with Numbers," "Verbal Abuse: Words on the
Endangered List" and "Death Sentence: Do Cliches Deserve to Die?"
O'Conner also illustrates the pitfalls of e-mail and instant messaging, which
often exacerbate bad writing because they are hastily written and quickly sent.
"We are becoming increasingly estranged from language," O'Conner said, calling
from her home in Roxbury, Conn. She said we are losing our ability to
communicate with precision and clarity because our grammar muscles have been
neglected for so long.
In the 1970s, grammar was pushed aside because it was considered elitist and
thought to stifle creativity.
But that was wrong, O'Conner said. "There is nothing worse for a child's
self-esteem than to know he is not communicating well. The more you know about
language, the more you'll be able to harness it for your own needs."
At Lake Gibson Middle School, Sharlene Pierce, who teaches sixth-, seventh- and
eighth-grade English, said the number of students writing in fragments are
increasing.
"So many of my kids are (used to) instant messaging, so they don't worry about
complete sentences." She also said kids will use numerals or phonetics instead
of words, such as "2" for "too" or "U" for "you" when writing essays.
"Kids often write like they speak," said Pierce. "They don't always understand
the difference between standard English and everyday speak."
Subject-verb agreement, for example, is also a problem.
"A student may write, `he run' instead of `He runs.' "
But we're all guilty of bad writing. E-mail, O'Conner said, is where most of us
are prone to sloppy writing. To help remedy the situation, the latest edition
of "Woe is I" includes a chapter called "E-mail Intuition: Does Anything Go?"
dedicated to writing intelligent messages.
The best way to become a better communicator is to read more books. Pierce said
students who are the strongest writers are usually the strongest readers.
O'Conner agrees.
"Thank heaven for books like Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket," she said. "It's
not too late to revive a child's fascination for reading."
And it's not too late to teach them good grammar. Grammar isn't a bunch of
rules for rules' sake, O'Conner said.
"There is nothing mysterious about it: Good grammar is simply good
communication." Shelley Preston can be reached at 863-802-7517 or
shelley.preston@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ms. Preston,
Decontextualized grammar drills lost favor among English teachers not because
grammar is elitist but because nearly a century of research shows that drills
and exercises don't improve writing or speaking. For decades, grammar books
were the staple of English classes, and teachers dutifully marched students
through chapter after chapter of rules and exercises purporting to teach
subject-verb agreement and standard usage and all those other skills that would
mark us as educated people and distinguish us from the hoi polloi. The same
teachers perennially complained that the skills didn't transfer to real writing
or speaking.
One major study of the effects of this kind of grammar study concluded that
grammar drills actually have a negative effect in that they take precious time
away from actual writing.
What does improve grammar and usage is writing for purposes and audiences that
truly matter to writers themselves. A student journalist, for example, cares
passionately about spelling and syntax and punctuation when she knows that her
work will be read by a couple thousand of her peers. Grammar instruction is
most effective in the context of a student's own writing. Working side by side
with a young writer on his own short story, I can teach him more in five
minutes than five years of isolated drill could accomplish.
The addition of "objective" items to FCAT writing will benefit no one except
the textbook makers and teachers who prefer grading review Exercises A and B to
working with real writers and their writing.
As for the effect on oral language, our speech patterns are shaped by our
friends and family, and we change them only when there are social or
professional consequences that matter to us. I grew up in a family that said
"he don't" and "it don't" and although I aced all the grammar exercises, I
continued to speak the way my family did until I went to college and decided I
wanted to sound more high-falutin'.
I won't hold it against you, but there's a subject-verb agreement error in your
article.
Best regards,
Gloria Pipkin, President
Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform, Inc.
gpipkin@xxxxxxx
http://www.fcar.info
? Shelley Preston
The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
2004-09-01
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040901/NEWS/409010334/1021
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