[etni] Fwd: Grammar again
- From: ETNI list <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 07:59:30 -0500
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jenifer Byk <byk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Grammar again
I would like to thank Mitzi and Miriam for their input vis a vis
grammar, as well as others who wrote about it.
I think my letter may have given the wrong impression. I am not a
teacher in the education system (though I was). The problem I see is
one which occurs in almost all the schools in the Bikat Ono district,
and I presume in a great many others throughout the country. More
attention is paid to grammar than to any other subject in the English
class, and it is weighted accordingly – perhaps 30% of an exam! The
fact that it is not tested on the Bagrut has absolutely nothing to do
with what is going on in Junior High School, and even in High School,
for that matter. The result is that often pupils are sitting in 5
point classes because they are really good at grammar, but have no
English to speak of; so little vocabulary that, even with a
dictionary, there is no way they can deal with language at that level,
at least in the time allotted for an unseen.
It is not that I think that grammar shouldn’t be taught (Ronald Green
would have my head, if I said that), and getting around the problem
by talking of ‘grammar in context’ doesn’t solve the problem. Of
course pupils should be aware of the structure of the language they
are learning, but there are other ways of dealing with it which I
won’t go into here. If, however, the Ministry thinks that this type
of testing disappeared 20 or 30 years ago, it should be more aware of
what is going on in the classroom.
I can’t fault the teachers. Forty pupils in a class makes it almost
impossible to deal with individual problems. A teacher can’t be
required to re-invent the wheel, every time he or she walks into a
class. As it is, teachers are so overburdened with work that it is a
wonder they remain sane. More guidance is needed – not interference,
but guidance. This should start with the books that are chosen or at
least guidance as to how to choose a book and what weight to give on
various parts of tests. Another horror on tests is the ‘fill in the
right word from the box’, made even worse by ‘make any changes
necessary’. Writing such an exercise is terribly difficult. One
thinks one has written something which is absolutely clear, only to
discover that another native speaker can’t do it. What happens to
pupils is that they know al the words, but they don’t understand the
sentences, because words that they are unlikely to know have crept in.
I know that this posting has dealt with a number of different
problems, but if anyone has the patience or the time, it would be nice
to hear what other teachers think.
Jennifer Byk
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