Dear All
With regard to the question of research on sentence diagramming, I would like to refer to my own research in relation to sentence diagramming - altough not in the heart of the issue discussed here. My research is based on a netbased CALL programme, and I have published an article on this in Computer Assisted Language Learning Vol. 17, No. 3-4, July 2004
Vinther, Jane. Can parsers be a legitimate pedagogical tool? 261-288.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/call/2004/00000017/F0020003/art00002;jsessionid=1r200iqq4lcmg.alice
This may not exactly be what you had in mind, but it's related.
Best regards,
Jane Vinther
University of Southern denmark
-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] På vegne af Richard Betting
Sendt: 9. august 2006 17:46
Til: [log in to unmask]
Emne: Re: research on sentence diagramming?
A response to questions about using diagraming in English classes
from Dr. Beth Rapp Young
I haven't any research data, but I do have my experience and some information. Diagraming is comforting to the rationalist, and it looks systematic and useful. But I would suggest using it only to illustrate a method that English teachers used to employ. In the past many students (some of mine included) had to learn to draw sticks and trees showing how noun clauses functioned as direct objects, etc. But rational-looking diagraming frequently became an end in itself. If you choose to diagram, I would suggest not doing so without also using generative-transformational tree diagrams. These complex diagrams scare many English teachers, but they illustrate the deep and surface levels of language. They also are predictive, rather than historical. Then you might add sentence-component stratificational grams, somewhat like the Christensen method (far superior because that system requires students to create their own sentences in imitation of the models) used.
Further problems with diagramming include using someone else's sentences, focusing on structures rather than meaning, and ignoring context almost entirely. Where, for example, are setting, tone, senders and receivers. Where is phonology? More: diagrams appear to be the whole of grammar, even of language, when, as a part of the communication process, diagraming is miniscule.
It seems to me that students are short-changed by an emphasis on grammar as it is taught and explained in current traditional grammar textbooks, and an emphasis on diagraming is one of the ways that encourage such a perspective.
It was also interesting that this question was asked at the same time John Curran brought up the topic of Systemic-Functional Linguistics, a system based on meaning, rather than structures, where traditional grammar is stuck.
Dick Betting
----- Original Message -----
From: "Beth Young" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 12:25 PM
Subject: research on sentence diagramming?
> Hi everyone,
>
> I just received a nice email from a h.s. English teacher asking if I
> knew of any research that supports the use of sentence diagramming as an
> instructional strategy. I'm going to encourage her to join ATEG :), but
> in the meantime, do any of you have any suggestions that I could pass
> along to her? I am aware of such sources as David Mulroy's _War on
> Grammar_, but not of empirical research on that particular point.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Beth
>
>
>
> Dr. Beth Rapp Young
> http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~byoung
>
> University of Central Florida
> Stands For Opportunity
>
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface
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> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
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