We at Cal Poly are also just beginning the process of formulating such a
course (English grammar for prospective teachers). Our students are also
asking for it; it was also being demanded at Humboldt State, another
branch of Cal State U.
 
There is resistance to such courses, because they are viewed as
'remedial'. Here we go again. Well, an awful lot of my students are
coming in here not knowing anything at all about traditional grammar
(nouns, verbs, predicate adjectives, subjects and predicates). I find
that this introduces enormous difficulties in other courses that I teach
-- not just Modern English Grammar (a course in the linguistic structure
of English), but also in other courses: a course in child language
acquisition for future teachers; a course on history of the English
language; an upcoming course on linguistic analysis of literature; even
general linguistics.
 
I like the pre-med analogy. If you are going to foster children's
acquisition of literacy and of formal standard American English (the
variety of English most people think of as 'good English'), it helps an
awful lot to have a set of terms that enable you to discuss the structure
of a sentence and what letters stand for (phonemes), etc. I also just
find it incredibly difficult to talk about language acquisition or
language change when students have no notion of what language is -- that
it has parts, like phonemes, nouns, verbs, subjects, predicates, and
constructions of all sorts, plus patterns (rules) for arranging the parts
into larger parts. As it is, I have to teach them language structure,
grammatical terminology, AND lg. acquisition/history/whatever. It is a
terrible burden, and quite unrealistic in a 10-week term. (I can't set up
a gen. ling. course as a prerequisite; those decisions have already been
made).
 
My students didn't learn grammar in the 'lower' schools. Yeah, teaching
it to them now might be 'remedial', but which is better: they never learn
it, and remain without a language to talk about language for the rest of
their careers; or we just teach it to them??
 
Our college is thinking of a compromise, for instance offering it as a
2-unit course rather than full 3 or 4 units. I don't like this, because
there is a lot of material to teach; but it's better than nothing.
 
If people in the same boat would like to continue this discussion, maybe
we could stay in touch with each other. I think a lot of schools have
this problem!
 
Johanna
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184  E-mail: [log in to unmask]      ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~