Gretchen,

I would say you should feel welcome to post discussion items that you  
want to post -- that will elicit ideas or feedback that can help you  
in your classroom. If one or two people object, well, they object. If  
thirty more find your discussion interesting, so be it. We should be  
encouraging people to post to the list. Some people get into heated  
discussions sometimes -- and the tension between those who believe in  
the traditional model and method of teaching English grammar and  
those who would like to update it is not likely to go away any time  
soon.

To comment a little on the previous discussion, I find room for both  
inductive and deductive presentation methods in a grammar classroom.  
When students discover their subconscious knowledge of grammar  
through inductive exercises, they learn two things: (a) that they  
"know" more English grammar than they thought (that knowledge has  
just been below conscious awareness up to now) and (b) that they can  
discover what they know through precise methods. I used to teach  
German grammar inductively to English-speakers, and it freshened the  
class -- held their attention better, made them feel active in  
learning. I would then go over the rules so discovered deductively,  
so it is impossible for me to know the effect of the method -- most  
of my students passed their tests. But it was certainly was less dry  
than deductive presentation. The deductive presentation assures that  
the students get a clear, second statement of the rule, and caters to  
students who prefer deductive presentation.

Giving students inductive means for doing things like finding the  
subject of a sentence or deciding which case is required for a  
pronoun can have long-term utility.

Discovering a rule yourself is more likely to result in remembering  
that rule later. No, I don't have studies handy to cite to prove  
this, but I have learned it along the way in the course of studying  
about learning and teaching.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Dept.
Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184
Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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