I am neither a linguist or a grammarian, but I happily teach both linguistic 
principles and terminology and grammar in my community college English 
classes. Many students appreciate the linguistic approach and the grammar 
goes over pretty well, I believe, for that very reason.

My motivation is mostly selfish. I can't imagine teaching grammar without 
some discussions on dialect variation, post traumatic English-class abuse 
syndrome (PTEAS) ;-), hegemony and language and so on.

I let my students complain about grammar and Standard versus dialect issues, 
and I join in and agree with them. Then I move on and continue to teach them 
the basics of correct, effective writing. Who knows how successful I am. 
When students take a second course from me, I'm happy to find that they have 
learned something, if only how to use commas correctly. The courses are much 
too short to teach any aspect of expository writing or technical writing 
with any depth.

I'm baffled by the either/or choice of teaching linguistic concepts and 
grammar. Even with young children, I would use a descriptive approach.

Christine in North Carolina

--

Christine Reintjes Martin
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----Original Message Follows----
From: "Stahlke, Herbert F.W." <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar              

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