I am going to agree with a lot of the suggests that others have made Gretchen's
lament.

Gretchen Lee wrote:

> The perennial problem remains, if not traditional grammar in school, then what?
> What do I say to my parents who tell me that I should be teaching traditional >
parts of speech because it "worked for them"? I have two new
> teachers in my department this year (total dept is three!) who are open to
> new methods.

>  Grammar (and spelling!) are the big issues in any English
> departments.  My new teachers are primed to teach grammar and spelling
> in context, but I have no texts to show them how.  Everything is aimed at
> college and hs.

I think for the age of Gretchen's students it is important to make relevant the way
we talk about language.  Wanda Van Goor at the last ATEG conference gave a very
interesting presentation on two versions of the little black Sambo story.  One was
the original version set in its intended Asian Indian setting and the other was
written by an African-American.  I think there are a lot of texts which could lead
to such a discussion.

I have been fascinated by the Harry Potter. books.  There are at least four
distinct dialects  (two dialects of British English and two non-native speakers of
English) which are represented in the text.  None of these dialects of English are
stigmatized in the US.  I think it would be much easier to take about language
variation when no one's non-standard dialect is being analyzed.  I wonder if 6-8th
graders would be interested in trying to figure out the "rules" of those dialects.
For what word does Hagrid say ter?  Does he ever use the standard word?  If he
does, was that a mistake by Rowling or not?

If anyone has copies of the UK versions of the books (they are available in
Canada), then it might be interesting to look at the changes that were made in the
American versions.  The chapter in the first book about the first Quidditch game
has lexical, grammatical, and assumed differences in knowledge (how many Americans
know what a red card is?  It is not explained in the UK version, but it is
explained in the US version).

I also think the magic commands in Harry Potter would be an excellent way to have
students learn how to use a dictionary.  I wonder why wizards say "lumons" when
they want their wands to become flashlights (or should that be torches)?

It seems to me that the goal of grammar teaching in the public schools it to
provide students with the ability to "control" standard written English.  I am not
happy with the word "control," but I want students to be able to explain why they
have decided to violate those principles.

The net is now filled with transcripts of unplanned English from informal to formal
English.  I have used the transcripts of C-Span's Booknotes.  Larry King Live is
also transcript.  It would be interesting to look at some of the non-standard forms
that occur in those transcripts.

Bob Yates, Central Missouri State University

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