I am just beginning a rather large-scale research and development project
on grammar teaching. It's large-scale because I'm interested in all levels
-- kindergarten->college.
 
In the course of beginning this project I've come upon a text for teaching
grammar within writing courses. It's called Writing Step by Step, and is
by Robert de Beaugrande (I believe I sent a query for help on locating a
copy of this book to the list recently).
 
I am only a short way into the book, but it seems to fit the bill
perfectly for teaching grammar within writing courses, and although it was
written for college students, the text is quite informal and extremely
easy reading. I think it might be accessible to middle-school students.
It takes a very student-friendly approach -- recognizing
that students already know a lot of grammar unconsciously, and working
explicitly from differences between spoken language and the language
expected in formal writing. Yet it is very clear in setting expectations
for formal writing conventions. And it really does proceed step by step,
in small lessons. Some are a tad crammed with procedures, but this could
be adjusted. It is loaded with exercises (unfortunately, most are
sentences out of context; on the other hand, many are taken from actual
student and other writing). There is also a teacher's book with key, which
I have not yet seen.
 
Downside: the book is out of print, and the publisher has no copies in
stock. My copies have come to me through interlibrary loan and colleagues
who have been kind enough to send me a copy. I am still on the search for
a copy I can own, and now also a copy of the teacher's manual/key. I have
written to the author; perhaps he will be able to help. One way I have
gotten around the out-of-print problem has been to have our bookstore get
permission from the publisher to reprint the book by photocopying it. I
don't know how this might work for middle school teachers.
 
_Writing Step by Step_
by Robert de Beaugrande
Harcourt Brace Jovanvich  1985
ISBN 0-15-598258-3
 
Bill McCleary, who very kindly has lent me a copy, writes that the book
comes from his collection of "good ideas that never caught on". I think
this middle school problem is an excellent opportunity for some teachers
to try this approach out and perhaps find a solution for at least some of
the difficulties of grammar teaching at their level.
 
I know teachers will be very skeptical that the book is accessible to
middle-school students. The book really is written in very simple
language. Here is a sample from the section on "Nouns and Verbs" (p. 80):
 
"Suppose you had a list of words and you were told to find which ones
could be NOUNS or VERBS. You might consult the _meaning_ of each word:
nouns are usually for _objects_ (people, places, things, and the like) and
verbs are usually for _events_ (actions, happenings, situations). But
meaning isn't a very reliable guide. A safer test is to try to put
something in front of the word:
 
A NOUN IS A WORD YOU CAN PUT "THE" IN FRONT OF.
A VERB IS A WORD YOU CAN PUT "DIDN'T" IN FRONT OF, OR "NOT" RIGHT AFTER.
 
Most verbs take "didn't" in front of them, so try that first: "go" ->
"didn't go", "find" -> "didn't find", and so on. But _helping verbs_ take
"not" right after them, as in "can" -> "can not", "must" -> "must not",
and so on. A word that already ends in "-n't" must be a helping verb
anyway: "can't" is the same as "cannot", "don't" is the same as "does
not", and so on.
 
Some words can be used _either_ as _nouns or as verbs_. But our test picks
out those words just as easily. For instance, you can say "the wreck" as
well as "didn't wreck". Some words can't be either noouns or verbs, such
as "under" -- neither "the under" nor "didn't under" sounds right." [end
quote]
 
Quizzes follow with a list of words to apply these tests to. I can see
that the bit about helping verbs could be somewhat confusing, but a
teacher could supplement the 'not' and 'didn't tests with other verb
tests, such as the ability to fill a slot after "will" or the ability to
take the -ing suffix, two things all verbs can do, but non-verbs cannot
do.
 
All of the book is written at this level. I hope some of you will be
interested in at least looking at the book and perhaps trying out some or
all of its lessons.
 
I plan on making a photocopy, should I not be able to locate a copy to
own, and would be glad to share samples with teachers at any level.
 
On a more general note --
I will be very interested to hear about the challenges of teaching grammar
to middle school students, especially with regards to their developmental
readiness for various concepts and structures. One facet of my project is
to review the literature on developmental stages in acquisition of syntax,
from early childhood through adolescence. It seems sensible that grammar
instruction be synchronized to match the average student's linguistic
capabilities at various ages.
 
The core questions of my research project are:
 
-What do students need conscious knowledge of grammar for?
-What is the best way to bring them to that knowledge, taking into account
the unconscious knowledge of language they already have at various ages?
 
I have begun developing answers to these questions; anyone who would like
to discuss various facets of either question, or any other question for
that matter, is most welcome to write to me! I am very interested in what
teachers at all levels have to say about their experiences with teaching
grammar (or with not teaching grammar!)
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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]      ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~