A couple of decades ago in September, I tested an entire tenth grade  
class on their ability to recognize passives---nearly 500 students in  
all, at a reasonably good suburban Philadelphia high school.  I used  
five multiple choice questions with four possible answers for each.   
(I believe that means that a chance score would have been 25  
percent.)  In September, the result was 50.0 percent correct.   
Recognition of the passive was supposed to be a "Mastery" objective  
for tenth grade English.  I tested the same students at the end of the  
year in June.  The result was 51.2 percent correct.  The "gain" was  
not statistically significant.
At a later time, teaching junior and senior college business majors at  
Penn State, it was clear to me that they could not recognize passives.
I conclude by quoting Ed Vavra, When and how (and we might add, "by  
whom?") can passives be effectively taught?

Ed Schuster

On Feb 4, 2009, at 5:55 PM, Edward Vavra wrote:

> Craig,
> First, the passives. Rarely, I think, do we teach students to USE  
> constructions. They do so naturally. I'm amused to see your question  
> followed by Scott's, to which I'll try to reply separately. Remember  
> that I'm working in what I believe to be the current reality--most  
> students are unable to identify finite verbs. If they cannot  
> recognize them in the first place, what good does it do to "teach"  
> passive voice. KISS introduces passives, as a concept to be learned,  
> in fifth grade, primarily with the objective that students learn to  
> recognize passive voice. Why? Because some teachers will tell  
> students never to use passives (silly, but that is currently  
> taught), and some instructors will tell students to use passive  
> voice. Unless students can recognize passives when they see them,  
> either "direction" is meaningless. It's my hope to include  
> exploratory exercises on passives (uses and abuses) in the upper  
> grades. Most of the "Practice/Application" sections in the upper  
> KISS grades have slots for an exercise on passives. See: http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/kiss/wb/LPlans/G10_WB1.htm#Practice_1
> Thus we agree, passives are "important to discourse decisions."  
> Where we may disagree is when and how they can effectively be taught.
>
> I don't understand how you can think that natural language  
> development can't occur without instruction. Isn't it obvious that  
> the sentences of older students are more complicated, especially in  
> terms of embeddings, than the sentences of younger students? Thus,  
> for me, the question is the purpose of instruction. I'd say that it  
> is to help students better understand how language works. In other  
> words, the ability to analyze sentences enables students to discuss  
> (and thus understand) how passives, for example, work. Or how deep  
> embedding of clauses may cause problems for readers. True, some  
> people argue against formal instruction in language, believing that  
> it "just happens." But just because it happens does not mean that it  
> happens effectively, and just because they are wrong does not mean  
> that we have to be.
>
> Appositives -- as always, I argue that unless students are taught to  
> recognize the things in the first place, instruction will not be  
> very effective. Thus in KISS recognition (identification) always  
> comes first. But KISS also includes a variety of sentence  
> manipulation exercises and combining exercises in which students are  
> asked to combine clauses by using an appositive, etc.
>
> My response to your last, and most important question, is the entire  
> KISS site. It is more or less laid out at:
> http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/kiss/wb/LPlans/Overview_Levels.htm
>
> Ed
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask] 
> ] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock
> Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 5:12 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Developmental phases of grammar knowledge
>
> Ed,
>   I would disagree with you on passives, though I'm confused about why
> you would say you introduce it in fifth grade but don't feel students
> need to learn it. Are you making a distinction between the KISS  
> program
> and your college teaching? In an ideal world, wouldn't passive verbs
> (and their function) be a natural part of the curriculum? They seem to
> me important to discourse decisions. And students need to deal with  
> the
> computer grammar checks, which routinely underline them as wrong. I
> find them important to my own understanding.
>   I'm also troubled by the routine assumption that language  
> development
> occurs "without instruction." Certainly, we are capable of learning  
> all
> kinds of things from observing what's going on around us, languaqe
> included, but this seems to me to routinely downplay the possible  
> kinds
> of interactions that would help mentor the process. The argument
> against making language a major part of the curriculum depends on a
> belief (I think mistaken) that it just happens.
>   When you say appositives should be taught, do you mean recognition?
> Use? I like to make the point that entities can be named over and over
> again, and that seems to help, at least at the college level. George
> Will is more than just a well-known columnist, so appositives
> (renaming) can happen forever. He's also a passionate baseball fan,
> though that may not be relevant to the context. And he's not an  
> example
> I would use for my students. Maybe Oprah? Perhaps it's the "cognitive"
> and functional recognitions that matter the most. At least at the
> college level, students seem to get it quickly.
>   What knowledge about language helps in discussions about putting
> language to work? Can we build that knowledge about language as we
> mentor students into different language worlds, including the world of
> school? I think those would be my central questions.
>
> Craig
>
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