At 01:44 PM 2/14/01 -0600, you wrote:
>It seems to me that the neglect of the discipline of grammar tends to
reduce speech and writing to > a collage of direct quotations, as in "He
was all like 'Think 'different,'"'
>instead of, "He suggested that I think in an unconventional manner.'
>Grammar is the study of the rules by which we generate new statements of
>our own.

Let me respond as a former believer in the purity and sanctity of grammar,
but one who has since undergone the baptism of fire in the secondary school
classroom.

I think the point that the most members of the list would make is that
knowledge of the rules of grammar have no bearing on the ability of
students to create meaning from language - either through writing or
through reading.  For example, knowledge of the definition of an appositive
does in no way guarantee that a student can use the form correctly.  (I
didn't even know what it meant until I came across it in a grammar book
after I started to teach grammar, and I've been speaking the King's English
for over 50 years!)

Therefore, the struggle is to find the means (a) to teach students how to
grow in their ability to create meaning and (b) to convince the "powers
that be" that this should be the goal rather than knowledge of the specific
rules of grammar.

In my classroom, I have begun to teach a structure of usage that seems to
work.  Instead of making students identify grammar constructs, I show them
how to use the tools of grammar to create meaning.  For example, they can
use an infintive phrase to express "where" or "when" - and then, create a
different kind of meaning in a different way using a dependent clause.  At
no time does the student need to learn the definitions. Just so long as
they know how to use them!

Therefore, most people who have come to the same conclusion that I have are
not neglectful of grammar discipline - just concerned that students study
what they need to know to learn something really useful in life.

Does this help?

Geoff Layton

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