It isn't so much grammar teaching that gets attacked but "bad" grammar teaching.  My personal feeling is that there has likely never been particularly much bad grammar teaching just a fair amount of resistance and frustration with grammar and grammar teaching that got blown way out of proportion.  It is much more of a folk myth like big foot or ufos.  The believers in some past age of bad grammar and bad grammar teachers are much like those believers in bigfoot.  A few anecdotes and a couple of foggy references and pictures is enough to set off the alarms and the rhetoric.  But in actual fact there is very little sound proof of bad grammar practices.  I think it would be of value for someone actually to describe the bad practices in the past in some detail and then to provide examples from the textbooks with these bad practices.  

I think we would all note that there is very little difference in teaching grammar now, 25 years ago or even 50 years ago EXCEPT for interesting and provocative anecdotal evidence that there were repititive exercises out there.  However, interactivity, more real life exercises and the internet have made it more exciting and more effective.  

Don't get me wrong.  I am aware there was also some limited evidence that suggested that grammar teaching could not be shown to be directly of value for writing skills but this is another issue.  What I want to impress on everyone is the idea that most of the "bad grammar" is non-existent.  It's a bigfoot with exciting and attractive evidence that never leads to a definitie discovery.  Someone needs to write an essay that types and lists rather exhaustively the bad grammar teaching practices.  (I am thinking about it but have three other writing projects ahead of it and I don't have much of a library available to me).  My article in "English Today_ this month on "The New SAT and Fundamental Misunderstandings of English Grammar" lists some of the myths as well.  

And of course let's all bow our heads in the direction of Mulroy's _The War Against Grammar_ as much of the work to disprove the existence of bad grammar is already there.  

Phil Bralich

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Eduard C. Hanganu" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Aug 24, 2006 4:27 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Scared of Grammar
>
>Hello, all!
>
>This is supposed to be a "grammar lovers" forum, right? But why are 
>so many post on this list from people who atack grammar and state 
>that teaching grammar does not make sense, and makes no difference in 
>writing? The explanation appears to be quite simple: these people do 
>not like grammar, do not understand grammar, and do not want to teach 
>grammar. Their posts indicate that they are fighting as hard as they 
>can to avoid the inevitable.
>
>Of course, grammar cannot cause any improvement in student writing if 
>those who "teach" it have no idea what grammar is and how to teach it.
>What role model, or inspiration can a teacher who fumbles around and 
>is in confusion about grammar could be for students? I had a few of 
>such teachers and instructors, and often I had to teach them myself 
>what they needed to know in order to qualify for teaching.
>
>If I did not like grammar I would not bother to be on this list. What 
>for? To read again and again about others love and I hate? Part of 
>the endless harangue in the forum is caused by the situation I have 
>just described, people who love grammar fighting with people who hate 
>it. In the meantime, some people do the quiet and unrewarded work of 
>teaching their students Standard English in spite of the attacks on 
>them and the displeasure of the grammar haters. 
>
>Eduard 
>
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