It sounds as if this thread is running out of steam, but I wanted to jump in here with some of the difficulties I have had with my students (inner-city high school) and their frustration (and mine) with the great "parts of speech hunts." You all know the drill: "Find the (FILL IN PART OF SPEECH HERE) in the following sentence (paragraph, etc)." Here are examples I put on the board, asking students to determine the part of speech of "run/running" in each sentence. "I like to run." "Running is fun." "She is running." "I bought a pair of running shoes." "He tripped on his shoelaces while running after the dog." Suffice it to say that the success rate is low. However, regardless of their knowledge of "formaL grammar, every student can successfully create sentences using exactly the form shown, even though they may have no idea what part of speech they're using to do it. Therefore, my question to myself, to them, and to this group is simply this - why try to teach them parts of speech (or any other grammar term for that matter) when learning them makes absolutely no difference in their ability to speak, write, or even take standardized tests (where there are no grammar questions, only usage and syntax). Geoff Layton To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/