I agree that this is an excellent response.  I disagree a bit as to the importance of the issue.  Whether we present categories or prototypes is a very important part of the S&S discussion, or should be.  Younger learners will be fine with categories, but as they mature, they should be questioning these categories and should be guided to do so, in order to develop a subtler command of grammar and of language.  Middle schoolers certainly can begin to handle prototypes and fuzzy sets.  They know the difference by then between ‘half-sibling’ and ‘step-sibling’ (granted, they don’t use ‘sibling’) and the fuzziness of color words.  Like David, I don’t particularly care what the labels are, as long as they are fairly transparent and are ultimately negotiated.

 

Herb

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of dabro
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 7:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Conjunctive Adverbs

 


Geoffrey:

That's an excellent response. Whatever you call them, and I think most students can handle "transition words" more easily than "conjunctive adverbs," they should be included in the Scope of teaching grammar. Where should they be Sequenced?

David Brown
EFL/ESL teacher
Long Beach,






--- On Sun 09/10, Geoffrey Layton < [log in to unmask] > wrote:

From: Geoffrey Layton [mailto: [log in to unmask]]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:53:44 -0500
Subject: Re: Conjunctive Adverbs

But what about Peter's question?
> I still don't see why they are not just considered adverbs. Does anyone
>see it my way?

Perhaps my point was not made very clearly, and it is simply this: I don't
really care about the question because the answer doesn't matter - the
concern in my little corner of the grammar world is how these words are used
and how to teach them. Therefore, you can call them whatever you want. To
me and my students, it doesn't matter whether they're adverbs or conjunctive
whatevers. What they have to learn is how to write transitional phrases
using these words.

I think that this question and the concern about the answer is an example of
the disconnect that exists between the various worlds of grammar,
particularly between the world that cares about things like this, for
whatever reason, and the world that doesn't care because the discussion is
irrelevant to most high school students.

In a larger context, it relates to the "scope and sequence" discussion and
the various other threads devoted to the purpose o! f grammar and grammar
instruction.

Geoff Layton

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