Ed, Bill, et al.,

 

It may be useful for us to consider this (and every other issue) from the perspective of the learner; this is, after all, the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, and not for the Scholarly Study of it (as valuable as that is, and as much as we all enjoy it).  From the learner's perspective, the one who got the ball does not change, so it would be confusing to change the terms used.  It is much easier to learn that the indirect object occurs in a prepositional phrase after the direct object and plain before it.  There is much less teaching necessary, and much less chance for misunderstanding. If we call them the same thing, it becomes much easier to see these two things as basically the same.  If we call them different things, grammar suddenly becomes difficult for many students, and something that stops making intuitive sense for the rest.  As teachers, when we decide how to describe language (or anything else), we should pick the way which will make it easier for the learner to understand it and to use that knowledge.

Scott Woods