I don't know if this adds to or detracts from the current conversation, but
Ronald's post with the twenty sentences has me thinking.  I am coming to
this conversation as a college "professor" who is trying to prepare future
teachers for the world in which they will work.  In the end, I have a
relatively firm grasp on "teaching literature" and "teaching writing," but I
am very uncomfortable with "teaching grammar" (and I recognize that the word
"grammar" here no longer cuts it).  And so I am very interested in all that
is happening on this list.

 

Right now, my thinking in this area is centered around two basic concepts:
knowledge and disposition (and I would like to apologize here for my lack of
field appropriate terminology).  We can debate the nature of the knowledge
of grammar (and not having formal training beyond my undergraduate
linguistics requirements, my knowledge cannot approach the knowledge of this
list), but unless our students possess the appropriate disposition for
learning "grammar," the knowledge we provide goes in one ear and out the
other (by the way, we like to assume that this problem rests alone with
grammar instruction when current reality tells us that a similar problem
exists with literature/reading instruction and writing instruction; reality
also tells us that this problem exists within education in general crossing
all disciplines).  Quite simply, we can teach very specific concepts to our
students, but unless they care to learn and use that knowledge, the methods
we employ are ineffective or unsuccessful.  And so I can use a sentence like
(or any that Ronald posted):

 

Everyone walked to their car after the game

 

and I can point out the problem(s) with this sentence, and my students can
understand what I have told them, but they will continue writing and
speaking with the same error.  It seems that only with an appropriate
"critical experience" will they begin to dispositionally understand the
relevance of the concept and avoid committing the same error.

 

Which brings me to a quick personal story.  I was raised by a mother who,
generally speaking, used the language correctly and appropriately (I
understand the potential socio-political aspect of this, but that is another
issue), and so I, generally speaking, used the language correctly and
appropriately.  It wasn't until my second year of teaching High School
English that, in my memory, I had my first real "critical experience."  In a
faculty meeting I made a statement in defense of a certain policy (I don't
remember now the specific statement or the policy I was defending), and an
English colleague immediately responded by correcting the mechanical
structure of my sentence (he did not address the policy... would this be and
ad grammarian fallacy?).  I was embarrassed.  From that moment I began to
consider what I said and how I said it.  The point here is that it was only
after I began to dispositionally care about how others would respond to my
writing and speaking that I began to internalize the "descriptive" rules of
our language.  Once I cared, then this carried over into my speaking and my
writing.

 

And so, it seems that we need to begin developing "critical experiences" for
our students in addition to philosophies, approaches, and methods for
teaching grammar.  But, I would argue, we need to develop "critical
experiences" that empower rather than disempower.  Although my experience in
that faculty meeting proved monumental and, in the end, helpful, I chose not
to speak further that day in the defense of the policy.  I was just
embarrassed.

 

On another note, it is nice and interesting to proclaim platitudes like
"devoting classroom time to the study of grammar does not influence student
writing," but I believe that in the appropriate environment where students
dispostionally care about how they say or write something, they will learn
whatever we are teaching.  I understand and believe to an extent the concept
of teaching grammar within the context of student writing.  But if we are to
believe that we can foster an appreciation for literature and composition,
we should also believe that we can foster an appreciation for language and
how it works. It seems that any breakdown in our philosophy of teaching
grammar might also reveal a breakdown in our philosophies of teaching
literature and writing.

 

Rob

 

___________________

   Robert Lockhart

 

 Assistant Professor, English Education

         Curriculum and Instruction

               A301D Ginger Hall

          Morehead State University

         Morehead, Kentucky  40351

              Office: 606.783.2834

                Fax: 606.783.5044

   <http://people.moreheadstate.edu/fs/r.lockhart/>
http://people.moreheadstate.edu/fs/r.lockhart/

___________________

 


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