Great question! For me, the study of grammar arose from a deeply ingrained character trait (sometimes flaw) -- not liking to lose. When I was in the 7th grade, my middle school's honor society went to a state convention. At the convention, there were many academic competitions. My English teacher tapped me to compete in the English competition (side note -- I had studied very little grammar up to that point, and I think she selected me because of my writing achievements, which I contribute largely to being an avid reader). I was very confident going into the competition. Then I got the test. Every other question pertained to grammar. The basics I knew, but anything beyond the "8 parts of speech" was a mystery to me.

Needless to say I performed poorly and was quite frustrated. I'll never forget asking my teacher why she never taught me about a "gryphon phrase" (gerund). I began to study traditional school grammar independently after that so I could compete again and do better (which, thankfully for my young ego, I did).

An important step in my process of falling in love with grammar came when I had the opportunity to begin studying foreign languages. Knowing English grammar terminology and concepts (hey, there's that gryphon phrase!) was a HUGE advantage. I just "got" things much easier because I had a basis of comparison. That led to my realization that grammar was one part of a larger field of study -- linguistics. Bring drawn also to the classroom, I quickly realized that there wasn't much "language" in the language arts. So I began tying together threads from both linguistics and educational pedagogy.

So, I guess my love of linguistics, grammar, and education springs from a stubborn streak, but the advantages that grammar knowledge brings became apparent quickly.

John

On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 2:46 PM, David Kehe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I imagine that most of us on this listserv have an intrinsic interest in studying grammar.  In other words, we study it just for the joy of it.  But why?  Is it in our DNA to find grammar so interesting?  Did someone, for example, a former teacher, do something that instilled in us this interest?

I would be interested to hear from any of you why you like grammar so much and/or how you came to like it.  It seems that if we could figure out what makes it so interesting to some, we might be able to come up with ways that we could help our students develop an intrinsic motivation for studying it too.

Thanks,

David Kehe
Bellingham, WA

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