In response to Ed, I urge 3S members to:
Keep the scope of the project in mind: it's not intended as a remedial
for the gaps in current grammar education, but as a program assuming
K-12 application. I'm not sure how we can address the issue of
remediating current lack of grammatical knowledge among teachers and
students, which is an urgent need. Ed's KISS curriculum is a good start, though.
As to desired outcomes, here is objective B of the 3S objectives I
proposed lo these many months ago:
"B Every student will leave school with the ability to analyze the
grammatical structure of a text in English, using grammatical
terminology
correctly, and showing knowledge of the relationship between grammatical
structure and sentence- and text-level function."
This is about as ambitious as it gets! This means a total parse of a
text, including discourse functions of sentence constituents. Some
people might consider this college-level material (if not grad school!),
and perhaps it is better reserved for the advanced placement/honors
courses. Or perhaps we want to moderate it period. But again, keep in
mind that the objectives assume a good grammar curriculum grades 4-12.
The objectives were proposed as material for discussion!
As to terminology, I made a foray into this by suggesting some
meta-terminology first, as well as terms for 12 parts of speech. I
figured the area D people (description of the language) would haggle
over definitions of grammatical terms first, then submit a result to the
whole committee for discussion. Perhaps I need to do some more
delineating of how the various task forces could go forward.
There has been vanishing little discussion/response from most members of
the committee on these proposals. Also, very few committee members have
responded to my 'basic stuff' message of 1/14/00. I realize not a lot of
time has passed, but I urge committee members to get a discussion going.
If things are unclear, let me know.
I urge 3S members to do two things as soon as possible:
1) visit the 3S site,
http://www.multimedia.calpoly.edu/libarts/jrubba/3S.html
and read what little is there, AND RESPOND TO IT.
2) Look over Ed's KISS curriculum (I spent about an hour with it, and
felt quite acquainted with its approach and content after that time.)
For reminders of the 3S task structure, go to
http://www.multimedia.calpoly.edu/libarts/jrubba/3S_ATEG99.html
As to 'morphology': I have never suggested teaching this term to anyone.
Acquisition of morphology must be taken into account in _our_
recommendations for what categories of inflections (plural, past tense,
etc.) should be taught when and how; for how to address dialect
differences in inflection; and for how vocabulary can relate to grammar
(prefixes and suffixes that create new words, such as '-ness' and
'-ation' change the word class of the word they attach to).
Where dialect differences and language change are concerned, 'errors' in
grammar are quite systematic. As to philosophy, if we all agree that
de-motivational teaching tactics are undesirable, and if we all agree
that we should teach linguistic fact, not social myth, then the approach
to 'error' will need to be modified in the new program. Also, the
current grammar curriculum, including tests, puts nonstandard dialect
speakers at a true disadvantage; it discriminates against them. There
are test items on which a standard speaker will intuitively choose only
the one correct answer, while a nonstandard speaker will see more than
one answer that 'sounds right'. Who's at a disadvantage here? Such tests
are unfair, plain and simple.
Johanna
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Johanna Rubba Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184 • Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone. 756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] • Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
**
"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally" - Frank Oppenheimer
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