I'm finding myself being self-contradictory in some of my attitudes toward
grammar/usage and grading and I wondered if anyone has a way out of this box.
 
Let's assume you come down to something like the position
that was so well articulated by Rhoda Byler Yoder in EJ. There, she said,
"I teach my students grammar because these young minds have big plans. They are
going somewhere with their lives, and they know they need Standard American
English (SAE) to get there." (p. 82).
 
Implicit in this viewpoint (a viewpoint I embrace) is that we teach aspects of
the structure of SAE because the students find it useful to be able to
use SAE when it suits their purposes.  That means we're not teaching SAE
because everyone must command the prestige dialect. And that suggests to me,
that if a student chooses not to learn the usage details of Standard American
English, because they don't find it useful, then that should be their choice
too.
 
If it is truly their choice, then we shouldn't penalize them with grades.
 
However, when I see usage issues like the following, in a 3rd and final draft
of a paper, at the end of the quarter, I am dismayed:
 
    "Now, location, a very important part of fishing because where
    you go is half the success or failed of fishing. The mountains are
    one of the best places to go because you have different
    locations to choose from such a lake which is use all more crowded."
 
I mean like while this kid is at times wondrous in his images ("My brother
started to get very mad his face turned bright red and is eyes dark green"),
seems to me that he falls down on "knowing English". His trouble goes way
beyond the Dirty Dozen of usage errors.
 
I am very troubled assessing this student as passing College English, and
indeed I did not pass him.
 
But then that puts me in a position of Language cop, a position which I don't
find a useful one to the students.
 
Anyone have any ideas on the interrelation of how freeing yourself from usage
nearsightedness and grading mix?
 
thanks!
 
rebecca wheeler
 
 
dept. english
weber state university
ogden, utah 84408-1201