My guess is that all studies such as the one that Ed notes are based on the
evidence showing the inability of grammar knowledge to enhance writing
skills - or, as Ed notes, the evidence that grammar instruction may even be
harmful.

What these studies lack, in my opinion, is any focus on teaching not the
rules of grammar but rather the application of standard grammatical
constructions.  Appositives, for examples, must be used by countless
children's authors - my dog, Spot - my teacher, Mr. Smith - Mr. Jones, the
postman (oops, sorry, letter carrier).  It's almost impossible to use the
language even at an elementary level without appositives.

The studies no doubt demonstrate that teaching the definition of an
appositive, along with the ubiquitous appositive hunt drill (or any other
hunt for grammar terms) that subsitutes for learning, is useless.  What,
however, would the studies show that if, instead of teaching dictionary
definitions, classroom teachers taught the power of language to create
meaning, and that the technique of following one noun with a another of
greater clarity is a wonderful, not to mention efficient technique to
produce the meaning that the writer is searching for.

For all I care the students can call the critter whatever they want to call
it just so long as they can use it.  And, since they can use it in the
first grade when they're just learning to read, why can't they learn the
power of what they already know when they're trying to learn how to write
with clarity and meaning in the 7th grade?

At 05:30 PM 12/5/01 -0800, you wrote:
>From experience with my own children, I agree with Johanna on when children
>use subordinate clauses in speech; relative clauses come later--around 7.
>They also write simple subordinate clauses in first and second grade. Ed
>might be able to explain that something more complicated was involved in
>this study.
>Edith Wollin

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