Subject: Re: Grammar
From: LR Pearson, Arts 99 (lp9616@bristol.ac.uk)
Date: Wed Jan 26 2000 - 07:56:40 EST
On Tue, 25 Jan 2000 14:43:14 -0500 (EST) William Hochman
<wh14@is9.nyu.edu> wrote:
> LR, I don't mind about typos/mispellings but I question your notion that
> teaching grammar is simple. I think many students don't learn
> English grammar well until they learn to speak another language and see
> how grammar really works, and I know many don't learn grammar well despite
> observing different approaches to teaching grammar over 20 years of
> teaching. Right now I've settled on teaching grammar by attuning
> students to question it and be close to a good handbook. If you have a
> simple and effective method of teaching and learning grammar, I'd like to
> know.
>
> will
>
> -
Simple was the wrong word, really. What I was trying to say is that it
is possible to teach grammar (even though the subtleties are hard), and
to do so without blocking free expression, whereas I have been taught
in a system which valued free expression over grammar. Free expression
I find easier to learn about through my own reading. I have learnt a
lot of grammar through reading good books, but it is frustrating to
have missed out on even very basic rules. I have the same problem with
punctuation, as until I started university, noone ever bothered to
teach me anything much more advanced than full stops, commas and
quotation marks. This irritates my tutors. It also irritates me.
I didn't mean to dismiss grammar as "easy", but it is teachable. I
agree that learning to speak another language enhances one's awareness
of one's own, that is why I believe that the learning of foreign
languages should be an integral part of education from an early age.
Love, Lucy-Ruth
----------------------
LR Pearson, Arts 99
lp9616@bristol.ac.uk
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