Grammar Vs. Usage
1 03 2007I have actually seen with my own eyes 12 year olds excited about grammar. I know this sounds rare and straight out of “The Twilight Zone”, none the less it is true. The key is they learned grammar along with usage. Williams does a great job at distinguishing the difference between grammar and usage: “Grammar is how words fit together in patterns to communicate meaning, Usage is about the words we choose to communicate meaning” (171-2) I think that this distinction helps put teachers, students and parents in a position to understand what issues in writing really are, as well as to begin a discussion about where they come from. (My cooperating teacher uses the Kansas method of grammar instruction, she took a seminar on it)
The most important thing, though, that I gleaned from this chapter is that we need to focus on discussing usage issues. However in order to have a common language to discuss these issues by we need to have some type of grammar instruction. When going through the common usage mistakes I was racking my brain to remember what parts of speech Williams was talking about. If we taught grammar with usage in some type of context maybe we could improve writing. Who knows though.
Another thing I kept thinking about is our favorite linguistics class. It seems as if what we learned in there applies to teaching of grammar/usage. The problem is it was not taught in relation to teaching English. Maybe if it were in the grad program, or related specifically to the teaching of English it would have been more beneficial.
Here is a link relating to grammar www.grammarandmore.com . It has some tips, activities and articles on teaching usage and grammar.
Kari,
Your point on having a linguistics class that is geared specifically for English teachers is excellent and should be seriously considered in MEd program design. There are so many language issues that arise in the “English Classroom” (ELL, discourses, grammar, social linguistics–gender and class differences in language use etc.) Not only do these issues come up often, but they also put teachers in tough positions of having to make calls on what languages to privilege and which to discredit. I don’t know much about the Kansas Method that your coop. teacher uses, but I hope that it is helpful in figuring out where you stand in the grammar debate.