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strength and weakness of grammar teaching methods
The advantages and disadvantages of teaching Grammar
the importance of Grammar in Language Teaching
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Grammar has two primary approaches—prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive grammar is the general approach of right versus wrong, and historically the kind of approach overzealous English teachers apply to their students. Popular culture has lovingly deemed the rigid prescriptive grammarian the “Grammar Nazi,” which actually refers to the grade school graduate who clings tightly to the Latin based traditional rules and enforces those rules online. Due to these perspectives and due to various studies performed in classrooms, many have been rebuffing the study of grammar in schools. Some critics suggest that understanding grammar is ineffective and harms more than it helps writing. Contrary to the backlash against grammar …show more content…
In From Critical Thinking to Argument, Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau encourage an active reading method, which urges readers to scrutinize a text closely. They ask their readers to annotate their texts comprehensively. Rather than being exclusionary, active reading necessitates understanding rhetorical structures and grammar. Grammar becomes a crucial component to establishing ethos in a rhetorical setting, and understanding grammar further helps readers ask what a writer might be hiding and why they might be hiding it (30). Weak style impacts arguments by inadvertently creating holes within the argument and depleting the logic—these critics suggest that the study of grammar helps writers to avoid obscuring meaning and they list various fallacies that can occur without an adept mastery of language (310-311). Beyond improving ability to detect fallacies in others’ writing, implementing the skills suggested by Barnet and Bedau helps writers while revising their own writing. Writers can take advantage of the problems with others’ writing and eliminate those problems in their own; however, they have to be able to diagnose these problems, which requires a basic understanding of these features in …show more content…
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Eaton, Angela. "The Effectiveness Of Two Methods Of Correcting Formal Error." Business Communication Quarterly 66.2 (2003): 79-83. Business Source Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
Herndon, Jeanne H. "Traditional Grammar in Schools." A Survey of Modern Grammars. N.p.: Holt, 1970. 50-63. Print.
Hoffman, James V., Richard Andrews, and Dominic Wyse. The Routledge International Handbook Of English, Language And Literacy Teaching. London: Routledge, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
Kisting, Wesley R. Writing Effective Essays: A Guide to College-level Writing. North Charleston, SC: [s.n.], 2011. Print.
Klammer, Thomas P., Muriel Schulz, and Volpe Angela. Della. Analyzing English Grammar. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000. Print.
Leahy, Anna. "Grammar Matters: A Creative Writer's Argument." Pedagogy: Critical Approaches To Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, And Culture 5.2 (2005): 304-308. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 17 Oct.
Wardle, Elizabeth. "Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces." Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing A College Reader. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2011. 520-537. Print.
The Stases and Other Rhetorical Concepts from Introduction to Academic Writing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. PDF.
McMillan, Norman. Flannery O’Connor Bulletin: Department of English and Speech. Milledgeville, GA: Georgia College, 1987.
McNeil, Hayden. The Anteater's Guide to Writing & Rhetoric. Irvine: Composition Program, Department of English, UC Irvine, 2014. Print.
Downs, Doug. "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics." Writing About Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 520-33, 581-594. Print.
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. 11th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. New York: Bedford, 2010.
In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for them.
Writing with Readings and Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 52-57. Print.
Neuleib, Janice, Kathleen Shine Cain, and Stephen Ruffus, eds. Mercury Reader for English 101. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013 Print.
1. In his chapter “On the Need of Some Grammar” found in Modern American Usage, Wilson Follett argues that we need grammar to govern our language.
Kolln, Martha. Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects. 2nd Ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996.
Strunk and White’s book The Elements of Style is a small, or “little,” as Strunk liked to say, book that covers all of the biggest, most important rules within the English language. Strunk and White broke down the most common stylistic errors and explained clearly and concisely why those errors are wrong and how to fix them. This book, while incredibly short, contains an immeasurable amount of information, ranging from how to use hyphens to the correct ways to use the word nor. The Elements of Style is an incredible guide that can help students, or anyone, really, navigate the world of proper grammar and diction. Information that can completely change how you communicate with the world—change for the better, I mean—is exceedingly valuable information.
The set of data were analyzed using Brinton’s 2010 noun phrase rules, from the book. The Linguistic Structure of Modern English. Brinton states that “Noun phrases consist of a noun and any modifiers, complements, and determiners that provide more information about the noun” (Brinton, L. J., Brinton, D., & Brinton, L. J. (2010). The book covers the topics of Pragmatics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Lexical and sentence semantics. The text is aimed towards advanced undergraduate students concerned with contemporary English, primarily those whose main area of interest is English as a second language (ESL). Primary or secondary-school education, theoretical and applied linguistics, English stylistics or speech pathology. The main focus is on English data, giving a pragmatic clarification of the structure of the language over
Miller, T. P, & Faigley, L. (1982). College English. National Council of teachers of English, 44(6). Retrieved from http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-
...006). Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 83-107.