After reading Amy Martinsen's "The Tower of Babel and the Teaching of Grammar: Writing Instruction for a New Century" I felt a little relieved. In the essay, the author laments that grammar is not being taught in middle and high school like it once was. She wonders why this is and wonders what the future of writing instruction will be like if the trend continues. The reason I said I felt relieved is that I have always felt like I know how to speak properly and write proper English. However, whenever I take a course in writing or English, I feel pretty ignorant about the terminologies and the formal rules of grammar. Reading Martinsen's essay helped me realize that I am not alone.
In dealing with the problem of defing grammar, the author refers to the work of Bill Gribben, who arranges different definitions for grammar into 3 groups. Grammar I is what fluent speakers/writers unconciously/intuitively know about their language. Grammar II is the more formal knowledge of the rules and analytic techniques of knowing the language. Lastly, Grammar III is a sort of knowledge of appropriate usage. The essay asserts that most people are pretty good when it comes to Grammar I and Grammar III. It is in the middle category of knowledge that students are lacking. And this is where I find myself.
I also found the discussion of the psychology of grammar to be interesting. Studies have shown that students are afraid to break grammar rules and if they don't understand them well, then can regress to a more simplistic writing style to avoid any grammatical pitfalls. This saves them from looking ignorant or uneducated, but it paralyzes them from writing as well as they could. From my grades in literature and writing courses, as well as from feedback from co-workers, I know that I am a decent writer. However, if I did stop to think about what rules of grammar I do know, as well as fretting the stuff that I am unsure about, I can totally see how it would cripple me from ever writing a line again. At any rate, I hope that learning more about grammar will help me be a better writer and will give me more confidence it the realm of Grammar II.
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1 comment:
I like how you took things stated in the article and made them personal and relevant. This helped me to better understand the original article because I now have more personal viewpoints which add relevance between the article and our everyday lives.
I enjoyed your choice of words and euphamisms, although i think the ending could be stronger.
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