Introduction
Grammar is the basis for the English language, yet is not uncommon to approach a teenager, or even an adult that has a genuine fear and even a distaste for grammar. While they likely know the value of such a construct, the endless rules and complex exceptions to grammar rules has created a sense of dread among many learners. Yet, it is not only the student that shies away from grammar conversations, but many teachers themselves feel inadequate in the grammar usage, both in speaking and writing, as well as their assessment of student writing. With the national push to embed writing across the curriculum, many teachers feel ill-prepared to assess students on their grammar. While they may concede it is important, many teachers would argue the place for grammar is only in the English classroom. However, this poses the question, if students isolate grammar usage to their English class, how will they be equipped to transfer correct usage skills in their future careers which will likely be outside the field of English?
There is little academic research available on professional attitudes about grammar from high school teachers. This study is an attempt to examine the statistical merit of grammar attitudes. This paper includes a literature review on the current state of attitudes of grammar among English teachers, college professors, and employers. Then, this paper will discuss results of an Effective Instruments Survey, henceforth knowns at the Grammar Attitudes
As the semester comes to a close, it is always interesting to look back and reflect on the events and opportunities my English class has given me throughout my first semester as a whole. At the beginning of this semester it was evident that I was feeling uncomfortable due to the adjustment that I was going through as a student moving to college. It was very difficult expressing myself through my writing since I was nervous about good impressions and my good grade. While this class was one of the most difficult courses that I have taken this far, it has become quite evident to me that I have grown a substantial amount as a writer and as a person; Especially, when it came to explaining my ideas, writing academic essays, and making arguments.
A piece of writing is much more than just words on a page. Just as a potter carefully molds and carves every detail and shape into a piece of art, so does a writer. Each comma, dash, antecedent, and fragment is picked cautiously. Each grammatical choice brings to pass a different rhetorical effect creating an irreplaceable and unique piece of art filled with fine detail. Rhetorical grammar is the clay of a potter. One must have it to begin and it has a variety of options to choose from. A person’s ability to understand and use grammar is as the technique owned by the craftsmen. Just as clay can be brittle and weak, so can grammar if used incorrectly or not to its best ability. The most amazing work is not made simply by chance but because of
According to employers interviewed by the NCW, students writing skills are possibly less effective now than they were 15 to 20 years ago. This drives me to conclude that the context based approach alone is not an effective way to teach grammar and punctuation. Perhaps the modified sentence combining approach as suggested by Quible & Griffin (p.34) will improve students writing skills. For an approach to be effective, it must address teaching grammar in two folds. Firstly, the rules of punctuation and instruction on grammar must be introduced. Once the student has that basic understanding, an approach such as in-context writing, sentence combining, glossing or error labeling can be presented to help students learn to eliminate sentence level errors. It is absolutely imperative for educators to adopt a new direction in order to resolve the current dilemma Employers are facing.
a. Are there any unusual uses of verbs that could surprise or confuse students? To help children grow, which aspects of grammar might the teacher need to support? Explain your thinking for both questions.
Growing up we’re told repeatedly that, “grammar is important, and you will need it in college.” As I sit in these lectures, however, I see that claim hasn’t fazed anybody. I sit in an English class expecting to read these great, well put together papers, and I get the same writing level I saw my senior year in high school. I should expect this, I mean, no kid is going to magically learn the rules of writing over the summer. I didn’t. It took nine grueling months of an English class that, quite frankly, was hell on earth to learn most of them. The class was the toughest class I have ever sat through, and yet, I’m blessed. I’m in my second semester as a college student, and Sandra Stebbin’s English class has saved me more times than I care to count. It’s time for the United States education system to start taking grammar seriously. This is a huge concern, because our future leaders can’t afford to have writing skills equivalent to a 7th grade middle school kid.
The course definitely changed the way I approached writing a paper. One day in lecture you quoted Ernest Hemmingway saying, “The first draft of anything is shit.” This changed the way I approached and wrote papers. I used to start papers the night before, barely look over them and making few changes. This course encouraged me to outline, write a rough draft and constantly review then finalization the paper. Peer review before this class I though was pointless because most student hardly pay attention to the paper and usually wrote “good job.” The students in the class actually read my paper and gave honest feedback and ways to improve it. Also to have a teacher read your draft and give feedback with what is wrong and ways to help the quality of the paper helped greatly. This English class was definitely different than high school English.
Using personal reflection to consider my knowledge practices in grammar was useful in helping me understand how they were applied during my time at school. Uzuner & Mehta (2007) states that reflecting on personal experience can be if students relate it to formal content. Thinking back about how grammar was taught in my days I realised that it is now taught using different methods. I always knew that grammar was a weakness when it came to be taught in Australian Schools. Ever since ACARA took control of the Australian Curriculum, I believe now grammar is taught systematically and explicitly to students (Brennan, 2011, p.7). Engaging in week 8 post, showed that many of the students agree that grammar lessons in Australian should be increased
Proofs remain my favorite part of Geometry class. I love that N.M. Gwynne presents her views on grammar this way. They are straightforward and concise, communicating the necessary information in the fewest words possible. That’s right up my alley. Her premise, that all of civilization hinges on good grammar is dramatic, this much she admits, but her proofs bears out her hypothesis, for the most part. Her basic flow starts with needing words to actually feel any certain way. Feeling hunger is not hunger unless hunger has a name. From there, right thinking is only achievable with the right words. Naming a feeling gives you options. Next, decision-making depends on the validity of the options. The wrong words affect the accuracy of the options and the decision. Thus, the wrong decision makes a mess of not only your life, but possibly others. Finally, you and everyone else are unhappy. Gwynne goes on to extrapolate bad grammar to negatively affecting society as a whole. An individual making the wrong decision is one thing, but if enough do, that presents a bigger problem for society. From there, she says all of civilization is at risk
(1) Many if not most people grow up speaking a form of regional or social dialect. If you raise your comfort level with grammar, you’ll have more confidence that your speaking and writing won’t betray you among your more literate peers. (2) Many people who are confident that they know grammatical
Grammar is a huge part when applying for colleges, jobs, and etc. Not only is it a set of rules and component parts that combine to form sentences, but it’s a criteria needed to succeed in life. We’re living in an era where every word is being shortened, abbreviated, or simply misused in a sentence, which isn’t good writing in the business or social world. Good grammar includes of great ideas with clarity, precision, and professionalism.
I understand this if you don't know grammar you're not writing for the best skill and not the best article to reading. When I am the children I don't like grammar and not improve my grammar skill. I love to listening, reading and speaking but my grammar skill is so bad. But in this age, I don't care about this because my elementary school have English skill with the native 5 class per week to speaking,
It is not uncommon to say that grammar instruction plays an important role in language teaching. Regarding the status and importance of grammar teaching, a variety of opinions have been made. Batstone (1994) states that “language without grammar would be chaotic: countless words without the indispensable guidelines for how they can be ordered and modified” (p. 4). More vividly, Wang (2010) makes two similes. She compares grammar to the frame of a house, which is a decisive factor to ensure the solidness of it. Additionally, she regards grammar as a walking stick, whose function is to help and support students to learn English. Thus, the nature of grammar instruction manifests its own significance as it helps students
Larsen-Freeman (2001) as cited in Mart (2013), describes grammar as a system of meaningful structures and patterns that are governed by particular pragmatic constraints. This clearly indicates that grammar plays a crucial role in learning the target language. Grammar instruction is one of the most difficult issues that people have encountered in language learning and teaching. Therefore, the best way to overcome this issue is by
In this essay I will discuss the definition of the concept grammar in linguistic science and thee attitude teachers may have towards such a conceptualization of what grammar is. I will go into detail by explaining perspective and descriptive grammar.
To answer RQ1, the perceptions of grammar in speaking from both NS teacher and NNS students have to be found by analyzing the answers from the interview Q2, Q4 and Q5. The results show that, in terms of the perceptions towards grammar in speaking, NS teacher do differ from NNS students. NS teacher’s answer shows that grammar was very important in speaking, during the interview, when she was asked about Q4, she said: