Must We Teach Epistemic And Deontic Use?

Having the insight as a former student and a present educator, Linda Christensen wrote about her views on the way English is taught to students in her essay“Teaching Standard English: Whose Standard?” Christensen

Because of this, they are less concerned about prescribing rules to be followed since the language is going to change anyway. To descriptivists, it seems rather pointless. However, Garner refutes this stance by describing an earthquake. In the grand scheme of everything, a single earthquake hardly amounts to anything. Millions of other natural disasters happen every day in every continent of the earth. What makes that earthquake special? Compared to the rest of the world, it means nothing. But to the people living in the city where the earthquake struck, it means everything. So it is with grammar. One cannot simply say that good grammar and usage does not matter in the grand scheme of things. It matters to the people who are speaking the language right now! Garner argues that the majority of English-speakers have no concern over where their language is headed but are more concerned with correct usage and proper grammar. Garner also points out another issue which refutes the describers belief that language is one of instinct, not of choice. Garner quotes MIT graduate, Steven Pinker, who relates language to the song of the humpback whale. Pinker criticizes the prescriptivists in their stringent rules that confine individuals to make what he believes to be unnecessary choices because he believes that

“Authority and American Usage” written by David Foster Wallace, poses an argument about the English language, and the different beliefs of its usage. This essay was written in defense of Bryan A. Garner’s, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. His argument in “Authority and American Usage” is the difference the between prescriptivism perception and the descriptivism perception (Linguistic terms that could easily be made into smaller, more understandable words for people like me). Since the beginning of time, language has evolved. From biblical times, to Shakespearean times, to present day; the English language has been continuously changing since it’s birth and has no intentions on stopping.

Sams (2003) argues that the context approach is flawed because students have no background information on grammar, vocabulary or concepts.

As we look at principle three it instruct needs to ensure that learners also focus on form. Professor Ellis explains that the teacher can achieve this by focusing on inductive and deductive grammar lessons. It allows and make ELL students aware of explicit grammatical rule, it gives the learner specific practice on grammatical structure, and it gives them the opportunity to get corrective feedback. (Ellis, R, 2008)

I will start with a journey through a hellacious class focused around grammar. Coming into the WCSCC as a 12th grader, I was astonished at how little skill I had when it came to grammar. It still boggles my mind that it took twelve years of school before I met a teacher who really, really cared about how I composed my sentences. She wanted us to know what adjectives, prepositions, nouns, pronouns, and run on sentences were. However, she knew we didn’t. On the first day of class, she made the

Throughout the span of the past few weeks I have traversed the globe, visiting several countries and regions, only to realize that although new methods develop, language as a way of expressing ones self has remained the most effective. Despite this fact, language still has its pitfalls. Neil Postman, in his essay “Defending Against the Indefensible,'; outlines seven concepts that can be used to aid a student in better understanding the language as a means of communication. He describes how modern teaching methods leave a student vulnerable to the “prejudices of their elders';, further stating that a good teacher must always be skeptical. He urges teachers of all subjects to break free from traditional teachings as

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

Communicating what we want to say, how we want to say it is the goal of expressing ourselves linguistically. For English Language Learners (and their teachers), the ability to do that successfully in their new language presents a challenge. In the content areas of instruction, it is especially important to draw out the information that a student already knows in their native language – even when they do not have the linguistic ability to express themselves in English – in order to assess their level of understanding and engage prior knowledge. Using non-linguistic representations provides a way of bridging that gap between actual understanding and the ability to express that

The structure falls into the more general category of double modals or multiple modals, that is, the use of two or more modal auxiliaries within the same verb phrase. However, in order to study pragmatic context and linguistic structure of double modals, other researchers compile naturally occurring double modals heard or overheard in conversations. Montgomery does find some difference in usage according to social class: although double modals are used by upper-, middle-, and lower-class speakers, the percentage of usage in LAGS increases as class decreases. Di Paolo believes that all Southerners have used a double modal at least once; Montgomery claims that there are some whose dialect does not include double modals. Double modals are of theoretical syntactic interest because they appear to violate the phrase structure rule that allows only one modal in the verb phrase.

In this article, we will explain that learning these model verbs are how much important and how these verbs are vital parts of the English grammar.

The topic that changed my world view was learning the deficit difference controversy. It was a controversy which occurred between the 1960s and 1970s during which linguists argued with educators that dialect varieties of English should be actually be considered as different dialects of English rather than deficient versions of standard English. The argument was that dialect was the same thing as deficient English and this corrupted English was an attempt to speak correct or proper English, but this attempt falls short. Our textbook also defined clearly the two theories and their relationship to linguistics. Deficit theory posits that students do not succeed because of a set of values and a “culture of poverty” impairs the child’s readiness

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

In the classroom relating to descriptive grammar learners can be encouraged to move away from a prescriptive approach to grammar by using a guided discovery in which they look for examples of variations in use in authentic texts. These examples can be compared to prescriptive rules in order to decide if they are useful or

In contemporary society the Standard variety of English is the most commonly used as it is respected and associated with a higher prestige. Its usage is also advocated by prescriptivists who believe that it is the ‘correct’ and only variety that should be used. Standard English is usually seen in formal settings, where its usage is necessary for official and public purposes. However, contextual factors play a vital role in determining the most appropriate variety to be used, which is supported by the Principle of Appropriateness. Certain contexts where a non-standard variety is necessary are in social media settings and in communities of different ethnicities, where they are undeniably required to create solidarity between speakers.