Is Prescriptive Grammar Be Taught Correct?

Grammar is and has been a big deal in American society. It’s so big that we are require to take English classes all four years of high school. What’s the point of grammar if things are always changing and developing in English? The point is to not look illiterate and when a person goes college or decides to join the work force. In the book “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar”, the author Kyle Wiens states, “After all, grammar has nothing to do with job performance… right? Wrong. If it takes someone more than 20 years to notice how to properly use “it’s” then that’s not a learning curve I’m comfortable with.” (Wiens, 500) I personally agree with Mr. Wiens when he stated that comment. When you have a business and your trying to be successful and every aspect then its right to also be grammar savvy as well. The only thing I think is to extreme is the

I believe it is important to promote literacy. It is important that people know about grammar, without it they would seem dense. I believe that

Chin, Beverly Ann (2000). The role of grammar in improving student’s writing. Retrieved from http://www.uwplatt.edu/~ciesield/graminwriting.htm

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.

Having poor grammar skills leaves one with the incapability to clearly speak or write and be correctly understood. Technology is destroying grammar skills of the adolescents generations. Texting has us turning grammar into shorthand sentences. For instance, using the number two as a short form for “to”. In the article “Does Grammar Really Matter?”, Mignon Fogarty writes, “let’s say you sent your company president an e-mail

Reading chapter six from Beyond Grammar Language, Power, and the Classroom, written by Mary R. Harmon and Marilyn J. Wilson has open my eyes not to base peoples’ language off from standard American English because everyone has a different dialect depending on their culture. I am going to be more mindful of peoples’ dialect, and not be quick to judge a person based on their language because a person's language is what makes that individual unique. Instead, I am going to embrace the different dialects and use them as an advantage when teaching a classroom

Increased use of technology is bringing the decreased use of grammatical uprightness. No one spells out words anymore, it’s just not ‘cool’ or ‘convenient’. When the new technological-reliant generation goes into the real world, and actually has frequent conversations, their grammatical and sentence formulating skills will be below average. A lack of formal linguistic practice

What is the language that most kids are taking throughout their elementary, middle, and high school years? Some would guess French and German, but most would guess Spanish. In today’s world more people than ever speak a romantic language. Some would argue that by learning the basics of Spanish, that allows you to be able to travel and communicate with anyone who is able to speak a romantic language. Others may argue that choosing a specific language that a child desires to learn is more valuable. Spanish should be the only language taught in schools due to the repetitiveness that is instilled within the children, and the commonness of the language itself.

Sentence structure teaches variety of different things such as comma splices, clauses, simple, compound, complex, and compound complex sentences, and how to use the dependent and independent clauses in a sentence. Every paper is incomplete without the use of sentence structure. The thing my formal high school teachers need to do is teach students the usage of sentence structure in essays because that is the foundation of the English Language. Therefore, when someone cannot hear your voice inflections while reading what you have to say, sentence structure allows the reader to correctly interpret your

Throughout my educational years, I had only done writings that involves in small research papers, MLA style essays, and summary essays. However, English 101 has given me a new way to look at my writing skills. Most of the writings I have been doing so far in this course were interpretative essays where we interpreted and reflected on other’s writing and then reflecting back to ours own writing. This class also has given me the opportunity to work with my classmates and a chance to discuss about the writing strategy they made in their papers versus the strategy I made in my papers. In addition, I find the in-class activity to be very useful because it allows me to see other’s perspectives and feedbacks. The in-class activities were class discussions, group works, and conference with the instructor. At the end of the semester, the class objective was to pick out two best interpretative essays that we have been working on with a final reflective essay to include in our final portfolio. So for the rest of this essay, I would like to talk about my two best interpretive essays that I have decided to include in my final portfolio: “Death of a Funeral Business”, and “No Time to think” and “Time Ain’t Money”.

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

(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

Ever wonder how good grammar can lead to success? Think about it like this, say you just sent an essay to the college of your dreams, and you’ve worked on that essay for weeks fixing it, making sure the grammar is perfect. Finally the letter you been waiting for is here, and you’re so nervous and scared to see what it says. Once you open it you see that you’ve gotten accepted, and they’re amazed with the grammar used in your essay, and that they’ll love having someone with that good of a grammar at their college. Good grammar doesn’t only lead to good success, but great opportunities in life which is better for our future.

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

Grammar has always been an important issue in second and foreign language learning and teaching. Some hold the view that grammar is not essential for second/foreign language learning and therefore have a ‘zero position’ regarding grammar teaching. On the other hand, some view that grammar is necessary for second/foreign language learning.