The Tower of Babel and the Teaching of Grammar: Writing Instruction for the Twentieth Century is written by Amy Martinson. She speaks on four separate yet correlating subtopics.
1) What is grammar?
2) Why have we moved away from grammar
as part of writing instruction?
3)What are some of the differing opinions, past and present, regarding grammar as it
relates to writing instruction?
4) Does grammar have a place in the writing
classroom of the new century? If so, where?
Martinson provides three different definations to grammar. Grammar 1 suggests, "grammar to be the 'unconscious knowledge' of language, claiming that all persons who use a language, whether literate or not, know the language or else they could not use it." Grammar 2 on the other hand, "is our conscious knowledge of language, including "concepts, terminology, and analytic techniques for talking about language." Grammar 3 defines grammar under the the claim of Gribbin, " grammar is not really grammar, but is 'linguistic etiquette' or usage." Next, we will discuss 'why has grammar moved away as part of writing instruction.
Why have we moved away from grammar as part of writing instruction? Research claims that formal grammar did not improve writing and could even bring about a 'harmful effect on the improvement in writing'. In fact, teachers tended to switch from 'product' writing to 'process' writing. The trend of a constructive approach started to replace the traditional behavioral approach to teaching. To clarify, the focus in the writing classroom was no longer on the end product, the paper, but on the process by which the paper came to be. 'Product' versus 'process' is a debate which flares differing opinions, past and present, regarding grammar as it relates to grammar.
One anti-grammar view (already mentioned)is by Braddock claiming grammar to be "harmful" to writing development. On the contary, Constance Weaver, author of "Teaching Grammar in the Context of writing," reminds us "that during the Middle Ages grammar was thought to be the foundation of all knowledge, the necessary prerequisite
for understanding theology and philosophy as well as literature." Most will agree that modern research has hindered students to perform their 'grammatical duties' due to a radical belief that it is the 'process' and not the 'product' which is of up most importance. This brings us to our final question, " Does grammar have a place in the writing classroom of the new century? If so, where?"
Grammar is probably the most important aspect of writing instruction and should always remain an intricate part of the classroom. How may one possibly be grammatical literate if they are not provided with proper instruction. This trial and error approach (process) to writing instruction, regarding grammar, should not be an entity on its own but rather a co-contributor to the 'product'. In other words teachers should implement a sequence to writing papers. This sequence is of the following: 1) Outline 2) Rough Draft 3) Revision 4)Peer Editing 5) Final Paper. For the most part high school teachers follow this writing instruction order, and if they do not well they should. This is a very effective writing system and is efficient within the common high school classroom.
I hope you have all gone away with a new perspective to teaching grammar as part of your writing instruction. Your students will be better off.
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14 comments:
I'm very surprised that some people view grammar as "harmful" to writing development. I believe that NOT using grammar is harmful. Although I believe that the process of writing is important, teachers cannot forget about the product either. I believe that in order to teach writing effectively, there must be a balance between the writing process and the writing product.
I think it is absolutely crazy to say that grammar is harmful to the way people write. That is just insanity!!I understand that some people feel that grammar is held higher than the content, but to say that it is harmful to writing development is weird. The points brought up in this article were very interesting and the definitions of grammar were really interesting.
To say that grammar is harmful to writing is equivalent to arguing that bread is harmful to sandwiches. It is true that it would be harmful to focus on all of the interesting types of bread and disregard what is placed between them. This having been said, no matter what is on the sandwich, it must have a firm foundation in bread in order to be edible.
Bryan Norbut
Obviously saying that grammar is harmful is a little bit of a stretch, but in my opinion, there is some valididty to this argument. I would not want my students so obsessed with grammar that they become so fixated on it that they lose their authentic voice. Some of my favorite writers blur the line between being grammatically correct and being authentic to the subject that is talked about.
I think grammar is a very important part of writing but I also like when students can do free writes, in which they write whatever they want for five minutes or so and don't need to worry about grammar. I think that content should be the most important part to any paper but agree that grammar should be taught in all classrooms and that everyone should know proper grammar.
I don't agree that grammar is harmful to writing development. I don't think that using grammar is harmful at all. I think that it is important for students to learn the process of writing, bu it is also important for students to focus on the product of writing as well.
I think it is crazy to view grammar as harmful. I also think that without grammar people would always wonder "why do I say this a certain way." I love grammar and I am happy I learned it. I wish that more people would learn proper grammar.
Wow. I am positive my high school English teachers would be outraged with the idea that grammar is harmful. Do people really think that? Some interesting and good perspectives.
This article is attempting to define the seemingly ever long debate of grammar’s place in writing instruction. The article presents the data as stating that while grammar instruction can improve the writing of someone who is already competent, it does not improve writing on its own. I believe that a creative sequence with stops along the way for criticism and instruction will help students internalize grammatical rules into their writing without spending time on their acquisition sans their use.
I think that though grammar is an important aspect of writing (for the sake of clarity for the reader), the content is most important to the paper. After all, shouldn't papers be about testing the student's knowledge of the prompt instead of punishing a student for a miss used comma? I think that teaching writing should be started in a foundation of grammar but paper grades shouldn't be limited to perfect grammar.
The idea that grammar is harmful I truly disagree with. If it so harmful why today are we still learning and correcting our mistakes in dealing with grammar? The article maybe had a good intention but overall it was a ironic idea.
The first thing I think when I read this is that I am not in agreeance that we are moving away from grammar as a part of the writing instruction. But assuming we are, I would agree with every other person on this blog so far in that it is an absurd notion. Grammar provides clarity, to take it away would be a mess!
i think it is very strange that any one would think that grammar would be harmful to a language. It is actually a very helpful tool in understanding languages. I don't understand why teachers have moved away from teaching grammar especially in writing. I believe it is very important to all aspects of language. Grammar is very important to learning language and she be enforced more in the classroom.
This blog is really interesting. I agree that everyone follows some rule of grammar to some extent, or else you would not be able to be understood. however, to say that learning grammar take away from writing development is kind of absurd. The problem with this, is the author assumes that you can not simultaneously focus on the product and the process. Thus, if we understand that both can happen simultaneously.
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