Teaching aspect via English

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Dec 10 07:47:51 EST 2002


At 2:06 AM -0500 12/10/02, Suedaleg at aol.com wrote:
>Hefin et al:
>
>I have been saying for many years, at least since I was in college in the
>late 70's, that English is being taught completely backwards in our schools. 
>Our schools attempt to impose "correct grammar" without correctly teaching
>what grammar is truly about.  English grammar, or grammar in any language for
>that matter, should be tought so that the student should understand what is
>being said by the structure and syntax.  This is aspect.
>
>I had a roomate in college who was also a classmate in my Greek class.  He
>could not grasp the concepts of the Greek language beyond the vocabulary. 
>The grammar would not come for him.  When I tried to help him with the
>concepts I found that he had no understanding of the meaning of English
>grammar.
>
>I think it would be a good idea for the colleges and seminaries to test and
>offer a "pre-language" English grammar class so that this lack could be
>addressed before frustrating the student in a foreign grammar.
>
>Just two cents from one who is trying to understand clearly.
>Dale Greenlee

This is an observation that must, I believe, be seconded by almost any
teacher of a foreign language (it's certainly been my experience in
teaching of Greek and Latin, and it was my experience also many years
earlier when I taught French and German. Considerable time must be spent
with a class or particularly with those students who don't know enough
about English grammar to appreciate critical differences between English
grammar and idiom and the grammar and idiom of the language being learned.
There used to be some excellent helps entitled "English Grammar for
Students of..." The only one I can readily find on the net now is
	_English Grammar for Students of Spanish: The Study Guide for Those
Learning Spanish_.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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