I have decided to focus on the issue of grammar education in public schools. I am interested in several aspects of this issue and am still kind of deciding in which way I should go. For instance, does the teaching of grammar help students write (or even speak) better? If there are any benefits to learning the mechanics of the language in your everyday life, at what point in a student's education should this be tackled? (ie elementary or highschool) Also, I am curious if perhaps the grammar itself has become antiquated and therefore not very useful in the actual workplace. I am thinking of the rules concerning gerunds and thier subjects or pronouns in the objective case. If no one knows these rules, should they be taught at all?
The final thing I have pondered is the actual method used in teaching grammar: prescriptive or descriptive? I think that I have kind of already decided that the prescriptive method of rote memorization and correctness is basically ineffectual so I guess my question would concern the descriptive method and how it would be implemented.
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I really hope that grammar has not become antiquated! I have no doubt that things such as text messaging and IM have changed the way many students write, even in school, but they still need to know the time and place for those kind of things. Recently, I saw an article in the paper claiming somewhere around 60% (or other high number) of work time is wasted trying to understand what someone else wrote. I'd argue that clearly, grammar education needs to be bolstered.
Have you already come to a tentative conclusion after your ponderings?
What kind of sources would you use for this?
Grammar plays a big role in education today. There are so many students who do not know how to speak correct grammar. Grammar should be a lesson that should at least be taught starting in 1st grade. It doesn't have to be all technical, but the students should begin recieving some sort of information about it. You can insert ideas about what parents think about it also and their perspective about teachers teaching their children grammar at an early age. This is an interesting topic...good luck with it!
Elem. school should focus on basic of reading. You can't read, you can't learn other subjects, or get good enough for the refining process of grammar. Has for the importance of grammar, it is needed to show to the past generations that you are on par with them. Also, good when you are dealing with other college educated people. But, in reality the masses of people that you will work with in most normal jobs are "smart like brick". That is why your the high paid boss, and they get paid minimum wage. But, for when to teach grammar start maybe later Elem. But, at the very least middle school. Or, just not teach them grammar so the idiots stand out even more.
Wow, what an in depth topic. I have personally made it without knowing all the grammer rules, but feel like a have kind of missed out. What kind of grammer is enough? At what level of grammer sue should people know? Does this have an affect in the real world at all?
This is an important issue. I would be interested to see what national standards say? I really think that grammar is an important part of education. However, I do not think we put as much as emphasis on grammar as we did at one time. What effect, if any has this had on student writing?
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