XP: Cool Articles About Grammar

[Green Bean]

sifting through the Memoria Press archives. Thought to share.

https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/how-grammar-can-save-your-life/

 

https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/war-against-grammar/

 

So what are your thoughts (or suggestions) about "traditional grammar"? I know we talk a great deal about how much is enough, instruction not carrying over to other work, and/or lack of retention. I do wonder if we perhaps expect that carry over and automaticity too young. Perhaps we need to keep plugging away at that "boring dry" grammar for a wee bit longer before passing judgement. Thoughts, Hive?

[HomeAgain]

I made sure grammar was a top subject here for quite a while.  My oldest struggled along, and struggled with languages in general, but slowly realized the applications in a digital world.  The youngest was required to do grammar lessons in 3 languages by the end of his time here.  He is 13 and utterly miserable at application, but he can tease out information and has a pretty good grasp of how language works in a mathematical sense.

I've learned it doesn't matter if the kids are like my oldest or like my youngest, everyone benefits from an analytical study of language.  Wrong or right, I see it as a first step in the study of logical fallacies.  When a person can truly understand what is being said, they can go deeper into the words themselves.

I am struggling to put my other thoughts into words, but I feel like the first story about how grammar can save a life is...well, it seems to be the essential oil application of grammar.  It's nice that it worked out, but it can certainly be taken the wrong way as an across-the-board instruction for those helping in a mental health crisis.  I'm not so sure I want to give more weight to it than the author already did when they patted themselves on their back.

[Miss Tick]

Grammar got a big boost here when we started expanding our foreign language studies. We flirted with Spanish from the beginning, so we had talked about verbs, nouns, subject, and conjugations. Then we added Latin and learned about cases and found a use for being able to distribute between subjects and objects. Then we spent a few years on German and understanding prepositions was really helpful.

We continued to do English grammar alongside foreign language studies, I don't think most people can effectively substitute one for the other. Without the foreign language studies grammar would have been a slog, but with those subjects we kept finding uses for all the mnemonics we had learned over the years. It was a lovely bit of synergy.

[Xahm]

While I support studying grammar, I don't find either article convincing. The first is really about the importance of language. No one needs a formal study of grammar, let alone Latin grammar, to deeply understand the difference between "I am safe" and "I feel safe." The second article has more substance, but loses me at several points, weakening the argument. The author claims to have been unable to teach college students the parts of speech. Given that I really taught the parts of speech to college students, who easily learned, when I was a college student myself, I believe this was not because the students were too old to learn. Whether the author is a poor teacher, has poor methodology, or has unusually fun-witted students I can't say. Additionally, the author groups all sorts of educational movements together into a bogey man of "radical progressives," as though the state of education today is the intentional result of a specific group. Instead, we have a horrible mish-mash resulting from conflicting waves of reform, often cancelling previous waves. Criticizing schools for including practical life skills like shop and home ec seems very out of touch when those have been gone from most schools for thirty years or more.

My take on things is that grammar is great, but the formal study of grammar can easily wait until after great language has been absorbed through years of reading excellent writing. Diagramming sentences can be a fantastic way to force students to closely consider the grammar of a sentence, but it's not the only way. (And, yes, I split the infinitive in that sentence intentionally). Studying a foreign language does wonders for helping students see things in their own language that has previously been invisible to them, but Latin isn't uniquely suited for this. Those selling curriculum that teaches grammar and sentence diagramming may have reason to exaggerate their importance.