Paper 4 Final Portfolio

8/2/2019 Paper 4 Final Portfolio

1/11

The Importance of Grammar

Scholars have been debating the role grammar should play in writing

instruction since the 1960's when Braddock said In view of the widespread

agreement of research studies based upon many types of students and teachers, the

conclusion can be stated in strong and unqualified terms: the teaching of formal

grammar has a negligible or, because it usually displaces some instruction and

practice in actual composition even a harmful effect on the improvement of writing

(Warner 76).

Here we have one of the first arguments relating to the importance of grammar and

the way that it is being taught. The grammar construct has been questioned and

argued about by many writers such as Jean Sanborn, Anne L. Warner, Kenneth

Lindblom and Patricia A. Dunn, Constance Weaver, and Martha Kolln, but not much

has been changed. So where do we go from here? Is grammar really that important

and do we need it to be perceived as intelligent individuals? If so, should we learn it

through the use of handbooks or is there a more efficient way? If we should teach it,

what age is appropriate? These are all questions that have influenced the ongoing

conversation about Grammar. I argue that there is a specific time to teach grammar

and that there are specific times and places when the importance of grammar

should be raised or lowered.

Why do we teach Grammar if the students dont get it? From at least the 19th

century up until the latter end of the 20th, students in English classes were taught

grammar through precise instructions and rules of the grammar handbooks. I


2/11

personally envision children in the 50s being slapped on the wrist for forgetting a

comma wrong here or an apostrophe there. The strict use of the handbook has been

stressed year after year through generations, condemning kids for their errors.

Back in the early 1900s, students had hard lives where they had to walk miles to

school in crappy weather, go to school while working on farms, or were apart of a

wealthy family who demanded importance of success from school. All these types of

students were disciplined to do well in school to help out the family or to keep the

high status name of the family. If disciplined students from the early 1900s, whose

circumstances demanded a hard work ethic in school, were always punished for

misusing grammar, wouldnt that motivate them to study harder? This means that

its not just a boring subject, which to many it still is, but, I believe that the problem

is, that no matter what era we are in, students until at least late years of high school,

just dont comprehend the skill and drill of grammar. If this were not true, then

why do students learn the same thing year after year in school? As Warner says, It

seems the educational establishment doesn't expect students to "get it." Can any of

us imagine a math or science curriculum where the same material is presented and

drilled year after year as is the case in grammar textbooks? (Warner 77). Weather

someone argues for or against teaching grammar for whatever reason, they cannot

deny this argument. The number of students that dont understand is far too high

when teaching the rules of grammar. Warner, in her article, If the Shoe No Longer

Fits, also includes research from psychologistsJean Piaget and Laurence Kohlbergamong others, that suggests individuals develop cognitive reasoning at different

times in their life. In her research, she found that only some adults and adolescents


3/11

reach the highest levels of formal operational thinking. This level of thinking could

be the level of thinking needed to understand the fundamentals of grammar

(Warner 77). If this is true then why, at such young ages, does the education system

INSIST on teaching grammar? If this research is true, then it seems ridiculous to

teach grammar at these ages. Rather, grammar should be taught at a much later age

such as the last year of high school and through college. In these latter years,

students will have the conceptual ideas and skills of how to write, therefore, can

move onto how to perfect their writing. In these later years, students will begin to

understand the importance of grammar because they are getting closer to the time

when they need jobs. If we scare off and discourage students from writing with

more correct grammar when they are young, then we are only hurting them for

their life in the real world.

In Analyzing Grammar Rants, by Kenneth Lindblom and Patricia A. Dunn,

they also argue that there is a certain time to teach grammar even if that isnt during

adolescence. They state, Whether we like it or not, powerful people make value

judgments about other peoples intelligence based on language use. Young writers

and speakers must learn that the forms of language they choose will be judged,

sometimes harshly, by their audiences, and their ability to appear intelligent will be

affected by their audiences opinions of their language choices (Lindblom and Dunn

72). As explained above, the desired result expected from teaching grammar is that

students can become better writers so that they accumulate good and proper

communication skills in hopes that they can be accepted into the real adult world.

On the other hand, if students do not recognize error, as stated, they will not be seen


4/11

as professionals or even educated in the eyes of their employers and it can hurt their

credibility. If we are to look at grammar in this way, we must take into

consideration the importance of grammar. Larry Beason, in his article, Ethos and

Error, describes the importance of error outside of the handbook use of the

classroom. He says, Errors must be defined not just as textual features breaking

handbook rules but as mental events taking place outside the immediate text(35).

Beason conducted a study of 14 business people, both men and women, who have

positions such as vice presidents, Regional Managers, Managers of offices, and such.

He asked a series of questions to see how these subjects reacted to certain errors.

His research concluded that errors usually range from somewhat bothersome to

extremely bothersome to these individuals. He says, The interviews suggest that

the extent to which errors harm the writers image is more serious and far-reaching

than many students and teachers might realize (Beason 48). If the students cant

be seen as credible and effective employers, then they cannot be successful in the

business world.

From this point, we have seen that younger education students do not

understand grammar because their cognitive understanding just wont allow it. We

have also seen that grammar and the elimination of error is very important in the

business world and that and individual will have a very hard time surviving in it if

they cannot recognize their error. So what do we do? We must find a way to teach

students the importance of productive writing in the English language in a way that

they can learn to recognize error that is bothersome to their future bosses. What


5/11

has been stated and proven by evidence is that teaching grammar from the

handbook has a very low improvement rate in the writing of students.

In Jean Sanborns article, Good Wine Before Its Time, she states her ideas on

how the understanding of grammar should be acquired. She states, What is

important in school is not grammatical analysis or the teaching of as yet

undeveloped forms but continuing performance in all aspects of language reading

writing, speaking, listening-which will encourage, not teach, syntactic maturity.

Language continues to develop through the use of language, not through exercises in

the naming of parts (Sanborn 74). Students are just not getting it, but that doesnt

mean that we can just get rid of grammar and leave our students and future world

without knowing any since of writing. My thought is this: the people in the world

can effectively perform well enough without having understood the proper use of

grammar that was taught to them while they were in school, so what is it that the

teachers could be doing now that portray how to write effectively? It is exactly what

Sanborn says; the students learn through the use of language! What if teachers spent

more time teaching and using the language through reading books, essays, poems,

etc., creative writing, and speaking?

In To Grammar or Not To Grammar, Constance Weaver et al. say Both our

personal teaching experiences and the findings of research studies support the

conclusion that most students do not benefit from grammar study in isolation from

writing, if indeed our purpose in teaching grammar is to help students improve their

writing (e.g., Hillocks and Smith, 1991) (18).

Teachers can teach grammar through the use of language in a rhetorical way.


6/11

Martha Kolln writes about the use of rhetorical grammar and says, I use it to

designate a purpose that is different from the remedial, error-avoidance or error-

correction purpose of so many grammar lessons. I use rhetoricalas a modifier to

identify grammar in the service of rhetoric: grammar knowledge as a tool that

enables the writer to make effective choices (29). Rhetorical grammar is used to

emphasize whom you are writing for and what parts of the writing you want to be

emphasized. Teachers want to point our error after error, but a person in the

employment world could write a wordy essay with all perfect grammar and be

denied because they did not write in a way that was suitable for the intended

audience. Therefore, the concepts of our writing are more important. In the article

Why Revitalize Grammar, the authors argue that the students need to understand

the complexity of analyzing rhetorical situations so that they can make

sophisticated decisions about audience, purpose, and voice. The authors

paraphrase Donald Daiker and write, Effective writing is not effective due to an

absence of error. Effective writing works because it achieves its purposes with the

particular audience for whom it was intended to work (Lindblom and Dunn 44).

The students must learn to write in a rhetorical way to try to reach their audience.

This concept, I believe, comes before understanding how to understand grammar

charts. After understanding this concept, then I think that students can learn to

appreciate how the use of grammar can help them to have an even greater

rhetorical effect.

John Dawkins describes the use of Grammar as a rhetorical tool used to place

emphasis on certain parts of a sentence. He uses a principal called raising and


7/11

lowering in which clauses are more or less separated by the use of punctuation. If

emphasis should maximum, a period or a semi- colon would be used If the emphasis

should be medium, a colon or dash would be used and a comma or nothing for

minimum emphasis (WAW 147). The higher or more abrupt punctuation like a

period causes more separation, more of a pause than a lower mark like a comma.

For example, compare these two sentences: She wanted to go to the store- until she

lost her money. And She wanted to go to the store until she lost her money. Until

she lost her money was emphasized because of the dash. The second sentence,

which had no pronunciation, was given much less emphasis. Dawkins describes

grammar as a use of how we want readers to read our writing instead of using a

bunch of rules so that we are handbook correct. He says Learning to punctuate

effectively requires only a little knowledge of grammar, much less than most English

teachers will grant (WAW 150). He goes on to say that we need to understand

what independent and dependent clauses are but we know this based on everyday

speaking, reading and writing.

Rhetorical grammar is very useful, but at some point, students will be able to

better understand the handbook and use it as a guideline, especially when they are

in the business world. The point, is that they just cant understand until that age.

Weaver et al., perhaps, explain it best. For us, the question is not a simple

dichotomy, To grammar or not to grammar? Rather, the question is, What aspects

of grammar can we teach to enhance and improve students writing, and when and

how can we best teach them? In the context of writing is our short answer, but we

keep learning more ways as we keep taking risks as teachers (Weaver,


8/11

McNally, and Moerman 19). In other words, there are certain parts of grammar that

students can understand at a certain age and those should be used to enhance their

writing but those parts need to be taught in context of using the language. There is

more of a process than making students memorize grammar rules. It must come

through the students using grammar in their everyday language. The teaching of

grammar should come in certain doses at certain times.

Conclusion

We have seen the argument that grammar is an essential part to the English

language. It is, but with in reason. We have seen how it has been taught over and

over again to students, taking away the time they get to actually learn and grow in

knowledge because they just dont get it. Also, we have seen how important it is in

the business world that we can write and speak with very little error so that we can

be held credible and seen professional. In between times, teachers have to teach

how to put a sentence together in some way; the most effective is to teach rhetoric

writing where the emphasis is placed on certain words or phrases to bring

awareness to the reader. Finally, we see that there is a problem and that our

education system is wasting time teaching grammar to children over and over again.

If time is spent teaching the language through reading, writing, and speaking the

language, the students will understand better and eventually be in practice of the

language where they can come to understand grammar to benefit their future

opportunity and credibility.

As I have stated, through my research and experience as a previous high

school student, I think that grammar should be taught at the very end of high school


9/11

and through college. Hopefully at this point, students will have had a long enough

experience with the language that they can begin to understand how to more

effectively write though the use of grammar. Also, at this point, students will be

more concerned with their future and want to eliminate as much error as possible

so that they can prepare themselves as credible potential business men and women.

The more grammar is pushed at young ages, the more the students will be pushed

away. Leave grammar to be taught senior year of high school and through out

college when their minds are at the peak where they can truly understand and

appreciate how to use grammar.


10/11

Works Cited

Beason, Larry. "How Business People React to Errors."National Council of Teachers of

English. 53.1 (2001): 33-64.

Dawkins, John. Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool. College Composition and

communication 46.4 (1995) 533-48. Print.

Kolln, Martha. "Rhetorical Grammar:A Modification Lesson."National Council of

Teachers of English. 85.7 (1996): 25-31.

Weaver, Constance; McNally, Carol, and Moerman, Sharon. "To Grammar or Not to

Grammar: That is Not the Question!." Voices from the middle. 8.3 (2001): 17-33.

Lindblom, Kenneth, and Dunn Patricia. "Analyzing Grammar Rants: An Alternative to

Traditional Grammar Instruction."English Journal. 95.5 (2006): 71-77.

Lindblom, Kenneth, and Dunn Patricia. "Why Revitalize Grammar?."National Council

of Teachers of English. 92.3 (2003): 43-50.


11/11

Sanborn, Jean. "GoodWine before Its Time."National Council of Teachers of English.

75.3 (1986): 72-80.

Warner, Ann. "If The Shoe No Longer Fits,Wear It Anyway?."National Council of

Teachers of English. 82.5 (1993): 76-80.

Documents

Paper 4 Final Portfolio