Grammar Homework

I found a very interesting article in the ERIC database on teaching grammar in secondary schools called Forgiving Ourselves and Forging Ahead: Teaching Grammar in a New Millennium by Susan Losse Nunan. This article explains a young Texas teacher's frustration when trying to teach her students a lesson about proper comma usage. The article goes on to explain her teaching tactics, which were mostly traditional diagramming, and how they failed. The author then goes on to discuss why grammar is important outlining the oft trumpeted ideas such as it makes for better, clearer writing, and it will allow the readers to take your ideas seriously. However, her best reason to support the teaching and studying of grammar is that through the understanding of more complex grammar students will be able to understand more complex thoughts, and will be able to apply this understanding in their writing.

She also talks about nontraditional ways of teaching grammar. She states "Rules without purpose are meaningless". I really liked this quote because to me it gets at the heart of the problem. Grammar rules are too often dished out with no real purpose behind them. It seems as though the lessons are to be learned simple because the teacher feels they are important, not for any practicable or applicable reason. Her suggestions for teaching grammar to students effectively rely on addressing students individually. She also stresses repetition. Teaching the lesson once and then forgetting about it doesn't usually work. Learning about a particular grammar rule in several different, and unique, ways will help the lesson stick in the students minds. Some examples she gives are using side walk chalk with grammar, and my favorite physical dramatization with grammar.

One of the most amazing ideas of this paper was the section where she talks about how students grammar will usually get worse as they learn something before it gets better. This is often because the students are trying to grasp this new concept and apply it in their own writing. Eventually, and with enough practice, patience, and persistence, the students will master the concept and be able to use it freely in their own lives.