An examination of the history of the practical grammar, of which the college handbook is the modern reflex, reveals why the grammar handbook is so stubbornly resistant to changes in linguistic theory, usage, or ideology. First, codifying English grammar and producing texts for teaching English grammar to school children during the eighteenth…

The teaching of grammar has been in sad decline since medieval times, when it included the whole skill of creating in language. Our textbook community has moved through a series of ineffective fashions, from those of Fries to post-Chomsky. All have presumed to replace prescriptive rules with realistic explanations. But all have fallen, like the…

A process-oriented freshman composition instructor who stresses invention, drafting, and revision can simultaneously integrate a form of grammatical instruction. Various methods and strategies, both from experience and research on grammar from the classical to the contemporary era, suggest such a creative integration. First, the teaching of…

In the last 20 years, research on language has gone from an area that specialists in composition and rhetoric took quite seriously to one that specialists now pay little attention to. This shift can be accounted for because (1) some teachers appear to have given up on using any insights from linguistic analysis in their teaching of composition;…

By identifying the cultural roots of traditional grammar, a better understanding may occur as to why grammar will continue to be taught the way it is. The idea of "grammar as cultural heritage" begins with language and literature studies, which were the foundation of middle and upper class Roman schooling and included reading, writing, listening,…

The history of grammar instruction includes two approaches: the handbook approach, which is practiced today, and the textbook approach. The handbook approach focuses on rules for correct writing and is an error-based view, while the textbook approach would treat grammar holistically and interpretively and would systematically explain new concepts…

A conscious understanding of the grammar system can have value for student writers. Unfortunately, the positive value of teaching grammar in an instrumental, or functional, way has been overshadowed by the negative and irrelevant data concerning "formal grammar." However, if teachers were to use "rhetorical grammar" and emphasize the importance of…

A total of 51 students participated in a study to determine the effect of a behaviorally oriented individualized instruction program on the objective grammar proficiency of academically deficient college freshmen. From a group of special students, 15 were randomly selected for the individualized instruction while 17 were assigned to sections of…

Intended for students in regular and advanced composition classes, each of the four controlled composition exercises presented in this paper aims at teaching writing style through carefully constructed short passages that concentrate on an isolated problem in style such as parallel structure, relative clauses, pseudo-relative clauses, and…

Throughout the early years of the twentieth century, literacy education was based on the solid understanding of grammar. Yet as early as 1923, empirical data indicated that the link between knowledge of grammar and correct use of English was tenuous at best. Despite formidable evidence, some educators still advocate the use of grammar as a…

During the first half-century of the existence of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the teaching of grammar aroused furious debate among its members. In 1924, Charles C. Fries assembled a panel of six language scholars to answer three questions: (1) What should English teachers know about the English language? (2) Do the usual…

A review of the various grammatical traditions from traditional grammar through structural linguistics to transformational grammar points out that traditional and transformational grammar are neither mutually exclusive nor entirely contradictory. Implications drawn from modern inquiry include the necessity for reading and writing teachers to guide…

A study was conducted to identify the factors that could predict students' achievement in English grammar and usage when instruction was self-paced and programed. The factors investigated were (1) student grade point average (GPA), (2) verbal student achievement test score (SAT), (3) quantitative SAT score and (4) total SAT score. Subjects were…