Many authors note that the history of teaching Latin would be a fruitful topic for a comprehensive treatise. Although intense debates about the quality and necessity of teaching Latin date back as early as in the eighteenth century, Latin courses have persisted into the present and, notably, with few changes in content. The author supports the…

"Grammar Graphics" is a technique for teaching English grammar to children in grades three through five using symbols to represent each part of speech. In this way children can graphically perceive and understand the function of words in a sentence. Basically the students learn symbols for all parts of speech except the preposition and conjunction…

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…

THE DESCRIPTIVE SCIENCE OF LINGUISTICS AND THE SKILL OF WRITTEN COMPOSITION MEET IN THE "SENTENCE," AND THE INFORMATION WHICH LINGUISTICS PROVIDES ON SENTENCE STRUCTURE CAN AID THE TEACHER OF COMPOSITION. ALTHOUGH TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR DOES NOT IMPROVE A STUDENT'S WRITING, CONSTITUENT GRAMMAR AND TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR, BY PRESENTING METHODS OF…

This study investigated (1) whether teaching applied linguistics can help high school students learn to write more effectively, and (2) which approach, linguistic or traditional, is more effective in teaching composition. Twelfth grade male students (188) in a private metropolitan high school were randomly assigned to six sample groups, fairly…

This study proposed to analyze the teaching of grammar nationally in grades three through eight by a qualitative analysis of textbooks used and a questionnaire survey of actual teaching practices, policies, and procedures. The textbooks were analyzed for their approaches to sentences, parts of speech, and word usage; their page allotments to…

Provides a historical sketch of grammar study since the Romans to identify assumptions about grammar inherited or developed by nineteenth-century educators, who passed them on in ways modern educators might not recognize. Argues that the effect of this philosophical line is that the teaching of traditional grammar still has public and…

Discusses the continuing controversy over how to teach grammar. Finds that the traditional, structural, and transformational approaches each have their strengths and weaknesses, with none clearly better than the others. Suggests that the teaching of grammar, while not the key to improvement in written English, will always have a place in the…

Speech given February 10, 1970, at the Hessisches Lehrerfortbildungswerk," Reinhardswaldschule. (DS)

The author questions the usefulness of the concepts of transformational generative grammar, especially as represented in Jacobs and Rosenbaum's "English Transformational Grammar, for the teacher of English as a Second Language. Paper presented at the TESOL Convention, Chicago, March 1969. (FWB)

The author makes a case for teaching traditional prescriptive grammar for 10 weeks at the beginning of the tenth grade. (JM)

Intended for the adult who needs writing skills for career purposes, this three-part book presents principles rather than mechanical rules for achieving effective communication through writing. The first section of the book offers specific guidelines on communicative attitude, content, perspective, theme, organization, and revision. The middle…

A project to investigate the effects on the language development of secondary school pupils of a study of transformational grammar as represented in the Oregon English Curriculum involved 250 students in a large, coeducational high school near Auckland, New Zealand. The students were divided into three matched groups who studied different English…

Because the use of "good" grammar is directly related to status in American society, changes in grammatical usage are made slowly and cautiously. Current American linguistic attitudes are derived from two aspects of the early New England school tradition: the development of lexicography initiated in this country by Noah Webster, and the…