A High School Teacher Surveys College Grammar

Abstract

SPURRED ON five years ago by a state program which required the teaching of Roberts' transformational grammar in grades one through seven and then again in the ninth grade of junior high schools, and by my belief that the linguistic approach is philosophically sounder than traditional grammar, our English department at Miramonte High instituted an eclectic program of the new and the old grammar on the ninth grade level. We retained the old because our teachers could not agree on a complete break. We did, however, add a Guthian approach on the tenth grade level, using Guth's American English Today for that grade. Three years later I reviewed the results of our decision and decided the situation needed further study. Our students were doing no better and many expressed dissatisfaction with the dual system; teachers were dissatisfied; several parents had questioned our using Roberts at all; and I myself wondered if our eclectic program was necessary and effective. I wondered what relationship our grammar program had with the expectations of the colleges which our students enter. Furthermore, I was aware of the fact that the language of the CEEB and ETS tests was (as it still is) drawn from the older grammar. Finally, I wondered if college instructors really used the language of the new grammar in their classes and in their comments on students' papers, or if they were still using the old. With such disturbing thoughts, in December of 1972 I sent a questionnaire to the English departments of forty-seven colleges and universities which our students enter. The questionnaire consisted of the six questions which follow, and, in addition, I asked for comments.