The Grammar Voyeur: Using Google to Teach English Grammar to Advanced Undergraduates

Abstract

Although many people associate English teachers with English teachers have long debated whether belongs in an English curriculum at all. In fact, by 1985, instruction had fallen so far from favor that National Council of Teachers of English resolved that the teaching of in isolation does not lead to improvement in students' speaking and writing, and that in fact, it hinders development of students' oral and written language (quoted in Kolln and Hancock 2005, 17―18) As David Brown and others have noted, anti-grammar view conflates as a subject with a particular kind of instruction, specifically traditional drill in prescriptive rules, a sort of fix-it-up attempt for weakest writing (Kolln ig8i;Micciche 2004; Brown ). Rather than admiring we see, as a voyeur might, too many of us notice only when we criticize it. No wonder that many students expect instruction to be abstract, boring, and unconnected to their lives (Marlow 2010, 225). These views present a dilemma to me, as someone who teaches Modern English Grammar, a class required for undergraduate English and English education majors. I believe that when students understand systematic nature of their language—the rules they follow when they string words together-they are better prepared to appreciate how syntax affects message. Outside of composition journals, I find broad support for my efforts. I'm so glad you're teaching that! people tell me, as they confess their own grammatical incompetence or list their favorite peeves. Colleagues long for students who can write just one good sentence. Our writing center hears fix my more than any other request. But what, specifically, does mean in these exchanges? Often it includes spelling, punctuation, concision, appropriate register, clarity-only occasionally syntax. To extent that has come to signify something that needs fixing, it's no wonder that much of scholarship in my discipline views teaching as a mechanistic, anti-rhetorical enterprise that relies on prescriptive drills and that emphasizes error avoidance rather than communication (Brown 2009). The proposed alternatives to prescriptive drills, however, often seem to discount teaching of syntax. For example, some teachers have focused on what Patrick Hartwell labeled stylistic grammar, grammar terms used in interest of teaching prose style, but there, Hartwell notes, instruction is simply beside point (1985, 124). Many publications.