Shows that traditional grammar teaching grew out of nineteenth-century beliefs about language learning and the nature of knowledge that are profoundly different from those that direct the language arts curriculum today. Bases the account on approved textbooks, Alberta Department of Education reports, public examinations, and anecdotal records. (EL)

Argues that problems in teaching grammar stem from failure to help students develop, as opposed to memorize, grammatical concepts. Recommends discussion of style and vocabulary, student stylistic analysis of their own writing, and deciphering syntactic use, not just definition, of parts of speech. Suggests that such training should begin in…

Part of the Grade Teacher special report, "Linguistics and the Language Arts.

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…

This book introduces a specific approach to sentence analysis by comparing traditional grammar with newer methods, including transformational grammar. The first chapter discusses the teaching of grammar and language skills and the use of standard and nonstandard dialects. Traditional grammar is defined and discussed in chapter 2. The other…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO COMPARE THE COMPLEXITY OF WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS OF FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS IN A LINGUISTICALLY-ORIENTED LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAM WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF THE WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS OF STUDENTS WHO WERE TAUGHT TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR. AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP AND A CONTROL GROUP WERE EACH COMPOSED OF 32 STUDENTS AND WERE EQUALIZED…

Twelve high school curriculum guides for English grammar, rated superior by a committee of the National Council of Teachers of English, were examined. An effort was made to define the grammatical position of each guide as agreeing with school grammar, scholarly traditional grammar, structural linguistic grammar, or transformational generative…

"Backgrounds in Language," a field-tested inservice course designed for use by groups of 15 or 25 language arts teachers, provides the subject matter background teachers need to make informed decisions about what curriculum materials to use in what way, at what time, and with which students. The course is comprised of eight 2-hour sessions,…