For secondary English teachers concerned with the theoretical and practical problems of the traditional approaches to teaching grammar, this paper proposes that a realistic solution can be found in current linguistic investigation. This solution lies not in the product of linguistic inquiry, but in the process of inquiry itself. The paper first…

Critically analyzes Paul J. Schafer's advocacy (in Return to Normalcy," Elementary English," vol. 47, no. 5 (May 1970), p. 671--see TE 200 730) of a return to the teaching of traditional grammar. (SW)

Examines the positive and negative features of traditional, transformational, and notional grammar as they relate to the teaching of French as a foreign language. (AM)

Second in a series of articles surveying methods of teaching classical languages in British universities. Explores linguistic theory, relationship between personal expression and pure grammar, and the generative approach to grammar. (DS)

Two grammars (traditional and transformational) and two methods of teaching (direct and indirect) were measured to determine their effects upon the writing performance of students of low socioeconomic backgrounds. While the direct teaching of grammar was concerned with the correction of specific errors, the indirect teaching was concerned with a…

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)

This study examines eight evaluative abstracts on grammar instruction, to determine the effects of such instruction on student writing and to trace the development of sentence-combining instruction, which helps students write with increased syntactic maturity. On the basis of the evaluative abstracts, the study concludes that traditional grammar…

Three grammars that, since the 50's, have supplemented or offered alternatives to traditional grammar are discussed in this article. The role of grammar in communicative utterances and the underlying considerations in describing a grammatical system are analyzed. Then, brief summaries about and comments on structural linguistics, tagmemic grammar,…

Traditions and emerging trends in the teaching of linguistics and composition are examined in this collection of papers. Joseph Mersand predicts a future emphasis on the subject of English as a discipline, leading to a more adequate preparation and increased supervision of English teachers and a greater stress in the classroom on written…

This unit is intended to give ninth-grade students a brief survey of the changes in the study of language from the time of the Greeks to the present. Organized to proceed from the teacher's introduction of a subject to class examination and discussion of an excerpt from a grammarian's work, the unit focuses on the belief that a grammarian's…

The approaches of traditional grammar, descriptive linguistics, and generative grammar are largely complementary rather than exclusive. Traditional grammar defines eight parts of speech according to meaning or function and concerns itself almost wholely with the written language. Descriptive linguistics postulates that English has a set of unique…

Seemingly conflicting points of view concerning language instruction which are expressed in various teaching methodologies are reconciled in this paper. Key issues discussed include: (1) the nature of linguistic rules and their relation to the "habits" of language use, (2) the role of grammatical theory in language teaching, (3) the nature of…

This paper presents a survey of the development of linguistics and the influence of linguistics on second language learning. Emphasis is given to the era beginning with language instruction during World War II to the present day. The influence of structural linguistics is described. The resulting audiolingual approach is also considered and…