A conscious understanding of the grammar system can have value for student writers. Unfortunately, the positive value of teaching grammar in an instrumental, or functional, way has been overshadowed by the negative and irrelevant data concerning "formal grammar." However, if teachers were to use "rhetorical grammar" and emphasize the importance of…

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…

Describes a teaching method that uses the student's growing need to use the language as motivation. (CRH)

Presents the opposing viewpoints on grammar study, phonics and whole language instruction, and the role of information in English language arts. (SRT)