Why Johnny Can't Use Good Grammar

Why Johnny Can't Use Good Grammarby Mark4. English grammar cannot be learned by second
Pennington, MA Reading Specialist and author oflanguage learners. Some teachers think that
Teaching Grammar and Mechanics ©2004students who speak other languages get
Pennington Publishingconfused between the primary language and
Some years back, the principal walked into myEnglish grammars. The research proves otherwise.
room while my student teacher was delivering aIntuitively, many of us have significantly increased
lesson. After a few minutes, the principal signaledour own knowledge of English grammar by taking
me to step outside.a foreign language.
"I would never hire Johnny to work at my5. Reading and writing a lot will improve grammar.
school," he said.Reading grammatically rich literature is wonderful,
Shocked, I asked him why.but learning is not passive and does not come by
"On the board, he has a misplaced comma, andosmosis. Writing poorly may, indeed, reinforce
he ended a sentence with a preposition."poor grammatical usage.
Sounds quite harsh, doesn't it? That principalHow we should teach grammar to Johnny...
certainly had high expectations of histeachers. NotDon't waste time teaching Johnny what he
every educated adult places the same level ofalready knows. Find out what he does not know
importance regarding the proper use of grammarand target these areas of grammatical deficits.
and mechanics as does that principal. However,Use the free diagnostic Grammar Assessment
many do.and Mechanics Assessment found on to pinpoint
Proper grammar is a critically important tool forspecific skill deficits. Have Johnny practice those
success in school, work, and life. We are judged,weaknesses with specific skill worksheets. You
sometimes quite severely, by the words we usecan find these resources at your local bookstore,
and the way we use them in both our speakingon the web, or in Teaching Grammar and
and writing. Misused grammar betrays us. TheMechanics ©2004 Pennington Publishing. Who
way we talk and write reflects our background,says teaching grammar in isolation is ineffective?
education, and ability to communicate.Indeed, it is effective and efficient.
The Five Myths of Grammar InstructionTeach the language of grammar and recognition
1. Grammar is acquired naturally; it does not needof the common grammatical structures. Johnny
to be taught. Oral language is not always anhas to know what a prepositional phrase is and
efficient teacher. In fact, it can be quite a mixedhow to know one when he sees one. In fact,
bag. For every proper modeling of the pronoun inover 30% of academic writing is composed of
the sentence: It is I, students hear at least fivethis grammatical form. Maybe learning "Conjunction
models of the incorrect: It is me. Grammar as it isJunction, What's Your Function" on Sesame
caught must be complemented by a grammarStreetÂ(R) was not such a bad idea after all.
that is taught.The "Parts of Speech Rap" in Teaching Grammar
2. Grammar is a meaningless collection ofand Mechanics serves this need nicely.
rules-most of which don't work half the time. ThisTeach grammar in the context of writing. Using
myth may have developed from mindless "drillthe common grammatical structures, have Johnny
and kill" grammatical exercises with no applicationbegin half of his written sentences with different
to real writing. Actually, our English grammar issentence openers. This practice serves two
remarkably flexible and consistent.purposes: It teaches recognition and manipulation
3. Grammar cannot be learned by students withof grammatical structures and it improves
some learning styles or disabilities.sentence variety. Teaching Grammar and
While it may be true that students learn languageMechanics has a terrific set of sentence openers,
differently, at different rates, and vary inusing all of the common grammatical forms found
proficiency, there has been no research to showin superior writing.
that some students cannot learn grammar.Need more ideas?