Re: Grammar in HS (Was: Re: Argument Structures)

On Thu, 24 Aug 2000, JJ wrote:

> Well, over "here" (UK) I didn't learn any of that. I remember that my
> French teacher was always annoyed because no one knew ANYTHING about
> grammar, we had some people who couldn't reliably distinguish a verb
> from a noun.
I did learn something called "ontleden" (literally "dissection",
taking sentences apart into constituent parts) but I can't remember
how much of it was in school and how much from my mother and the
cousin (6 years older than me) who was living with us when I was in
primary school. Secondary school teachers complain that it's not
being taught (30 years later), but I think they also complained that
children came to school not knowing enough when it
*was* being taught.

I think foreign-language teaching would go a lot better if primary
schools taught *language* - universals and patterns - instead of
*grammar* - a formalized framework of their own language which tells
nothing about *how* it works.

   Irina

--
           Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
irina@valdyas.org (myself)     http://www.valdyas.org/irina/valdyas