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Picture of bethree5
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The following quotation is a post from an ESL / foreign-language-teacher's forum I frequent. (The forum is for teachers of a method wherein grammar is taught almost entirely in context, rather than as separate rules). Anyone familiar with the book she mentions? It's about 7 yrs old. I read about it on Amazon & it looks pretty good. Any opinions?

quote:
My thought follows what I've often read about EGT (explicit grammar teaching), that a little learning can be dangerous. The absurd rules taught serve only to confuse people who ordinarily speak English just fine (finely??? - see what I mean?)...Right now I'm reading John McWhorter's Word On the Street, an excellent treatment of the problems with Prescriptivism. It's not that we should not teach Standard English, it's how we do and what we teach - good writing or goofy grammar shibboleths from the 18th century, which is what most people think of when they hear the word 'grammar'
 
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Picture of Kalleh
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I haven't read it, but it looks good, and I will try to find it. I have gone from a strict prescriptivist to a strict descriptivist, but I am now more in the middle, where this quote seems to be.
 
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Picture of goofy
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I haven't read any of McWhorter's books, but they all sound very interesting. He sometimes blogs for Language Log.
 
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Picture of arnie
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Assuming LL's "List of Authors" system is working properly, he has only made one post:
What did Joe Louis have to tell us about Tina Fey?.


Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!
 
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