25 Questions for Teaching with "Word Crimes" « previous post | next post » The following is a guest post by Lauren Squires.
While "grammar nerds" are psyched about Weird Al's new "Word Crimes" video, many linguists are shaking their heads and feeling a little hopeless about what the public enthusiasm about it represents: a society where largely trivial, largely arbitrary standards of linguistic correctness are heavily privileged, and people feel justified in degrading and attacking those who don't do things the "correct" way.
What's behind linguists' reactions are at least three factors. First, while Weird Al talks about "grammar," most of his prescriptions do not pertain to what linguists consider the "grammar" of English, and this reflects a widespread divide between the use of the term "grammar" in everyday language and "grammar" by linguists. This divide frustrates linguists, because it makes them feel like everyone misunderstands the very substance and nature of their field of study. How to use a semicolon. Apostrophe now: Bad grammar and the people who hate it. 13 May 2013Last updated at 04:58 ET By Tom de Castella BBC News Magazine Children are again to be subject to a rigorous examination in grammar.
But why does it make adults so cross when other adults break the rules? A new grammar and spelling test arrives in primary schools in England this week. It is the first time in a while that such emphasis has been put on grammar. Some of the questions will seem straightforward for many adults, such as where to place a comma or a colon in a sentence.
Grammar is not just an educational issue. The research arm of dating site OKCupid looked at 500,000 first contacts and concluded that "netspeak, bad grammar and bad spelling are huge turn-offs". On the other hand, correct use of apostrophes was appealing. Twist Phelan, an American writer who went on 100 online dates in 100 days and later married someone she met online, says grammar is a vital "filter system". Continue reading the main story Try out the new grammar test The wind blew the sign over. Good grammar test: can you pass? The glamour of grammar: an object lesson. Gwynne’s little blue bomb is being expanded and republished (with a purple cover) to meet the growing appetite for grammatical knowledge. His grammar slot on Radio 5’s Up All Night has become one of the BBC’s most popular phone-ins.
Two teachers from St George’s Church of England Foundation School, Battersea, who joined his Sunday seminar were so fired up by it that they persuaded their head teacher to let him address their Year Six pupils. “Those two teachers absolutely drank it in,” he told me afterwards. “I’ve never had this experience before because, on the whole, you can’t teach teachers.
They know it; they don’t want to be told. It is astonishing that an elderly former businessman who has never been to teacher training college, worn an academic gown or taught in a school should be creating such a commotion. “Michael Gove has a copy of my Grammar,” Gwynne says. The convergence of the pedagogues could be interesting. “I am 71,” he says. Conversion cost him his marriage. Gwynne's Grammar by N M Gwynne (9780091951450) See inside The following is an extract from this title: Chapter Two A Note of Encouragement Here is a step-by-step proof (yes, a proof that really is valid!)
That happiness depends partly on grammar. Step one. Step two. Step three. Step four. Step five. In summary of the proof: grammar is the science of using words rightly, leading to thinking rightly, leading to deciding rightly, without which – as both common sense and experience show – happiness is impossible. Nor does the importance of grammar stop there. Gwynne Teaching. The Internet Grammar of English. Welcome to the Internet Grammar of English!
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