Fairly
or not, people stereotype others by their "grammar usage"
at least as much as by their appearance.
In fact, when English teachers talk about correct grammar
and usage, they really mean "the way the English teachers'
favorite students talk and write."
The unstated message is, "If you want to fit in to the English
teachers' world, these are grammar rules and usage you must follow."
The problem for English teachers, of course, is that most students
don't want to fit into a world that includes English teachers.
The kinds of issues that get lumped in the catch-all bag of "grammar
usage" are typically far more usage than grammar. See the
definition of
grammar for some help with sorting out the two issues.
The importance of usage
If we care about kids, we must make them see how correct English
usage could be important to them outside school.
Scenario 1. Suppose two teens
are stopped by police at 2 a.m. One teen speaks the idiom of the
drug culture, the other's speech sounds more like an English text
book. Which do you think the police are more likely to suspect
of using drugs?
Scenario 2. Suppose
two students are interviewing for a waiter's job in an upscale
restaurant where a single night's tips could be more than a week's
pay at McDonald's. Who do you suppose is more likely to get the
job: the one who speaks like a rap artist or the one who talks
more like a PBS announcer?
Stereotyping is not fair, but it happens. Fortunately, students
can influence how others view them by changing the way they speak
and write.
Talk trips up writers
For people whose native language is English, usage problems often
stem from the difficulties of translating oral language into written
language.
Increasingly:
-
Students do little reading.
-
The little reading they do is not sustained reading.
-
Students read while other media compete for their attention.
As a result, students may be unfamiliar with:
-
The spelling of words and phrases they hear in conversation.
-
Standard English usages that are clear from the context
of conversation but must be specified in writing.
-
The specific situations in which certain usages are
appropriate.
Use multiple approaches
Since usage
problems have multiple causes, solutions require multiple approaches.
Here are approaches you can use:
-
Give writing
prompts about the impact of substandard
English usage.
-
Give writing prompts about appropriate and inappropriate
English usage.
-
Encourage students to do more sustained reading.
-
Teach reading
literacy along with writing literacy.
-
Draw attention to the difference between the sound
of words in conversation and the sound of words in isolation.
-
Have students track their personal
usage errors.
-
Focus on issues that hamper communication or that
stereotype students as ignorant; ignore issues that
matter only to pedants.
-
Restrict grammar-usage study to a few problems a year.
Helping students see value in expanding their knowledge of usage
is mainly a matter of being alert to opportunities for drawing
students' attention to the effects of different types of usage.
