How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019
Purpose and effect
How to teach grammar
There’s a lot of time spent working on the knowledge of a specific grammatical term, its definition and the ability to identify an example in a text. We teach students what a noun, conjunction and complex sentence is and how to spot one, yet we often neglect emotional impact of each one. By simply using a specific word or sentence we can change the mood, purpose and impact of the text. Students don’t just need basic grammar knowledge, but they need contextual knowledge for grammar use, as language is always dependent on the context in which it is being used.
Take this question: how could you avoid putting the blame on a person when writing?
A violent student viciously punched a teacher last week in a small, friendly secondary school.
What could students do?
✵ Remove the adjectives.
✵ Remove the adverbs.
✵ Use the passive voice.
You could end up with the following sentence:
A teacher was punched in a secondary school.
Comparing the two sentences shows you the effect of each of the grammatical aspects. And it can be taken further when you add another comparative sentence.
A teacher was punched in a secondary school.
An individual was attacked in a school.
The second sentence now has a degree of ambiguity that might cause fear in a parent because the sentence now refers to any school and anybody in one. Placing the emphasis on the impact and effect of these choices shows students how to use grammatical devices. Sadly, the teaching of writing has become affected too much by increased levels of accountability and a focus on exam performance and outcomes. This, in turn, has created a type of alien writing, concerned only with ’bolted-on’ aspects rather than making a text fit its purpose and audience. Students will, therefore, choose a device for the examiner rather than select it because it is the most effective way of communicating something in that context.
We need to work on providing students with a range of different contexts for using language and show them how language varies from context to context. We need to embrace the richness of language and avoid the narrowness of a clear list of features to use in a specific, narrow and unrealistic context.